A study investigating the determinants of customer service representatives' job satisfaction in Australian call centres

It is paramount to develop management strategies and practices based on empirical research, in order to improve an organisation’s ability to manage effectively and ultimately to survive in a highly competitive global environment. Call centres across the world are continuing to exhibit exponential growth irrespective of fluctuations in economic conditions. A main reason behind this phenomenon is that they are an efficient way to centralise and standardise operating procedures for organisations whilst maintaining some level of human interface with customers. The literature suggests that those at the coal face - customer service representatives (CSRs) - struggle with these tensions of providing a quality of service under economic rationalist principles, as exhibited in high staff turnover rates, sick leave and stress compared to most other industries. Despite the advances in technology available to managers, most call centres here and overseas still use human interface (rather than virtual environments) to service customers and to a large extent adopt sacrificial human resources strategies to manage their operations. With approximately 70% to 75% of the costs of call centre operations linked to CSR labour costs, there are both short-term and long-term implications associated with call centres’ productivity. Recent trends have shown a reversal of outsourcing growth in favour of ‘thinking local’ as a result of language barriers and quality concerns using outsourced providers. Overseas call centres such as in India are also facing pressures such as CSR stress, sick leave and an estimated double the annual staff turnover rates of Australian call centres (40+%). Rather than redressing the underlying problems inherent in the managerial practices, some managers are now resorting to more novel approaches, which are still largely driven by maintaining lower labour costs at the expense of workers’ wellbeing. Examples include accessing local untapped labour markets such as outsourcing locally to remote communities, also home based workers/contractors and even local prison labour. It is paramount to develop management strategies and practices based on empirical research, in order to improve an organisation’s ability to manage effectively and ultimately to survive in a highly competitive global environment. Call centres across the world are continuing to exhibit exponential growth irrespective of fluctuations in economic conditions. A main reason behind this phenomenon is that they are an efficient way to centralise and standardise operating procedures for organisations whilst maintaining some level of human interface with customers. The literature suggests that those at the coal face - customer service representatives (CSRs) - struggle with these tensions of providing a quality of service under economic rationalist principles, as exhibited in high staff turnover rates, sick leave and stress compared to most other industries. Despite the advances in technology available to managers, most call centres here and overseas still use human interface (rather than virtual environments) to service customers and to a large extent adopt sacrificial human resources strategies to manage their operations. With approximately 70% to 75% of the costs of call centre operations linked to CSR labour costs, there are both short-term and long-term implications associated with call centres’ productivity. Recent trends have shown a reversal of outsourcing growth in favour of ‘thinking local’ as a result of language barriers and quality concerns using outsourced providers. Overseas call centres such as in India are also facing pressures such as CSR stress, sick leave and an estimated double the annual staff turnover rates of Australian call centres (40+%). Rather than redressing the underlying problems inherent in the managerial practices, some managers are now resorting to more novel approaches, which are still largely driven by maintaining lower labour costs at the expense of workers’ wellbeing. Examples include accessing local untapped la our markets such as outsourcing locally to remote communities, also home based workers/contractors and even local prison labour. nuances of the industry, as adopting a generic strategy to monitoring, flexibility and work environment could have negative consequences for CSRs. The implications for call centre managers derived from this study is that they need to consider these aspects carefully when they develop and adopt managerial strategies. Ignoring these and embarking on more generic control and cost reduction management strategies will have a detrimental affect on CSRs’ job satisfaction and overall wellbeing and potentially the organisation’s productivity.