The goal of this proposed job is to examine the factors affecting the motivation of employees employed in call centers. Call centers have become an inevitable aspect of service delivery in today's business world. Thus, there's a dependence on call centre management to determine what they can do to encourage their employees as well concerning increase the service quality sent to their customers. To do this goal, a research will be completed. It will entail conducting research with the employees and employers of call centers in Mauritius and far away such as India, United Kingdom, USA, Australia and Canada. The research will be conducted in various ways: on the phone, on the internet and face-to-face. The study instrument that will be used is questionnaire where questions will be placed according to the aims and goals of the job. This research will be useful to many groups of men and women like the employers and employees of call centers, the government, the layman and the population all together. It will have a positive impact on the whole economy. It generate various benefits such as increased efficiency, increased investment and better living requirements, amongst others.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Call centers symbolize the service economy of the digital era. They are a growing part of the service industry in many countries and a considerable amount of call center agencies careers have been created in this sector lately (Baumgartner, Good, & Udris, 2002; Holman, 2003; Moltzen & Vehicle Dick, 2002; Wegge, Vehicle Dick, Fisher, Western world, & Dawson, 2006). Call centers are sites where real estate agents use telecommunication links to execute sales, service and technical support to customers who are found in distant areas, whether in the same country or across the globe. Communication between brokers and customers acts different purposes like taking purchases, supplying information about products, providing very skilled IT services or legal services, conducting consumer research, and advertising.
Employment in call centers is continuing to grow drastically across the world within the last 15 years. Nevertheless, this progress has been contentious. Some observers argue that call centers provide low wages, with limited improvement opportunities and frequently tense working conditions. Also, the customer service work in call centers is perceived as boring, monotonous and demanding. On the other hand, some observers, especially in developing countries or disadvantaged parts in the developed world, have motivated growth in call centers because they view it as a jobs creating industry that often remunerates better than other alternatives.
Not only gets the call middle industry expanded speedily in the modern times, it has additionally become very competitive. There were relatively low barriers to enter into this industry and therefore, the number of companies within the industry has increased drastically worldwide. Consequently, this has given rise to strong competition among the different call centers. To make sure survival on the market, the call centers have to be competitive. And, to contend, they have to provide quality services to their customers to make sure they are happy. Definitely, the management of call centers cannot make the customers happy so long as their employees stay unhappy because employees will be the ones to provide services to the clients. If employees do not enjoy their work, it'll have an impact on the success of the organisation's goal.
In order to be successful in the long term, managing people is one of the very most critical tools for a global business in the current competitive world. Therefore, the topic of motivating employees is becoming extremely important to the employer of call centers, as determination has a great impact on the way employees perform in the organisation. To work, the employer must know very well what motivates employees within the framework of the functions they perform. Knowing what must be done to do what is right for employees can help the business enterprise succeed. Everyone is different and that means that each and every person will be motivated by different things. Some employees may want more money whereas others may require a more interesting and challenging job. In today's world, money is becoming less of the motivator. The employee's need is more than just good pay. They now require some gain and overall flexibility to bring their work and personal life jointly.
Motivating personnel is part of the employer's responsibility to attract and keep employees. Attracting and keeping high accomplishing customer contact employees is vital for service performance of call centers. Employers in call centers should develop a procedure for motivate their workers to perform their finest for the company, as motivation can change the performance and behavior of the individual. The drive process will help maximise the ability of human source and develop lasting management approaches for the organisation seeking success and longevity.
Robbins and Coulter (1999) mentioned that determination is "the willingness to exert higher level of effort to attain organisational goals as conditioned by that effort's potential to satisfy some specific needs which is shown in the behaviour and behavior of personnel. " Motivated staff will perform better because they devote a higher level of effort and passion in performing their work when compared to others. Hence, gratifying the necessity of the manpower reduces the believed tension in a company (Philip Kotler, 1990). Therefore, by motivating their staff, the call centers will be able to retain them and will also appeal to new and better recruits. These factors will then help the organisations to attain their goals.
Problem Statement
Despite the growing importance of call centers (Dark brown and Maxwell, 2002), there are several critical aspects concerning the mushrooming call centre industry that provide adequate surface for discourse.
Call centre customer support positions have been found to be highly repeated and "dead-end" careers (Belt, 2002). This position is often seen as a low status, poor pay and few career development opportunities (Deery and Kinnie, 2002). The work of call middle providers is very demanding with respect to several aspects. There are lower levels of job control or autonomy, limited task variety, and higher degrees of job demand and uncertainty. These characteristics are often linked to "mental health repeated tension" which impacts on well-being and health. Electronic monitoring, another critical aspect of call centers, can be used to keep a tabs on the quality of service provided. It is often associated with increasing amounts of stress, reducing job satisfaction, and feeling of insecurity. Thus giving birth to the notion among the list of employees that the employers do not trust them. Thus, this sense of lack of mutual trust has a negative effect on efficiency, thereby stopping the expansion of the business. The employees in call centers are de-motivated to work in such working surroundings. This also has a negative effect on customer support which is harmful to the organisation's success.
Consequently, call centers have great difficulty in keeping staff. They often times face high agent turnover rates which are very costly to the company. Their corporate reputation is also at stake. Usually, call centers employ thousands of folks and high agent turnover rates could also imply high unemployment rate for an economy. This, then, worsens the country's financial and public conditions. Hence, necessary steps should be studied to overcome the issues encountered when working in call centers so as to prevent further problems from cropping up.
Aims and objectives
The overall aim of the research task is to look at the factors impacting on the inspiration of employees in call centers.
The aims are:
To help employers of call centers take care of and motivate their staff more effectively.
To increase the working environment in call centers.
To decrease the providers turnover rates in call centers.
Methodology
This section reveals an overview of the methods to use in the study. Areas covered include the research design, people, test and sampling techniques, data collection and research.
Research Design
This study will involve the examination of the factors affecting motivation of employees working in call centers. Subsequently, the study will be made to achieve the collection aims and goals.
Population
The targeted human population for the analysis includes employees and employers of call centers in Mauritius as well as far away such as India, UK, USA, Australia, and Canada.
Sampling and sampling technique
It is apparent from the information of the population above that a census is extremely hard in this analysis. Accordingly, the survey kind of research will be used. Structured surveys will be completed in various ways: online (e-mail), cellphone and face-to-face. This will obtain different sorts of information related to call centers more quickly. A sample will be picked from the target population for the analysis. In total, an example of 200 elements will be preferred from the targeted inhabitants. The study will adopt a multi-stage stratified arbitrary sampling method to select elements. That is a probability approach to sampling where every factor has an equivalent chance of being contained in the sample. First, the populace will be divided corresponding to their gender. Next, the two different groups: male and female staff will be split into part time and full time employees. In this manner, we will be able to accumulate data about factors that motivate the time and part time employees in call centers. Usually, in your free time employees work through the nights whereas regular employees work through the days. Therefore, the factors motivating or de-motivating both different types of staff may differ. This will ensure a good representation of every group of men and women working in call centers.
Data Collection
The concentration of the analysis is on the attitudes and notion of call centre employees about their job. To meet the research aims and objectives, main as well as supplementary data will be gathered. The primary data calls for collecting information about the factors influencing determination of call center employees. It will be collected through organized surveys. Even though the collection of key data will be time-consuming, it'll be useful since it will generate current information and the trustworthiness of the data obtained could be established. Secondary data may also be collected for the intended purpose of the study. It'll be extracted from multiple sources such as commercial research properties and other research records. It will concentrate on information like the style in the employment rate in the call center industry during the past few years.
Data collection instrument
Data will be gathered by administering a questionnaire. The questionnaire will use structured questions, consisting of around 25 questions.
Benefits of the research
This research will be beneficial to different groups of individuals including the employers and employees of call centers, the government, the layman, and the population as a whole. Employers will be able to take suitable procedures to motivate their staff at the job. This will help to create an improved work environment for the employees. Subsequently, a well motivated workforce will aid to boost the call center's production, service quality and profits, enhance its corporate reputation and lower agent turnover. Low agent turnover does mean low unemployment rates throughout the market. This will be beneficial to the federal government. Its earnings in terms of taxes (fees on the gains of the call centers and on the income of the decision centers' employees) will increase and its expenses in terms of unemployment benefits will decrease. This budget could then be utilized for the provision of better open public goods and services in the united states. Subsequently, the contemporary society may reap the benefits of higher quality lifestyle. Low unemployment rates will also indicate less communal evils and thus, a healthier culture to reside in. Hence, this may attract more foreign investment throughout the market. Overall, the job will improve the financial conditions of any countryAdditionally, this research will be useful to the layman. The latter will be able to find out more about the task environment in call centers. This will likely add to their basic knowledge. Also, they'll be in a position to know the amount to which it is beneficial to work in call centers.
Time Plan
The stand below illustrates a Gannt chart. It symbolizes the phases and activities of the study project.
WEEK
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15
TASKS
1. Finalise research proposal and submit for clearance
2. Coach research assistants
3. Pre-test research and finalise technique/tool
4. Data collection
5. Plan data entry
6. Data Analysis and statement writing
7. Finalise Statement with research team
8. Discuss advice and plan of action
9. Presentation and Dissemination
Budget Analysis
Budgets are cost projections. They are really an indication of how projects will be implemented and managed. The table below shows the expenditures to be incurred through the research process, along with their equal cost.
Expenditures
Equivalent Costs (Rs)
Personnel Costs
2500
Travel Expenses
1500
Professional and Technical Services/Contracts
250
Telephone Bills
250
Supplies
500
TOTAL PROJECTED COSTS
5000
Budget Justification
Personnel costs include all the expenses paid to employees mixed up in research.
Travel expenses include the expenses of the research employees when they are moving to and from the research sites (call centers) as well as seminar attendance to communicate research results.
Professional and Techie Services/Deals are expenses which relate to external agreements for services needed to conduct the research. They include They could include computer services, usage of library databases, talking to fees for expert advice to resolve specialized problems, cost of subcontracts, costs involved with providing employees with training and/or development in techniques necessary to conduct the study project.
Telephone bills are costs incurred for cell phone surveys.
Supplies include any materials that are consumed during the job. They include office supplies, training materials, copying paper, postage, printing and photocopying expenses.
