QUALITY OF LIFE OF CALL CENTER EMPLOYEES IN INDIA

Changes Via Education

Ananda Mitra

Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, U.S.A.

Keywords: Call Center, Training, Web.

Abstract: This paper reports on a qualitative study conducted in the summer of 2007 in Delhi, India where nearly 60

call center employees were interviewed in focus group settings to evaluate issues related to the quality of

life of the workers. The findings suggest that a this scenario presents an opportunity to develop Web-based

training tools for process and culture training of the workers to ensure that they remain with their job and

improve the quality of the work experience. Based on the data collected, one of the key opportunities is to

develop Web-based training tools that will allow for better acculturation of the employees.

1 INTRODUCTION

This paper focuses on a specific and unique work

environment that has minimal to no training for its

employees. Yet the work environment requires

training, and the workers are well accustomed to the

Internet and the Web. The paper offers developers

of Web-based training tools an opportunity to

consider how tools could be developed to address

the unique circumstances described here.

The advent of inexpensive and reliable Internet-

and satellite-based telephone technology allows

private enterprise in the US and Western Europe to

transfer a significant part of their phone service

operations to India and China (Davies, 2004;

Kobayashi-Hillary, 2004). Nasscom estimates that

by 2008, 1,000,000 will be employed in Indian call-

centers (Varma & Sasikumar, 2004), and others

estimate 2,830,000 by 2008 (Pathak, 2004). Reliable

data on the number of call-center employees and

Western entities using them are lacking, but back-

office companies in India are currently estimated to

export approximately $3.6 billion worth of services

annually. The people working in this industry often

come with a basic high school diploma and are at a

point where they have had minimal work experience

or higher education. This study demonstrates that

there is a significant need for education for this

population of workers and several computer

mediated systems can be used to help train the

employees for a better quality of work and quality of

life. To begin with, it is useful to consider the way

in which outsourcing has been the key motivator for

the needs for training and educating the new class of

workers.

2 BACKGROUND

Outsourcing has two significant outcomes. First, a

new class of employees is developing in India. Some

data suggest that typical Indian call-center

employees are urban, evenly distributed between

men and women, usually in their 20s, with annual

salaries ranging from $4000-$6000 (Pathak, 2004;

Naughton, 2006); 90% are college graduates or

postgraduates (Naughton, 2006). They usually do

not remain in the business very long; call-centers

experience employee turnover at a rate of 75%-

100% every year (Mann, Bindra, & Lister, 2004;

Scheiber, 2004).

Second, given the need for real-time direct

interaction, the workers’ conditions must match

those of customers, and they must have a cultural

orientation similar to the customers’. Like people

who have to move from one country to another to

find employment, the technological diaspora

produces a sense of displacement (Brazziel and

Mannur, 2003; Sheffer, 2003) and other kinds of

stress.

Western companies generally assume that

customers feel more comfortable interacting with

support personnel who are acculturated to the West.

Strategies for workers, such as adopting a new name

185

Mitra A. (2009).

QUALITY OF LIFE OF CALL CENTER EMPLOYEES IN INDIA - Changes Via Education.

In Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business, pages 185-190

DOI: 10.5220/0002170701850190

 SciTePress

or a different accent, remaining up-to-date with the

customers’ popular culture, and generally hiding

their own nationality, are common (Dudley, 2004),

yet evidence suggests that customers are still

dissatisfied with foreign workers’ service (McPhate,

2005). Systematic research exploring customers’

perceptions is lacking, but workers report that

customers can become hostile and abusive as soon

as they realize that the service provider is foreign. In

addition, because call-center work must respond to

customer needs, hours are adjusted to suit customers.

In India, most call-centers operate from late evening

to early morning because of the 5-10 hour difference

between India, Western Europe, and the United

States (Joseph, 2002). Emerging research and media

reports indicate that the odd hours, self-effacing

acculturation strategies, subjection to customer

abuse, and diasporic lifestyle have had characteristic

consequences for call-center employees, but to date,

no reliable, systematic data have been gathered or

analyzed on this increasing practice. Eventually,

these conditions all potentially bear on the quality of

life of call-center workers.

Quality of life is a contested construct, and the

heterogeneity of Indian society complicates

developing a definition. Moreover, the unique

conditions of call-center work also challenge the

useful application of existing definitions, as

demonstrated by a survey on the industry in North

America (Batt, et al., 2003). Some researchers have

focused on emotional exhaustion as a key factor in

call-center workers’ quality of life (e.g., Deery, et

al., 2002). Media reports about call-center

employees in India also address the emotional

component, which, in the Indian scenario, is related

to family, religion, language, gender, loss of

indigenous culture, and the influence of the West on

Indian culture. This project will base its definition of

quality of life on these constructs and develop the

focus-group protocol and the questionnaire on this

definition.

While several studies have dealt with the

economic impact (e.g., Grossman and Helpman,

2003; Hummel, et al. 1998) of call centers, few have

sought to systematically measure and to understand

their other impacts discussed earlier which is vital to

making effective recommendations for worker well-

being. To begin that process, the various

components and extent of the problem must be

measured by placing them within a conceptual

framework that would have sufficient heuristic value

to address some of the issues that are being faced by

call center employees and could be faced in the

future.

The conceptual framework of the study

described here is derived by looking at the call-

center work experience through the lens of diaspora

studies. There are many important and striking

similarities between the experiences of the

traditionally diasporic and those working in call-

centers. Typically, the diasporic condition has been

considered to be a political, social and cultural issue

and the scholarship has considered the diasporic

condition from the perspectives of race, oppression,

otherness and similar concerns. In the case of the

call-center employees the research has focused on

the issue from economic and psychiatric

perspectives because a key component of diaspora –

movement from one place to another – is absent in

the case of the call-center workers. In this study it is

argued that people now live in a technological

environment where experiences that mimic the

diasporic condition can be produced in the absence

of physical movement. Assuming that a core

component of the diasporic condition is the crisis

related to culture where the individual has to be able

to adopt a new culture either by completely

relinquishing another or by striking a balance

between two, it is surely possible that such situations

can arise in the new spaces call-center workers dwell

in. Eventually this condition leads to having to

negotiate a new identity when experiencing

electronic diaspora (e-diaspora). In the case of e-

diaspora that identity negotiation is only temporary

since the e-diasporic experience is not all

encompassing. The e-diasporic experience is an

incomplete process because the interaction, and all

the cultural baggage of the interaction, is interrupted

the moment the person is off the phone and has

walked out from the Westernized environment of the

call-center into the early morning streets of

Bangalore. In some ways this results in the e-

diasporic having to shape themselves and their

environments in different ways so the duality of

their existence can be managed. This is a much

greater challenge for the e-diasporic because their

lived experience remains very foreign from their e-

diasporic work place. The very fact that their most

busy time of work is at an unusual time poses some

interesting challenges. For those who move from

one country to another and thus experience the

diasporic condition, the quality of life is related to

the rhythm of life in the country they are in. For the

call-center worker living in e-diaspora the

experience is markedly different as noted here: “It is

10.45pm, and in the dark streets outside preparations

are being made for Diwali, the Hindu festival of

light, but EXL works to English rhythms and even

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186

training sessions are conducted according to London

time (Gentleman, 2005).” To these workers it is far

important to be aware of events such as the

American Super Bowl or the weather in Leeds to be

able to do their job. In many ways their e-diasporic

condition becomes more challenging because their

real surroundings never change but every night they

are virtually somewhere else and struggling to fit in.

To be sure, this e-diasporic work center can have

profound impacts on the call enter worker.

A significant component of the e-diaspora

experience is learning to become a person of another

culture. In the case of the traditional diasporic

experience, the learning component is achieved via

an immersive process where the new comers become

acculturated through engagement in the real life

cultural practices of the host system. The learning

opportunity through cultural engagement is

completely absent in the case of the e-diaspora

experience. In this case, the learning is obtained by

computer mediated processes where the call center

workers need to immerse themselves in a virtual

space produced around the Web-based and similar

discourses that result in the dissolution of real spaces

by allowing the learner to engage with the practices

of a new culture by a cybernetic process. In this

process, the call center employee remains embedded

in one real space while learning about another real

space via the digital representation of the other

space. This living in e-diaspora is significantly

influenced by the amount of time spent by the

workers in the cybernetic space defined via web-

based interactions. Many of the acculturation

processes, like learning about specific client sets, is

accomplished by visiting Wed sites about the

client’s cultural milieu. However, there is little

evidence that the web is being used in a significant

way to manage the-diaphonic identity which is

primarily produced by a digital discursive manner.

This creates an interesting set of impacts on the

people being acculturated.

The impact is related to the fact that the

successful operation of call-centers in India depends

on the cultural competence and morale of the phone

operators, who, in an e-diasporic condition, work

outside their country, while living in it (Mitra,

2006a, 2006b, in press). Ongoing, systematic

evaluation of the acculturation processes and the

workers’ quality of life is urgently needed to

formulate training and professional development

opportunities to benefit them and to help call-centers

operate efficiently. This leads to the following

research questions:

1. What are the critical acculturation

2. processes that call-center employees

experience?

2. What are the critical effects of

acculturation strategies?

3. What methods can be developed to address

these effects?

This study tackles some of the questions through

a pilot project conducted in Delhi, India.

3 METHOD

The study was conducted as a series of focus group

meetings in Delhi in the summer of 2007. An

independent research organization based in Delhi

was utilized to recruit focus group participants

drawn from current and past employees of call

centers in the Delhi area. The key criterion used in

the selection process was that the participant had to

have some degree of experience in working in call

centers where the employee had direct contact with a

Western customer. A total of 43 people participated

in the four hour-long focus groups sessions. The

participants were offered a small gift at the end of

the meeting as well light snacks and transportation

to and from the meeting places. The participants

included people in the ages ranging from 18 to 41

and about equal number of men and women. The

focus groups were moderated with a standard

protocol that consisted of the following items:

• Elaboration of the specific training and

acculturation methods used by call-centers to

prepare phone operators for their work, especially

name change, language modification, accent

management, and immersion in digital discourses

related to the client’s culture, etc.

• Probe the effects of working in call centers in

terms of quality of life issues.

• Probe specific ways to resolve some of the

tensions produced by acculturation and diasporic

conditions.

The information gathered from the focus group

meetings are reported here and the information from

the focus groups was also used to conduct a

questionnaire using a Web-based data collection

method.

4 RESULTS

The focus group members indicated several different

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methods that were utilized by the call center industry

to train the employees to mimic the cultural

attributes of the customers. These methods include:

 Pronunciation training to ensure that the

call center employees would neutralize their heavy

Indian accent into a more Standard English accent

that would camouflage the ethnicity of the

employee. These included details like training to

“roll the r’s” so as to make sure the phonemes were

correctly enunciated. In some cases the training

would be provided by Westerners but in general the

training was done by senior members of the call

center. The members indicated that the training was

not sufficient. The process was facilitated by

directing the employees to listen to digital video

sites providing language training as well as other

Web-based resources that show how the client

culture speaks.

 Names of the call center employees would

be changed to Western-sounding names so that the

customers would not be greeted with a non-familiar

name.

 The employees would receive some

amount of “cultural training” to familiarize them

with the customs and practices of the customers, this

would make extensive use of Web-based resources

that provide background information of specific

places.

 Call center employees would be

encouraged to familiarize themselves with the

popular media products of the West so that they

would be aware of the key popular cultural practices

of the customers much of which is available via

digital video resources.

The participants also indicated that they spend a

significant amount of their time “surfing the Web”

when they are at work. This is related to the fact that

they have greater access to fire tools required to be

connected and utilize that fact.

Most of the participants agreed that there was a

lack of sufficient training to acculturate them to the

Western practices. At the same time, there was an

expectation that the call center employees would be

able to operate as “Westerners” when they were on

the phone with the customer. One of the participants

said, “You have to be a Westerner when working in

the office.” The discussions suggested that those

who are able to acculturate themselves better than

others were often rewarded by the employers. There

was also some concern that the call center

employees were more concerned with maintaining

their accent than ensuring that the customer’s

specific questions were resolved.

The findings also suggest that working in call

centers lead to a set of issues related to the everyday

life of the workers. There was general agreement

that some of the main effects include:

 A sense of separation from the general

social milieu because of the “graveyard shift”

working hours which led to the need to rest during

normal day-time socializing periods. Much of the

eventual socialization was manufactured through

instant messaging, social networking methods and

other digital interaction tools.

 Development of a sense of community

among call center employees because of the

similarities in life-style with some of the

relationships becoming romantic connections and

some resulting in marriages. Here too the people

used existing digital methods such as Facebook,

MySpace and Orkut to create a sense of community.

 Concern over the negative representation

of the call center job in the popular media with

newspapers and television in India creating a

negative image of the workers and the workplace.

These impressions often take on a “viral” component

with reports about the call center workers circulating

in cyberspace.

 Behavioral problems particularly related to

increased use of tobacco and alcohol. The job is

perceived to be a “high stress” work based on the

demands of acculturation as well as the fact that

“target reaching” was one of the key metrics to

measure performance. The employees feel a need to

“release the stress” and often turn to substance abuse

as a method of release.

 An increased “Westernization” of the

people because of the need to be acculturated with

the customers. One of the upshots of the

Westernization was the increased material

consumption among call center employees partly

because of the increased economic affluence at a

relatively young age.

 The call center employees felt that the job

was offering them an opportunity to improve their

communication skills which could be a valuable

asset for future employment in other industries.

Overall, even though there were concerns about

the job, the participants felt that the call center

employment was providing a positive experience for

them. This was related to the primary motivation for

taking the job – earning a relatively large amount of

money at a very young age. The average pay of the

call center employee is considerably higher than

what a person of similar age and qualifications

would earn in other industries in India. At the same

time, the increased access to money has also led to

altered consumption patterns that are similar to what

would be seen amongst the Western culture. The

respondents indicated that the money they earned

from their job was rarely used for saving for the

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future or to support a family. Instead the money was

spent in obtaining material goods ranging from

electronic gadgets to motorcycles and cars, to

designer clothes and accessories. The money was

also used for entertainment and leisure activities

such as going on trips, throwing expensive parties,

and frequently eating at restaurants and drinking at

pubs.

The participants in the focus group meetings also

indicated that their work conditions could be

improved by making some changes to the way in

which the industry operated. These suggestions

included:

 Allowing the workers to use their real

names as opposed to the Westernized names. The

name change was considered burdensome by many

of the participants.

 Allowing the workers to speak in their

own accent as long as the customer was able to

understand them. Most participants felt that the

ability to “speak naturally” would allow them to

concentrate on the process issues related to their job

without being preoccupied with maintaining an

accent.

 Better regulation of the industry with

greater assurances of security of employment, better

benefits, and the availability of health insurance.

These changes would attract more people to the

industry and reduce the negative popular image of

the industry.

5 DISCUSSION

The finding from this study indicate that a sub-

culture of people is developing within India who feel

disconnected from their actual place of dwelling

because of the requirements of their place of work.

On the other hand, these workers feel that they need

education and training to become better workers to

serve their clients better. The industry is

increasingly relying on the use of digital tools, from

the cell-phone based communication methods to

digital representation of the client’s culture, to

acculturate, educate and train the employees. These

methods need better management and delivery so

that the issues faced by the employees can be tackled

more effectively to reduce the reported stress and

quality of life issues faced by the workers. This is

where the Web offers some significant opportunists.

As suggested earlier the call center employees

are usually well connected to the Web. They spend a

good amount of time on the Web and are

technologically adept. They are also often employed

by corporations that have a high degree of

technological competence. As the data from this

study suggests, a primary need for call center

employees is better training and education with

specific foci as discovered in this study. Further

exploration could be used to develop Web-based

training tools that allow the employees to be better

acculturated and be able to interact with other

similar workers thus developing a Web-based

learning community which not only assists the

workers but also allows for the development of a

social network for the e-diasporic.

Many of the issues pointed out by the

participants are reminiscent of what migrant workers

would experience as they went through the diasporic

condition of living and working in a place that was

not their own. There are numerous studies that show

that the immigrant communities rely of Wet-based

tools to create a sense of community as well as use

the Web to become acculturated to the new place. In

the case of the call center employee the matter is

complicated by the fact that there is no movement of

the people and there is no immersion in the culture

in which they work. The acculturation has to

happen in a surrogate manner with the use of trainers

and digital tools. Among those tools, The Web

offers one of the best options because it can be used

for immersive training where the worker can

periodically obtain trains about the cultural they

have to work in since such tracing is particularly

critical for these employees. Simultaneously, the

call center workers have to negotiate a dual identity

where their everyday practices need to be balanced

between the expectations of the culture of where

they live and the culture where they work. Loss of

this balance could result in harmful behavior which

is evident in the increased incidence of substance

abuse.

These issues need a more broad-based

examination. As such, a questionnaire was

developed to do Web-based data collection from a

large cross-section of call center employees. That

data obtained from the questionnaires would throw

more light on the way in which there could be

variations in perception and behavior based on

demographic attributes of the call center employees.

It is important to continue to collect that data to have

a better sense of the quality of life of the employers

and to develop specific training – both in real life

and in virtual space - to ensure that the employers

are better able to cope with their e-diasporic

experience.

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189

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