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A recent survey by Gallup found that more than three-quarters of employees believe they experience burnout at work at least sometimes. And almost a third of respondents to that same survey said they experience burnout very often.
Call centers are not immune from these statistics. Call center stress syndrome is a very real condition. In this blog, we look at its causes and share some strategies for how to overcome call center burnout.
Call center burnout is the manifestation of chronic, unmanaged stress in call center agents and employees. It can affect the mental health of call center employees and lead to absenteeism and other forms of illness, including conditions that may require agents to take prolonged absences from work.
Statistics on call center agent burnout are hard to find, but we know that the rate is likely high. That’s because call centers are losing staff at a high rate. Happy employees don’t typically leave.
According to the Quality Assurance and Training Connection (QATC), employee turnover for contact and call centers was somewhere between 30% and 45% in the years before the pandemic. A 2022 report by Gartner predicted employee attrition across all industries would rise 20% post-pandemic, indicating that call center managers are facing even greater retention worries.
Call center burnout can affect any employee, even staff involved in remote work and managers. Any employee without adequate stress reducers or with heavy workloads and inadequate management can succumb to burnout — a medical syndrome recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as being caused by workplace stress.
Unfortunately, your agents aren’t likely to tell you if they’re feeling burned out. They may not want to admit that they are having problems coping at work because they worry it could impact their job security. They may not feel comfortable sharing information about their mental health, generally. Or they may not even realize they are on the path to burnout, figuring it’s just temporary stress.
So, how do you identify call center burnout? Here are six call center burnout symptoms to look for in your agents.
People suffering from high stress typically don’t get good rest, may not eat well and generally don’t look after themselves. Physical call center burnout symptoms can range from frequent headaches and, in extreme circumstances, stress-induced migraines to gastrointestinal issues. Frequent illness is a common indicator of a person under stress.
One of the most obvious signs of burnout that a call center manager might detect in an employee is decreased productivity. Agents may exhibit reduced performance in their everyday assignments, such as an inability to meet deadlines or complete basic tasks.
Emotional fatigue is another possible sign of burnout. Employees suffering from high levels of stress may seem disinterested in their colleagues or work. They become less motivated, exhibit greater dissatisfaction with their job, or become more cynical.
Emotionally exhausted agents may also display a sense of failure or show signs of self-doubt. They are also likely to struggle to be patient or demonstrate empathy when dealing with customers.
Lack of sleep and increased stress may result in employees exhibiting increased frustration or becoming more irritable in the workplace.
Absenteeism covers everything from being late to work and taking long lunch breaks to habitual, unplanned absences from work. Absenteeism has been on the rise, generally, since the pandemic. Each month for the past three years, more than a million Americans have called out sick from work. COVID-19 has been a factor, of course. But burnout is also a well-documented cause for employee absenteeism.
Errors can be costly for your business, from missed sales to overlooked issues that might signal a defect or even a safety issue with a product or service you provide. Poor data gathering due to human error costs organizations $12.9 million per year, according to research from Gartner.
Your agents are on the front lines of gathering vital information from your customers. If they’re burned out, they are likely to miss critical details during their interactions.
Stress is the major cause of call center agent burnout, but what causes that stress? Your employees have stresses in their personal lives, of course, and sometimes, they can’t avoid carrying that stress into the workplace. But there are also many workplace-related stressors that can amplify your agents’ emotions and set them on the fast track to burnout. They include the following:
The pressure on agents to work longer hours intensified during the global pandemic, particularly as call centers shifted more of their employees to remote work. But overwork can lead to serious complications for your agents, including physical ailments. A study by the WHO found that employees putting in more than 55 hours per week at work are at higher risk of having a stroke or heart disease, and that 745,000 workers globally died as a result of overwork in 2021.
Contributing to overwork and related stress for employees is the lack of adequate resources and tools to help them do their jobs efficiently. Agents who work remotely often experience this issue, whether it’s the inability to access the latest cloud-based technology or utilize a fast broadband connection.
Employee engagement is tough in a virtual workplace but it can suffer in a traditional call center environment, too. That’s especially true if managers fail to provide regular, constructive feedback or adequate incentives to motivate top performance. Agents who aren’t engaged in their job can adopt a negative attitude, isolate themselves from the team, and create further stress in the workplace.
Call center agents must “stick to the script” when dealing with customers. This can lead to a perception that managers are micromanaging them and constantly looking over their shoulders, making sure they stay on the talk track.
While it can be challenging to give agents some “wiggle room” in dealing with customers, a little autonomy can go a long way toward reducing their job-related stress.
A recent Forbes article outlined several reasons burnout can be so common among call center employees, and fiery interactions with customers were top among them. A customer service expert who researched call center fatigue reported that nearly one-third of consumers surveyed had admitted to yelling at a customer service agent — and 24% admitted to swearing at a call center employee.
What can a call center manager do to combat burnout in the workplace? Luckily, there are several strategies and tools to help you get the best from your agents while also helping them to ease their workplace stress. You can:
Teach your team how to overcome call center agent burnout by providing support and demonstrating empathy. Acknowledging the reality of call center stress and actively discussing it with your team will at least raise awareness among your agents. And, if an agent shares with you that they’re struggling with chronic stress, provide them with the flexibility, support, and tools they need to address the issue. Allowing agents to take some time off when needed to “detox” from their job is far better than having them quit because they can’t take the pressure.
The better training an agent receives, the better prepared that employee will be to cope with the day-to-day pressures of the contact center. Training should be an ongoing feature of the call center agent’s job, not an introductory offering or occasional requirement. It requires a time commitment from managers and agents. Technology can help here, too.
For example, Invoca’s cloud-based, in-platform agent coaching and collaboration capability lets managers turbocharge agent training. They can easily add notes in call transcripts to highlight coaching moments for their teams. Also, managers can, in real time, highlight examples of agents falling off the talk track so that they can adjust tactics for future calls. Managers and agents can also call out examples of adjustments that worked to share successes with other team members.
If one of the causes of chronic stress in the workplace is a lack of tools, it stands to reason that providing the right tools can help agents overcome call center burnout. Up-to-date technology is critical to a successful call center environment, especially at a time when more agents are operating remotely.
Cloud-based technology, such as Invoca’s platform, has multiple benefits for contact centers. For one, the solution helps managers and their teams to automate quality assurance (QA) by analyzing every call and scoring agent performance using artificial intelligence (AI). When agents receive standardized scoring — not scoring based on small samples or human bias — it can help to ease their feelings of stress because they know they are being treated fairly.
The best defense is a good offense. Rewarding your agents’ work puts you on the offensive against burnout in your call center environment. And when you can score agent performance fairly using technology, you’ve created a level playing field. (See the point above!) You can legitimately reward the best performers and encourage other team members to aspire to new heights. Think about friendly competitions to engage the whole team. This can help agents hone skills and boost morale.
A key stress factor leading to burnout and agent attrition is a heavy workload. Keep a steady eye on how much each team member has on their plate and make adjustments as needed.
Communication is key when it comes to helping your agents maintain a healthy workload balance. Make sure your team members, especially new hires and remote workers, know you have an open-door policy and encourage them to approach you before their workload becomes overwhelming.
Agents spend long hours sitting at their workstations or on the phone with customers with little opportunity for rest and relaxation in a highly structured work environment. Consider offering corporate health and wellness programs or subsidized gym memberships that can help them reduce stress and maintain physical and emotional fitness.
If the cost of such programs is too high, do what you can to promote wellness in the contact center. For example, consider using available rooms as meditation or quiet rooms for employees. Giving your agents the ability to step away from their routine, even for just a few minutes a day, can help them avoid burnout.
Even the most well-organized call centers can be high-stress workplaces because of the nature of the work that agents perform. Anything managers can do to address call center agent burnout is positive.
You can turn every agent into your best agent with the right support — from you, and from intelligent call center solutions like Invoca. Using Invoca to analyze every conversation an agent has with customers provides a holistic picture of that agent’s performance. So, rather than catching an agent on a bad day, you’ll be better informed about that agent’s overall efforts, so you can make solid judgments about rewards and incentives. You can also plan training modules based on a complete assessment of an agent’s actual work product rather than occasional observations.
Invoca’s AI-powered conversation intelligence platform helps you quickly identify coaching moments, allowing you to see where agents wander off the talk track so you can provide them with pointers on how to adjust their tactics. And targeted feedback and training not only help to create happier, more confident, and engaged call center agents, but they also help them deliver standout customer experiences.
Want to learn more about how Invoca can help you manage employee burnout at your contact center? Check out these resources:
