MINOR PROJECT REPORT

ON

“COMPARITIVE STUDY OF JOB STRESS ON EMPLOYEES IN CONVERGYS

& IBM.”

SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF

THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

Ms. Pooja Kalra

Assistant Professor

SUBMITTED BY:

Name of the Student: Manisha Dua

Enrollment No.: 00315901714

BBA (I SHIFT), Semester III

Batch 2015- 2017

RUKMINI DEVI INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES

NAAC Accredited, ‘A’ Grade

Category A+ Institute

High Grading 83% by Joint Assessment

An ISO 9001:2008 Certified Institute

Approved by AICTE, HRD Ministry, Govt. of India

Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi

2A & 2B, Madhuban Chowk, Outer Ring Road, Phase-1, Delhi-110085

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CHAPTER- 1

OF

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1.1 INTRODUCTION ON STRESS

Now a day the corporate sector is booming in a high speed that the people have to work for

prolonged hours to maintain the standard of living and achieve their basic needs. So is the

condition in hospitals, colleges, BPO’s and lots of other places. In spite of having the modern

technologies and facilities, people are feeling themselves to be work loaded and stressed.

deadlines to meet, changing priorities, longer working hours, e-mails, commuting. Most of us are

put under pressure to handle situations that are not life-threatening but nevertheless provoke

stress signals, that’s why today’s age is called “ The Age of Anxiety” and the century is called”

The Century of Stress”.

A lot of research has been conducted into stress over the last hundred years. Some of the theories

behind it are now settled and accepted; others are still being researched and debated.

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Definition:

Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His view in 1956 was that “stress

is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating,

creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is

detrimental.”

“STRESS IS THE DEMAND MADE UPON THE ADAPTIVE CAPACITY OF MIND

AND BODY” ---DAVID FONTANA

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Stress is the "wear and tear" our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing

environment; it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create positive or negative

feelings. As a positive influence, stress can help compel us to action; it can result in a new

awareness and an exciting new perspective. Stress is a fact of life. But too much stress on us can

break down a person's physical, mental, and emotional health. Planning can help people to

manage stress in their lives. They must begin to make choices that support their values and

develop a personal plan to take charge of their lives.

TYPES OF STRESS - SOME GOOD, SOME BAD.

Did you know that some types of stress can be good for you? n That's right! Some forms of

stress can be good for you, but other types of stress disorders can cause major health problems

and even be life threatening.

There are four main types of stress that people experience.

A. EUSTRESS

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Eustress is a type of short-term stress that provides immediate strength. Eustress arises at points

of increased physical activity, enthusiasm, and creativity. Eustress is a positive stress that arises

when motivation and

inspiration are needed. A gymnast experiences Eustress before a competition.

B. DISTRESS

Distress is a negative stress brought about by constant readjustments or alterations in a routine.

Distress creates feelings of discomfort and unfamiliarity.

There are two types of distress.

1. Acute stress

It is an intense stress that arrives and disappears quickly. Acute stress is the most common form

of stress. It comes from demand and pressures of the recent past and anticipated demands and

pressures of the near future. Acute stress is thrilling and exciting in small doses, but too much is

exhausting. Because it is short term, acute stress doesn't have enough time to do the extensive

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damage associated with long-term stress. Acute stress can crop up in anyone's life, and it is

highly treatable and manageable.

2. Chronic stress

It is a prolonged stress that exists for weeks,

months even years. Someone who is constantly

relocating or changing jobs may experience

distress. While acute stress can be thrilling and

exciting, chronic stress is not. This is the

grinding stress that wears people away day

after day, year after year. Chronic stress

destroys bodies, minds and lives. It wreaks

havoc through long-term attrition. It's the stress

of poverty, of dysfunctional families, of being

trapped in an unhappy marriage or in a

despised job or career.

HYPERSTRESS

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Hyper stress occurs when an individual is pushed beyond what he or she can handle. Hyper

stress results from being overloaded or overworked. When someone is hyper stressed, even little

things can trigger a strong emotional response. A Wall Street trader is likely to experience hyper

stress.

C. HYPOSTRESS

Hypo stress is the opposite of hyper stress. Hypo stress occurs when an individual is bored or

unchallenged. People who experience hypo stress are often restless and uninspired. A factory

worker who performs repetitive tasks might experience hypo stress.

CALL CENTER

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Call center is a generalized term that embraces a number of activities like reservation centers,

help desks, information lines or customer service centers, irrespective of how they are organized

or what types of transactions they handle. Call center is generally referred to a refined voice

operations setting that provides a full range of high-volume, inbound or outbound call-handling

services, including customer support, operator services, directory assistance, multilingual

customer support, credit services, card services, inbound and outbound telemarketing, interactive

voice response and web-based services Call centers are becoming increasingly popular in today's

business, where many companies have centralized customer service and support functions. Call

centers are generally large offices with representatives who either make or receive phone calls

depending on the type of work; call centers may have a single office employing a few people or

large office with thousands of employees. The main activity in some call centers is answering

inbound calls, such as a bank that gives out a toll-free number for customers needing help. At the

same time there are some call centers that focus on outbound calls too. With increase in

outsourcing, call centers are also becoming popular. By way of outsourcing, companies contract

out some functions to other companies located mostly in cost effective destinations like India. In

this field India enjoys several advantages over a number of developed counties. In India, we a

have large pool of qualified people; English speaking graduates and IT professionals. In addition

to this India have some other advantages like cheap labor, flexibility in working hours and time

zone difference. This is the reason why a number of MNC’s are outsourcing their business

activities to India . Call centers are comparatively a recent introduction to the world of career

options in India. The career avenues provided by Call centers is one of the best suited and

growing option which even a fresher can opt for. With the opening up of the Indian economy and

the advent of globalization more and more companies from abroad are basing or outsourcing

their call centre services to India, a trend started by GE when it established a call centre near

New Delhi in 1998.

A call centre is a service centre with adequate telecom facilities, access to internet and wide

database, which provide voice based or web-based information and support to customers in the

country or abroad through trained personnel. Call centers exist in all sectors of business

including banking, utilities, manufacturing, security, market research pharmaceuticals, catalogue

sales, order desk, customer service, technical queries (help desk), emergency dispatch, credit

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collections, food service, airline/hotel reservations etc. The wide area of services provided by the

call centers makes it a lucrative career.

UNDERSTANDING - THE CALL CENTER“INDUSTRY”

There has been some dispute amongst researchers as to whether it is appropriate to refer to such

a thing as the “call center industry”. As Bain and Taylor point out, “despite similarities in the

integration of computer and telephone technologies, centers differ in relation to a number of

important variables—size, industrial sector and market, complexity and length of call cycle time,

nature of operations (inbound, outbound or combined), the nature and effectiveness of

representative institutions including trade unions, and management styles and priorities”. To this

list of variables, Callaghan and Thompson would add the “degree of product complexity and

variability and the depth of knowledge required to deal with the service interaction”. Bain and

Taylor argue that it is more appropriate to use the term “sector”, as call Centers are found across

a wide range of industries and may be similar primarily in terms of their core technologies. They

do note, however, that there is a professional literature and a collective identity that is maintained

and developed through conferences and forums. Belt, Richardson and Webster (2000) agree that

call centers are not an 'industry' as the term is generally defined, but rather represent certain ways

of delivering various services using the telephone and computer technologies across traditional

industry boundaries. However, these authors provide three strong reasons defending the practice

of referring to call centers as an industry:

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First, the call center community often defines itself as an industry, with numerous national and

international call center conferences and workshops taking place each year, industry journals and

call center forums organized at local levels.

Second, the labor force requirements of call centers are often the same across sectors. This

means that many, though not all, call centers share a common labor pool.

Third, the organizational templates and technologies used tend to be very similar, regardless of

the sector.

To this one might add the remarkable similarities that international researchers have found

between technologies used, work practices and key issues including monitoring, control,

training, and labor demographics for workers in countries as diverse as Germany. Japan,

Australia, Greece, Canada, the US, the UK and the Netherlands.

STRESS IN CALL CENTER

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Stress exists in every call center. Call centers are stressful work environments. The demands of

serving the customer in real-time helps to lay the foundation. Add to these factor things such as

job repetition, potential job dissatisfaction, poor ergonomics or low pay and the stress level

climbs higher. If stress in the workplace (i.e. the call center) is not of the agenda the results of

stress are revealed through higher absenteeism than other parts of the company, higher Worker's

Compensation claims and ultimately in reduced customer satisfaction. This Operations Topic

focuses on various approaches to managing stress. Raising the pay isn't necessarily the solution.

There are many other creative means of managing stress in your call center.

FOUR KEY STRESSORS

1) ‘Can we get off the phone for a while?’

The primary source of stress reported is inherent to the nature of the job: spending all day on the

phone dealing with people one after another, day after day, is difficult. Doing it under constant

pressure to keep call volumes up, with no time between calls to “recover from an awkward call

or from ‘customer rejection’” is even more difficult. And doing it with “very little authority or

autonomy to rectify problems” that arise is perhaps the most difficult of all. Many studies report

agents as wanting to ‘just get off the phones’. For example, Belt and colleagues note “agents in

all three sectors [financial services, IT, and third-party services

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spoke of the phenomenon of ‘burnout’, caused by the pressure of working exclusively ‘on the

phones’”. In the same study, the authors mention that the issue of ‘burnout’ was also recognized

by some managers: “It was pointed out that managers face an inherent conflict between the need

to reduce staff boredom and labor turnover, and the pressure to concentrate staff energies on

telephone based work”. “The question of how call center employees deal with stress is an

important one, particularly in view of evidence that a build-up of stress leads to illness,

absenteeism and turnover,” writes Houlihan. Many authors agree, and there are a variety of

individual coping mechanisms described in the literature. Tricks to circumvent control

mechanisms, such as those discussed above are sometimes mentioned as attempts at stress

reduction, although they are unreliable in this role as they may also increase stress.

Others mention social interaction squeezed into brief moments--Callaghan and Thompson

describe agents using humorous (or rude) gestures towards the phone, or making faces at

colleagues to defuse stress over angry or abusive callers, and making jokes to combat the tedium

of the day. Lank shear and Mason describe a similarly social approach to reducing tension in one

of the sites they observed, where staff often laughed and joked with one another in intervals

between calls, with management’s approval. More formally, some call centers include stress

management as a component in training programs, and many have, or claim to have, team de-

briefings which permit staff to vent frustrations while discussing difficult calls or dissatisfactions

with elements of work. This more nuance positioning may provide more insight into call center

conditions, as it allows a researcher to consider the response of employees “forced to interpret

the often contradictory demands management place upon them” including “contradictions…over

service quality versus the quantity of work output”.

“Clearly,” these authors write, “staffs face some fundamental contradictions over unity

versus conflict, uncertainty versus certainty, quality versus quantity and these are at the heart of

the reproduction of stress, resistance and control”. This focus on the “contradictory” nature of

demands strikes at the heart of the second inherent sources of stress in (primarily inbound) call

center works: the quality/quantity conflict.

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2) QUALITY/QUANTITY CONFLICT

Typically, organizational rhetoric in inbound call centers is concerned with ‘customer care’, or

‘keeping customers happy’ (providing quality service), yet these goals are juxtaposed with an

ongoing pressure to keep call times down and call volumes up. Call centers are rooted in

contradictory tensions and structural paradoxes, and confront a number of trades-offs on that

basis. These set a context for attitudes towards the organization and can impose conflicting role

requirements on agents. A core example is that of the pressure for quantity versus the aspiration

for Quality, the guiding logic of which is the conundrum of trying to get closer to the customer

while routinising, centralizing, reducing costs and prescribing standards. The dichotomy is not

completely straightforward, it is important to note. Part of providing quality service from a

management perspective is making sure customers do not wait too long for their calls to be

answered, even though the push to keep queue waiting times short is typically categorized as part

of the pressure towards quantity. As Bain points out, “efforts to attain what is perceived to be the

desired balance between the quantity and the quality of calls presents a perennial challenge”. The

practice of ongoing work practice modification and target revision as management swings from

one side to another of the quality/quantity debate is a major source of stress for call center

agents.

As Houlihan notes: “The practice of putting a ‘drive’ on particular targets for improvement (for

example, the collection of renewal dates, the up selling or cross-selling of products, the quality of

data input, or the intensity of sales push) and continual reprioritization means that the ‘goalposts’

are constantly shifting”. Virtually all of the call center authors who write about work conditions

mention the difficulty of dealing with these competing goals. Korczynski and colleagues suggest

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that this dilemma is particularly difficult for front-line workers because they may be likely “to

identify with embodied individual customers, for interactions with specific customers may be an

important arena for meaning and satisfaction within the work”. They contrast this customer as-

individual orientation to the managerial goal of balancing customer orientation with efficiency,

which they suggest leads management to prefer workers to identify with a generic category, ‘the

customer’, since “such a disembodied image of the customer will encourage workers to deal with

individual customers efficiently because they will be conscious of the concerns of other

customers waiting in a queue”.

3) INTENSITY

The third central stressor in call center work is its intensity. As Bain (2001) argues, “far from

being either in terminal decline or on the wane, Taylorism—in conjunction with a range of other

control mechanisms—is not only alive, well and deeply embedded in the call center labour

process, but its malevolent influence appears to be spreading to previously uncharted territory”.

There is widespread consensus that “call centers are a new, and particularly effective,

manifestation of the increasingly capital intensive ‘industrialization’ of service sector work, and

work performed in them is highly intensive and routine”. Buchanan and Koch-Schulte quote one

call center worker who describes the constant pressure graphically:

4) TARGETS

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TARGE

There is a fourth feature of some call center work that may engender stress: performance targets.

There are various types of targets, which may vary between inbound and outbound centers.

Inbound centers typically have targets for call duration, ‘wrap time’, and daily call volume.

Outbound centers often also have sales or ‘completion’ targets, which are closely monitored and

upon which pay may be partially based. In addition, in some sectors, inbound call centers are

attempting to introduce the practice of cross selling, where agents attempt to sell additional

products to the customers who call in for another purpose. In these centers, sales targets similar

to those in outbound centers are often in place. Taylor and Bain argue that particularly in the

financial services industry in the UK, targets are a significant source of stress for workers as

more and more importance is placed upon meeting them in an increasingly competitive business

environment. Sales targets, in particular, are difficult to accept, or meet, for staff who often

considers themselves as service personnel, particularly when they are set centrally and

implemented locally: “Cross-selling is seen by employees, not as an opportunity to engage in

creative work, but as an additional and acute source of pressure”. This is especially the case

when Sales targets are parachuted in on top of service targets set originally when there was no

pressure to produce sales.

As a CSR in Taylor and Bain’s study emphasizes: “When somebody phones in for a balance

you have to try to get a sale or get them interested as well as turning the call round in 155

seconds”.

Even in centers that claim not to prioritize targets, researchers have found that staff often

feels significant pressure. Targets simply intensify the stress produced by the quantity/quality

debate, or, as one agent is quoted as saying, “They say that they’re not really interested in

numbers. They say that they are more into quality. Well, that’s a lie. They’re usually more into

numbers than anything”. It is important not to over generalize however. While most call centers

do have some targets, they are a source of stress that is directly under management control. Some

call centers are managed in such a way that targets are set to realistically reflect local conditions,

are interpreted in light of other, more subjective information, and are not used punitively or to

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intensify work. In some they are even used effectively to motivate and encourage staff. For

example, Lank shear and Mason describe a series of conversations with managers in their call

center site where management consistently conceptualized their performance reports (for

example, one commented that it’s ‘human nature’ for productivity to drop before and after a

holiday), and used their stats as an excuse to praise good performance and coach those who

consistently had difficulty meeting targets: “Our best bet is to develop the people we have got”

one manager is quoted as saying.

OTHER HEALTH ISSUES…

The result of intense, stressful work may be an effect on workers’ health. There are often high

rates of absenteeism and sick leave reported in the literature, although there is relatively little

exploration of these issues, particularly when compared to turnover. Most often, authors provide

a brief list of known health issues. For example, Richardson, Belt and Marshall write that

“Health concerns have been expressed, including tension, sleeplessness, headaches, eye-strain,

repetitive strain injury (RSI), voice loss, hearing problems and burnout”, but they do not develop

the point. More detailed descriptions of the causes and effects of these ailments can be found in

industry and trades union reports. For example, the Trades Union Council (TUC) in its brochure

targeted at call center workers, cites the main illnesses to which call center staff are prone: “back

strain and RSI, stress, eyestrain, and voice and hearing loss” Also in the UK, regulators have

been proactive in their examination of the industry, with the Health and Safety Executive issuing

a bulletin on call center regulations, health risks and best practices in December 2001. They

looked specifically at health issues including stress, noise levels, musculoskeletal disorders (such

as back problems) and voice loss, and also at display screen issues, working environments,

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requirements for work stations, daily work routines, training, organizational working practices

and shifts.

SLEEPING DISORDERS:

No prizes for guessing the most severe ailment afflicting people working in Indian Call centers.

Since this is a unique Indian problem, again, no solution appears in sight. Obviously this affects

first timers more severely, as they take time to acclimatize their biological clocks, but even

experienced people/managers are not able to completely escape from it. Some call centers are

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looking at devising innovative mechanisms like flexible shifts with sleeping arrangements in the

office premises as possible solutions.

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM RELATIVE DISORDERS:

Working long and odd hours without any sleep, and eating food supplied by external caterers’

everyday, has led to 41.9% of the respondents suffering from digestive problems, especially for

the large number of girls working in the industry, the problem is even more severe. Many call

centers are now taking additional care to ensure their caterers supply hygienic food; besides

stipulating strict conditions to maintain the quality of the food they serve.

DIPRESSION:

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In last year's survey, this was not among the top disorders, but this year it has climbed up the

chart, affecting nearly one-fourth of the respondents. Not surprising, since, as the industry

matures, the initial glitz and glamour wears away and the real problems come to the fore. Not

only are there several health related issues, but, on top of that, the gradual realization that there is

limited scope in developing a career owing to fewer growth opportunities is increasing the

frustration levels. Coupled with growing mental fatigue and increasingly punishing physical

environments, depression is the obvious end result. Some call centers have now devised different

stress management programs mainly to counter depression. Severe Stomach Related Problems

Continuing digestive problems lead to severe stomach disorders like gastroenteritis, as endorsed

by more than 24% of the respondents. Even doctors in major cities agree-in recent times many of

the patients with various stomach ailments are from call centers.

EYESIGHT PROBLEMS:

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Globally call center industry employees are considered a high-risk group for eye related

problems. While the quality of monitors might impact these disorders, sitting continually without

adequate breaks seems to be the truer reason. The number of people affected seems to be on the

rise-last year only 19% complained; this year it has gone up to 23%. At some point of time, this

problem might also afflict the IT services industry, but for the call center industry, no remedy

seems to be in sight.

EAR PROBLEMS:

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More than 16% of the respondents inform that they have hearing problems. Again, no surprises

here, since a call center job involves taking calls throughout the shift, sitting with headphones.

While quality of headphones does make a difference, it would not be correct to completely wish

the problem away by thinking that changing headphones will solve it.

Some other Human Issues, in Call-Centers, which need immediate attention Personal

habits:

The young executives are getting more than five figure salaries per month in an early age. They

tend to develop certain bad habits such as alcohol, smoking etc. It is not easy to identify such

individuals. It is also very sensitive to talk to them. The professional counselors can conduct

group-counseling, workshops, educative film shows in order to create awareness on effects of

bad habits. Such actions will enable individuals to realize the importance of good habits and they

could seek one to one counseling sessions to solve their problems.

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DISCIPLINE AND BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES:

Call centers provide excellent working environment, free food and transportation. There is

always a situation where individual or group of youngsters tend to commit mistakes and abuse

the freedom. They start behaving like in college campus where they have more freedom.

However, the call center executives have more responsibility and accountability, they need to

follow discipline and do well in the job. The most common behavior is misuse of food, behave

erratically in vans, and smoke in public places, misuse of telephones and other resources of the

company. The supervisors always concentrate on performance and achieving targets. They do

not have time or interest to go deep into these matters and find out the

reasons for such behavior. The professional counselor can play a major role in educating the

youngsters on discipline; provide advice to erring executives. The counselors with their wisdom

and experience can tackle such issues tactfully and bring change within the individuals. As said

earlier, to majority of them this is the first employment and they are fresh out of the colleges.

Few tend to behave differently and they have the “do not care” attitude. Such executives will not

take their job seriously, they indulge in teasing, and joking, talking over mobile phones, have

friction within the team. These aspects may go noticed or unnoticed by the supervisors. The fact

remains that such unacceptable behaviors will cause disturbance to others and overall it affects

the productivity. Sleeping while on duty, reading novels and playing games on the computer

during working hours brings down productivity and quality suffers. The HR representatives and

professional counselors jointly have a role to bring behavioral change starting from the training

days. Continuous education and Counseling will help to mitigate such problems and it is possible

to prevent serious problems.

INTER- PERSONAL

REALTIONSHIP

AND FRIENDSHIP:

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Executives develop friendship quickly and sometime the friendship breaks and there will be

misunderstanding among the team members and naturally affects the team performance. The

supervisors and counselors can play a major role to sort out the interpersonal relationship and

develop team spirit. Healthy relationship among the team members has always helped the team

to out perform. When the relationship fails the individuals will also break down mentally. They

either absent for duties or fall ill or the performance will come down. It is also true that due to

misunderstanding and break in friendship they change jobs quickly.

LOVE AFFAIRS AND MARRIAGES:

Few of the boys and girls fall in

love quickly. They maintain the healthy relationship, behave in a matured manner, plan the

future course of action and such persons have got married with the consent of their parents. They

work together in the same organization for longer duration. There are instances, where lovers fall

apart, start disliking, creating troubles to each other and vitiating the atmosphere. They are

immature, take instant decisions to break or unite and sometimes go to an extent of damaging

others reputation. The professional counselors can play an important role in explaining the

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importance of marriage, preparation required for marriage, how to enter the institution of

marriage, which is acceptable to both parents and society and about the new role and

responsibility after getting married. Counseling services can definitely give emotional support to

individuals.

ABSENTEEISM:

Absenteeism is very high in calls centers. Employees tend to be very irregular to the duty due to

various reasons. Professional counseling services to such irregular employees on one to one basis

will help to bring down absenteeism. Counselor can educate and explain the importance of

attending duties to earn salary and also to meet organizational goals. Each individual are unique

and the problem they face are also different in nature. Professional counselors can understand,

analyze and provide long lasting solutions for the individuals.

HIGHER EDUCATION AND PART TIME JOBS:

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It is possible to do higher education while working in BPO units. Few organizations encourage

and offer support services to pursue higher education. However, time management by the

executives is crucial to go forward in education as well as to maintain performance and career

Growth. Programs on time management, tips to study, tips to keep fit and such other programs

can be offered. These steps would help to seek the loyalty of employees to organizations and

helps greatly for retention of employees. Organizations do not grant permission to pursue part

time jobs while working in BPO units. In order to make quick money and to have options open

to change jobs in future will drive employees to do part time work. Human body does not permit

to stretch beyond one’s capacity. Executives need to take sufficient rest in daytime so that energy

levels are maintained. Either due to lack of experience or due to compulsions, executives keep

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their one feet in call center and another in part time jobs. In the long run this would affect

individuals’ health. The HR executives must identify such persons and offer professional

Counseling services to them.

REMEDIAL MEASURES FOR HANDLING STRESS

The important strategies for managers to fight stress are prioritizing and delegating work,

laughing a lot, exercising regularly, practicing relaxation techniques, maintaining a good

balanced diet, and having a good night’s sleep.

1. PRIORITIZE WORK

Multi-tasking is the buzzword these days. An individual requires special skills to perform

multiple tasks simultaneously. One way to minimize stress while multi- asking is to plan,

prioritize, and perform. Planning involves preparing a list of activities that need to be performed.

This involves considering the time factor. Prioritizing involves ranking the activities based on

their importance and performing these activities in that order. Prioritizing activities each day is

the simplest way to tackle stress. The next step is to schedule time for tasks depending on the

priorities. For instance, a person may have to attend a community meeting and an official party.

He/she may schedule time for both activities by attending the official party first and then the

community meeting.

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2. DELEGATE WORK

Some individuals prefer doing all the work themselves. This adds to their stress. They should

learn to delegate routine work to others. For instance, a manager can delegate the work of

preparing a report on a project to a subordinate.

3. LAUGHTER

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Laughter is a good de-stressor. An individual can relax and de-stress by watching a humorous

movie, reading comics, etc. A sense of humor allows an individual to perceive and appreciate the

imbalances of life and provides moments of delight. ‘A day without laughter is a day wasted for

life’. This is very true. Laughter is the best outlet for stress. It is a great stress buster. Laughter is

a no cost, no side effect medicine. A person with a sense of humor is less likely to be under

stress. A sense of humor allows and individual to perceive and appreciate the imbalances of life

and provides moments of delight.

4. EXERCISE

Exercise is another good stress-buster. It keeps an individual physically and mentally alert. When

a person is nervous, tense, or angry, exercise is the best outlet for giving vents to his/her

emotions. Regular exercise lowers blood pressure, lowers pulse rate, boosts blood circulation in

the body, increases artery suppleness, lowers cholesterol, and reduces fatigue and tension. These

benefits help an individual to tackle the physiological changes that occur during stress. Exercise

should increase blood circulation to the heart.

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5. RELAXATION

The best strategy to reduce stress is to relax. Relaxation is not being idle. It is doing what one

wants to do, rather than what one should do. It is very important for a person to schedule some

time for relaxation. This relaxation time should disconnect the person from all his/her tensions,

worries. This is the time when the person rebuilds his/her energy levels. Relaxation techniques

vary from person to person.

6. DIET

A good balanced diet plays a vital role in reducing stress. A person tends to neglect diet when

under stress. This may lead to overeating or under-eating. This improper eating results in a weak

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immune system and creates health problems. A well-balanced meal that is eaten on time is very

important to minimize stress.

7. SLEEP

Stress makes a person sleepless or very sleepy. A stressed person may feel sleepy throughout the

day and awake during nights. On an average, everyone needs at least 7-8 hours of sleep per day.

Some may need more sleep or some less. After a good night’s sleep, a person feels fresh. An

individual must adopt a bedtime routine that induces sleep like reading a book that is soothing,

and listening to music that is relaxing. One must go to bed at the same time every day.

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8. MEDITATION

Meditation is one of the most effective techniques in reducing and avoiding stress. Regular

meditation helps in stress reduction. It

enables one to control the thought process

enables one to take effective decisions

helps in physical and mental relaxation

Improves concentration

Meditation is a technique to achieve a thoughtless or mindless state. In this state, a person has no

thoughts. This kind of state thus acts a stress reliever and a great rejuvenator.

9. YOGA

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Yoga is another important stress reliever. Yoga has been tried and tested since ancient According

to Patanjali Maharishi; yoga is the cessation of mind. It is a state of no mind. Yoga is not for

bodybuilding. It simply focuses on gentle postures that improve circulation of blood to vital parts

of the body. The increase in blood circulation rejuvenates the organs and releases stress.

10. MAINTAINING WORK LIFE BALANCE

Work-life balance means harmonious balance of work and domestic life. It allows an employee

to fulfill all the roles in his/her life effectively and efficiently.

EMPLOYEES BENEFITS PROVIDED BY THE BPOs’ STUDIED:

A part from the legal and mandatory benefits such as provident-fund and gratuity, below is a list

of other benefits…

1. Group Medi-claim Insurance Scheme: This insurance scheme is to provide adequate

insurance coverage of employees for expenses related to hospitalization due to illness, disease or

injury or pregnancy in case of female employees or spouse of male employees. All employees

and their dependent family members are eligible. Dependent family members include spouse,

non-earning parents and children above three months.

33

2. Personal Accident Insurance Scheme:

This scheme is to provide adequate insurance coverage for Hospitalization expenses arising out

of injuries sustained in an accident. This covers total/partial disablement death due to accidents.

3. Subsidized Food and Transportation: The organizations provide transportation facility to all

the employees from home till office at subsidized rates. The lunch provided is also subsidized.

4. Company Leased Accommodation: Some of the companies Provides shared accommodation

for all the out station employees, in fact some of the BPO companies also undertakes to pay

electricity water bills as well as the Society charges for the shared accommodation. The purpose

34

is to provide to the employees to lead a more comfortable work lifebalance.

5. Recreation, Cafeteria, ATM and Concierge facilities: The recreation facilities include pool

tables, chess tables and coffee bars. Companies also have well equipped gyms, Personal trainers

and showers at facilities.

6. Corporate Credit Card: The main purpose of the corporate credit card is enable the timely

and efficient payment of official expenses which the employees undertake for purposes such as

travel related expenses like Hotel bills, Air tickets etc

35

.

7. Cellular Phone / Laptop: Cellular phone and / or Laptop are provided to the employees on

the basis of business need. The employee is responsible for the maintenance and safeguarding of

the asset

.

8. Personal Health Care (Regular medical check-ups): Some of the BPO'S provides the

facility for extensive health check-up. For employees with above 40 years of age, the medical

check-up can be done once a year.

36

9. Loans: Many BPO companies provide loan facility on three different occasions: Employees

are provided with financial assistance in case of a medical emergency. Employees are also

provided with financial assistance at the time of their wedding. And, The new recruits are

provided with interest free loans to assist them in their initial settlement at the worklocation.

10. Educational Benefits: Many BPO companies have this policy to develop the personality and

knowledge level of their employees and hence reimburse the expenses incurred towards tuition

fees, examination fees, and purchase of books subject, for pursuing MBA, and/or other

management qualification at India’s top most business schools.

37

11. Performance based incentives: In many BPO companies they have plans for,

performance based incentive scheme. The parameters for calculation are process performance i.e.

speed, accuracy and productivity of each process. The Pay for Performance can be as much as

22% of the salary.

12. Flexi-time: The main objective of the flextime policy is to provide opportunity to employees

to work with flexible work schedules and set out conditions for availing this provision. Flexible

work schedules are initiated by employees and approved by management to meet business

commitments while supporting employee personal life needs .The factors on which Flexi time is

38

allowed to an employee include: Child or Parent care, Health situation, Maternity, Formal

education program.

13. Flexible Salary Benefits: Its main objective is to provide flexibility to the employees to plan

a tax-effective compensation structure by balancing the monthly net income, yearly benefits and

income tax payable. It is applicable of all the employees of the organization. The Salary consists

of Basic, DA and Conveyance Allowance. The Flexible Benefit Plan consists of: House Rent

Allowance, Leave Travel Assistance, Medical Reimbursement, Special allowance.

14. Regular Get together and other cultural programs: The companies organizes cultural

program as and when possible but most of the times, once in a quarter, in which all the

employees are given an opportunity to display their talents in dramatics, singing, acting, dancing

etc. Apart from that the organizations also conduct various sports programs such as Cricket,

39

football, etc and regularly play matches with the teams of other organizations and colleges.

15. Wedding Day Gift: Employee is given a gift voucher of Rs. 2000/- to Rs. 7000/- based on

their level in the organization.

40

16. Employee Referral Scheme: In several companies employee referral scheme is

implemented to encourage employees to refer friends and relatives for employment in the

organization.

17. Employees stock option plan:Now, the actual question, why people are leaving? What

types of retention strategies are required? What is expected from HR Professional and how they

can address this issue?

41

1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

To analyze the importance of stress management from the organizations point of view.

To understand the factors influencing job stress

To analyze the influence of job stress on job satisfaction

To prevent stress happening

To promote healthiness of employees as well as of their organization

To analyze the best practices adopted by the organizations CONVERGYS & IBM for reducing

stress.

To analysis the current stress strategies.

To recommend strategies for future course of action.

1.3 REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND PROBLEM STATEMENT

42

One of the most serious problems organizations are facing today is stress. Stress is now an

indispensable part of our lives. There are many reasons behind increasing stress levels at

workplace including rising targets, strict deadlines, stiff competition, hectic working hours,

turbulent work environment, increasing ambitions and conflict among staff, misleading

organizational policies, and lack of proper communication in the organization.

Numerous studies found that fob stress influences the employees’ job satisfaction and their

overall performance in their work. Because most of the organizations now are more demanding

for the better job outcomes. In fact, modern times have been called as the “age of anxiety and

stress” (Coleman, 1976).The stress itself will be affected by number of stressors. Nevertheless,

Behr and Newman (1978) had defined stress as a situation which will force a person to deviate

from normal functioning due to the change (i.e. disrupt or enhance) in his/her psychological

and/or physiological condition, such that the person is forced to deviate from normal functioning.

From the definition that has been identified by researchers, we can conclude that it is truly

important for an individual to recognize the stresses that are facing by them in their career. Some

demographic factor may influence the way a university academic staff act in their workplace.

Management role of an organization is one of the aspects that affect work-related stress

among workers (Alexandros-Stamatios et. al., 2003).Workers in an organization can face

occupational stress through the role stress that the management gave. Role stress means anything

about an organizational role that produces adverse consequences for the individual (Kahn and

43

Quinn, 1970). Management will have their own role that stands as their related. Role related are

concerned with how individuals perceive the expectations other have of them and includes role

ambiguity and role conflict (Alexandros-Stamatios et. al., 2003).

A sharp rise in lifestyle diseases such as strokes, coupled with a lack of adequate preventive

health care, threatens India’s future growth prospects, a research study said. Experts warn that

the country’s hugely successful outsourcing industry could be the hardest hit.

At IBM, we have long understood that investing in prevention and well-being makes sense for

both our employees and our business. The company has identified employee health risk

reduction and maintenance of low health risk as a key requirement under IBM's Well-being

Management

System. "The stress level has gone through the roof," said Lee Conrad, national coordinator of

Alliance@IBM, a group trying to unionize IBM workers. "People are left to guess because IBM

is not forthcoming.

In 2007, IBM employed about 20,000 workers throughout the Hudson Valley, including 11,

0000 in Poughkeepsie and East Fishkill.

Stress is the reaction that people take due to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed

on them. It arises when they worry that they cannot cope. Stress is a demand made upon the

adaptive capacities of the mind and body. According to Selye (1996), stress is a scientific

concept which has suffered the mixed blessing of being too well-known and too little

understood. Sternberg (2000) opines a person's response to the presence of something in the

environment that causes him to feel challenged in some way called stress.

44

CHAPTER - 2

45

COMPANY OVERVIEW

IBM

IBM has been present in India since 1992. Since inception, IBM in India has expanded its

operations considerably with regional headquarters in Bangalore and offices in 14 cities

including regional offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Today, the company

has established itself as one of the leaders in the Indian Information Technology (IT) Industry.

IBM has set the agenda for the industry with 'on demand business' - a kind of transformation

where an organisation changes the way it operates and reduces costs; serving customers better,

reducing risks and improving speed and agility in the marketplace.

46

IBM is already working with customers to transform them into 'on demand' businesses. IBM is

the only company in the world that offers end-to-end solutions to the customers from hardware

to software, services and consulting. Linux support further enhances IBM's e-business

infrastructure enabler capability.

In 2005, IBM announced the acquisition of Network Solutions Ltd., a leading infrastructure

services company in India. This strategic investment will enable IBM to augment it's networking

and managed services portfolio of offerings in India and broaden it’s reach across the country.

Software Group the largest provider of middleware and the second-largest software business in

the world offers its customers comprehensive solutions to meet their e-business requirements.

IBM Software provides best-of-breed solutions for financial services, manufacturing, process,

distribution, government, infrastructure and small & medium business sectors. IBM Software

portfolio consists of:

- Transformation and integration solutions that are built on the IBM WebSphere middleware

platform. - Information leveraging solutions that are built on a portfolio of Data management

(DB2) tools. - Lotus product line to help organisations leverage collective know-how. - Tivoli

47

range of products to enable organisations to manage complex technology infrastructure. -

Rational range of Application Development Tools to help software development houses develop

applications in a structured and systematic way.

Systems and Technology Group:

The portfolio of eServers (xSeries, iSeries, pSeries, and zSeries) offer a broad range of products

from entry level, mid-range to high-end servers and mainframes, presenting customers with the

best technologies and practices to support their e-business infrastructure requirements.

IBM has been providing leading-edge storage technology to organisations around the world for

nearly half a century. IBM offers a complete portfolio of storage networking products and

solutions that not only includes LTO, SAN, NAS but also IP Storage - iSCSI appliances and

gateways.

IBM's Personal Computing Division was acquired this year by Lenovo Group Limited, the

leading Personal Computer brand in Asia. Lenovo will continue to be the preferred supplier of

PCs to IBM and IBM will provide service and support for 5 years to Lenovo PCs.

48

IBM Global Financing provides flexible and attractive financing and leasing programs to fund

Information Technology (IT) requirements of Indian customers. IGF helps customers through

greater access to the hardware, software, solutions and services essential to compete in the global

marketplace.

India is an important market for IBM and the company has been making significant investments

from time to time.

IBM Innovation Center for Business Partners:

(One among 10 facilities worldwide) Independent Software Vendors are encouraged to port their

solutions on IBM platforms at this Center and develop Web based applications for Indian

customers.

49

Linux Solution Center, Bangalore:

(One among 7 facilities worldwide) The center supports Business Partners and Independent

Service vendors across the ASEAN / South Asia region.

IBM Linux Competency Center, Bangalore:

50

(One among only 4 facilities in Asia) This center develops standards and embedded software for

open source, undertaking high-end research in the area for IBM Worldwide.

Software Innovation Center, Gurgaon:

This state-of-the-art center combines IBM's global experience and technology expertise to

deliver e-business solutions for Indian organisations and also the government through the e-

Governance Centre. The center offers IBM’s customers a range of services including technical

consultation, proof of concept and technical presentations, implementation planning, solution

51

architecture, application design and development, deployment, and education and training. The

e-Governance Centre, a part of this facility offers technology, support and infrastructure to help

governments and total service providers to design, develop, test and port prototypes of e-

Governance applications.

India Software Lab at Bangalore and Pune:

The Software Lab in India develops, enhances and supports key IBM Software products &

technologies in collaboration with other IBM labs world wide. Center for Advanced Studies at

Bangalore was established at the India Software Labs to allow universities access to IBM's

leading-edge product development and the supporting infrastructure, while IBM has the

opportunity to work with academic leaders and researchers on research projects.

High Performance On Demand Lab in India, Bangalore:

– This specialised software and services lab in India to drive automation and virtualisation into

the increasingly complex IT infrastructures supporting the emerging economy of India. This is

the first of its kind lab for IBM in India, bringing specific high-value skills to help clients in

India and the surrounding region to enhance and optimise their IT resources to support the

growth of their businesses.

Engineering & Technology Services Center, Bangalore:

This center provides technology design services for advanced chips, cards and systems to

companies in India and across Asia.

52

India Research Laboratory , Delhi:

(One among 8 facilities worldwide) IBM's India Research Laboratory (IRL) focuses on areas

critical to expanding the country's technology infrastructure. It also has significant initiatives in

Services and Sciences, Information Management, User Interaction Technologies, e-Commerce,

Life Sciences, Distributed Computing and Software Engineering. Currently, IRL researchers are

working on several projects like bioinformatics, text mining, speech recognition for Indian

languages, natural language processing, grid computing, and autonomic computing, among

others.

Services Innovation and Research Center, Bangalore:

will be an extended arm of IBM's India Research Lab (IRL), headquartered in New Delhi. The

53

Services Innovation and Research Center (SIRC) was recently launched as an initiative that will

work in close collaboration with IBM's Global Services group to develop innovative

technologies and solutions that improve operational and delivery capabilities.

IBM also set up its Global Delivery Centres at Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon and Kolkata:

They deliver "best-of-breed" technology solutions to IBM customers worldwide covering

middleware, e-business technologies, enterprise and web technologies, data warehousing across

functional areas like Supply Chain Operation Services, Financial Management Services, Human

Resource Services, Customer Relationship Management, e-Business Integration, Application

Management Services.

Global Business Solution Center in Bangalore:

IBM further expanded its global consulting delivery capabilities with the establishment of a first-

of-a-kind Global Business Solution Center. The center will allow IBM's more than 60,000

consultants to collaborate and deploy reusable tools and assets in 55 key business areas such as

54

Consumer Driven Supply Chain Optimisation, Banking Risk and Compliance and Product

Lifecycle Management.

Business Transformation Outsourcing Centers at Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai:

This center handles Business Transformation Outsourcing needs of IBM customers worldwide.

Some key areas of competence of this center are Customer Contact Centers, Receivables

Management, Telemarketing, Transaction Processing and Finance and Accounting.

With the acquisition of Daksh eServices, one of Asia's leading business services providers, with

service delivery centers in India and Philippines, IBM further enhanced the BTO service

capability. With Daksh, IBM adds banking, insurance, retail, hi-tech telecommunications and

travel verticals to BTO India’s service capabilities.

Partnering India

IBM shares the belief that India can unleash its true potential only through making IT available

to and usable for large numbers of people. IBM's Community initiatives focus on education and

children and leverage its expertise in technology to address societal issues. IBM has partnering

relationships in India with a number of educational institutions. IBM has also set up an IT Center

in Mumbai in association with Victoria Memorial School for the Blind to impart IT education to

visually impaired people. IBM KidSmart Early Learning program was launched to further

55

strengthen IBM’s commitment to community in India. This is the only program in India aimed at

introducing technology at the pre-school level in disadvantaged sections of society to get a head

start on their academic development through the use of age-appropriate software developed by

IBM. Tryscience is another community related programme launched, which reinvents science

learning, recreates the interactive experience of onsite visits, and provides science projects as

well as multimedia adventure field trips for museum visitors - primarily children, their parents

and teachers.

CONVERGYS

Convergys Corporation is a corporation based in Cincinnati, Ohio, that sells customer

management and information management products, primarily to large corporations. Customer

management products include agent assisted, self-service and care software tailored to the

communications, financial services, technology, retail, healthcare and government markets.

Information management provides convergent billing and business support system (BSS)

products and services including revenue management, product and order management, and

customer care management to telecom, utilities, and cable/satellite/broadband service providers.

56

HISTORY

The company grew from Cincinnati Bell Information Systems and MATRIXX, both subsidiaries

of Cincinnati Bell, and AT&T Solutions Customer Care (formerly AT&T American Transtech),

which was sold to Cincinnati Bell in 1998; an IPO in August 1998 made it a fully independent

company.[2] Since then, Convergys' headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, has acquired numerous

companies.

Convergys sold its Human Resources Management line of business to NorthgateArinso in March

2010.

On 22 March 2012, Japanese technology firm NEC announced it would buy the Information

Management Business of Convergys for approximately $449 million. In 2012, Convergys

Philippines, 8 years after its entry into the country established 18 centers with 26,000 employees

in all, was named “BPO Employer of the Year” at the annual International ICT Awards.

One of the Convergys offices in Gurgaon, India

Convergys has approximately 89,000 employees in 68 customer contact centers and other

facilities in India (New Delhi, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, and Bangalore), the Philippines (Manila,

Cebu City, Davao City, and Bacolod), Vietnam, Indonesia, United States, Canada, Costa Rica,

South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

57

CHAPTER -3

58

Research can be defined to be search for knowledge or any systematic investigation to establish

facts. The primary purpose for applied research is discovering interpreting and the development

of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety of scientific

matters of our world and the universe.

Research Methodology is initiated before undertaking the research and a foundation was laid in

form of a research design, sampling, method of data collection and different analysis technique.

Research Methodology adopted

The research methodology consisted of the following steps:

1. Familiarization with the stress concepts and telecom industry in India

2. Collection of database from individuals through a questionnaire.

3. Analysis and interpretation of data.

4. Reaching at conclusions and suggestions based on analysis.

SAMPLE DESIGN

59

A research design is considered as the framework or plan for a study that guides as well as helps

in the data collection and analysis of data. Research can classify in one of three categories:

Exploratory research

Descriptive research

Causal research

These classifications are made according to the objective of the research. In some cases the

research will fall into one of these categories, but in other cases different phases of the same

research project will fall into different categories.

Exploratory research has the goal of formulating problems more precisely, clarifying concepts,

gathering explanations, gaining insight, eliminating impractical ideas, and forming hypotheses.

Exploratory research can be performed using a literature search, surveying certain people about

their experiences, focus groups, and case studies. When surveying people, exploratory research

studies would not try to acquire a representative sample, but rather, seek to interview those who

are knowledgeable and who might be able to provide insight concerning the relationship among

variables. Case studies can include contrasting situations or benchmarking against an

organization known for its excellence. Exploratory research may develop hypotheses, but it does

not seek to test them. Exploratory research is characterized by its flexibility.

Descriptive research is more rigid than exploratory research and seeks to describe users of a

product, determine the proportion of the population that uses a product, or predict future demand

for a product. As opposed to exploratory research, descriptive research should define questions,

people surveyed, and the method of analysis prior to beginning data collection. In other words,

the who, what, where, when, why, and how aspects of the research should be defined. Such

preparation allows one the opportunity to make any required changes before the costly process of

data collection has begun. There are two basic types of descriptive research: longitudinal studies

and cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies are time series analyses that make repeated

measurements of the same individuals, thus allowing one to monitor behaviour such as brand-

switching. However, longitudinal studies are not necessarily representative since many people

may refuse to participate because of the commitment required. Cross-sectional studies sample

60

the population to make measurements at a specific point in time. A special type of cross-

sectional analysis is a cohort analysis, which tracks an aggregate of individuals who experience

the same event within the same time interval over time. Cohort analyses are useful for long-term

forecasting of product demand.

Causal research seeks to find cause and affect relationships between variables. It accomplishes

this goal through laboratory and field experiments.

The research associated to my project is Descriptive research.

3.1 Sources of data

Primary data will be going to used for the present study. Primary data will be collected through

a survey of 30 respondents from selected 2 BPO’s CONVERGYS, IBM from Delhi/ NCR.

Secondary data – Secondary data are data that were collected for another purpose and already

exist somewhere. In library and information science, historiography and other areas of

scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information

61

originally presented elsewhere. A secondary source contrasts with a primary source, which is an

original source of the information being discussed. Secondary sources involve generalization,

analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of the original information

Most of the data collected by the researcher is PRIMARY DATA through personal interviews,

where the researcher and the respondents operate face-to-face.

3.2 Sampling

Sample: 30 employees

Tools of analysis

Questionnaire will be the only tool used to collect the primary data from selected respondents.

For this purpose, a well structured questionnaire has been framed with the help of research guide.

D emographic data of sample

25- 30 years

Randomly selected people.

SAMPLING

62

Sample: I have taken the sample of 30 employees from two different BPO’s CONVERGYS &

IBM of Delhi/NCR for this pilot study. The sample size was chosen to provide adequate

information on reliability and certain degree of face validity. Respondents included eighteen

registered telecallers, two HR managers, three team leaders, two branch managers, and five

executives. The subjects were selected by convenience sampling. The sample was selected

because of geographical accessibility. Ethics approval was received from the appropriate

authorities.

Reason: As we find the employees of the call centers to be more stressful as more and more

employees are leaving job and are dismissed because of absenteeism. I have selected only those

call centers which are affiliated to the public and are specialized in consumer needs fulfillment.

DATA COLLECTION TOOLS

Checking Yourself for Burnout

Burnout occurs when passionate, committed people become deeply disillusioned with a job or

career from which they have previously derived much of their identity and meaning. It comes as

the things that inspire passion and enthusiasm are stripped away, and tedious or unpleasant

things crowd in. This tool can help you check yourself for burnout.

Introduction:

63

271

This tool can help you check yourself for burnout. It helps you look at the way you feel about

your job and your experiences at work, so that you can get a feel for whether you are at risk of

burnout.

Using the Tool:

· Work through the table on paper and calculate values manually.

Fill in values appropriately on the sheet. This will automatically calculate scores for

you and interpret these scores, showing the score and interpretation in row 30.

If you choose to use the manual method, then calculate the total of the scores as described in the

instructions (note that this uses a slightly different scoring method from the spreadsheet). Apply

the score to the scoring table underneath to get the interpretation.

STASTICAL TOOL

The statistical tools used for analyzing the data collected are percentage method, bar diagrams

and pie chart.

64

CHAPTER -4

DATA ANALYSIS

AND

INTERPRETATION

65

4. Data analysis and Interpretation

The project report shows the information of the level of stress which the employees are facing

due to heavy workload and performance targets is going the employee cut-off and turnover ratios

are found to be high so the workload for the existing employees are high. So they are facing the

problem of work overload and thus they get stressed

The report of convergys

Score Comment Response

15 – 18 Little sign of burnout here 2

19 – 32Little sign of burnout here, unless some factors are particularly severe

5

33 – 49Be careful - you may be at risk of burnout, particularly if several scores are high

7

50 -59You may be at severe risk of burnout - do something about this urgently

1

60 – 75You may be at very severe risk of burnout - do something about this urgently

0

66

2

57

1 0

No stress

Mild Stress

Moderate Stress

High stress

Severe Stress

The report of IBM

Score Comment Response

15 – 18 Little sign of burnout here 1

19 – 32Little sign of burnout here, unless some factors are particularly severe

3

33 – 49Be careful - you may be at risk of burnout, particularly if several scores are high

10

50 – 59You may be at severe risk of burnout - do something about this urgently

1

60 – 75You may be at very severe risk of burnout - do something about this urgently

0

From the above graph it can be seen that maximum employees of both

671

3

10

1No stressMild StressModerate StressHigh stressSevere Stress

BPO’s are at a moderate level of risk of burnout while the employees

who were found with a little sign of burnout is less. So the ratio of little

sign of burnout and moderate level of burnout is 2:3.

1. Do you feel run down and drained of physical or emotional energy?

68

1

3

10

1No stressMild StressModerate StressHigh stressSevere Stress

Yes

No

No Response

INTERPRETATION

From the diagram it is clear that 75 % of the employees are satisfied with the performance they

give in the work while 25 % of the employees are not satisfied.

2. Do you find that you are prone to negative thinking about your job?

YESNONO RESPONSE

69

INTERPRETATION

17 % of the employee feel that they are suffering from negative feeling about job while 83 % of

the employee feel that that they are happy and satisfied with the job.

3. Do you find that you are harder and less sympathetic with people than perhaps they

deserve?

Yes No No Response

3 27 0

70

YES

NO

NO RESPONSE

INTERPRETATION

90% of the employees are soft and sympathetic with their colleagues while 10% of the

employees are not concern with the opinion

4. Do you find yourself getting easily irritated by small problems, or by your co-workers and team?

71

Yes No No Response

6

24 0

YES NO NO RESPONSE0

5

10

15

20

25

30

YESNO

INTERPRETATION

20% of the employees get irritated by small problems or by your co-workers and team whereas

80% of the employees are not concern with the opinion.

5. Do you feel misunderstood or unappreciated by your co-workers?

Yes No No

Response

10 20 0

72

33%

67%

0%

Yes

No

No Response

INTERPRETATION

33% of the employees feel unappreciated by their co-workers whereas 67% of the employees

are not concern with the opinion.

6. Do you feel that you have no one to talk to?

Yes No No Response

3 27 0

73

YES NO NO RESPONSE0

5

10

15

20

25

30

YESNONO RESPONSE

INTERPRETATION

10% of the employees feel that they don’t have any one to talk to whereas 90% of the employees

are not concern with the opinion.

7. Do you feel that you are achieving less than you should?

Yes No No Response

8 22 0

74

27%

73%

0%

Yes

No

No Response

INTERPRETATION

10% of the employees feel that they don’t have any one to talk to whereas 90% of the employees

are not concern with the opinion.

8. Do you feel under an unpleasant level of pressure to succeed?

75

Yes No No Response

8 22 0

YESNONO RESPONSE

INTERPRETATION

33% of the employees feel under an unpleasant level of pressure to succeed whereas 67% of the

employees don’t feel an unpleasant level of pressure.

9. Do you feel that you are not getting what you want out of your job?

76

Yes No No Response

8 22 0

33%

67%

0%

Yes

No

No Response

INTERPRETATION

33% of the employees feel that they are not getting what they want out of their job whereas

67% of the employees feel that they are getting what they want out of their job.

10. Do you feel that you are in the wrong organization or the wrong profession?

Yes No No response

6 24

77

0

YES

NO

INTERPRETATION

20% of the employees feel that they are in the wrong organization or the wrong profession

whereas 80% of the employees don’t have the same opinion.

11.Are you becoming frustrated with parts of your job?

78

Yes No No response

7 23 0

INTERPRETATION

23% of the employees feel that they are becoming frustrated with parts of their job whereas 77%

of the employees don’t have the same opinion.

79

23%

77%

0%

Yes

No

No response

12. Do you feel that organizational politics or bureaucracy frustrate your ability to do a good

job?

Yes No No response

10 20 0

33%

67%

0%

Yes

No

No response

INTERPRETATION

33% of the employees feel that they get frustrate organizational politics or bureaucracy their

ability to do a good job.

80

13. Do you feel that there is more work to do than you practically have the ability to do the job?

Yes No No response

4 24 2

13%

80%

7%

Yes

No

No response

INTERPRETATION

13% of the employees said that they have more ability to work whereas 80% of the employees

don’t have the same opinion as well as 7% of the employees have not responded.

81

14. Do you feel that you do not have time to do many of the things that are important to doing a

good quality job?

Yes No No response

12 18 0

40%

60%

0%

Yes

No

No response

INTERPRETATION

82

40% of the employees feel that they do not have time to do many of the things that are important

to doing a good quality job whereas 60% of the employees don’t have the same opinion.

15. Do you find that you do not have time to plan as much as you would like to?

YESNONO RESPONSE

INTERPRETATION

83

Yes No No response

12 18 0

40% of the employees feel that they do not have time to do many of the things that are important

to doing a good quality job whereas 60% of the employees don’t have the same opinion

Limitation of the study

I. The questionnaire was filled by 30 employees of different designations. So the point of view

of employees differs as per their designations.

II. The questionnaires were filled be 30 employees working in the major BPO of Delhi-NCR

i.e. CONVERGYS & IBM. So the scope of sample findings was less.

III. Many a times the employees may not be really conscious or may not be bothered about the

questionnaire. This may create a problem in the research. So the scope of sample findings

was less.

IV. The employees from whom the questionnaires are filled are in a heavy workload so some of

the questionnaires filled by the employees who are in stress cannot be called reasonable.

V. The responses of the employees cannot be accurate as problem the of language and

understanding arises.

VI. One of the other problems of questionnaire is the cost. Sometimes it may be possible that

even by spending so much the result may not be reasonable.

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Advantages of Written Questionnaires

Questionnaires are very cost effective when compared to face-to-face interviews. This is

especially true for studies involving large sample sizes and large geographic areas.

Written questionnaires become even more cost effective as the number of research

questions increases.

Questionnaires are easy to analyze. Data entry and tabulation for nearly all surveys can

be easily done with many computer software packages.

Questionnaires are familiar to most people. Nearly everyone has had some experience

completing questionnaires and they generally do not make people apprehensive.

Questionnaires reduce bias. There is uniform question presentation and no middle-man

bias. The researcher's own opinions will not influence the respondent to answer questions

in a certain manner. There are no verbal or visual clues to influence the respondent.

Questionnaires are less intrusive than telephone or face-to-face surveys. When a

respondent receives a questionnaire in the mail, he is free to complete the questionnaire

on his own time-table. Unlike other research methods, the respondent is not interrupted

by the research instrument.

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Disadvantages of Written Questionnaires

One major disadvantage of written questionnaires is the possibility of low response rates.

Low response is the curse of statistical analysis. It can dramatically lower our confidence

in the results. Response rates vary widely from one questionnaire to another (10% -

90%), however, well-designed studies consistently produce high response rates.

Another disadvantage of questionnaires is the inability to probe responses.

Questionnaires are structured instruments. They allow little flexibility to the respondent

with respect to response format. In essence, they often lose the "flavor of the response"

(i.e., respondents often want to qualify their answers). By allowing frequent space for

comments, the researcher can partially overcome this disadvantage. Comments are

among the most helpful of all the information on the questionnaire, and they usually

provide insightful information that would have otherwise been lost.

Nearly ninety percent of all communication is visual. Gestures and other visual cues are

not available with written questionnaires. The lack of personal contact will have different

effects depending on the type of information being requested. A questionnaire requesting

factual information will probably not be affected by the lack of personal contact. A

questionnaire probing sensitive issues or attitudes may be severely affected.

When returned questionnaires arrive in the mail, it's natural to assume that the respondent

is the same person you sent the questionnaire to. This may not actually be the case. Many

times business questionnaires get handed to other employees for completion. Housewives

sometimes respond for their husbands.

Kids respond as a prank. For a variety of reasons, the respondent may not be who you

think it is. It is a confounding error inherent in questionnaires.

Finally, questionnaires are simply not suited for People. For example, a written survey to

a group of poorly educated people might not work because of reading skill problems.

More frequently, people are turned off by written questionnaires because of misuse.

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