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Are
You Taking Care of Your Employees?
By
Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D., President of Human Technologies
Global, Inc.
A
recent NIOSH study report that
-
more than 50% of employees view job stress as a major problem in their lives – double from a decade ago
-
$300 + billion in absenteeism, burnout, etc. – up from $200 = just 10 years ago according to the American Institute of Stress
-
85% of corporate executives don’t use all the time off they’re entitled to.
Are you one of these statistics?
More specifically, it’s reported that customer service/technical support positions are one of the 10 most stressful jobs in America today. As a matter of fact, 45% of all manager and 75% of all workers say “my job causes me stress.” Do you agree?
A recent survey done by CCH a provider of human resources and employment law information released its 2005 CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey with interesting results. It found that only 35% of unscheduled absences are due to illness. What’s the other 65% you ask?
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21% family issues
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18% personal needs
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14% entitlement mentality
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12% stress
Further it’s estimated that employee absenteeism costs companies $660 per employee per year, up from $610 in 2004. And, low morale continues to take its toll in higher costs and rates of absence.
On the other hand, a new word (at least to me) “presenteeism”—when a sick employee comes to work—is a concern for 48% of the companies in this survey.
What are companies doing? This survey found that 67% of companies have programs for work-life balance, absence-control programs (leave for school functions), alternate work arrangements, etc. as compared to 16% in the past.
I don’t necessarily agree with this. I believe, and have the case study to support it—The Impact of Conflict Management Training on Customer Service Delivery (in partial fulfillment of my doctoral degree)--that if you:
1. Provide customer service skills training and increase employee’s skill sets
2. Give employees the tools and techniques to handle the stress, morale, and entitlement mentality
3. And acknowledge their worth to you by investing in them
then these numbers will notably decrease, morale will significantly increase, as will productivity and customer satisfaction.
When you take great care of your employees, they take great care of your customers.
About
the Author
Rosanne
D'Ausilio, Ph.D., industrial psychologist, President
of Human Technologies Global, Inc., specializes in human
performance management for contact centers, providing needs
analyses, instructional design, and customized, live, world
class customer service skills trainings.
Known as 'the practical champion of the human, she authors the best-sellers, Wake Up Your Call Center: Humanize Your Interaction Hub, 4th edition, Customer Service and The Human Experience and Lay Your Cards on the Table: 52 Ways to Stack You Personal Deck, and hot off the press How to Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch: 101 Insider Tips as well as her popular ‘tips’ newsletter on How To Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch! available at http://www.HumanTechTips.com. Reach her at Rosanne@human-technologies.com.
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