STRESS RECOGNITION

Are you having problems with agent absences?

Owning or managing a Call or Contact Centre has just placed you in one of the highest workplace arenas for staff stress levels. Implementing a reasonable amount of telecoms and data automation can certainly ease agent stress levels.

Matrix believes owners and managers should be aware of a few simple facts to ensure this area is considered with as much importance as other areas:

• A staggering 93.7% of businesses in UK have absolutely no protection against 2005/6 changes in stress legislation
• The average length of absence for stress related illness is 29 days
• CIPD figures Feb 2006 show it costs on average £1200 per week per employee to cover sickness absence
• One study concluded that stress reduced net profit by 14% (CBI 2004)
• 40% of job turnover is due to stress
• One in five of all working individuals thought their Contact Centre job was very or extremely stressful

We believe owners and managers should adopt a formal policy for managing and recognizing stress and thus ensure their ICT administrators don't take a blatant disregard when programming levels of automated procedures that may possibly trigger agent stress.