Stress Management a Bpo Perspective

A THESIS ON “STRESS MANAGEMENT: A BPO PERSPECTIVE’’

By: Archita Bhattacharyya 2006-08

Under the Guidance of: Mr. Asif Iqbal Choudhury, InterGlobe Enterprises Ltd.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to acknowledge my profound gratitude to all those who assisted in the completion of this dissertation. Of the many people, who have been tremendously helpful in its completion, I am extremely thankful to Mr. Vidur Puri, Mr. Mukesh Kumar & Mr. Nakul Tuteja, who provided me invaluable experiential information and guidance throughout the project. I would also want to take the opportunity of thanking Mr. Asif Iqbal Choudhury, for being very helpful and co-operative as guide throughout the project.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The purpose of writing this paper is to address, the Human Issues in Call-Centers. I am of the opinion that this paper will be use to HR-Heads of Various Call-centers, CEO's and Center-Heads and also Team Leaders and Project Managers. BPO/Call Centers has given many gifts to People of India, few of them are: High Stress Level, Number of other Illnesses, Broken Marriages Etc. Carrying out transactions over the telephone has a long history, beginning with operator services and later, reservations lines, particularly for airlines. But in the last 15 to 20 years, the introduction of information technologies and telecommunications advances have expanded the types of work it is possible to undertake, while reducing costs. Concurrently, ideas of 'service' and service relationships continue to be redefined as technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous, rendering the public more receptive to mediated service interactions. For many employed in the call center sector, "the daily experience is of repetitive, intensive and stressful work, based upon Taylorist principles, which frequently results in employee "burnout". An Expert, more vividly, characterizes the work as "repetitive brain strain". These descriptions are hardly surprising, in a way, given that call centers are established by organizations to "create an environment in which work can be standardized to create relatively uniform and repetitious activities so as to achieve economies of scale and consistent quality of customer service". This means, in other words, that workplaces are organized in ways that weaken employee autonomy and enhance the potential for management control, and "a loss of control is generally understood to be an important indicator of work-related stress".

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There is almost universal consensus that call center work is stressful. Even in studies that report the observation that some staff actually enjoys their work, mention of stress is still the norm, and a significant portion of the call center literature is devoted to detailing the sources of stress in call center work. It is desirable to employ professional HR Professionals with knowledge of Human Psychology in BPO units/call centers. The services offered by professionals may not be felt in the initial stages. Companies like Tata, L&T, MICO and few others have employed professionals in their factories. The professionals can do wonders in BPO sectors as well. People are the backbone of BPO industry and it is certain that professional HR or Human Psychologist can make inroad in this emerging industry and facilitate the growth of Industry in an immense way.

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INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION  What Stress Is  What complicates  Problems of Definition  The current consensus  Types of Stress  Survival Stress  Internally generated stress  Environmental, Nutritional & Job Stress  Lifestyle and job stress  Optimum Stress Levels  Short Term Stress  Long Term Stress LITERATURE REVIEW  The Beginning of an Industry  History  Understanding- "Call Center"  Understanding Call Center Industry as An Industry  Human Issues in the Call Center Industry  BPO in India THE INDIAN SCENARIO  BPO Industry Stress Factors  Long Working Hours  Workload  Repetitive Nature of Work  Insufficient Holidays  Pressure to Perform on Metrics  Health Issues  Travel Time  Call Volume/Number of Calls  Overtime. METHODOLOGY  Objective of the Study 5

 Research Design  Limitation FINDINGS  KEY STRESSORS  Being on phone constantly Quality/Quantity conflict  Intensity  Targets.  OTHER HEALTH ISSUES  Sleeping Disorders  Digestive System Related Disorders  Depression  Severe Stomach Related Problems  Eyesight Problems  Few possible sources of stress  What are the pros & cons of outsourcing  How many jobs from US are moving offshore ORGANIZATIONS INITIATIVE  InterGlobe Enterprises Limited  IBM Daksh and EXL Services  GENPACT ANALYSIS  Attrition as a stress factor  THE CATCH 22 SITUATION  Impact of employee stress  Measuring the business cost  Preventing/managing stress  HOW TO DEAL WITH STRESS RECOMMENDATION CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY ANNEXURE

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INTRODUCTION What Stress Is There have been many different definitions of what stress is, whether used by psychologists, medics, management consultants or others. There seems to have been something approaching open warfare between competing definitions: Views have been passionately held and aggressively defended. What complicates This is that intuitively we all feel that we know what stress is, as it is something we have all experienced. A definition should therefore be obvious…except that it is not. Problems of Definition One problem with a single definition is that stress is made up of many things: It is a family of related experiences, pathways, responses and outcomes caused by a range of different events or circumstances. Different people experience different aspects and identify with different definitions. Hans Selye (one of the founding fathers of stress research) identified another part of this problem when he saw that different types of definition operate in different areas of knowledge. To a lawyer or a linguist, words have very precise, definite and fixed meanings. In other fields, ideas and definitions continue evolving as research and knowledge expands. Selye’s 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.” Selye believed that the biochemical

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effects of stress would be experienced irrespective of whether the situation was positive or negative. Since then, ideas have moved on. In particular, the harmful biochemical and longterm effects of stress have rarely been observed in positive situations. The current consensus Now, the most commonly accepted definition of stress (mainly attributed to Richard S Lazarus) is that stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize. People feel little stress when they have the time, experience and resources to manage a situation. They feel great stress when they think they can't handle the demands put upon them. Stress is therefore a negative experience. And it is not an inevitable consequence of an event: It depends a lot on people's perceptions of a situation and their real ability to cope with it. Types of Stress Most people realize that aspects of their work and lifestyle can cause stress. While this is true, it is also important to note that it can be caused by your environment and by the food and drink you consume. The strategies that you should use to counter stress depend on the causes of that stress. There are several major sources of stress: „X Survival stress  Internally generated stress  Environmental and job stress

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 Fatigue and overwork Survival Stress Where you are in a physically or emotionally threatening situation, your body adapts to help you react more effectively to meet the threat. This is controlled mainly by release of adrenaline. The changes are quite powerful and useful in a “fight or flight” situation. The main ones are:  Adrenaline mobilizes sugars, giving the body access to more strength, energy and stamina. This helps an individual to fight harder or run faster.  It reduces the blood supply to the skin and short-term inessential organs. This minimizes bleeding if an individual gets hurt, and ensures that energy is not wasted on processes that are not immediately useful.  One may experience nausea or diarrhea: this eliminates excess weight that might otherwise slow individual down. Where speed and physical strength are important this adrenaline stress will be helpful and beneficial, as fear can help one to survive or perform better. However, when calm thought or precise motor skills are important, it is best to control and, ideally, eliminate these adrenaline responses. Internally generated stress Internally generated stress is stress that one cause for oneself. This can come from anxious worrying about events beyond one’s control, from a tense, hurried approach to life, or from relationship problems caused by our own behavior. It can also come from an addiction to and enjoyment of stress.

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Stress can cause the levels of a chemical called noradrenalin to rise in and between nerve cells. This gives a feeling of confidence and elation that some people like. They can subconsciously defer work until the last minute to cause a “deadline high”, or can create stressful environment at work that feeds their enjoyment of a situation. The downside of this is that they may leave jobs so late that they fail when an unexpected crisis occurs. They may also cause unnecessary stress for other colleagues who are already under a high level of stress. Other aspects of personality can cause stress. Examples are perfectionism, where extremely or impossibly high standards can cause stress; and excessive selfeffacement, where constant attention to the needs of others can lead to dissatisfaction. A major cause of internally generated stress in many people is anxiety. Environmental, Nutritional & Job Stress Our environment may be a significant source of stress. This can come from:  Crowding and invasion of personal space  Insufficient working and living space  Noise  Dirty or untidy conditions  Pollution  A badly organized or run down environment Working environments are rarely perfect, however often you can improve your environment quite cheaply. Lifestyle and job stress

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Many of the stresses you experience may come from your job or from your lifestyle. These may include:  Too much or too little work  Time pressures and deadlines  Responsibility for people, budgets or equipment  Frustration and boredom with current role  Lack of clear plans and goals  Demands from clients  Disruptions to plans  Frustration at having to overcome unnecessary obstacles  Financial or relationship problems etc Optimum Stress Levels The level of stress under which one operates is important. If one is not under enough stress, then he may find that his performance suffers because he is bored and unmotivated. If he is under too much stress, then his results suffer as stress related problems interfere with his performance. It is important that for us to recognize that we are responsible for our own stress, and very often, it is a product of the way that we think. We need to learn to monitor our stress levels, and adjust them up if we need to be more alert, or down if one is feeling too tense. By managing our stress effectively, we can significantly improve the quality of our life. Short Term Stress The following figure shows the relationship between stress and the quality of performance when one is in such situations that impose short term stress: 11

When an individual’s stress level is too low, one find that one’s performance is low because one becomes bored, lacks concentration and motivation. When the stress level is too high, the performance can suffer from all the symptoms of excessive short-term stress. In the middle, at a moderate level of stress, there is a zone of best performance. If one can keep oneself within this zone, then he will be sufficiently aroused to perform well while not being over-stressed and unhappy. The above graph, and its zone of optimum performance, will be represented by are different shapes for different people. Some people may operate most effectively at a level of stress that would leave other people either bored or in pieces. It is possible that someone who functions superbly at a low level might experience difficulties at a high level. Alternatively, someone who performs only moderately at low level might perform exceptionally under extreme pressure. The best way of finding your optimum level of stress is to keep a stress diary for a number of weeks. Long Term Stress The problem of long term, sustained stress are more associated with fatigue, morale and health than with short term adrenaline management. The following figure shows the way in which performance can suffer when an individual is under excessive long term stress-The graph shows stages that you may go through in response to sustained levels of excessive stress:  During the first phase, you will face challenges with plenty of energy. Your response will probably be positive and effective.  After a period of time, you may begin to feel seriously tired. You may start to feel anxious, frustrated and upset. The quality of your work may begin to suffer.

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 As high stress continues, you may begin to feel a sense of failure and may be ill more frequently. You may also begin to feel exploited by your organization. At this stage, you may start to distance yourself from your employer, perhaps starting to look for a new job.  If high levels of stress continue without relief, you may ultimately experience depression, burnout, nervous breakdown, or some other form of serious stress related illness.

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LITERATURE REVIEW The Beginning of an Industry History Carrying out transactions over the telephone has a long history, beginning with operator services and later, reservations lines, particularly for airlines. But in the last 15 to 20 years, the introduction of information technologies and telecommunications advances have expanded the types of work it is possible to undertake, while reducing costs. Concurrently, ideas of 'service' and service relationships continue to be redefined as technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous, rendering the public more receptive to mediated service interactions. There are a variety of factors, which have led to the increase of telephone services, suggest Richardson and Marshall, including the transformation of telephony by "the development of digital exchanges, intelligent telephone networks and their integration with computer data bases"; falling telephony costs and the introduction of toll-free numbers; the high degree of penetration and familiarity of telephone technology; and the ability to communicate complex information by phone in real time. In addition to technological progress and social advantages, another likely reason for the burgeoning of the call center industry in the early 1990s was a significant period of retrenchment in a number of business sectors, including a drive towards reducing costs and cutting staff-both of which can be accomplished by centralizing services, reducing branch offices close to the customer, and taking advantage of lower cost real estate and labor costs in locations outside main business centers. Call centers, of course, permit all of these activities.

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The US was in the forefront of the call center movement, yet Nadji Tehrani, editor of the first trade publication devoted to the telemarketing and call center industries, writes that when Telemarketing Magazine was launched in 1982 in the United States, there were "only a handful" of companies conducting market research or handling customer service by phone. He describes the rapidity of technological development during the ensuing years: "We have seen the use of 3 x 5 cards and rotary dial phones, evolve to push-button telephones to integrated contact management software and automated dialing to Webenabled call centers". Outsourcing centers that specialize in providing call center services for other companies are also expanding. Although most call centers in the UK are currently nationally oriented, there is a move towards pan-European call centers in areas such as hotels, travel, and computing. Still, despite its rapid rate of growth, the call center industry is relatively new. The "vast majority" of call centers in the UK have "existed for less than ten years" claims Cameron, while Michel notes that in Germany, 25% of call centers in the country were established before 1991, and 41% during what he terms the "call center boom" after 1995. A boom is perhaps an accurate term. One estimate suggests a rate of growth between 20%-25% a year in Canada, while a 1996 Datamonitor report gave a figure of 40% for call center market growth in Europe, a number anticipated to hold until the turn of the century. Similarly, as mentioned above, academic interest in call centers is also quite recent, with the bulk of reported research beginning in the late 1990s and beginning to accumulate in the last two years.

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Understanding- "Call Center" As a first step, it is useful to establish a definition of a call center. This is not a completely straightforward task, as there are considerable variations between types of call centers, which are spread across several sectors of the economy, and which perform different functions for different organizations, both within and across sectors. The broadest definition in the call center literature is that provided by Norling, who states "a call center is any communications platform from which firms deliver services to customers via remote, real-time contact". Callaghan and Thompson apply a similarly inclusive definition, stating that call centers may be "broadly defined as workplaces that integrate telephone and computer technologies". While these definitions usefully highlight the centrality of communication technology integration in the call center field, it leaves the boundaries of the industry somewhat ambiguous. Taylor and Bain narrow the definition by specifying the types of technologies used: "we define a call center as a dedicated operation in which computer-utilising employees receive inbound-or make outbound-telephone calls, with those calls processed and controlled either by an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) or predictive dialing system. The call center is thus characterized by the integration of telephone and VDU technologies." Other authors narrow their definitions by focusing on the types of services which these integrated technologies are designed to provide. For example, in an early definition, Richardson states "telephone call centers are specialist technology intensive offices that are established by organizations in order to deliver services to customers over the telephone, replacing or complementing face-to-face interaction with the public". Similarly, Kinnie,

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Purcell and Hutchinson provide a tripartite definition incorporating technology, technological control, and tasks: Call Centers can be defined in the following way Employees are engaged in specialist operation which integrate telecommunications and information systems technologies  Their work is controlled by automatic systems which virtually simultaneously distribute work, control the pace of that work and monitor their performance;  They are in direct contact with the customer through dealing with in-bound calls, making out-bound calls or a combination of the two. Buchanan and Koch-Schulte go one step further and include in their description the organizational rationale for establishing call centers. Call centers are a relatively recent phenomenon made possible by the dissemination of telecommunications and information technologies. The technology enables telephone service representatives to deal quickly and remotely with customer needs by connecting the representative to the customer's account information on his/her computer as the call is relayed to the headset. As call centers can be centralized in locations far from the customers of a business, they allow firms to cut costs by reducing the number of local service outlets. Borrowing from this accumulation, therefore, a call center can be defined as a specialized office where agents remotely provide information, deliver services, and/or conduct sales, using some combination of integrated telephone and information technologies, typically with an aim to enhancing customer service while reducing organizational costs.

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Understanding Call Center Industry as An 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. 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,

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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. Human Issues in the Call Center Industry For many employed in the call center sector, "the daily experience is of repetitive, intensive and stressful work, based upon Taylorist principles, which frequently results in employee "burnout". Brown, more vividly, characterizes the work as "repetitive brain strain". These descriptions are hardly surprising, in a way, given that call centers are established by organizations to "create an environment in which work can be standardized to create relatively uniform and repetitious activities so as to achieve economies of scale and consistent quality of customer service". This means, in other words, that workplaces are organized in ways that weaken employee autonomy and enhance the potential for management control, and "a loss of control is generally understood to be an important indicator of work-related stress". There is almost universal consensus that call center work is stressful. Even in studies that report the observation that some staff actually enjoys their work, mention of stress is still the norm, and a significant portion of the call center literature is devoted to detailing the sources of stress in call center work. BPO in India

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BPO [Business Process Outsourcing] has been the latest mantra in India today. As the current sources of revenue face slower growth, software companies are trying new ways to increase their revenues. BPO is top on their list today. IT services companies are making a quick entry into the BPO space on the strength of their existing set of clients. We hope to address all issues related to BPO in India on this portal. Actually, setting up a call center is capital intensive. An ordinary BPO center that takes care of pure back office operation [e.g. payroll, data entry] will not be as expensive as a call center. The philosophy behind BPO is specific, do what you do best and leave everything else to business process outsourcers. Companies are moving their non-core business processes to outsource providers. BPO saves precious management time and resources and allows focus while building upon core competencies. The list of functions being outsourced is getting longer by the day. Call centres apart, functions outsourced span purchasing and disbursement, order entry, billing and collection, human resources administration, cash and investment management, tax compliance, internal audit, pay roll...the list gets longer everyday. In view of the accounting scandals in 2002 [Enron, WorldCom, Xerox etc], more and more companies are keen on keeping their investors happy. Hence, it is important for them to increase their profits. BPO is one way of increasing their profits. If done well, BPO results in increasing shareholder value. Typically, a customer calls the call center [usually a toll-free number]. After pressing numerous numbers [1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for bank balance!] the operator will answer your query by accesing the database. Call centres address sales support,

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airline/hotel reservations, technical queries, bank accounts, client services, receivables, tele marketing, market research. If a bank shifts work of a 1000 people from US to India it can save about $18 million a year due to lower costs in India. According to Mckinsey, giant US pharma firms can reduce the cost of developing a new drug, currently estimated at between $600 million and $900 million by as much as $200 million if development work is outsourced to India. Benefits derived from BPO can be summarized as follows: 1. Productivity Improvements 2. Access to expertise 3. Operational cost control 4. Cost savings 5. Improved accountability 6. Improved HR 7. Opportunity to focus on core business Outsourcing is not new - it has been a popular management tool for decade. One can safely say outsourcing has evolved : 1960's - time-sharing  1970's - parts of IT operations  1980's - entire IT operations  1990's - alliances/tie-ups  2000's - IT-enabled services India has one of the largest pool of low-cost English speaking scientific and technical talent. This makes India one of the obvious choice to outsource to. Dell, Sun Microsystems,

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LG, Ford, GE, Oracle all have announced plans to scale up their operations in India. Others like American Express, IBM and British Airways are leveraging the cost advantage India has to offer while setting up call centres. Several foreign airline and banks have too set up business process operations in India. Indian revenues from BPO are estimated to have grown 107 per cent to $ 583 million and this particular area employs 35,000 people in the year ending March 31, 2004. Many European and US companies have realized that they should focus on their main business and outsource their Human Resource Department, accounting department etc. It is here exactly India fits in! Today US corporations have embraced BPO wholeheartedly. Managed Care Companies, which is more popularly known as Healthcare payers, are increasingly outsourcing business processes due to changing and challenging business environment and technological and legislative changes. There is a good opportunity for Indian BPO vendors in this space. BPO vendors will need to have good domain knowledge, process know-how and competence with technological solutions to cater to these Manage Care Companies.

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THE INDIAN SCENARIO BPO Industry Stress Factors Long Working Hours Long working hours is the greatest cause of stress for Indian call center agents, just ahead of work timing. 39.4% of the respondents surveyed endorsed the fact. Along with salary, both these factors, no doubt, account for the high rate of attrition in the industry. Long hours, in itself, is a combination of work load, call volume and travel time. Since most BPO players are still primarily voice-based, the workload is tremendous; add to it the increasing call volume, as more and more outsourcing continues to happen despite threats of backlash, plus the time involved in traveling between home and office. Any average agent works for 11-12 hours per day-the number goes up to 14 in case of companies that encourage overtime. Work Timing The second biggest cause of stress for BPO employees is unique to the Indian industry. Many in the industry, in fact, feel that this is the root cause for most of the malaises afflicting Indian call centers. It is indeed an irony that the raison d'être for the success of the industry is also turning out to be its Achilles Heel. But, since, no doubt, the geographical time difference with the US and the UK gives Indian industry one of its biggest advantages, a possible solution to the problem is unlikely to be found in the near future. Even the endorsement from 38.6% of the respondents seems to be somewhat tempered by the fact that many of the respondents were either senior non-call floor people, or those in the day shift. While pure-play call centers like Transworks and EXL Services

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were most severely afflicted, barring eFunds and iSeva to some extent, no one in the survey seems to have tackled the issue with any measure of success. Workload Some would argue that even IT services employees are burdened with tremendous workload, so why are BPO employees complaining? The real story lies elsewhere. True, even IT services employees work for long and odd hours, but these are interspersed with smoke breaks, coffee breaks or plain chatting with colleagues. Unfortunately, this is not the case in call centers, where sometimes agents do not even get toilet breaks. Sounds draconian? But that is the business driven reality for the Indian call center industry. Absolute freshers get a little respite, since the first few months on the job involves a lot of training time. Like on several other factors, eFunds is in the least affected category, either they are close to devising a mechanism to take care of the most common stresses, or the attrition rate is so high that most of these factors are not accounted for. Repetitive Nature of Work No surprises here-it is a commonly accepted fact that the monotony of the same kind of work in call centers can indeed be very stressful. 37.1% of the respondents reiterate the same in the survey. The male freshers seem to the group particularly affected. Again, solutions are not readily available, though measures like hiring retired personnel or housewives might be of some succor, since these groups with more experience tend to get frustrated the least. Some others have also devised innovative measures, like periodic job rotation, though not much can be expected out of these in a pure call center environment. That explains why, even in eFunds, the company least affected with this affliction, more than 14% complained about the stress caused by the repetitive nature of the job. It is a bit

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surprising to see Motif'son the most affected list, especially given that it is located in a smaller town like Ahmedabad. Received wisdom, that small town employees in places with limited scope do not easily get tired even of repetitive jobs, stands questioned. Insufficient Holidays While this was not amongst the top 10 causes of stress in last year's survey, this year more than 36% of the respondents complained about it. Not too surprising, considering that most of these employees have to work on all Indian calendar holidays. True, they enjoy holidays like July 4th and Thanksgiving, but that is scant solace for working 12-14 hour shifts even during the festive seasons. Of all the companies surveyed, only eFunds seems to have escaped the brunt of this problem. To add to the woes, many companies dangle the bait of additional incentives for working on holidays-it is initially attractive to the freshers, but as the attraction weans, more heartburn happens. Pressure to Perform on Metrics This is particularly galling for the first timers-working in an environment where every single action needs to conform to a performance measuring metrics. This looks unlikely to go away soon, since most call centers are keen on different standards certifications. It's no fad, but, instead, an absolute business necessity for most companies to follow these quantifiable business metrics to attract customers. However, not many are keen to look at the effect this has on their employees. More than 36% point to it as one of their major grouses-the only silver lining here is that, with experience, the stress level goes down, and more importantly, working on such quantifiable performance parameters helps these people later in their careers.

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Companies like Sykes and Transworks, which have been going for a number of certifications this year, seem to be the most affected. Health Issues Last year, when 23% pointed to health hazards as a cause of stress, we compared the call center industry with coal miners. This time the number has gone up to 34.5%- maybe it's time to classify call centers as an extremely hazardous job. We have also detailed the call center related ailments separately. Not surprisingly, people in senior managerial positions with five plus years of experience are less affected with these illnesses. That's perhaps because they maintain a more regular work schedule and timing. Companies like 24/7 and ICICI OneSource, which have grown spectacularly in a short frame of time last year, seem to be most seriously affected. Travel Time Most call centers are located on the outskirts of cities, and therefore most employees spend a long time traveling to and from their offices. Again, this is unique to the Indian industry and cannot be easily wished away. Most Indian call centers require large manpower influxes in order to scale up and grow, and to support such huge workforces, they need lots of real estate. And exorbitant land prices inside cities necessitate their movement to the outskirts. Therefore, it is not surprising that companies like Motif, located in a smaller city like Ahmedabad, are least affected by this factor. Call Volume/Number of Calls While the overall workload is quite high, call volume in itself is proving to be a major cause for stress, afflicting 26.8% of our respondents. In most call centers, there is hardly any respite between two calls-not only is this disconcerting, but in the case of one abusive

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call immediately following another, it can be psychologically disturbing too. In addition, most agents accept these calls under an assumed identity: constantly maintaining a false image amidst an influx of calls afflicts all agents – both experienced ones as well as first timers. Overtime Though most companies encourage overtime with incentives, for most of the respondents (25%), this is one stress they inflict upon themselves. Especially the first timers, who, with the goal of making more money, willingly do overtimes, but once they are into it, the stress factor starts showing up. Overtime, in concert with long working hours and travel time, is turning out to be a potent combination, causing call center-related stresses. Not surprisingly, companies like eFunds, which have high capacity utilization, seem to be not at all affected by the overtime issue, according to our survey.

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METHODOLOGY

A key feature of a good research lies in the analyses, in other words, besides collecting relevant data, what is done after that is also an important determinant and a key factor to a good research. According to Fitzpatrick (1998), in order to contribute to understand a complexity, researchers have to choose from a range of possible methodologies and cast aside entrenched theoretical & ideological positions. Objective of the Study The objective of study is to understand the initiative or measures taken by the BPO’s to manage stress. The study will also help the companies to exercise new ideas to manage stress. Research Design The research had to be accomplished by using both the primary and secondary research tools.  The primary research would include preparing questionnaire and interviewing the top officials in HR. Conducting Focused Group Discussion. The questionnaire is made in such way that the interview takes place in discussion mode.  The secondary research would include analysis from newspapers, journals, research papers in this field and reports by companies, case studies published in the B-School Journals. Once the data was compiled, it was analyzed, after which the recommendations were given, followed by conclusion.

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Limitation The information provided by the company based on which analysis is made was strictly confidential. So while analyzing I can not use the name of the company or official. Sample size taken by me is very small and limited to only Delhi and NCR. Company’s senior officers are not open up to give right information just because of Confidentiality. Officials are not accepting the fact that their employees are stressed.

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FINDINGS KEY STRESSORS Being on phone constantlyThe 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'. 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 tradeoffs 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. Efforts to attain what is

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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. The practice of putting a 'drive' on particular targets for improvement (for example, the collection of renewal dates, the up-selling or crossselling of products, the quality of data input, or the intensity of sales push) and continual reprioritisation 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. Intensity The third central stressor in call center work is its intensity. 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. The pace of work is determined by the combination of technologies that deliver calls to the headset and account details to the screen, and workers often have no control over this process. Call centers are information handling organizations. As currently characterized, the job of the agent is to be the voice of the organization, interfacing with the client or customer. The organization rehearses the things it wants said and feeds them through the agent. The agent is largely constructed as a mouthpiece rather than as a brain. When this feeling of being a cog in a machine which never stops as it grinds on, repeating the same actions over and over again, is combined with "the cumulative emotional demands presented by the interpersonal nature of the work", stress is inevitable.

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Targets 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. 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 consider 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. 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 OTHER HEALTH ISSUES

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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 reported health issues by most authors include the following Voice loss  Hearing problems  Tension  Sleeplessness  Headaches  Eye strain 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, 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.

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Obviously this affects first timers more severely, as they take time to acclimatize their biological clocks, but even experienced people or managers are not able to completely escape from it. Some call centers are looking at devising innovative mechanisms like flexible shifts with sleeping arrangements in the office premises as possible solutions. Digestive System Related 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. Depression 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. Even doctors in major cities agree-in recent times many of the patients with various stomach ailments are from call centers.

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Eyesight Problems Globally call center industry employees are considered a high-risk group for eyerelated 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. Few possible sources of stress What are the pros & cons of outsourcing? Third Party Service Providers (TPSPs)  Usually TPSP already has expertise and experience with other clients in similar business lines.  Very competitive pricing / flexibility to assess various TPSPs  No infrastructural / capital investment.  Payback period very less (usually between 6 months to a year). Captive centres  Build expertise from scratch by redeploying resources. Latter option more expensive.  Unit costs higher.  High capital investment.  Payback usually between 3 and 5 years.  Committed to bringing in economies of scale, hence the need to establish a sufficiently large centre.

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Stress Organizational Family Peer Group  Flexibility to source multiple TPSPs.  Flexibility to scale up and down business relationship.  Can exit from one relationship and move to another .  Retains decision-making, therefore relationship with TPSP is clear (fee-based, quality-based); no staff backlash.  As TPSP works towards a profit there is more business commitment.  Customised solutions ensure data security and safety.  Committed resources reduces such flexibility, else training costs could shoot through the roof.  No exit possible without incurring high costs.  May or may not retain decision-making. Possibility of backlash from senior management personnel.  Captive units are usually cost centres.  Long-term strategy looks for establishing centres to first move work as-is, and save costs first. How many jobs from US are moving offshore? Sl.No Number of U.S. Jobs Moving Offshore Job Category 2000 2005 2010 2015 1 Management 0 37,477 117,835 88,281 2 Business 10,787 61,252 161,722 48,028 3 Computer 27,171 108,991 276,954 72,632 36

4 Architecture 3,498 32,302 83,237 84,347 5 Life Sciences 0 3,677 14,478 36,770 6 Legal 1,793 14,220 34,673 74,642 7 Art, Design 818 5,576 13,846 29,639 8 Sales 4,619 29,064 97,321 26,564 9 Office 53,987 295,034 791,034 1,659,310 Total 102,674 587,592 1,591,101 3,320,213 What would the cost savings for US companies typically be, if they operated in India? Data monitor, a leading UK-based business information company, research indicates that 67-72% of costs to call centers operating in the US/UK is directly linked to man power costs. India, on the other hand spends only 33-40% of costs on man power. This includes training, benefits and other incentives for labor. McKinsey & Co. predicts global market for IT-enabled services to be over $140 billion by 2008. These $142 Billion can be broken up and shown as below: Customer Interaction Services 33.0 Finance & Accounting Services 15.0 Translation, Transcription & Localization 2.0 Engineering & Design 1.2 HR Services 5.0 Data Search, Integration & Management 44.0 Remote Education 18.0

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Networking Consulting & Management 15.0 Website Services 5.0 Market Research 3.0 Total 141.2 ORGANIZATIONS INITIATIVE Keeping in view the three organizations taken into consideration for the purpose of the study I would now enumerate what are the few things that these organizations are doing to minimize or counter the problem of stress among its workforce. InterGlobe Enterprises Limited In order to acknowledge the hard work by their employees Interglobe has very competitive Rewards and Recognition in place to appreciate that “extra” effort and giving a boost to its employees.  Employee of the Month/ Year- in recognition and appreciation of the outstanding performance by an employee or a team in various departments.  Bonus based on organizational profit – the management shared liberally a part of the profits with the employees. Even in the trying times of 9/11 employees were given bonus whereas even the major players in the travel & tourism industry went for huge salary cuts.  Reward and Recognition for high performers through our well defined and structured Performance Management Process. The reward and appreciation many times is in the form of nominations to specific trainings and programs.

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 Employee Photographs in in-house magazine- The employees who complete 10 years of service in the organisation, their photographs are printed in our inhouse magazine, IG Times. Employee Engagement Initiatives Employee Suggestion Scheme: All employees can make a valuable contribution to the Company in terms of ideas, comments and suggestions. These suggestions are suitably reviewed under the existing systems and policies, encourages the employees to come out openly with suggestions. IG Times (in-house magazine): It is our quarterly newsletter, which covers all important events as well as news from our different business units. All employees are encouraged to contribute to the same. It highlights all team activities, outstanding performances, etc. Let’s Talk’: Under this section of our quarterly newsletter, the Management answers to the queries and questions raised by the employees. Open House: The Open House sessions are regular features in our organization, wherein the Managing Directors is present to answer any queries raised by the employees. The employees have the liberty to raise any query and ask any questions, and the Managing Director also shares information with the employees during these open house sessions. Regular Get-togethers: Get-togethers are organized on a regular basis and there is twoway information sharing. Leadership Team Meets: The Leadership Team (LT), consisting of Presidents & CEOs and the Department/Function Heads of all divisions of InterGlobe, meets at least once in a month to discuss and take decisions on critical and strategic issues, especially employees

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related issues. The LT also reviews all employees policies and welfare on a regular basis and all decisions are taken jointly and collectively by the Leadership Team. InterAction (InterGlobe’s Annual Family Day): InterAction is the annual day of InterGlobe, wherein all employees along with their family members are invited to have fun and celebration. It is a full day event, which is filled with lot of games and fun activities for employees and the family members. Annual Bash/Parties for Business Units: Various Business Units organizes their own separate Annual Bash and Parties, wherein a few guests are also invited from other Business Units of InterGlobe, including the support function employees to appreciate their support and assistance. Potluck: Potluck is an innovative way of bringing together employees, where everybody brings in various dishes of their choice and shares with the teammates. There is something about food, which brings people together. It builds the team spirit and enthusiasm amongst teammates. It is all about bonding amongst the members of various departments, where everybody gets to interact with their team members irrespective of their designations or levels. It’s a concept which allows the participants as well as the guests to interact in an informal fashion. The occasion could be anything – birthday, promotion or a festival. The company undertakes corporate social responsibility in a big way in which employees are encouraged to take part. A few of such programmes are as follows –  The Terry Fox Run: The Foundation organizes the Terry Fox Run, international fund that benefits cancer research facilities in India. InterGlobe has been involved with

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the Terry Fox Run for two years – with enthusiastic collections from employees being matched in equal measure by the company.  Youth Reach: Youth reach is an NGO that wants to create a channel for young people to give back to the larger community. One of the projects undertaken by Youth reach, a coffee table book titled “If I were rain”, a visual and testimonial exploration of the lives of ‘less fortunate children’ along with the photographs. Inter Globe bought the photographs from Youth reach for use on their New Year cards.  Sahara Rehabilitation Work: Inter Globe provided financial support to Sahara – an NGO established in 1978, registered as a society in 1985, which helps in rehabilitation of persons dependent on drugs or alcohol. It also provides care and support for persons infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.  Illumination of the ‘Charminar’ in Hyderabad: Galileo India Pvt. Ltd., a division of InterGlobe, contributed towards the lighting of the ‘Charminar’. ‘Charminar’, the famous 16th century square monument with four minarets, in Hyderabad. De-stressing the employees  Landmark Forum– Realize your true potential: We organized workshops for our employees at our own premises aimed at helping the employees to 39 realize their true potential. Landmark Forum aims to help people transform their lives by teaching them specific communication and life skills along with some heavy philosophical training.  Stress Management through Vipassana Meditation - With the help of ‘The Art of Living Foundation’ Stress Management sessions were organized at the office

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premises of InterGlobe. The Art of Living Foundation is an international non-profit educational and humanitarian organization. The Foundation is dedicated to creating peace from the level of the individual and fostering human values within the global community. Their programs eliminate stress, create a sense of belonging, restore human values, and encourage people from all backgrounds, religions, and cultural traditions to come together in celebration and service.  In-house Counselors: Ms. Shakuntala David InterGlobe is one such company which recognizes the importance and effect that stress can have on the employees although they might not come out opening about the fact that their employees need distressing activities. IBM Daksh and EXL Services IBM Daksh and EXL Services has also taken a lot of initiative with respect to handling stress. Stress today has become a part of every individual’s and organization’s life…The order of the day is such that very few of us can possibly ignore the same. BPO’s like IBM and EXL have introduced yoga to counter/ minimize the stress factor in their respective organizations because eliminating the same altogether is not a possibility. These organizations have certified yoga instructors coming in and training people in yoga and meditation. Dance classes are also in place which is one of the very good ways to distress oneself and probably turn stress into something constructive, a philosophy I support and would even want to preach. Fun at work is also something which is very much prevalent. This constitutes the following-

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 Gymnasium  Barista coffee shop  Pool table  Simulating games  Reading room/ library All these and more also provide their employees to take a break from the irate callers. In employee engagement scene these companies have a cultural club, the members are engaged in rock and roll music etc…this kind of activities also ensures development of team work. GENPACT Genpact for example conducts town halls in big hotels in Delhi and team parties in the most popular hangout places in Gurgaon and Delhi. They also have a gymnasium where employees can avail the certified trainer by paying a minimal cost for the same. In their effort to minimize stress the company also has an arm which works with various NGOs and employees are encouraged to be a part of the same. There are in house magazines, which is another way to ensure that stress is reduced and energy is utilized effectively. Of late they have also started martial arts classes after office an hour which is a very good stress buster. Team dinners and pot luck are also part of the de-stressing initiatives. Another initiative which is a part of this organization is the off-sites that every team conducts. Every process has a process budget within which the off-site has to happen. This is very popular among the employees. Most often than not the young crowd looks forward to such off-sites outside

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Delhi during any long weekend. Most common off-site locations are Rishikesh, Nainital, Bhimtal, Shivouri, Mussourie etc. Not only does these act as good stress busters but also help in team building efforts, for example white water rafting and trekking are very popular outdoor activities for the employees during off-site visits. Genpact for example has recognized that its employees want to add more value to themselves and hence the organization has tied up with various B-schools to provide education to its young workforce. To name a few of such schools- Narsee Monjee (Mumbai), IMT Ghaziabad, XLRI, IIM (B) etc…So its employees have the option of increasing their education by being a part of the various programmes that the organization conducts. Thus this organization tries to prevent disillusionment with its workforce which is rather rampant among the workers of this industry.

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ANALYSIS Attrition as a stress factor BPOs in India are expected to employ around one million people by 2008, but the challenger is to find quality human resources given the current attrition rate of around 3540%. Currently it is about 35% in non-voice and 45% in voice call centers. However what the number don't show is that more than 60% of those who leave a particular BPO do not leave for a competitor, but leave the industry as a whole. Here lies the danger for this sector and the challenge for HR consultants. Agents want to become team leaders. Team leaders want to become supervisors. Supervisors wants the job of the CEO. But the problem arises when the career development path is not defined clearly. Most youngsters do not take this as a serious career option and because of the lack of growth coupled with disillusionment the stress factor only keeps on increasing in an individual’s life. At an attrition rate of 40%, the cost of attrition in the industry is 1.5 times the annual salary. Some of the reasons could be:  Many see this space to be an Internet sweatshop where all that the employees are required to do is just mechanically input numbers into excel sheets or, worse still, answer phone calls in the same tone and repeat the same lines at least 100 times a day/night.  People who join a BPO usually do so to make a 'quick' buck. They are bound to quit because sooner or later they will find something more attractive in terms of the job profile and/or pay.

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 The industry has concentrated on hiring young, dynamic and these are looking for more than just a job.  Talent in this space is generally overlooked, which leaves the deserving few disgruntled with top management and hence fosters attrition. THE CATCH 22 SITUATION Outsourcing tech jobs to India is not only causing turmoil for workers in the US and Europe, but for Indians as well. Young English speaking Indians, who work in call centers in India, are exposed to a host of health problems. Because of the time difference between India and the US, the work for call center employees in India starts late in the evening and goes on till dawn. Such odd hours bring in a host of health problems including digestive diseases, hair loss, back pain and stress. Some girls develop menstrual problems. Orthopedic problems and sharp increase in nicotine consumption are common features. The strains of assuming foreign accents not to mention personalities for long periods causes everything from sore throats to personality disorders. Though call centers in India claim that they try to make life better for the workers by improving the overall work environment, all said and done, there is no alternative to a good night's sleep. Employees in call centers in India find it difficult to maintain a positive attitude towards life, because everything seems dark and gloomy when one works ungodly hours. Not surprisingly, the attrition rate is high Joined For in call centers in India, as 30-40% of the workers quit in a year. But they are quickly replaced, as there are enough English speaking youngsters in India available for jobs that pay $160-$300 per month.

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Long hours of work, permanent night shifts, incredibly high work targets, loss of identitythese are the dark clouds hovering over the call center industry in India. Many of these youngsters between 18 and 21 years are seeking counseling for work-related stress, irregular sleeping hours, unhealthy food habits and chronic fatigue. Although most such cases do not require treatment or medication, they need guidance on physical and mental coordination to cope with a job that requires hyper-alert efficiency. Today, most top executives acknowledge that a steady attrition rate is an inevitable aspect of the call center industry. The reasons for this could be boredom with the job, seeking better prospects or a change, or even the failure of the call center to effectively train employees to stay at the job. Some call centers in India have started looking for counselors to refer employees with problems. No call center in India actually retains psychologists or counselors, perhaps wary of even admitting to work related stresses and problems. When a fun loving city graduate joins a call center in India, in addition to commendable command over the English language, the employer sees a lot of enthusiasm and positive attitude in him or her while hiring. However, the new call Leaving For center employee's zeal dies in the first few weeks. Despair and disillusion set in and the final outcome is that he or she quits the job. Little do these call center employees realize while they are being hired that, instead of fun, what lies ahead of them is much hard work and long, stressful days. The unrelieved monotony of their jobs and the repeated rejections from sometimes abusive clients ensures that their cup of woes brimmeth all night long. Impact of employee stress

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The negative impact of employee stress on business is now an acknowledged factor. Studies in America have proved that the annual cost of employee stress in terms of loss to productivity is more than a staggering $300 billion. Unmanaged stress has a debilitating impact on the organisation, the consequences vary from loss of individual productivity to increased absenteeism to rise in employee attrition. Team morale and productivity is also adversely affected. But is it possible to create a stress-free workplace? Probably not, it is indeed an integral part of our personal and professional life, but the solution lies in creating an environment that reduces its impact. The fact that employee stress is a subjective matter cannot be overlooked. What might appear as a stressful situation for one might be taken as a normal work routine by another. Monisha Advani, CEO, EmmayHR agrees that most organisations tend not to act at all or appropriately to prevent situations of unmanaged stress. “The unfortunate perception lies in assigning responsibility for stress. Is it the employee’s personal look out or is it the employer’s? Where does one draw the line? The definition of workplace stress can be easily misconstrued, as it varies from case to case.” Advani points out that drawing up policies to address workplace stress in a direct form can expose an organisation to red herring claims from employees. Hence, the tentativeness from employers to own up to the responsibility or demonstrate documented proactivity to control workplace stress. Consequences of unmanaged stress Stressful working conditions have a direct negative impact on the mental and physical well-being of the workforce. A disgruntled workforce obviously under-performs and under-delivers, leading to an impact on the bottomline. In a more precautionary sense, unmanaged stress can be very infectious in large-sized organisations with workforces that

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are inhabited together. As a nation, we have spent the last two decades trying to eradicate cohesion of employees in a formal context (unions, associations) from the workplace. Unfortunately, such scenarios are completely fuelled by intangible conditions like unmanaged stress. In addition, a company can easily suffer external image damage from being perceived as a hotbed of a stressful work environment, limiting its talent acquisition strategies, among other things. Stress undermines an employee’s ability to think clearly, to work well with others and to perform his or her best. Seth Appel, Director, Talent Transformation Group, OfficeTiger, focusses on the obvious consequences: poor decision-making, absenteeism, burn-out, attrition, unnecessary and wasteful inter-personal conflict. Measuring the business cost Calculating the business cost of employee stress has led to many studies being conducted globally. Eileen Sweeney, Senior Vice-president, Global HR, Lionbridge Technologies, lists the key indicators:  Absenteeism  Health costs  Attrition  Lowered productivity and increased costs. The one way to measure the cost of stress is to make a measured judgement based on employee exit interviews and on the percentage of attrition due to stress. When the cost to recruit, train and develop a new employee is accounted for, an oranization can arrive at a general cost that it is incurring due to stress. Unfortunately, it is difficult to measure the other less tangible by-products of stress. Managers who engage in needless bickering

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instead of working together, employees who return home and spend their free time worrying about work and return the following day tired instead of energised. Also the team members who are too anxious to speak openly at a meeting and therefore deprive the company of their good ideas. All of these are unwanted and wasteful by-products of stress that are hard to quantify. It can also be measured in terms of productivity gains or losses and the consequent revenues. “A correlation can be seen in the roles vis-a-vis stress, specially in the IT and BPO sectors where in typical measurements like line of code/day or average call handling time, number of calls taken, etc. have a direct bearing on the stress levels of employees,” says Madan Padaki, Co-founder and Director, Business Development, MeriTrac Services. Preventing/managing stress It is believed that one should work at preventing stress than managing it. Interestingly, most experts seem divided over the issue. Aiming to ‘prevent employee stress’ is not a realistic goal, asserts experts, adding that it is also, arguably, not even a desired goal. The reason is - Modern psychology often makes the mistake trying to create a stress- and worry-free world. This is a very misguided aim as stress and worry play very important functions in our day-to-day lives. Worry is a way our brain forces us to focus on important problems. A healthy dose of stress gets us out of our chairs and into action. The challenge is not stress, but the debilitating doses of stress that are more destructive than constructive. In other words, a little bit of stress can be a good thing. The pressures to perform at peak levels consistently is a set expectation from every employee, as a result stress cannot be avoided. The need of the hour is to help employees manage stress effectively and more importantly, create a corporate ambience that does not

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perpetrate any other internal strain in the organization. It is possible to create such an ambience which infuses a healthy, positive energy in the workplace and puts everyone in a ‘can-do’ mood. Most experts agree that a preventive approach is needed, particularly since formal remedial policies to manage existing stress can lead to an acknowledgement on the part of an employer, which in all likelihood, may be exploited by employees. Ways to ensure this is to control extended working hours, improve the quality of workplace benefits such as meals, recreation, break-out areas, etc. Also punctuately engage employee families and sphere of external influencers through company events wherein they become more aware and therefore, more supportive and encouraging of an employee’s pressure, responsibilities and rewards. Acknowledging that prevention is better than cure, experts point out that companies need to consistently focus on taking measures to reduce stress. One key aspect of stress reduction is ensuring that employees and managers are provided with the skills and tools needed to perform their roles successfully. Emphasis on skills such as time management, effective listening, handling the difficult discussion, putting the customer first and situational leadership equips employees with the confidence to maintain a positive work environment and to reduce anxiety in new and unfamiliar situations. Complete freedom from stress can never be a reality, whether in personal or professional life. Perhaps a priest in a temple can aim for a stress-free workplace, but in the business sector stress is part of day’s work. An essential part of business always involves destroying current systems, connections, understandings, products and so on and re-creating them into something new. By definition, there is going to be some stress in this process. Again as a manager pushes a team to better the standards of performance, incorporate new technology

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and bring up innovative ideas, this process will inevitably cause stress. The goal is to find ways to manage this stress in a positive and constructive manner. While a stress-free workplace remains a Utopian situation, organisations can only make efforts to reduce its impact. Stress is inevitable... call it the bane of any life form. Acknowledging that it exists, is half the battle won. Attacking it, improves chances of the rest of the war to be won! And finally, preventing it means never being at war in the first place. “IT IS THE MIND THAT MAKES THE BODY”- SOJOURNER TRUTH HOW TO DEAL WITH STRESS Recognize stress: Stress symptoms include mental, social, and physical manifestations. These include exhaustion, loss of/increased appetite, headaches, crying, sleeplessness, and oversleeping. Escape through alcohol, drugs, or other compulsive behavior are often indications. Feelings of alarm, frustration, or apathy may accompany stress. StressManagement is the ability to maintain control when situations, people, and events make excessive demands. A few ways to do this are as follows Look around See if there really is something you can change or control in the situation  Remove yourself from the stressful situation Give yourself a break if only for a few moments daily  Don't sweat the small stuff Try to prioritize a few truly important things and let the rest slide

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 Selectively change the way you react, but not too much at one time. Focus on one troublesome thing and manage your reactions to it/him/her  Avoid extreme reactions; Why hate when a little dislike will do? Why generate anxiety when you can be nervous? Why rage when anger will do the job? Why be depressed when you can just be sad?  Get enough sleep Lack of rest just aggravates stress  Avoid self-medication or escape Alcohol and drugs can mask stress. They don't help deal with the problems  Learn how to best relax yourself Meditation and breathing exercises have been proven to be very effective in controlling stress. Practice clearing your mind of disturbing thoughts.  Set realistic goals for yourself Reduce the number of events going on in your life and you may reduce the circuit overload  Don't overwhelm yourself by fretting about your entire workload. Handle each task as it comes, or selectively deal with matters in some priority  Change the way you see things Learn to recognize stress for what it is. Increase your body's feedback and make stress selfregulating  Do something for others to help get your mind off your self  Work off stress

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with physical activity, whether it's jogging, tennis, gardening  Develop a thick skin The bottom line of stress management is "I upset myself"  Try to "use" stress If you can't fight what's bothering you and you can't flee from it, flow with it and try to use it in a productive way  Try to be positive Give yourself messages as to how well you can cope rather than how horrible everything is going to be. "Stress can actually help memory, provided it is short-term and not too severe. Stress causes more glucose to be delivered to the brain, which makes more energy available to neurons. This, in turn, enhances memory formation and retrieval. On the other hand, if stress is prolonged, it can impede the glucose delivery and disrupt memory." Most importantly is stress is putting an individual in an unmanageable state or is interfering with work and personal life seeking professional help is a must. Stress is something which is becoming increasingly common among today’s youth if we look at the BPO crowd. Most of them join such companies with lots of dreams of making it big but soon reality strikes where in they become increasingly disillusioned with what they are doing and why. A healthy salary of ten thousand rupees in the hands of a 18year old is a lot of money and serves their purpose of having fun but the effect of the unearthly hours are clear by the above figures. Besides working under the kind of call pressure that they do these youngsters have loads of other pressures coming from their family and their peer group as well. In most cases when

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the respondents in the focused group was asked about their parents reactions to their kind of job , most had only one thing to say …they are not happy. Indian parents till date would rather have their children study further rather than take calls of irate Americans at unearthly hours. All these respondents being in the 18 to 25 years age group agreed that BPOs’ offer them fast money and they do not mind working such long and weird hours. This basic clash between the youngsters and their parents is the reason for major family discord. Youngsters are very vulnerable to bad habits and smoking, drinking, drugs just have become a part of their lives. These are not my personal views but something that was vouched by all these 20 people who took part in the group discussion. To these youngsters marriage as an institution does not hold such high values as it did for their parents. Extra marital affairs and pre marital sex are rampant because of the kind of hours these people keep. To them everything is acceptable. During the course of my study I came to know a shocking truth in Gurgaon. Gurgaon is one of earliest places which came into the view because of the BPO industry which flourished here in the late 1990s and continues to thrive till today. What is shocking is this piece of news that most of the societies in one part of this city has made is a rule that would not allow BPO people who are not married to stay within their premises. Ofcourse it goes without saying that for some people the entire crowd is being penalized. Most of Gurgaon’s BPO crowd who reside in these areas are coming under a lot of mental stress now that there is growing uncertainty about their places of residence. This is another emerging factor of stress among one section of the BPO crowd.

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I believe increasingly these youngsters are losing their identity and because of this identity crisis that they are facing there’s a huge factor of stress is playing in their lives which comes alive in terms of doing things like smoking, drinking etc. The other thing that came alive incourse of my study was that these people are looking for acceptance…or they want to be accepted in a particular group of people and often do what it takes to be associated with “this wanted group”. This is something I would call Peer Group Pressure. There’s a constant conflict going on in the minds as to what is right and what is not and what should be done and what not. This also causes a huge amount of stress in their lives. The work environment one is working in also plays a huge role in creating stress in the lives of these people. Family pressure repeatedly telling them to do something far more constructive is also something a lot of them cannot take. The initial promise of the organization and the promise of the career fades and very soon the reality sets in. And I saw it through my study that for this reason more and more youth are quitting and getting back to further education. RECOMMENDATION But all said and done I believe and I realized that stress is not always something negative. It can be something positive and constructive as well. Since the BPOs mostly have relatively younger age group of employees, their energy and ideas can be put to better use by identifying their competencies and matching the same with the business goal. For example I would recommend something like  Organizations can organize something like “Young Leader” wherein a team of two or three people would work on a project and let the management decide the best idea and recognize new talent. I believe interactionwith the leadership would do well

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because most of the employees working in BPOs in India are in an age group when they are highly impressionable and what better way to create that impression than seeking a mentor beyond the immediate supervisor. The whole idea is to let the young minds think.  It is a fact that in India BPOs are not taken as serious career options and that is one of the reason why young people joining it leave it all the more soon. The most important thing therefore is for the industry to promote the same as a viable career option. NASSCOM, the governing body for the industry is off late making an attempt towards that direction. Such efforts should be done on a larger scale so as to promote the industry further. The key to this I believe is to create awareness among the general public because in India even now family/ parents are actively involved in taking decisions in respect of their children. So, it is important for them to have this awareness. Most of the stress which these youngsters face is on account of the pressure they face at home with respect to their jobs at the BPOs and it is this stress which culminates into bigger dimensions and leads to disillusionment among the young.  The BPO industry as a whole should come together and address the stress problem by conducting seminars and workshops for their employees.  All organizations should have a Counselling Desk wherein an in-house counselor counsels the employees on their career needs, problems in adjustment which may arise on account of the fact that most of the employees who work in the BPOs leave their home towns and come to various cities to work. This may act as an effective way to curb emotional stress.

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 Redefining the career paths and making the employees aware of the same. Trainings should be conducted which would enhance their skill sets beyond taking calls and develop their competencies to match the same against organizational goals.

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CONCLUSION

Stress adds flavor, challenge and opportunity to life. Without stress, life would be dull and unexciting. However, too much stress can seriously affect one’s physical and mental wellbeing. Recurrent physical and psychological stress can diminish selfesteem, decrease interpersonal and academic effectiveness and create a cycle of selfblame and self-doubt. It is important for one’s health that one should find the optimal level of stress that one can learn to manage effectively. Stress is unique and personal to each of us. What is relaxing to one person may be stressful to another. One person may find "taking it easy" at the beach relaxing while another may find it boring. The key to stress reduction is identifying strategies that fit one as an individual. Signs of Stress The best way to cope with unhealthy stress is to recognize when one’s stress levels are building. While we often think of stress as the result of external events, the events themselves are not necessarily stressful. It is the way in which each individual interprets and reacts to an event that produces stress. People vary significantly in the type of events they experience as stressful and the way that they respond to these events. Public speaking is a good example: while some people see it as routine, others experience it as highly stressful. Stress Signals Stress "signals" fall into four categories: thoughts, feelings, behavior and physical symptoms. When one is under stress one may experience-

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Feelings Anxiety, irritability, fear, moodiness, embarassment Thoughts Self-criticism, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, forgetfulness or mental disorganization, preoccupation with the future, repetitive thoughts, fear of failure. Behavioral Stuttering or other speech difficulties, crying, acting impulsively, nervous laughter, "snapping": at friends, teeth grinding or jaw clenching, increased smoking, alcohol or other drug use, being prone to more accidents, increased or decreased appetite. Physical Tight muscles, cold or sweaty hands, headaches, back or neck problems, sleep disturbances, stomach distress, more colds and infections, fatigue, rapid breathing or pounding heart, trembling, dry mouth. When one becomes consciously aware of the above factors stress becomes more manageable. For example if one experiences frequent neck problems or sleep disturbances along with fatigue it is only obvious that stress is at work. So, the best way to handle or counter stress is to become aware of stress ourselves and take actions for the same which can be by going to a doctor or taking a day or two off from work etc. How we decide to counter stress is completely our initiative. One option of course is to think that “all is wrong” and feel depressed while the other far more viable option would be to go for some exercise and workouts or learn music or dance etc and channelize that energy more constructively. I would recommend the second option.

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Further more I feel organizations would do well to accept the fact that their employees are stressed rather than try to undermine the same. While conducting this research I had the chance of interacting with quite a few HR managers who refused to acknowledge the fact that their employees are really stressed. This denial by organizations only adds to the problem all the more. Rather than denying that stress is existent if not rampant among its workforce accepting it and working towards it to reduce its impact on the employees as well as the business is more advisable. How that can happen would depend from one company to another. Half the battle is won if there is this acceptance and of course employees need to be educated about leading a more balanced life and also be made aware that stress is not something which is only externally created or needs an external stimulus. We as individuals also play a major role in creating stress and at an individual level we should be ready to accept the same. Going around stress would require the full fledged cooperation of both the organization as well as the employees. The need of the hour is to work together towards it rather than playing the blame game.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 US Department of labour and forrester, Journal.  All stressed up: St Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch  Hewitt Qaurterly: Journal Published on new HR practices  Managing Stress: An article of Nasscom  Case study published in Mc Kinsey Quarterly on Stress Management in India.  Stress relief article published by TCS (Tata Consultancy Services)  Website: •

InterGlobe Enterprise website

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EXL Website

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IBM Daksh Website

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GENPACT

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ANNEXURE Stress Management QUESTIONNAIRE FOR DISCUSSION Company Name: Respondent’s Name: Designation: Your identity and answers are confidential and will only be used for the purpose of a scholarly thesis on Stress Management. Your responses will not be submitted with the report. Q1. Is the environment safe, clean, and easy on the eye? Q2. Is it well laid out, with the things you need easy to find and get to? Q3. Is it as quiet as it needs to be? Q4. Is there a 'quiet room' for thinking / relaxation? Q5. Can individuals take a break every hour and a half or so (more frequently if doing intense keyboard and screen work, or hard physical labour)? Q7. Are working hours reasonable (no more than 8 hours a day, except in cases of dire need)? Q8. Do your work force know what is expected from them? Q9. Does the job allow your employees to do what they are best at? Q10. Do you know when your employees are doing a good job? Q11. Are your employees recognised as an individual? Q12. Do you feel your job is important? Q13. Are your employees learning and growing?

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