Dealing with Stress

[operat01]

I have been managing very big technical call centers for some time now. There are alot of common topics whatever the nature of the call center is. Dealing with stress... Considering most of the call centers are out-sourced, the SLA's CSAT's etc are very sharp and hard to reach. Depending on the supported products and variety, reaching the SLA's can be more harder. It is a well known fact that on the way to reach these SLA's (first priorety) we the managers tend to neglect agent motivation. We are so much preoccupied with numbers and stats, we don't really think about the most important assets-- the agents... I find it most diffucult part is to build up a team and implement the team work & sprit. It took me some some time to single out the ones that they have burned out due to the nature of the job and find the replacements. I am paying extra attention to listen these people and their problems, keep reminding myself that they are made of flesh and bones. When I listen to them I have realized that the stress level in the team decreased considerably. Not just because I have listened to them, but I have taken an action to fill the blank spots. Yes some of these actions take time, however I have also noticed that as soon as they see I am following up on it, they now that it will be done. I haven't given specific examples of the nature of the stress since there are many. I guess first and the foremost important thing is to keep reminding ourselves that I need to make time and listen to them.
Regards,
Erdem