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Making your call center ergonomically sound keeps your call center healthy. Here are some common workplace ailments and advice on how to alleviate them.
ERGONOMICS IS DEFINED BY THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY as the "study of the efficiency of persons in their working environment." It has come to mean making sure that the workplace is set up to enable employees to perform their tasks efficiently, with little risk of incurring injuries that impede individual and company efficiencies.
Ergonomics, then, is like ensuring that your factory's machinery is running smoothly, that the parts fit together and that they are not being overloaded or overstressed. The human body's biomechanics work the same way.
In call centers, people are your machinery. They attract, retain, and directly and indirectly generate profit from customers by providing customer service and sales.
If you neglect your agents' health, you risk tipping your call center into a similar vicious vortex that could hurt your company.
Hurt and sick workers, with few others to cover them in today's still-tight labor markets, will likely lead to longer queues and greater abandons, which may lead to loss of sales and customer loyalty. Especially if these sick agents are top performers and have unique skills and training, like the ability to speak other languages and to handle on-line communications, or have special licensing such as for insurance, real estate and securities.
Existing agents forced to work more hours to cover absent or injured agents can become more stressed, affecting their attitude and performance. You may have to call in a staffing agency or an outsourcer to fill vacancies and bring up your performance - at added costs.
Call Center Injuries
At first glance, it can be difficult to realize that call center workers may get injured and sick while doing their jobs.
Yet leading ergonomic experts and designers who work with call centers classify call centers as medium- to highrisk workplaces.
Agents suffer from head, neck, and to a lesser extent, back and leg injuries at their workstations. They also experience headaches, neck, arm and mid-back pain.
These conditions are often known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Two of the most common MSDs are carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by compression...