Call Centre Challenges  The emergence of numerous “call centers” in developing countries like India and China, has posed some serious threats to the employees of these concerns. The concept of call center is a new find of the modern era, where they handle volumes of business process outsourcing for the developed countries. What are the various operations carried on in a call center? They handle inbound and outbound customer care services, telemarketing services, e-mail management services, pay roll accounting, help desk and many more back end activities. Benefits of Outsourcing: It proves to be a win-win situation for both the parties; the outsourcing company benefits from cheap labor, and the company that does the job earns good pay in the form of foreign exchange. But one has to understand the nuances of the call center operations; how it can be really worked out to one’s benefit? If you have a direct link with the outsourcing company, there is no need for you to share the profit. If the job is sublet to you, then your share gets reduced down the line. And also, the pay comes in a cycle of 45 days or so. So, it becomes mandatory that you should have the wherewithal to rotate your own funds for that 45 day period time, to fulfill establishment costs, power costs, salary and other miscellaneous expenses. What is the Pressure Situation? Let’s not get into the details of how to establish a call center and the necessary infrastructure to start one. The business has created a pressure situation, as it calls for erratic work hours and disturbed eating and sleep patterns. Definitely, it affects the youth, who form the major population of call centers, psychologically and socially as well. The erratic work schedules, (they work round the clock in shifts) the intense work pressure to achieve targets eventually leads to a pressure cooker like stress situation. Their altered sleep cycle is dangerous to both their physical and mental health. It is an evident fact that more number of persons working in this industry has started complaining about their physical and mental problems like Anxiety Depression Relationship-related problems Headaches Disturbed appetite Hearing loss Changes in thyroid and adrenaline levels Loss of weight Obesity and Smoking to reduce immense tension is also witnessed. The call center business has been a flourishing business in developing nations, though recently we tend to see a lull in the market, owing to the government regulations of the developed nations. Even the economy of developed countries, has taken a huge plunge owing to the recent economic recession. Naturally, when their financial markets have become unstable, they would not want to outsource to low-cost developing countries. The BPO’s or KPO’s (business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing), as they are called should not become a fad, instead, developing nations can also concentrate on indigenous business clients, that are in need of their services. Note: India is the leading country for offshore outsourcing. The offshore outsourcing industry started in India and it has been able to grow the IT and BPO export sector to $47 billion and capture more than half the offshore outsourcing...

Employee Morale – Role and Effect What is Morale? Morale is a word that conveys different meaning to different people. It might imply the following meanings: 1. Mental Attitude or Mind set from a psychologist’s perspective 2. A feeling of togetherness from an individual’s point of view 3. Group consent in terms of a business environment etc. Morale can be defined as ” an attitude of mind which conditions how well or how badly duties are performed”- W.H.Walley It can also be defined as ” the collective attitudes of workers towards one another, the employer, the management, or their work”-J.C.Denyen Morale is ” the capacity of group of people to pull together persistently and consistently in pursuit of a common purpose”-Dr.Deighton Morale is thus the undercurrent in an organisation that determines the performance levels of the employees as it dictates employees’ enthusiasm, voluntary conformance with regulations and orders and willingness to co-operate with fellow workers to accomplish the enterprise objectives. Poor morale is evident from in-subordination, discouragement and dislike of job, company and associates. Nature of Morale What it is? : Emotional by nature , a state of well- being and an attitude of mind. What it does? : Directly related to quality of work, enthusiasm, motivation, productivity, discipline, co-operation and initiative. Where it resides? : In the minds, attitudes and emotions of employees as individuals and as groups. Whom  it affects? : Employees and executives during their interaction and ultimately the customers and the community. What it affects?: Willingness to work and placing the enterprise objective behind self interest. To summarise, the ill effects of Bad Morale would be Reduced productivityIncreased absenteeismAntagonism towards managementToo much of complaints and grievancesIncreased employee turn-overFriction between employeesAlcoholismAccidentsIncreased lethargy In contrary High Morale leads to Willing co-operation towards enterprise objectivesLoyalty to the managementGood behaviour in conformance with the rules and regulationsStrong and coherent groups leading to organisational staminaPrioritising jobs and placing self interest behind organisational objectivesIncreased sense of participationPride in organisation Picture Courtesy: extramadness.com Ways to Improve Employee Morale From the workers’ point of view: Fair compensation and bonusSatisfactory working conditions conforming to safety and securityTreated with dignityEfficient and amiable leadershipScope for expressing their views for improvementAcceptable working hoursEnsuring economic security From the management’s view point Co-operation from the employeesStability of tenureIncreased productivityLow cost per unitLoyalty of the workers Is it possible to measure Employee Morale? Level of productivity: When the morale is low due to different reasons, higher is the chance of absenteeism, accidents and grievances since the employees try to overlook their responsibilities towards the organisation. Therefore it is the responsibility of the management to settle and score issues relating to employees or unions then and there to avoid those issues blowing out of proportion. Morale Surveys These are generally conducted by individual organisations to find out if the employees are satisfied with their job and task and how they feel about it. This is considered to be a fairly important measure to gauge the kind of relationship the employees have with the management. Surveys also indicate whether the channel of communication is open between the superiors and sub-ordinates and serves as an emotional release for the workers to express their real feelings. Types of Morale Surveys: Objective Surveys: Objective type of questions are given to the employees for answering but the flaw is that, the management representative writes the answers and this does not give a chance for the workers to express their feelings. Descriptive Surveys: Here the employees write their answers to queries asked which  are more descriptive in nature and reflects the actual feelings of each individual. Projective Surveys: Sometimes psychological tests are conducted to bring out the hidden feelings from tight lipped employees or who fear the management. The management must be aware of the following morale...