Assignment Sample on Analysis of Stress and Wellbeing At Service Call Center Line
Introduction and company background
Workplace stress is a harmful trigger often witnessed across organizations and is characterized by emotional and physical responses resulting from conflicts between job demands and control of the employees. There can be several factors responsible for stress of employees at workplace including lack of support from management’s end, job pressure, negative workplace culture, lack of skill and knowledge of employees and poor organizational growth. The current research discusses the aspect of stress and wellbeing of employees at Service Call center line that is a call service providing company dealing with domestic and commercial businesses and meet queries of consumers on their behalf.
Causes of stress with implementation of model of stress
In the provided scenario, it can be witnessed that each of the teams at Service call center line is made up of one manager and 10 service agents who belong to age group of 21 and 32 years. However, they often have to work under excessive pressure as they need to answer customer calls within 30 seconds that is creating a huge pressure on them. In the opinion of Le Fevre, Kolt, and Matheny (2006), when employees are unable to cope up with demands placed on them it results in their stress. The impact of stress can be witnessed on employees working with the concerned company as 64% of the calls have remained unanswered. This has not only hampered productivity and revenue of the company but also incurred stress and mental pressure on the employees. As stated by Maslach and Leiter (2008), communication plays a key role in eradicating stress and negative mental state of employees and for that managers often have to play an active role in listening to the issues faced by employees. However, the dearth of an effective communication process is clearly evident as the managers in each of the teams have incurred unnecessary stress on the employees due to which they have been subjected to stress that is also likely to result in their frustration and poor productivity. Furthermore, 18 people are working under one manager and this is also a major issue contributing to poor wellbeing of employees at Service call center line.
The psychosocial work environment states that the extent to which an individual has control over the work pressure given to him also influences his stress level at workplace. According to Kerr, McHugh and McCrory (2009), when employees are provided with control over flexibility of his work procedure, that results in lesser stress of him as compared to employees who have no say in their work. The performance appraisal system implemented at Service call center is meant for earning revenue for the company more than to motivate the employees. The employees are given target at the beginning of each year that they need to fulfill for aligning with the needs of performance appraisal program. However, this is a huge issue as employees often become burdened with work where they have to work for extensive hours. They have the concept of completing the tasks in their mind and this exerts huge pressure on them. The lack of flexibility also results in their increased stress. There are people entrusted with listening to recorded calls of the employees so that the betterment in their performance could be understood. However, the increased pressure caused them to receive calls within a stipulated time frame is also a major factor for their stress at workplace (Bhui et al. 2012).
As studied by Christian, Garza, and Slaughter (2011), payment and remuneration is a factor of motivation for employees. Employees are ready to work under challenging and stressful situations and even for extra hours when they are paid extra. However, the dearth of extra payment or even the payment that they are entitled to shall often result in stress among the employees. However, a survey that has been conducted at the company shows that more than half of the employees have complained about not receiving adequate payment for their work. Moreover, 78% of the employees also stated that the work given to them is not manageable. In this situation, if the employees were given extra payment for their stressful work, it would also have helped in managing stress among them. However, the dearth of adequate payment is also a factor of stress and employee wellbeing at Service Call centers line.
Stress reduction and management
The psychosocial work environment model of stress shall be applied in this regard to constitute stress management so that employees working with Service Call Center Line are subjected to lesser stress. As influenced by Naidoo et al. (2012), the workload needs to be changed at the company. The teams should be small in size with 7-8 service agents and headed by a manager. This would help in fostering enhanced communication systems and also contribute to creation of a better work environment. Furthermore, the pressure of receiving calls within 30 seconds also results in their stress. Thus, the HR manager at Service call center should focus on increasing employee base so that there is no pressure during peak hours and there are adequate service agents available for each of the customers.
Control is also an important factor that influences the level of stress among employees. As viewed by Nielsen et al. (2010), when employees are given flexibility at their workplace so that they can complete their work as per their ease and convenience, it shall lower the risk of stress among them. The second stress reduction initiative at the company should include providing control to employees in terms of job flexibility. The 30 seconds duration should be removed and employees shall need to fulfill a monthly target where they can complete their work as per their convenience. Additionally, relationships with peers and higher authorities are also important. According to Randall, Cox and Griffiths (2007), employees who have good friends in their workplace are less likely to be stressed out as compared to employees who do not have good friends at their workplace. Conflicts with colleagues or higher officials are also a contributory factor to stress. Thus, it is important that there is an enhanced communication system so that the employees have good relationships with others. Moreover, there should also be support from end of management to curb the risk of stress and negative mental stressors among the employees.
The work environment at Call centers is highly challenging and employees are constantly subjected towards stress and challenges. Therefore, it is important that the service agents are highly skillful and align with the huge demand of work at the company. As influenced by Bakker, Albrecht and Leiter (2011), information seeking is an important initiative for stress management in this context that is associated with constant processing of information and receives those in their senses. The role of HR management is most significant in this regard where there should be constant information provided to the employees and in this way, they can constitute an effective learning procedure. A number of studies have shed light on avert impact of learning on stress management. People who participate in learning are less likely to become stressful (Nobrega et al. 2010). Learning helps in development of new skills and knowledge by means of which they would be able to perform better and thus, curb stress.
Conclusions
To conclude, it is to be stated that stress is one of the major contributory factors to negative mindset of employees. It hinders organizational growth through poor performance and productivity of employees. The excessive work pressure on service agents of Service Call Center line is a major cause of their stress. The psychosocial work environment model has been selected in order to provide flexibility to employees and also constitute to their good relationship at workplace. Moreover, information seeking is also an important factor of stress management as it helps in learning new skills and knowledge.
Reference List
Bakker, A.B., Albrecht, S.L., and Leiter, M.P. (2011). Work engagement: Further reflections on the state of play. European Journal of Work & Organizational Psychology, 20 (1), 74-88.
Bhui, K, Dinos, S, Stansfeld, S, and White, P (2012). A Synthesis of the Evidence for Managing Stress at Work: A Review of the Reviews Reporting on Anxiety, Depression, and Absenteeism. Journal Of Environmental & Public Health, pp. 1-21.
Christian, M.S., Garza, A.S, and Slaughter, J.E. (2011). Work Engagement: A quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology, 64 (1), 89-136.
Kerr, R, McHugh, M, and McCrory, M. (2009). HSE Management Standards and stress-related work outcomes.Occupational Medicine, 8 (59), 574-579.
Le Fevre, M, Kolt, G, and Matheny, J (2006). Eustress, distress and their interpretation in primary and secondary occupational stress management interventions: which way first?. Journal Of Managerial Psychology, 21 (6), 547-565.
Maslach, C. and Leiter, M.P. (2008). Early predictors of job burnout and engagement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93 (3), 498-512.
Naidoo, L. J., DeCriscio, A., Bily, H., Manipella, A., Ryan, M., &Youdim, J. (2012). The 2 x 2 model of goal orientation and burnout: The role of approach-avoidance dimensions in predicting burnout. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(10), 2541-2563.
Nielsen, K., Randall, R., Holten, A.L., Gonzalez, E.R. (2010). Conducting organizational-level occupational health interventions: What works? Work & Stress, 24 (3), 234-259.
Nobrega, S., Champagne, N.J., Azaroff, L.S., Shetty, K. and Punnett, L. (2010). Barriers to Workplace Stress Interventions in Employee Assistance Practice: EAP Perspectives. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 25 (4), 282-295
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