2 Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín, COLOMBIA 3 Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín, COLOMBIA 4 Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, Medellín, COLOMBIA

*Corresponding author

___________________________________________________________________ Abstract

Previous researchers have identified that customer services at call centers involve high pressure loads for employees, work stress, physical and psychological exhaustion, among others; and that some of these are related to employee turnover. This research study aims to identify the possible causes of employee turnover in one of the call centers operating in our city, in order to contribute to the study of this field and to be able to validate whether the relationships found in other contexts hold in ours. To carry out this study, a survey was applied and descriptive statistical analysis was used. To the extent that some of the possible causes can be identified, mitigation strategies and a reduction of dropout rates can be achieved. Role overload, burnout and work stress were the main causes related with employee turnover. Keywords: Burnout, call centers, employee turnover, role overload, work stress.

INTRODUCTION Quality in customer service is one of the critical success factors that influence the competitiveness of an organization. According to Siddiqi (2011), an organization can differentiate itself from competitors by providing a high quality service. For Lewin (2009), some benefits associated with customer satisfaction include increases in revenues, decreases in transaction costs related to the customer, and reductions in price elasticity among buyers. Since their appearance on the scene in the early 1990s, call centers have become the most important points of customer contact in developed economies (Russell, 2008). Despite its importance and the role played by the call center in terms of customer service and attention, different investigations have drawn attention to the high dropout rates that occur in companies of this type.

For this reason, the objective of this study was to identify the possible causes of the turnover of employees of a call center that operates in the city of Medellín, Colombia. A literature review was initially proposed in order to identify the factors related to the termination

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Technological Education 25-26 September 2018 – Universiti Sains Islam M alaysia, Nilai, M alaysia.

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of employment in the call center industry at the global level. Subsequently, an instrument was created with the intention of measuring 6 aspects previously found in the literature review, and finally, through some descriptive analyses, the main causes of employee turnover could be identified in the case of the call center that formed the object of the study.

METHODOLOGY To develop the present investigation, an exhaustive literature review was carried out, including authors such as Maslach and Jackson (1981), Schaufeli et al. (2002), Lewis and Pitts (2016) and Demo and Paschoal (2016), among others, who have studied aspects related to job satisfaction, burnout as a labour phenomenon and staff rotation or turnover in companies, etc.

Once aspects related to employee turnover and working conditions were identified, a measurement instrument was created, which consisted of two parts. The first part contained sociodemographic questions and the second consisted of Likert-type questions with 7 response options, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree, to 7 = strongly agree, to measure 6 aspects related to possible causes of employee turnover. The number of items to measure each aspect are listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Aspects measured in the questionnaire and number of items

Measured aspect No. of items used

Satisfaction with employment 4

Realization 5

Exhaustion 4

Work stress 3

Work overload 3

Variety at work 3

After developing the measurement instrument, we proceeded with its application. A descriptive analysis was done to identify the possible reasons for employee turnover of the people surveyed, and also the factors that are perceived as related to well-being and that somehow manage to mitigate staff turnover.

RESULTS According to the questionnaire that was applied, a total of six factors were considered, which were measured through the items as reported in the methodology section. To determine the degree of each of the six factors, the values obtained in each of the items that make up each factor were added together and a distribution of the range was calculated (maximum value of the sum minus minimum value of the sum) to create 5 values, where 1 means "very low", 2: "low", 3: "medium", 4: "high" and 5: "very high". To illustrate the above, the calculation is demonstrated with the first factor: "Satisfaction with employment", which is composed of 4 items. As each item has 7 response options, according to the Likert scale used, then the minimum value of the sum will be 4 (in the case that all the answers to those 4 items were 1) and the maximum value of the sum will be 28 (if the answer 7 was given in all 4 items). The range (28-4 = 24) is distributed across 5 categories as described in Table 2.

Table 2. Example of factor 1 coding: satisfaction with employment

Interval Category

[4,8] 1 = “Very low”

[9,13] 2 = “Low”

[14,18] 3 = “Medium”

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Technological Education 25-26 September 2018 – Universiti Sains Islam M alaysia, Nilai, M alaysia.

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[19,23] 4 = “High”

[24,28] 5 = “Very High”

The analysis of the six factors, according to the coding used and shown above, was divided into two large blocks: Block 1: Satisfaction, realization and variety Block 2: Stress, exhaustion and work overload Satisfaction, realization and variety Among the sample surveyed, it was found that only one percent indicated a very low level of work satisfaction; while 69% of respondents reported between a "high" and "very high" degree of satisfaction (Fig. 1). From this we can conclude that the work as such provided a good degree of satisfaction, either because of the conditions of the company or the functions performed. Regarding the personal fulfilment factor or realization, the respondents, for the most part, expressed "high" or "very high" levels, corresponding to 74%.

Another aspect that was measured was that of variety in the work, where 77% of the people surveyed indicated "high" or "very high" levels (Fig. 1). This suggests that the causes of employee turnover in the call center are not related to job satisfaction, personal fulfilment/realization, or work variety.

Fig 1. Block 1: Satisfaction, realization and variety factors

Stress, exhaustion and work overload

Here we must clarify that all the items used to measure each of the 6 factors were recoded in terms of the positive being expressed with high values (5, 6 and 7) of the Likert scale of 7 options. In this way, the factors of work overload, work stress and exhaustion were reversed, and therefore, it was desirable to find high values, indicating the absence of these negative characteristics.

From Fig. 2, it may be observed that the respondents reported divided perceptions regarding the stress factor in work. Similar percentages reported a feeling of stress (36%) as reported no stress at work (28%), making 35% the average value. Clearly, these results do not indicate the strong influence of this factor in the decision to leave the company.

1% 0% 1%0% 4% 3%

30%

23% 18%

37%

30%

46%

32%

44%

31%

10%

15%

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25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Satisfaction Realization Variety

Block 1

Very low Low Medium High Very high

Proceeding of INSIGHT 2018 1st International Conference on Religion, Social Sciences and

Technological Education 25-26 September 2018 – Universiti Sains Islam M alaysia, Nilai, M alaysia.

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As for the exhaustion factor, 40% of respondents rated this factor "very low" or "low", indicating they felt some sort of physical or mental exhaustion at work, to a moderate or severe degree. This perception confirms the results found in the literature, which associates work as a call center advisor with a high load of exhaustion due to the effort and weariness implied in giving attention to the demands of the users.

Furthermore, 51% of those surveyed were placed in the categories of "very low" or "low" in terms of measuring the aspect of "work overload" (Fig. 2), which is closely related to the factor "Exhaustion". In addition, if the 37% of people who reported an average value are included, the results of this factor suggest that in general terms the former call center workers were dissatisfied with the workload, which could have motivated the early termination by workers.

Fig 2. Block 2: Measurements of stress, exhaustion and overload.

CONCLUSIONS When carrying out the analysis and discussions of the results obtained through the application of the survey to the employees of the call center in the city of Medellin, it was found that the main causes associated with employee turnover were related to exhaustion factors, stress and work overload, which are factors that are closely related to burnout syndrome.

Positive aspects related to the experience of working in the call center were also found. These aspects were satisfaction with work, variety in work and personal fulfilment or realization. The explanation of why these last two aspects stand out as positive aspects may be due to the fact that many of the people who enter the call center are young people who are just entering the workplace, and value learning new things, its realization and personal achievement and the variety of tasks.

The identification of all these aspects, both positive and negative, allow the creation of different strategies for their potentialization, in the case of the positive aspects, and for their mitigation, in the case of the negative ones, in terms of avoiding the early termination of employment or at least, reducing the high rates that occur in companies of this type. As possible solutions that aim to reduce the high dropout rates in the call center, it is suggested that managers develop strategies that allow call center advisors to have a space for distraction and recreation within their work hours, seeking to balance the burdens of the demands of their work with physical, cultural or social activities with other employees.

Given that exhaustion and fatigue arise due to factors such as work responsibilities, increased hours worked, problems with colleagues or not having control of tasks, another strategy that can be implemented by organizations of this type to mitigate these negative effects is to create a scale of incentives and emotional rewards that allow workers to focus on

11% 10%

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30% 31%

35% 34%

37%

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24%

11% 8%

3% 1%

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15%

20%

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30%

35%

40%

Stress Exhaustion Over load

Block 2

Very low Low Medium High Very high

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Technological Education 25-26 September 2018 – Universiti Sains Islam M alaysia, Nilai, M alaysia.

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the goals of the organization and at the same time allow them to be recompensed for the effort and sacrifice they make every day in their work, demonstrating that the company is conscious and concerned about their emotional well-being. _________________________________________________________________________

REFERENCES Demo, G., & Paschoal, T. (2016). Well-Being at Work Scale: Exploratory and Confirmatory

Validation in the USA. Paidéia (Ribeirão Preto), 26(63), 35-43.

Lewin, J. E. (2009). Business customers’ satisfaction: What happens when suppliers downsize? Industrial Marketing Management, 38(3), 283–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2007.11.005

Lewis, G. B., & Pitts, D. (2016). Deciding to Retire From the Federal Service. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 0734371X16639110.

Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1981). The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2(2), 99–113.

Russell, B. (2008). Call centres: A decade of research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10(3), 195–219. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2008.00241.x

Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-Romá, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3(1), 71–92.

Siddiqi, K. O. (2011). Interrelations between service quality attributes, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the retail banking sector in Bangladesh. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(3), 12–36.

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