THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGIES AND WORKLOAD ON

EMPLOYEES IN CALL CENTERS

ABSTRACT
Call centers are one of the most significant parts of many firms that provide customer care. These
businesses employ millions of people to respond to customer inquiries and offer solutions to both
current and potential customers. Customer service is regarded as a critical aspect in retaining
existing clients. Call centers are a constantly changing and dynamic industry all over the world.
Employees in contact centers are more prone to burnout and job discontent than employees in any
other industry due to electronic performance evaluation, excessive workload, little task control, and
frequent human interaction. The goal of this study was to see how call center staff were affected by
technology and workload. These findings revealed the need of effective job management and
technology, which explains why call center agents have such a high turnover rate. High workloads
disrupt their biological equilibrium, resulting in physical, psychological, and behavioural
aberrations that harm not just the personnel and the company, but the entire country. Face-to-face
interactions with consumers and answering complex questions are difficult responsibilities. This is
made even more difficult by the fact that call center technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and call
center operators must keep up with these innovations.

INTRODUCTION
Call centers employ a large percentage of the workforce (Holman et al, 2007) and are frequently
used to test new technology. They point to the formation of a new services science that integrates
technical, commercial, social, and customer factors as an archetypal phenomenon in the
industrialization of the process of creating services (Karmarkar, 2004, Clergeau, 2005). (Spohrer &
Maglio, 2009). It's even more shocking to see that very little information concerning the use of
technology in these call centres has been published in IS. The majority of academic study has been
on operations research (Avramidis et al., 2004, Aksin et al., 2007) and managerial and work-related
issues (Batt, 2002; Adria & Chowdhury, 2002; Gans et al, 2003; Wood et al, 2006). IT's role in call
centre development and how it enables new organisational forms has previously been investigated:
IT optimised queuing (Koole & Mandelbaum, 2002), transforming service operations into
bureaucratic processes (Frenkel et al, 1998), and offshoring and/or outsourcing (Koole &
Mandelbaum, 2002; Carmel and Tjia, 2005; Hasija et al, 2008).
Such research has primarily focused on technology, processes, organisations, and workforce, with
very little explicitly addressing the role of IT in overall call centre performance to date.
Surprisingly, though several literature emphasizes the important role of technology in providing
customer service (El Sawy et al, 1997; Gautam et al., 2005), the relationship between technology
and service delivery performance is frequently overlooked (Jae-woong et al, 2010). The strategic
goal of contact centres is unclear: they are described as an organizational and technology response
to the strategic necessity of providing good service quality and managing customer relationships.
However, according to a study by Robinson and Morley (2006), call centers are largely employed
by businesses to cut costs, with customer service delivery coming in second. The debate over how
well call centers perform is fueled by this ambiguity.

Workload
In today's globalized world, employees have become a vital element of the firm. The success or
failure of every company is determined by the effective and efficient use of human resources. Every
business creates a separate department to manage the human resources department for this reason.
The HR department is in charge of recruiting, training, and using human resources. However, staff
turnover has become a typical occurrence in all sorts of businesses (Service, manufacturing, trading,
and non-profit organization). Organizations are concerned about how to address these issues, and
numerous researchers have identified many factors that influence employee turnover intentions.
Such as (ineffective working conditions, inadequate vertical and horizontal relationships,
uncertainty about position and duty, lack of clarity regarding hierarchical level, organization culture,
and rules, organization structure, and so on). Personal element, poor rewards and motivation. An
example of a working situation includes the number of shifts in a 24-hour period, weekly duty,
overtiming, insufficient compensation, lengthy working hours, employment discrimination, health
and safety concerns, and machinery setup.
Hiring and firing policies, communication networks, workplace changes, culture and policy, and
amount of involvement in decision-making are all aspects of an organization's structure. Workload
is defined as the quantity of work assigned by a business to its employees in a specific period of
time. Workload causes emotional tiredness, according to Szalma et al (2004). If employees are
unsatisfied with their jobs, they will spread negative word of mouth, indicating a lower level of
effective organizational commitment. J. E. Mathieu and K. Hamel (1989) found that job satisfaction
had an influence on intrinsic motivation.
The intrinsic motivation is influenced by job satisfaction (Eby et al., 1999). Job satisfaction and
turnover are expected to be adversely associated (Walsh et al., 1985). Employees that are content
with their jobs are more productive and devoted to the company's aims and objectives. An
organization commitment is defined as an employee's level of identification with a certain
organization and its aims, as well as their willingness to stay in the company.
Technology is inversely proportion to work load
Call centers are frequently viewed as a testing ground for information technology. After all, there's a
lot to do. There is a lot of IT that could be leveraged to improve performance. The four key
applications listed below. In call centers, they appear to play a key role:

•Automated Call Distribution [ACD] allows for more efficient call handling by allocating calls
across groups within the platform based on the availability of the operator, their capabilities, their
domain, and whatever other parameters the platform supervisor chooses (the time limit for the on-
hold message, parking time in the queue, etc.).
•Interactive Voice Response [IVR] records voice messages and provides a directory service path
that allows automatic responses to simple enquiries. IVR's main goal is to reduce call center
congestion. Its use should boost centre efficiency by addressing the most basic demands, freeing up
time for operators to respond to other callers (Rowe & Limayem, 1998). Improper or over-
systematic use of IVR, on the other hand, may compromise the perception of service quality and, as
a result, customer happiness.
•Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) displays customer-specific data on the screen. The client
file is ‘popped up' by the phone call without the operator making a request. When employing CTI,
the customer may be recognized right away, and the data may be monitored and changed as the
discussion is ongoing. This technology improves internal cooperation while also strengthening
client relationships.
•The center can send any problem to the relevant person or level of responsibility using email. Data
can be relayed back and forth between call center employees and the rest of the company. This
technique is useful not only for job specialization, but also for coordinating others.
Outsourcing businesses employ technology-based call centers to provide a wide range of business
process outsourcing services.
A call center system is a computer-based system with expert answering "agent" stations and a
sophisticated real-time contact management system that enables call and contact routing for high-
volume telephone transactions. All call center systems that enable inbound contact handling and
automated contact distribution, as well as a high level of complexity in terms of dynamic contact
traffic management, are included in this description. As a result, its successful and efficient
functioning is critical to the service's overall success.
Because contact centers need such a large investment in technology, its contribution to their success
must be a major consideration. Call center managers were given a series of questions on the
influence of technology on the customer experience, call center agent productivity, and KPIs in a
survey done during the Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE) conference in 2006, which focused
on call centre technology. This demonstrated that contact center productivity is impacted by
technical issues on a daily basis (Moreno, 2006). Despite the fact that technological issues have an
impact on operational performance, nothing was mentioned about its beneficial contribution to
productivity.
In call centers, productivity is often assessed by the speed with which a connection is established
and the service request is processed. In this setting, productivity is dependent on having the
resources necessary to promptly connect a client's request – whether routine or unique – to
appropriate talents. We regard call centers to be socio-technical systems, and hence believe that
their capacity is largely determined by personnel characteristics, incentive structures, and
coordination mechanisms, including information technology. As a result, sound organizational
design combined with adequate information technology appears to be the foundation for call center
productivity.
"The framework of organization design consists of a set of design policies that aims to identify and
explain the internal variables that permit the growth of the firm's capabilities, is better managed by
management, and can affect employee behaviour," according to Galbraith (2002). Surprisingly,
however, there is little in the way of business strategy literature on how companies might be formed
to have the optimal combination of resources and talents. Indeed, we recognize that envisioning and
establishing a performance-oriented company demands the alignment of the company's strategy,
structure, people, rewards, and procedures (Clark et al., 1997). We believe that the right level at
which tasks and goals are articulated, in particular, merits more debate, and that a call center study
might give that chance.
The following is a breakdown of the paper's structure: We propose a framework for contact centre
design in the first part and construct hypotheses to evaluate the model. The research methods and
data collection are discussed in the next section. The data analysis is described in the third part. The
effect of workload and direct contribution of technology, as well as its relative contribution to
productivity, are then presented and discussed. Finally, the paper discusses the work's weaknesses
and strength as well as future directions and limitations.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Call Centers
It's not new for marketers in firms to pay more attention to the importance of call centers. Call
centers originally appeared in the 1980s and grew in popularity over the next ten years (Moss,
Salzman, & Tilly, 2008). Call centers have been "the most significant single source of client
interaction in the industrialized information economies" during the 1990s (Russell, 2008, p. 195).
Call centers have grown in importance as a component of the labour market, transforming into a
global service area that reflects the globalized economy (Batt, Holman, & Holtgrewe, 2009). There
are two sorts of call centers: those that serve mass market clients and those that offer a specialized
clientele (Thite & Rusell, 2010).
The operational needs of Human Resource Management (HRM), such as job design and the degree
of job discretion and performance, are influenced by market segment characteristics. Customers in
the mass market often have simple, routine demands, therefore centers that cater to them rely
significantly on cost-cutting and efficiency-boosting measures, such as staff discretion and
extensive performance monitoring. CSRs at contact centers that serve a niche market, on the other
hand, are required to do difficult tasks and create connections with consumers. Employees are given
more leeway, their performance is less closely monitored, and HRM policies are meant to
encourage engagement with more commitment.
Call center workstations come in a variety of shapes and sizes. American Express (Frauenheim,
2010), First Direct Bank (Woodward, 2009), and Unitil, a New England-based public utility, are all
good examples. They've created outstanding work systems that have resulted in high staff
engagement, great customer happiness, and minimal turnover. Nonetheless, contact centres with
low work complexity, low discretion, and high levels of inspection appear to be the most common.
Taylorism has been regarded as an advanced kind of call centers. They've been dubbed "new age
sweatshops" or "high-tech sweatshops," with labourers dubbed "cyber coolies" (Budhwa, Varma,
Malhotra, & Mukjerjee, 2009).

TURNOVER AND RETENTION

Differences in the design of contact center work environments and their implications on individual
and organizational results were emphasized by Holman et al. (2009). In a qualitative research
including call center agents and supervisors, Pierre and Tremblay (2011) looked into variances in
call center operations and their effects on staff attrition and retention. Managers and agents from a
telemarketing call centre were interviewed. A telecoms company ran two call centers (one for
customer support and the other for invoicing), while a Canadian governmental administrative entity
ran the other two. There were a total of 20 interviews done (including four with customers and four
with economic developers). The conversation yielded three main themes: (1) issues with recruiting,
involving, and maintaining staff; (2) variables connected to involvement and retention; and (3)
techniques for engaging and keeping contact center workers (Pierre & Tremblay, 2011). The habit
of many contact centers hiring students was one aspect that had a negative impact on staff
engagement and retention. Some call centers purposefully recruited students who were just starting
their university courses in the hopes of keeping them on until graduation. In general, however,
students supplied a temporary workforce, with a heavy reliance on young and inexperienced
workers.
Another source of personnel that stayed for a limited time was new college graduates. Time
demands, sales demands, and contact with clients who were unpleasant, harassing, or in stressful
situations were all significant sources of stress for an economic developer who envisioned
telecommuting to reach out to prospective workers who would work part-time at home (Pierre &
Tremblay, 2011). Work patterns frequently included night shifts, weekends, and holidays, putting
employees' personal lives at risk. Night work and rotating hours can cause weariness, which can
have a negative impact on productivity. Some contact centers gave staff the freedom to choose their
own work hours, while others imposed strict schedules on agents. Programs were identified as the
leading source of turnover in several institutions. Employees at certain locations were dissatisfied
because of tight or unpleasant working conditions, while others benefited from more open spaces
and natural light (Pierre & Tremblay, 2011). Dissatisfaction and turnover intentions were fueled by
monotonous jobs, strict adherence to scripts, and constant monitoring. Indeed, in the research on
call centers, the detrimental impact of low task complexity and extensive monitoring is a common
topic.
Limited opportunities for growth, as well as poor wages and poor prestige and recognition,
contributed to unhappiness. Numerous factors linked to unhappiness and turnover at contact centers,
as well as work environment and HR policies that improved motivation, performance, and
satisfaction, were discussed in the qualitative replies (Pierre & Tremblay, 2011). There were,
however, significantly more negative than good responses. The favourable replies indicated to
Pierre and Tremblay that it is feasible to implement policies that foster staff participation and
retention while also benefiting the firm through greater customer service and financial success. The
paradox is that while management is aware of methods that improve employee job happiness,
performance, and retention, only a small percentage of contact centers have implemented them
(Pierre & Tremblay, 2011).

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
In uniform work contexts, promoting employee engagement is very vital (MacLeod & Clarke,
2009). Employees are absent 2.69 days per year on average, compared to 6.19 days for disengaged
employees. The economy bears a significant burden as a result of the added absence days.
Furthermore, engaged employees are 87 percent less likely than disengaged employees to depart a
company. According to some estimates, replacing one employee costs the same as a year's wage. In
terms of work performance, engaged individuals are 70% more likely than disengaged employees to
have a strong knowledge of how to satisfy client expectations (MacLeod & Clarke, 2009). Only 3%
of disengaged employees are eager to advocate for their company or organization, compared to two-
thirds of engaged employees. More over three-quarters of engaged workers (78%) are willing to
suggest their company's products or services, compared to only 13% of disengaged employees.
Employee engagement and consumer happiness are inextricably linked, according to executives
from numerous major corporations (MacLeod, 2009). Making employees feel appreciated and
appreciated, including them as active participants, and providing them with effective leadership are
all important factors in fostering employee engagement. As a result, employees are proud of their
work and feel a feeling of devotion and loyalty to their jobs and the company. The link between
employee engagement and performance is consistent with Mahesh's (1993) argument for the
individual and organizational benefits of intrinsic motivation.

METHODOLOGY

Primary data was gathered from a Project Leader with five years of call center experience. He
began his career as an executive in the industry. He was promoted to team leader after two years of
experience. He stayed in the same job for three years before being promoted to Project Leader. He
is currently in charge of a staff of fifteen executives, including seven men and eight women. A
questionnaire was also used to obtain primary data, which measured employee stress levels and
identified several stressors as well as the impact of technology on employees. A questionnaire was
distributed, and responses from 100 employees were collected.
We also gathered demographic information such as age, gender, marital status, and work
experience. Secondary data on the present state of call centers, as well as the industry's possibilities
and issues, was also gathered. Some items on the occupational stressor questionnaire were good,
while others were negative. A three-point scale is used in the survey (not at all true, somewhat true,
and completely true). The positive items were given a lower score than the negative ones. Each
item's low score indicated minimal stress, whereas a high score indicated significant stress. Each
respondent's average score across all questions was determined. Low job stress (average score of
1.00 to 1.50), medium work stress (1.51 to 2.00), or severe work stress (1.51 to 2.00) were assigned
to this score (2.01 to 3.00).

HYPOTHESIS

This exploratory inquiry focuses on the following hypotheses:

H1: The association between technological impact and job satisfaction is largely mediated by
workload.

Instruments of Measurement
Three-point scales were utilized with workload and technology scales.
At the same time, the job satisfaction rating is graded on a three-point scale that ranges from low
job stress (1.00 to 1.50), medium work stress (1.51 to 2.00), and severe job stress (2.00). (2.01 to
3.00).

Form for demographic data

Gender, age, education, employment status, job, seniority, and organization seniority are all
included on this form.

Dependent variable
Job Satisfaction is dependent variable. Workload and job satisfaction are inextricably linked.
Increased workload will result in a decline in job satisfaction.

Independent Variables
It includes technology. Technological determinism views technology as an independent variable that
causes changes in social patterns, such as increasing contact center efficiency.

Mediator
The workload scale was used to measure the workload of the mediator.

Results
Profile of the Respondents
The distribution of employees based on age, gender, marital status and experience are given in the
following Tables (Table 1,2,3 and 4).

Table 1: Distribution of Respondents based on Gender

Gender Frequency Percent
Female 23 23.0
Male 77 77.0
Total 100 100.0
Table 2: Distribution of Respondents based on Age

Age Frequency Percent

20-25 years 79 79.0
26-30 21 21.0
Total 100 100.0

Table 3: Distribution of Respondents based on Marital Status

Marital Status Frequency Percent

Married 39 39.0
Unmarried 61 61.0
Total 100 100.0

Table 4: Distribution of Respondents based on Experience

Experience Frequency Percent

Less than 2 years 27 27.0
2-4 years 29 29.0
4-6 years 29 29.0
6-8 years 6 6.0
More than 8 years 9 9.0
Total 100 100.0

The percentage of professionals with low, medium, and severe job stress is shown in Table 5. Only
8% of respondents reported a low level of stress, according to the results of the entire survey. 80
percent of call center personnel are under medium stress, whereas just 12% are under severe stress.
Many sociocultural variables, in addition to work and organisational concerns, make contact centre
positions even more stressful. As a result, excessive workplace stress is not a myth, but a clear
reality at contact centers. (2006, Ghazi)

Table 5: Stress Level of Respondents

Stress Level Frequency
High 12
Low 8
Medium 80
Total 100

Table 6 displays the respondents' responses to questions concerning job feedback, working
conditions, job clarity, job security, workplace politics, job satisfaction, workload, promotion,
interpersonal interactions, and workplace changes. Job feedback, workload, and advancement
prospects are among the pressures that the majority of contact centre employees face. Other issues
such as working environment, job security, workplace politics, job satisfaction, and workplace
changes are a cause of moderate stress for responders. In terms of interpersonal relationships, 37%
of respondents report medium stress, 27% report severe stress, and 36% report no stress.

Table 6: Job Stressors of Respondents

Stressors Frequencies
Critaria Low Medium High Total
Job Feedback 15 20 65 100
Working 36 53 11 100
Conditions with
reduced
technology
Job Clarity 74 23 3 100
Job Security 16 50 34 100
Job Satisfaction 39 50 11 100
Politics at 16 50 34 100
Workplace
Work Load 5 13 82 100
Promotion 5 32 63 100
Inter Personal 36 37 27 100
Relations
Changes in 23 55 22 100
Workplace

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Future studies should broaden the geographical scope of this study beyond Lahore. Future studies
should utilize the same sample group, but with quantitative or mixed factors, and a bigger sample
group to collect more data.

LIMITATIONS
The current study, like most others, has limitations, such as the use of only one municipality's
employees as a sample. The sample might be expanded to include additional towns in future study,
allowing for generalization of the findings and the development of new management plans.

CONCLUSION
The study's goal was to look at contact center employment from the perspective of both employers
and employees, as well as the influence of technology on both. There are several work options at
the call center. Employees, on the other hand, are unsure about their own personal development.
Employees should be able to recognize the sources of stress in their workplaces. The main sources
of stress for call center executives are job feedback, workload, and advancement chances. Working
circumstances with limited technology, job security, workplace politics, job satisfaction, changes in
the workplace, and interpersonal relationships cause individuals to experience moderate stress.
Workplace stress is a common occurrence. Working environment and technology can be improved
to alleviate stress caused by heavy workloads and poor working circumstances.