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Burnout on a Budget
Chapter 5 of the Telephone Staff Burnout Workbook
The areas on which we should concentrate fall into three categories:
- Work environment
- The employee
- The work
Let's begin by looking at the environment.
For some reason, call centres seem to accumulate paper, junk and litter.
That results in a depersonalising, maybe even dehumanising effect on the call centre staff. It also makes it difficult for the cleaners to do their jobs and the environment can go from bad to worse.
So develop a "place for everything and everything in its place" mentality to create a reasonable environment.
Where the environment is drab, buy some paints or even put some flowers on the desks.
Next, encourage staff to personalise their workspaces, by putting up personal photographs, toys, gadgets, gimmicks, etc.
When you first spot the signs of burnout in an individual, change where he or she sits. It's usually worth putting a casualty next to a window - keep a couple of spaces unassigned for this - but make sure they don't spend the whole shift looking outside and daydreaming.
On the subject of seating, make sure the agent sits on a chair that discourages slouching. A lazy posture won't help in a burnout situation.
Ensure the lighting is correct for the telephone staff. It is common to find ceiling lighting that is totally inappropriate for people who have to look at a screen all day.
Where the lighting is poor, buy some desk lamps.
Don't forget about basic comfort, either. If it's too hot, get some mini-fans. If it's too cold, fan heaters.
When concentrating on the employee, another popular method to avoid having agents burn out is to test whether shorter shifts work, particularly for outbound & telesales callers.
Bencin believes that "four to five hours of outbound calling is about all the typical telesales representative can handle."
Our experience differs. We have tested both short and seven hour shifts and found little difference in the burnout pattern.
Dr Hamberg's research at the San Diego Symphony agrees with our experience.
Many experts suggest that rotating telephone staff between different projects is useful in maintaining morale and there can be no doubt it is more fulfilling for the employee.
However our experience again indicates that burnout occurs at about the same point in the agent's lifestyle, i.e., 9 to 14 weeks.
It is vital in handling burnout to provide regular product and skills training and follow through with on-the-job coaching to reinforce the training messages.
However, it is not enough just to throw training at the agent. It must be dynamic, enjoyable, stretching and developmental.
If you have exhausted your own training repertoire, it is advisable to seek out an external trainer to bring a fresh approach to tired messages. Where coaching is concerned, provide developmental, on-the-job support for at least 180 minutes per week.
Use a coaching checklist to kick-start the agent's fogged up motivation and to focus them on self-development.
Don't forget, either, that outbound & telesales callers need a lot of stroking as they have to deal with lots of rejection, so keep being supportive.
And where the work is concerned, in addition to implementing the employee value chain, give people special projects so that they are not constantly locked into the same repetitious routine.
Overall, the employee value chain is the most effective method for reducing the risk of burnout.
