Call center problems - Essay Example

?Case Study a) Identify the key issues and problems in the call centre, taking into account, motivation, teams, diversity and management style. At the focal point of the case study is the Finance Co Call Centre (FCCC) that provides information services regarding banking, investment, mortgage, and insurance products. This organization specializes in diversified fields therefore the personnel totals almost two thousand employees. Being the biggest employer in Glasgow, FCCC is dynamic company, which requires constant innovations and improvements of its performance and working conditions. Lately, Operations Director made investments for restructuring and rebuilding management approaches. With this new policy, Forsythe was counting to achieve improvements of company’s performance, employees’ satisfaction and economic indictors. Regrettably, invested money did not manage to give awaited results. On the contrary, the company has faced several serious problems, which require appropriate and immediate solutions. The most urgent problematic issues are the following: 1. High rate of turnover for staff The indicator of fluctuation movement of personnel is much higher among young employees of the company. This can be explained with the fact that more than one third of the staff is employees whose age is under twenty five. Moreover, for most of the workers, FCCC is their first or second place of work. That is why as every newcomer to the labour market, young employees randomly work for their first employer for a long time. Usually, when they pass an adaptation period and learn their responsibilities feeling confident in own strengths and knowledge, they are willing to switch to another employer for improving professional skills, gaining new experience, and developing own potential. In addition, despite the fact that FCCC offers compatible levels of salaries, employees easily leave the company because Glasgow is full of call centres that provide attractive working conditions. Thereby, employees always have a choice. They are not afraid to lose their job because there are a lot of other opportunities. Numerous call centres will be glad to hire them due to the low availability of spare unit of labour. High rate of turnover for staff negatively affects the balance indicators of the company’s performance. It means that the company uses its assets ineffectively and spends much time and money on recruitment of the new staff and its training. This leads to extra expenditures. 2. Poor communication process between different sections Due to the survey, it has been concluded that interaction between departments, especially in critical and urgent cases, is ineffective. Employees are blocked and isolated from each other with computer screens that hamper not only to resolve professional issues but also to discuss day-to-day topics and improve social environment in the office. The lack of proper communication causes negative influence on customer service because taking into account that each section specializes on specific sphere, the provided information can be limited. However, in case there has been a specialist in the same office, it would have been easier to offer customer assistance with the help of professionalism of colleague’s support. Due to the fact that each department has been granted its own floor, employees are able to interact with each other only via phone, which drastically restraints widening of personnel’s knowledge base and improvement of social life at work. 3. Inability to personalise own working place Taking into account that significant part of the staff works by shifts, there is a principle of hot desk in the office. Therefore, it can be concluded that employee does not have own corner and thereby is not attached to a particular working place. Hence, this may be another explanation of frequent dismissals. If a person is not able to be accustomed to own desk and add some personal things there, then he or she can easily leave it without any nostalgia or aftertaste. Hot desk does not cause habit, which sometimes can be the core reason of people’s attachment to work. Also, frequently, employees may face a problem with a shortage of stationery when they come on a shift. This may negatively affect the working process and its efficiency. 4. High intensity of work Everlasting accumulation of in-coming calls puts the customers on hold and gets them through when available operators finish their previous phone conversation. Thereby, there is absolutely no time for a person to have a rest and get ready for the next call. This causes stressful and hectic working environment. 5. Indifferent attitude of the staff to the anti-stress room Most of employees simply do not understand what the rest room is for and thereby do not use it regularly during the shift. According to the top management, this occurs because of several reasons. It is assumed that people avoid anti-stress rooms because they are not allowed to talk there or bring snacks and drinks. Disregarding anti-stress rooms leads to overstrain and fatigue because employees do not receive sufficient rest. These factors may also be a reason of employee’s decision to change a job. 6. Much time-spending on shopping instead of having rest Opening of the supermarket in the same building of the call centre did not bring desired results. Employees keep on spending their breaks on shopping even in the middle of the day, which affects their productivity drastically. 7. Low interest of employees in a local health club Taking into account that sport helps not only keep good physical shape of the staff but also overcome stress, administration of the company agreed to pay workers’ membership to the health club. However, less than twenty five percent of the company’s personnel use this privilege. It seems that employees do not comprehend all advantages of the club that offers variety of services such as aerobics, fitness, swimming-pool and sauna. 8. Low empowerment of the team leaders and their inability to motivate the staff It has been concluded that managers do not obtain much authorities for taking decision independently and without any assistance in case of disputed issues. Every time when there is a situation that requires decision-making, even if it is a matter of the proper time for breaks or meetings, a team leader should refer to the supervisor. This approach makes the hierarchy too complex and delays final resolutions. Employees do not receive sufficient liberty and thereby can not adjust their actions to the working needs and customers’ demands. Such aspects cause unfavourable influence on customer’s satisfaction and loyalty, which in its turn affects the company’s profits. b) Based on the above (a) make recommendations and an action plan addressing the issues you have raised. Analysing above mentioned information, it can be concluded that Finance Co Call Centre has numerous problems that cause negative impact on company’s performance and require further solutions. Hence, the problem of high turnover for staff occurs due to low motivation therefore the company should implement tools that will encourage people to be loyal to their job. First of all, it is recommended to review perks and ensure social recognition of employee’s results. Along with competitive salary, the company should show the workers that their successes are highly appreciated. For example, choosing the best employee of the month or presenting some small gifts to the members of the shift with the most significant indicators can be a good motivator for people who like to compete and cherish personal achievements. The problem of poor communication can be resolved with effective restructure of departments and offices. It can be useful to unite some sections and make sure that employees who should interact with each other more often are situated in the same room. Locating different departments together can provide efficacious exchange of experience and may improve personal relationships between workers. For solving a matter of employees’ inability to personalize their desks, it is recommended to offer another independent source of worker’s personal things. For instance, employees can be offered to place their photos or postcards to special mutual board that should be located in each office. Hence, despite that employees cannot personalize own desks, at least there will be something in the room that can be a reflection of their creativity and personal life. Every employee should be provided with required stationery that should be kept in personal drawer so that even if something lacks on a desk, a worker who begins a shift will not be left without a pen. It is recommended to hold a briefing with departments regarding the importance and significance of the anti-stress room. Also, to make it more popular, it should be allowed to bring food to such rooms. In addition, it is recommended to make an official schedule of visits for every employee to make sure that nobody disregards anti-stress rooms. In case a company makes it obligatory, the staff will take a rest room more seriously. Further, every shift manager should remind the staff to make mandatory brief warm-up at least three times during a working day. Short breaks for physical exercises will hinder employees’ overstrain. For better customer services and productive work of the staff, team leaders should be granted with more authorities because sometimes it is effective to make decision on-site due to the fact that members of the team can understand the problem better than a person who takes higher job position. And finally, to resolve the issues with an excessive shopping and small number of memberships to a health club, it is recommended to conduct a survey regarding provided services. The top managers can get employees’ opinions and evaluation of the local club and find out the reason of why not so many people are interested in membership. According to the given results, it will be possible to elaborate further action plan. Read More