In any business, it’s important to invest in the wellness of your employees. However, this is particularly true for call centers. When your employees are healthy and happy, they can better handle the stresses of the job. This can lead to improved work performance and reduced turnover rates. Actually, the idea of corporate or workplace wellness is something that both companies and employees seem to be increasingly focused on, as evident by this article from Workforce. In this blog post, we’ll discuss why corporate wellness should be a priority for call center businesses. We’ll also look at some ways that you can improve employee wellness in your own call center. Even if wellness isn’t your thing, there’s no arguing the fact that happy and healthy employees can help drive the company forward.
A Long-Term Investment
Employee wellness is important in any career, but in call centers and other highly mentally and physically demanding environments, wellness should definitely be treated as a long-term investment. After all, these environments can be quite stressful. In a call center, for example, employees are typically expected to handle a high volume of calls while maintaining a positive attitude. This can be mentally and emotionally draining. And if an employee isn’t well-rested, they’re more likely to make mistakes or have difficulty concentrating.
There are some studies that suggest wellness programs can lead to significant cost savings for businesses. A wellness program at a large company was found to reduce health care costs by $240 per employee per year, while another study found that wellness programs can result in a return-on-investment of up to six dollars for every dollar spent.
Any desk job worker deserves balance and healthy practices. It’s a combination of mental and social skills, held in place by physical and mental endurance. Taxing at all levels, it’s no wonder Fast Company reveals that the average turnover rate for call centers is a high 33% – and an even higher 70% for call centers with upwards of 1000 working agents. To combat those turnover rates, wellness (amongst many other factors like leadership, workplace culture, and salary) shows promising results when applied in real-life settings.
Wellness at Work
Corporate wellness company, Tenacity, is focusing on facilitating collaborations and promoting habits that can help employees to avoid burning out. Forbes got in touch with Tenacity CEO Ron Davis to probe their methods of promoting wellness in this traditionally stressful work environment. In a nutshell, their approach involves leveraging the technology that’s already widely available in call centers and using them to form scalable strategies focused on employee wellness. This includes an app for guided deep breathing exercises as well as encouraging at least moderate exercise in employees. In Tenacity’s pilot program for a $30 billion telecom company, it only took three months for these methods to reduce turnover by two-thirds. Considering typical turnover rates for call centers, the program is highly promising in terms of promoting call center employee wellness and increasing employee retention.
Other Wellness Strategies
Aside from deep breathing exercises, there are many ways to improve employee wellness in a call center business. One way is to offer wellness programs that encourage healthy behavior. For example, you could offer discounts on gym memberships or healthy food options in the company cafeteria. You could also hold regular wellness days where employees can participate in activities like yoga or massages. These activities can help reduce stress and promote relaxation.
By improving the lives of its stressed employees, call centers can also expect to improve the way they do business. Employee wellness is more than just a fad. As the evidence shows, it’s essential to good business. We love to hear from you–What wellness initiatives have you had the most success implementing?
