BPO employees are an essential but often unseen part of a company’s success. A study published in August 2022 stated that using BPO companies for certain tasks allows businesses to reduce costs, improve processes and methodologies, gain access to new markets, and ultimately remain competitive (1).
Unfortunately, despite the continued and growing reliance on BPO, many of these employees don’t have adequate support for their well-being or mental health and sometimes work in less than ideal conditions (2). These factors ultimately affect BPO performance, which affects the customer base and BPO employers.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the quiet cost of neglected BPO team wellness at work and signs that your outsourced employees are suffering from poor team wellness at work, in addition to providing tips to help improve their wellness.
Burnout syndrome is defined as an individual response to chronic work stress that develops progressively and can eventually become chronic, causing health alterations (3).
A person who experiences this syndrome can experience damage at a cognitive, emotional, and attitudinal level, which translates into negative behavior toward work, peers, users, and the professional role itself.
Generally, burnout is believed to be caused by two main factors:
Regardless of the cause of burnout, the cost of burnout is real and will negatively affect an employee’s mental health and general physical health and could even affect their work, potentially leading to job dissatisfaction, increased absenteeism, reduced performance, and low motivation (3). All of these are factors that will eventually affect the company’s bottom line.
So, how does the BPO work process cause burnout?
According to two studies published in 2019 and 2023 that looked at the risk factors and mental health stress factors in BPO workers from the Philippines and India, researchers found that BPO work can be incredibly stressful for these workers, leading to a decline in mental well-being in the workplace.
The noted causes of stressors in the BPO work process include (4, 5)
BPO work, particularly call center jobs, requires interactions with disgruntled and irate customers who can be rude to workers. The challenge to remain resilient in the face of the anger and hostility of customers can slowly chip away at employees and lead to burnout over time.
BetterMe provides members with tailored plans that are based on their unique physical, psychological, and lifestyle needs and health goals. Start using BetterMe corporate wellness solutions to transform your team and business!
While some BPO workers work remotely in quiet environments, others, particularly those who work on-site, don’t have this luxury. Loud and distracting environments make it harder for workers to do their jobs peacefully and effectively, which adds to their daily stress.
These can come from the worker who hopes to do a good job, customer expectations and work targets, and even conflicting demands of the company, BPO managers, co-workers, and customers.
This ties in with the above point. Workers work in less than ideal conditions that put the bottom line or BPO performance above the well-being of the employee. This can lead to a quality/quantity conflict. Should the worker do their best to fully help a customer – which may take longer – or should they do the bare minimum, allowing them to serve as many customers as possible?
This type of work is rather intense. Irate customers, never-ending demands from different fronts, long work hours, high targets, and working nights (largely due to time differences) can lead to never-ending stress both to the mind and body.
The consequences of ignoring the mental health and physical well-being of these employees due to the above factors will eventually lead to burned-out workers.
Read more: How to Validate a New Perk Before Adding It to Your Employee Benefits Program
Not necessarily. Remote BPO agents face largely the same risks as those that are faced by workers in traditional work settings, particularly when working with rude customers and/or bad employers/managers.
With that being said, remote workers are at a higher risk of increased feelings of isolation and reduced work-life balance. As an employer or manager of a remote BPO worker, you could help such an employee by stressing the importance of a work-life balance.
Setting better work hours and managing targets and expectations can go a long way to reducing stressors at work and the risk of burnout.
Some tell-tale signs that your BPO team is suffering from poor team wellness include:
If you’re constantly having to employ new people because people keep leaving, this could mean that your employee conditions aren’t up to par.
If workers who were previously enthusiastic about work and used to perform very well are suddenly experiencing decreased performance, chances are that they’re not lazy.
It could be that the workplace culture or even your BPO rules and regulations for employees have worn them down to the point that they no longer find any joy or satisfaction in their work.
Re-evaluating your rules and regulations and introducing fun activities for BPO employees could help increase their job satisfaction, which could also increase performance.
No one enjoys going to a place where they constantly feel pressured, bullied, stressed, or undervalued. If you notice that employees are often absent, this could be a sign that there’s an underlying factor that needs to change.
When workers are unhappy, they’re more likely to give bad service to customers, which can lead to more bad reviews and complaints. Take a look at what the issue may be and see if you can implement some employee well-being programs.
These are listed as some of the most common mental health symptoms that are seen in BPO workers (5). They are largely caused by intense work pressure and dealing with irate customers.
Experts have stated that this can ultimately lead to depersonalization, a condition where an employee no longer sees their coworkers and customers as people and only views them as objects (6).
Using a combination of healthy motivational techniques and wellness tips for employees could help them feel more connected to their work, coworkers, and customers, which could ultimately increase concentration and work enthusiasm.
This could mean that the workers are stressed or experiencing other work-related mental health issues that affect their ability to work well. Improving mental well-being in the workplace and improving work-life balance can help fix this issue.
Yes, it can. All the studies mentioned in this article show that BPO workers are at a high risk of mental stress from their jobs, which can lead to a multitude of personal and work-related issues. Improved workflow can help reduce some of the stresses your employees face, which will do wonders for their mental health, their performance, and your bottom line.
The ignorance of well-being in BPO teams could be due to factors such as stigma against the subject, a lack of awareness of the importance of mental well-being and how it affects performance and productivity, a lack of time due to high work and target demands, a lack of resources directed to mental wellness, or even a lack of leadership that cares about mental health, making it difficult for workers to care or make time for the same.
Poor team wellness in BPO employees can lead to both financial and non-financial costs. Financial costs include:
Non-financial costs include a loss of reputation, which can inadvertently lead to a loss of revenue, difficulty attracting top talent, increased customer complaints, poor communication within teams, and damaged company culture.
Rather than waiting to see the negative effects of the lack of well-being in BPO workers, it’s best to address the situation before it starts by implementing preventive measures.
As mentioned above, the main pain points and everyday struggles of many BPO call center employees include high stress levels, burnout, poor engagement, and high attrition. If these problems aren’t addressed, it can lead to a loss of employees, which increases business costs in rehiring and retraining new personnel.
In cases where employees don’t quit outright, the above-mentioned stressors can increase employee absenteeism, which in itself is a business loss. To calculate how much employee absenteeism costs you, it’s recommended to use the Houtzagers formula (7):
The above abbreviations stand for:
This formula can help give you a clear cost estimate of how much the absenteeism of your call center agents costs you per day.
Read more: How to Encourage Work-Life Balance During Midsummer Holidays
To avoid the above issues and costs caused by absenteeism, finding a way to take care of and improve the mental well-being of your workers will go a long way. An accessible wellness program is one of the best ways to prevent such losses while also taking care of your employees.
Industry experts have shown that wellness programs help reduce the enormous healthcare costs that come from stressful work conditions and they can also help significantly reduce absenteeism and employee attrition (8, 9).
A digital wellness program is a simple solution that puts a psychological right in the hands (and pockets) of your employees. It gives them 24/7 access to a mental health professional, whether at home or at the office, allowing them to receive help whenever they need it.
When your teams are well taken care of, they’re more likely to experience job satisfaction and reduced work stress, anxiety, and other negative issues that are caused by toxic workplaces. This will help make them more patient, empathetic, and willing to help, regardless of the customer’s issue. A happy employee provides helpful customer support, which ultimately leads to happy and satisfied customers.
You can do this by implementing well-being factors such as work-life balance, flexible work hours, or work arrangements, in addition to creating an overall positive work environment and setting clear, achievable goals and milestones. If your workers have clear directions, good management, and feel seen, heard, and understood, chances are they’ll be efficient, productive, and loyal to you and your company goals.
Factors such as employee absenteeism, wellness program utilization, surveys to evaluate employee satisfaction, the health of workers, and turnover rates are all metrics that can help you see whether your wellness program is working or not.
There’s no shortcut to launching a successful BPO wellness program. A good program that will work requires you to:
Stressors such as the need for a work-life balance, long work hours, a lack of career growth opportunities, job security, inadequate training, bullying and harassment from managers, and high performance targets are often ignored in favor of the bottom line.
Yes, they can. If the team is overworked, schedule tweaks that allow for fewer and more flexible work hours can help improve wellness through work-life balance.
It’s best to evaluate your team’s wellness every few months to see how well they’re coping with work demands.
Are you looking to transform both your business and the lives of your team members? BetterMe corporate wellness solutions provide a holistic approach to physical and mental health that boosts productivity and job satisfaction.
The quiet cost of neglected BPO teams at work can lead to huge losses for both the company and neglected workers. To avoid this, it’s best to implement wellness programs that serve the needs of the workers and foster a positive work environment on all fronts. This will help your company’s image and allow everyone to perform at their peak, which is great for both customer satisfaction and your bottom line.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not serve to address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on for making any kind of decision-making. Any action taken as a direct or indirect result of the information in this article is entirely at your own risk and is your sole responsibility.
BetterMe, its content staff, and its medical advisors accept no responsibility for inaccuracies, errors, misstatements, inconsistencies, or omissions and specifically disclaim any liability, loss or risk, personal, professional or otherwise, which may be incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and/or application of any content.
You should always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of BetterMe content. If you suspect or think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor.