Survey says Cash is King for Contact Centre staff

Cash is King

Contact centres are one of Scotland’s undoubted employment success stories, increasingly a source of meaningful employment for thousands of typically young (under 30) workers. Inevitably many employees have very modern perceptions about what makes a good or bad workplace, and which aspects make for the most rewarding job.

Basic operating conditions obviously have a knock-on effect on work efficiency, Rise Group’s Adam Gordon led a special research exercise designed to nail down exactly how workers view factors like childcare, internet access and even health and beauty.

His team surveyed 500 workers in a range of contact centres and came up with conclusions some might find surprising.

On a score of 1 to 10 factors such as the availability of dining facilities didn’t rate particularly highly, if only because most workers expect to find a staff canteen, but more worryingly benefits such as pension provision didn’t rate much higher.

“Many people in contact centres are under 30,” notes Adam Gordon, “and these people are not getting the pensions message.”

Very much more important, it seems, is the level of basic salary and bonuses, which scored the highest points. This appears to destroy a common HR perception that “total reward” is more important than hard cash.

The figure was almost as high for career development, prompting Rise HR Advisor Graeme Smith to note: “Employers should consider the way they structure teams in their contact centres and design them to encourage career development opportunities.”

Workers are also interested in developing new skills within the workplace – most obviously in IT-related disciplines – prompting Rise to note that employers should consider investing in learning opportunities for employees.

However this factor did not rate as highly as “career development”, perhaps meaning that many workers expect their existing skills and abilities, when added to experience, to lead to promotion.

Another consideration which was rated highly was straightforward ease of access, although that doesn’t necessarily mean “middle of town”. On the contrary one of the country’s most successful centres is out of town, but offers free bus transport from the city centre.

But in an age when many women are combining busy professional lives with raising families, the concept of childcare is a very low priority – just 2.7 out of 9. This is simply because many workers are under 28, and less likely to have young families, whereas once it would have been a factor for employees in their early 20s.

Much more important is the working environment – factors including furniture, lighting, noise levels and space between desks. Scottish and Newcastle and o2 are among firms which believe in giving workers plenty of personal space.

“Making friends” is important too, rating 6.6 out of 10, while the concept of a “fun atmosphere” earned one of the highest scores, at 7.3. Adam Gordon said this was a clear sign to management that “controlled fun” is a valuable asset to foster.

However the related subject of “entertainment” found workers deeply split. Some saw unfettered web access as a necessary relief from monotony, while others noted that some workers could get too caught up in virtual “socialising” – even with total strangers – at the expense of their work.

Few appeared very interested in pursuing “health and beauty” opportunities in the workplace, presumably preferring to develop trendy hairstyles, etc, in their free time and the idea of having nightclub style chill-out zones in contact centres didn’t interest many workers either – even although this sort of temporary relaxation has been reckoned to benefit employees in high stress workplaces in, for example, Japan.

However viewed as a bar chart, it’s basic pay which stands head and shoulders above all other considerations, at 8.3 out of 10 – meaning that what most contact workers want from their job, more than anything else, is straightforward money.

11 Dec 2007

Filed under Call Centre News