Hot Tip - Causes Of Stress In Call Centres

We do a lot of stress auditing in call centres and our clients often claim that it's the nature of the work that's causing the stress. In fact we usually find the main stressors are:

• Management doesn't speak to staff enough to allay their fears about what is going on. Call centres are rumour mills and staff get concerned by the long faces of management and downturns in call traffic. They fear redundancy or changes in their working practices.

The solution to this one is for management to have a "clear the air" session once a month with the telephone staff, just to maintain their confidence and motivate them.

• Overwork caused by too many empty seats. Poor planning or high levels of staff turnover mean telephone staff can't cope with the volume of calls and feel they are not doing a good job.

More attention needs to be given to filling enough seats at the right times.

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