Factors influencing absenteeism and intention ... - Wiley Online Library

New Technology, Work and Employment 22:3 ISSN 0268-1072

Factors influencing absenteeism and intention to leave in a call centre René Schalk and Adriënne van Rijckevorsel Personal, job, as well as contract characteristics and workplace attitudes were related to frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave of call centre employees. Frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave were found to be mainly influenced by contract characteristics and workplace attitudes, while job characteristics and personal characteristics were less important.

Introduction Well-documented features of call centres are the standardised automation technology used (Taylor and Bain, 1999), and the high level of contingent employee contracts (De Grip et al., 1997). Both the job characteristics associated with call centre work, as well as the predominant type of contracts have been assumed to be related to the high rates of absenteeism and intention to leave in call centres. Our study puts this assumed relationship to a test by examining the influence of job characteristics, type of contract, and employee attitudes on frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave in a selected call centre. First, we describe the general development and characteristics of call centres, followed by a description of the labour market context of the Dutch call centre sector and the specific characteristics of the call centre in which this study took place. After that, we will elaborate the research question and the design of the study. A growing number of organisations are using call centres as a means of communicating directly with their customers (Anton, 1997; Dawson, 1998; De Ruyter and

René Schalk ([email protected]) holds the special chair in Policy and Aging in the Department of Organization Studies at Tilburg University in the Netherlands His research focuses on complexity and dynamics in organisations, with a special focus on the psychological contract, international differences, and policy and aging. Adriënne van Rijckevorsel ([email protected]) is manager of the Customer Contact Center of a large bank in the Netherlands. At the time of the study she was manager of the call centre of the insurance company in which the study was done. © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA, 02148, USA

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Wetzels, 2000) managing customer complaints and maintaining customer loyalty (Pontes and O’Brien Kelly, 2000). A distinction can be made between ‘in-house’ and ‘subcontractor’ call centres in which the former handle customer contacts for their organisation, whereas subcontractor call centres provide services to other organisations. Call centre ‘agents’ (the employees) are the heart of a call centre and perform the telephonic conversations with customers. The success of call centre operations depends on how the advanced technology is linked with a client-centred attitude among management and agents (Cowles and Crosby, 1990). The yearly growth rate of the number of call centres is estimated at about 40–50 per cent (Kleemann and Matuschek, 2002). As a consequence, the share of call centre employees in employment is becoming substantial. It is estimated, for example, that in the Netherlands in 2004, approximately 2.5 per cent of the working population were employed in call centres (De Grip et al., 2005), which is the second highest percentage in Europe, after Ireland (De Grip et al., 2006). In the USA, call centres employ about 3 per cent of the workforce (Deery and Kinnie, 2004). Call centres mostly use standardised procedures and processes based on (standardised) information technology software. Characteristic for call centre technology is the automation of the interaction with the customer by means of systems such as Voice Response Units (VRU, using recorded messages), Interactive Voice Response systems (IVR, customers interact with the information system via telephone keys), and speech recognition systems (enabling two-way communication between the computer and the customer using synthetic speech messages). Many organisations using call centre technology perceive call centre work as knowledge-intensive, and thus requiring skilled employees. Call centres are seen as an important source of competitive advantage (Dobbins, 1996) through ensuring better service to, and maintaining direct contact with, clients and customers; this is done to achieve greater efficiency and to realise a reduction of costs. There is usually a strong emphasis on planning and scheduling, related to the characteristics of the work processes, which often requires 24-hour working. The organisational need for flexibility in adapting to the changing needs of customers (especially fluctuations in demands for services) requires that special attention is paid to personnel planning and internal communication. In addition, much attention is needed for the effectiveness and quality of the services that have to be delivered. Therefore, call centre agents are trained to (further) develop their communication skills and in the use of information technology and call centre managers consider both transaction speed and the quality of the service delivered to the customer as important (Batt, 1999). Call centres usually have a relatively high number of contingent workers, with flexible employment contracts. This flexibility is reflected in differences in type of contract (fixed or temporary), in differences in working hours (part-time/full-time), and in flexibility of working hours (e.g. a range between minimum and maximum numbers of working hours) (see, e.g. De Grip et al., 1997). The use of these atypical contracts is related to the need for flexibility in the deployment of staff because of (sometimes unpredictable) peaks in call volumes (Kalleberg, 2000). The use of standardised information technology frequently results in low job autonomy, and low levels of job scope and employee discretion (Hutchinson et al., 2000: 66). Work in call centres is considered highly repetitive, with work timing paced by electronic performance-monitoring systems (Bain and Taylor, 2000). The potential use of the information technology to control and monitor call centre agents is often critised (e.g. Fernie and Metcalf, 1998; Taylor and Bain, 1999; Callaghan and Thompson, 2002; Holman et al., 2002). Some authors (e.g. Hutchinson et al., 2000) have described this sector as ‘dark and satanic’. According to this view, call centres are panopticon-controlled organisations, where employees are closely monitored and controlled, resulting in ‘mass customized bureaucracy’ (Hutchinson et al., 2000: 66). Call centres are also classified as ‘electronic sweatshops’ offering only ‘dead-end jobs’ (Taylor et al., 2002; Deery and Kinnie, 2004). © 2007 The Authors Factors influencing Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

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An important question is whether the specific way of organising in call centres is causing problems for employees, reflected in their attitudes towards work and workrelated outcomes such as absenteeism, performance and turnover. Metz et al. (2001) analysed the situation with respect to mental workload in two call centres in Germany. They concluded that the decision latitude in these call centres was restricted, that employees had to carry out only partial and repeating activities and that they could not sufficiently use their professional competences. According to De Ruyter et al. (1999), the tension in call centre operations between, on the one hand, trying to achieve client satisfaction, and on the other hand, the emphasis on efficient operations (e.g. speedy and short telephone responses) can have a negative influence on employee satisfaction, commitment and performance. Von Pickartz and Van Stigt (2001) report the conclusions of a special project of Dutch unions, which examined the working conditions in call centres. They report that employees in call centres had many complaints about their working circumstances. Most complaints were related to high work pressure, bad supervision, too hot and badly ventilated working rooms, too little working space per person, long-lasting screen work, RSI complaints and acoustic shock (deafness as a result of exposure to too much noise). Several authors state that high levels of burnout seem to be almost inevitable for employees in a call centre (Cordes and Dougherty, 1993; Singh et al., 1994; Kleemann and Matuschek, 2002). Witt et al. (2004), however, in a study among 92 call centre customer service representatives, did find lower emotional exhaustion scores for employees who, on average, had high scores on number of calls being answered. Job commitment among call centre agents traditionally is considered as low (Rose, 2002), with a supposed effect on outcomes such as performance, service quality, absenteeism and turnover. Malhotra and Mukherjee (2004) found, in a study on 342 employees of four telephone call centres of a major UK bank, that job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees had a significant impact on the quality of service delivered. Call centres tend to have high absenteeism and turnover figures (see, e.g. Hutchinson et al., 2000; Kleemann and Matuschek, 2002). Of course, not all call centres are the same: there are, for example reports of successful implementation of high commitment management in a call centre in the UK (Hutchinson et al., 2000). There is some evidence that job characteristics of call centre work influence workrelated attitudes (Deery et al., 2004; Holman, 2004). Recently, Wegge et al. (2006) found support for the assumption that specific features of work, such as autonomy, would have an impact on job satisfaction. Based on data of 2,091 call centre agents working in 85 call centres in the UK, they found an influence on job satisfaction through the effect of this type of work on the arousal of emotions and moods at work. Korczynski (2002) describes the joint interaction of two opposing logics in call centre work: the need to be cost-efficient and the desire to be customer-oriented. Costefficiency is reflected in the job characteristics and the type of (flexible) contracts offered. In our view, job characteristics and the type of contract offered are core factors that influence work-related outcomes in a call centre. The aim of this study is to examine whether these factors, the characteristics of the job (related to the way the work process is organised, e.g. highly repetitive) and the type of contract offered by the organisation (e.g. temporary), influence frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave in a call centre. Our main question was whether frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave are mainly related to job characteristics or to personal characteristics (e.g. age and gender) and employee workplace attitudes (e.g. organisational commitment and well-being). We will first contextualise our study by describing the situation on the Dutch labour market for call centres and the setting of the specific call centre in which the study was done. Next, we will discuss the design of the study and describe briefly what has been found in the literature with respect to the relationship between our independent variables (job characteristics, characteristics of the contract, person characteristics and employee work-related attitudes) and our dependent variables (frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave). After that, the results will be presented, followed by the conclusions and a discussion of the findings. 262


© 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

The situation on the Dutch call centre labour market It was estimated that in the Netherlands in 2004, approximately 2.5 per cent of the working population was employed in call centres (De Grip et al., 2005). This is the second highest percentage in Europe, after Ireland (De Grip et al., 2006). Sieben and De Grip (2004)examined the labour market perspectives of call centre employees. Their study among 525 call centre employees in eight call centres in the Netherlands revealed that 22 per cent of the call centre agents thought that it would be (very) difficult to find an equally attractive job in the call centre sector, whereas 25 per cent thought that it would be (very) difficult to find such a job outside the sector. The labour market perspectives for call centre agents are considered to be limited by about a quarter of the call centre employees in the Netherlands. The work experience of agents has a positive effect on their labour market perspectives inside the call centre sector (Sieben and De Grip, 2004). There are quite large differences in employment conditions within the call centre sector in the Netherlands (De Grip et al., 2006). Call centre employees in in-house call centres in general have better employment conditions than their counterparts in subcontractor call centres. In the way negotiations between employer organisations and unions take place in the Netherlands, an explanation for these differences can be found. Employment conditions and fringe benefits of workers employed in in-house call centres usually are determined by a collective labour agreement (CLA), negotiated by employer and unions. CLAs protect call centre agents from being underpaid and exploited. In the subcontractor call centres, however, such a collective agreement was implemented for the first time as late as 2003 (De Grip et al., 2006).

The site The study was carried out at an in-house call centre of an insurance company in the Netherlands. One of the business units of this insurance company deals with the damages of private persons. This business unit employs 500 people. The business unit has two sectors, ‘sales’ and ‘service’. The call centre is part of the ‘service’ sector. The call centre was created five years before the study was done. It started with 25 employees and had 126 employees at the time of the study. By reason of this fast growth, most employees started working for the call centre in the last two years. Damage claims by customers are handled by the call centre employees and can be filed seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The process of filing damage claims is as follows: the customer reports the damage by telephone to the call centre. The damage claim advisor (call centre agent) receives the damage claim and starts the process of handling the claim. The customer is told immediately whether the damage can be claimed and what the possible further steps in the procedure will be. If possible, the damage claim is handled during the phone call, including payment of the damage. In Fernie’s (2004: 57) typology of call centres, this call centre can be labelled as ‘empowered’, which means that the agents have a certain degree of control over their work and are required to combine product knowledge with customer service skills. The management of work processes in the call centre requires a different approach to managing ‘normal’ office work processes. As the number of incoming calls always fluctuates, adjustments in quantitative (and qualitative) manpower continuously have to be made. When manpower is too low, the customer has a long waiting time and work pressure for the agents is high; too high manpower is, of course, inefficient. All activities have to be planned (telephone operations, education and work meetings); the call centre requires maximum organisation in order to ensure maximal flexibility. The aim of the insurance company is not just to pay the damage of the customer, but also to solve the customer’s problem. This means that the customer is offered financial compensation for the damage and an offer is made also to repair the damage (the insurance company cooperates with several other companies, with which they have agreements on costs for repairs). In principle, the client is trusted. Unless it is necessary, © 2007 The Authors Factors influencing Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd


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no repair accounts have to be handed in by customers although a sample of the damage claims is checked afterwards. In spite of the fact that there is great variety in the kinds of damages and the amount of money involved, the call centre handles about 70 per cent of the damage claims. The remaining 30 per cent goes directly to the back office. Incoming calls in the call centre are routed through an IVR system to ensure that an employee who possesses expertise on the specific type of damage handles the client’s phone call. Characteristic features of the processes and way of working in this call centre are:

•

Trying to continuously match quantitative and qualitative customer demands with the available workforce; understaffing leads to difficulties to be reached by phone by customers, and high work pressure for the agents; overstaffing is inefficient. Trying to deal with the fluctuating number of calls, which is whimsical. The telephone and technology regulate work; agents have only limited regulating power. Agents need to have knowledge on insurance issues and strong communication skills. There is a strong emphasis on uniformity in the way of working; customer files have to be updated in a standard way and every agent should be able to handle customer questions. There is a high degree of process-automation. All activities (telephone operating, education and training and work meetings) have to be planned. Call centre work asks for special regulations in HRM (remuneration policy, rosters and scheduling, working times, special contracts such as min-max contracts).

• • • • • • •

Absenteeism in this call centre is considered high. The absenteeism rate was 7.9 per cent in 1999 (maternity leave excluded) and the average frequency of absenteeism in 1999 was 2.4 times. In the previous years, turnover was very high (up to 35 per cent) and had decreased to 15 per cent in 1999. In the year 2000, this call centre was elected the ‘best quality call centre in the Netherlands’ by a panel of experts that evaluated and visited call centres in the Netherlands. The management style of the manager of the call centre has probably contributed to the decline in turnover rates and the attainment of this success in the election of best call centre.

Research design and hypotheses Figure 1 shows that we examine the influence of person characteristics, job characteristics, characteristics of the contract and employee work-related attitudes on the one hand on frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave on the other hand. Characteristics of the person There is much evidence that personal characteristics are related to frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave. Younger employees are usually more often absent and men are less likely to be absent from work than women (e.g. Warr and Yearta, 1995; Thompson et al., 2000). Higher-educated employees are usually less often absent. Employees with longer tenure are inclined to have a higher frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave (see, e.g. Robinson et al., 1994). Therefore, Hypothesis 1: Personal characteristics influence frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave.

Characteristics of the job Repetitiveness and low autonomy are considered to be characteristic of work in a call centre. These job characteristics are assumed to influence frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave (e.g. Bain and Taylor, 2000). Bakker et al. (2003) examined in a study among 477 employees working in the call centre of a telecom company the 264



Person characteristics Age Gender Education Job tenure

Work related outcomes

Job characteristics Autonomy Skill variety Identity Feedback

Frequency of absenteeism

Contract characteristics

Intention to leave

Focus Stability Full-time/Part-time Permanent/temporary

Work related attitudes Affective commitment Continuance commitment Normative commitment Well-being Carry-over

Figure 1: The influence of person, job and contract characteristics, and work-related attitudes on work-related outcomes

hypothesis that job demands would be the most important predictors of absenteeism, whereas job resources would be the most important predictors of turnover intentions. In their study, job demands (i.e. work pressure, computer problems, emotional demands and changes in tasks) were indirect predictors of sickness absence (through health complaints). Job resources (i.e. social support, supervisory coaching, performance feedback and time control) were related to involvement, which, in turn, was related to turnover intentions. We used the Hackman and Oldham (1975; 1980) Job Characteristics Model to measure job characteristics in the call centre. This influential and much cited model to job design proposes five core job dimensions (autonomy, feedback, skill variety, task identity and task significance). A meta-analysis of studies on the relationship between job characteristics and absenteeism and turnover revealed significant correlations, especially for autonomy, feedback from the job and skill variety (correlations ranging between -0.19 and -0.29: Fried and Ferris 1987). Houkes (2002: 136, 139) concludes that a higher Motivating Potential Score of the job—in samples of bank employees and teachers—is related to a lower intention to leave. Therefore we expected the following: Hypothesis 2: Job characteristics influence frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave.

Characteristics of the contract The type of contract offered to employees in a call centre could be related to their frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave. With respect to frequency of absenteeism, part-timers are less frequently absent (Warr and Yearta, 1995; Benavides et al., 2000); those with a temporary contract are, according to some studies, more frequently absent, according to other studies less absent (De Cuyper et al., 2005); employees working flexible times (shifts) are more frequently absent (Demerouti et al., 2004). When the type of contract has a more economic focus and is perceived as concrete and stable, frequency of absenteeism is higher than when the contract is more encompassing and changeable. With respect to the intention to leave, employees with a permanent contract have a lower intention to leave than employees with a temporary contract (De Ruyter et al., 1999; Sverke et al., 1999). Therefore we expect: Hypothesis 3: Characteristics of the contract influence frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave. © 2007 The Authors Factors influencing Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd


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Employee work-related attitudes Employee work-related attitudes are closely related to frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave. Farrell and Stamm (1988) estimated the mean correlation between commitment and frequency of absenteeism at -0.23. The review of Johns (1997) of research based on Meyer and Allen’s (1991) three-dimensional model of commitment affirms the relationship between affective commitment and absence. Well-being is assumed to be related to absenteeism (Warr, 1990). A strong negative relationship between commitment and intention to leave is one of the most consistent findings in the commitment literature (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990). Tett and Meyer (1993) show that commitment contributes independently to intention to leave. Therefore, Hypothesis 4: Work related attitudes influence frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave.

We assumed, thus, that all these variables influence frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave. We also wanted to assess the relative importance of each of the ‘blocks’ (personal characteristics, job characteristics, contract characteristics and employee workplace attitudes). To examine the relative importance of these blocks, we used stepwise hierarchical multiple regression analyses, adding the blocks one by one. The first block consisted of personal characteristics. We chose this block first because these characteristics cannot be changed and can be considered as ‘control’ variables. The second block we entered in the regression equation was job characteristics. According to the literature, this is the main factor explaining absenteeism and intention to leave in call centres. The third and fourth blocks consisted of contract characteristics and work-related attitudes. Work-related attitudes were entered last because, according to the literature, these attitudes have the strongest relationship with frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave. Sample All 126 call centre employees of the insurance company with the job title ‘damage claim advisor’ received a questionnaire in December 1999. Eighty-nine of the call centre employees responded (71 per cent). With respect to gender and age, there were no significant differences between the total sample and the response group. In the response group, there were 15 male (16.9 per cent) and 74 female employees; 14 (15.7 per cent) were younger than 25 years of age, 37 (41.6 per cent) were aged from 25 to 34, 22 (24.7 per cent) from 35 to 44, and 16 (18.0 per cent) from 45 to 54. Forty-three per cent had been doing their current job for less than one year, 32 per cent between one and two years. Three distinctions can be made with respect to the contract type: between permanent and temporary contracts, between contracts with fixed or flexible working hours and part-time versus full-time contracts. Fifty-four per cent of the employees had a permanent contract and 46 per cent were employed through an external employment office. Nineteen per cent of the employees worked fixed hours and the majority (81 per cent) had a variable number of working hours. A full-time job (defined here as 32 hours a week or more) was held by 37 per cent of the employees. The questionnaire The questionnaire included mainly questions with five-point answering scales (1 = totally disagree to 5 = totally agree). The personal characteristics included age, gender, highest completed education level and job tenure. Job characteristics were measured using a 12-item Dutch version of the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman and Oldham, 1975). We included ‘Autonomy’ (two items), ‘Skill variety’ (two items), ‘Task identity’ (two items), ‘Feedback from the job’ (two items) and ‘Feedback from others’ (two items). The ‘Task significance’ scale (two items) was dropped because the reliability of this scale was too low. 266



Characteristics of the formal contract include permanent/temporary contract, fixed or flexible hours contract and number of working hours (above or below 32 hours). Two items were used to assess the ‘Stability’ of the contract: ‘My tasks and what I am expected to do constantly change (reverse scored)’; ‘My tasks and what I am expected to do are stable and hardly change’ (Schalk et al., 2001). The ‘Focus’ of the contract was assessed using two items: ‘In my view, working for this organization is an exchange of labour for money (reverse scored)’; ‘I don’t only work for the money, but also for the social contact and my personal development.’ (Schalk et al., 2001). The work-related attitudes we measured were organisational commitment and wellbeing. The organisational commitment measure was based on the three-dimensional approach of Allen and Meyer (1990). To assess well-being, we used Warr’s (1987; 1990) measurements. We used the Dutch version of Meyer and Allen’s (1991) questionnaire (De Gilder et al., 1997), with scales for Affective Commitment (five items), Continuance Commitment (five items), and Normative Commitment (five items). As a measure of well-being, we used the Dutch version of Warr’s (1990) measures (Schalk et al., 1995). Well-being was assessed using 12 items and the negative carry-over of job experiences into other activities and feelings using six items. The measures for ‘Competence’ and ‘Aspiration’ were dropped because of the low reliabilities of these scales. Frequency of absenteeism was measured using a self-report measure: ‘How often did you report ill in the last year?’ (i.c., 1999). Intention to leave was assessed using a five-item scale (see Schalk et al., 2001). An example of an item is ‘I often think about quitting’.

Results The means of the scales and the characteristics of the scales (including Cronbach’s alpha) are presented in Table 1. With respect to the job characteristics, we expected that employees in the call centre would have low scores on all dimensions of the job characteristics model. On average, however, the perception of job characteristics scored at about the midpoint of the scales. This means that in the view of the employees, the job characteristics of the Hackman and Oldham model are not absent or present to a very high degree. The average score on intention to leave the organisation was low (1.7 on a scale of 1–5). The mean self-reported frequency of absenteeism in our response group was 1.89; this is

Table 1: Characteristics of scales Scale

Mean

S.D.

Alpha

Autonomy Skill variety Task identity Feedback work Feedback from others Stability Focus Affective commitment Continuance commitment Normative commitment Well-being Carry-over Intention to leave Frequency of absenteeism

3.39 3.15 2.64 2.76 3.02 3.76 3.51 3.40 2.69 2.88 4.10 1.97 1.71 1.89

0.90 0.97 1.11 0.85 0.97 0.75 0.80 0.65 0.90 0.68 0.42 0.71 0.91 1.93

0.69 0.64 0.79 0.70 0.83 0.64 0.65 0.82 0.79 0.78 0.84 0.76 0.92

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Table 2: Standardised beta regression coefficients for intention to leave (stepwise regression)

Block 1: Personal characteristics Age Gender (1 = male, 2 = female) Education level Tenure in job Block 2: Job characteristics Autonomy Skill variety Identity Feedback work Feedback others Block 3: Contract characteristics Focus Stability Full-time/part-time Fixed/variable hours Permanent/temporary Block 4: Commitment and well-being Affective commitment Continuance commitment Normative commitment Well-being Carry-over R2 adjusted R2 change

1

2

3

4

-0.30** -0.26** 0.14 -0.02

-0.31** -0.22* 0.14 -0.02

-0.16* -0.08 0.17 0.12

-0.11 -0.06 0.14 0.19

-0.03 -0.15 -0.12 0.02 -0.17*

-0.01 -0.08 -0.10 0.10 -0.19*

0.03 0.08 0.06 -0.00 -0.09

-0.34** 0.26** 0.12 -0.23 0.01

-0.17* 0.17* 0.01 -0.24 -0.08

0.34 0.14

-0.18* -0.06 -0.22** -0.27** 0.14 0.47 0.13

0.18 0.18

0.20 0.02

Note: Bold = in stepwise regression equation. *p < 0.05, one-tailed; **p < 0.01, one-tailed.

lower than the ‘real’ figure of 2.44 over the same year. This difference can, in our view, mainly be attributed to the fact that self-reports of absenteeism are usually reasonably valid estimates that underestimate the ‘real’ figures (see, e.g. Harrison and Shaffer, 1994). In addition to that, a (small) selection effect might have occurred as a result of employees who were absent at the time of the study not filling in the questionnaires. We were not able, however, to assess whether such a selection effect occurred. The results of the hierarchical regression analyses with frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave as dependent variables are shown in Tables 2 and 3. The variables in bold are included in the stepwise regression analyses. The regression coefficients of the other variables in Tables 2 and 3 are the figures when this (excluded) variable would be included in the equation. With respect to the intention to leave (see Table 2), personal characteristics (18 per cent of explained variance), job characteristics (2 per cent of additional variance), contract characteristics (14 per cent of additional explained variance) and workplace attitudes (13 per cent of additional explained variance) together explain 47 per cent of the variance in intention to leave. In the final equation, contract characteristics and workplace attitudes were found to have the strongest relationship with the intention to leave. Those with a higher intention to leave tend to be younger, male employees, who perceive that they get less feedback from others. The focus of their contract is economic, their activities are stable over time and their affective and normative commitment, as well as their level of well-being, is low. 268



Table 3: Standardised beta regression coefficients for frequency of absenteeism (stepwise regression)

Block 1: Personal characteristics Age Gender (1 = male, 2 = female) Education level Tenure in job Block 2: Job characteristics Autonomy Skill variety Identity Feedback work Feedback others Block 3: Contract characteristics Focus Stability Full-time/part-time Fixed/variable hours Permanent/temporary Block 4: Commitment and well-being Affective commitment Continuance commitment Normative commitment Well-being Carry-over R2 adjusted R2 adjusted change

1

2

3

4

-0.15 -0.15 0.07 0.20*

-0.15 -0.15 0.07 0.20*

-0.08 -0.04 0.02 0.25

-0.04 0.00 0.00 0.18*

-0.14 -0.16 0.02 -0.00 -0.15

-0.13 -0.17 0.05 -0.01 -0.14

-0.10 -0.14 0.06 -0.01 -0.12

0.06 0.09 -0.29** 0.01 -0.16

0.12 0.10 -0.29** -0.01 -0.18

0.10 0.07

0.03 -0.19* 0.00 -0.13 0.26** 0.16 0.06

0.03 0.03

0.03 0.00

Note: Bold = in stepwise regression equation. *p < 0.05, one-tailed; **p < 0.01, one-tailed.

When we look at the results for frequency of absenteeism (see Table 3), we see a different set of variables explaining variance, but the general pattern in the distribution of explained variance over the blocks is comparable. Personal characteristics explain 3 per cent of the variance, job characteristics do not add to that, contract characteristics add 7 per cent and workplace attitudes add another 6 per cent. The total amount of explained variance is 16 per cent, which is lower than the percentage of explained variance of the intention to leave, but comparable with the results of other studies on the determinants of absenteeism (see, e.g. Schalk, 1989). Those with a higher frequency of absenteeism have a longer job tenure, work more often full-time, have a lower continuance commitment and experience more negative carry-over from their work to their home situation. With respect to our hypotheses, the influence of personal factors was limited for absenteeism (2 per cent, job tenure) and substantial for intention to leave (18 per cent, age and gender). Hypothesis 1 is partly accepted. Job characteristics had only a limited effect on intention to leave (2 per cent, feedback). Therefore, hypothesis 2 was rejected. Contract characteristics as well as work-related attitudes were found to have an influence on intention leave as well as absenteeism. Hypotheses 3 and 4 were accepted.

Discussion The aim of this study was to examine the factors that influence frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave in a call centre. Our main question was whether © 2007 The Authors Factors influencing Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd


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frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave are mainly related to the characteristics of the job, the type of contract offered by the organisation, personal characteristics or employee work-related attitudes. The main conclusion is that, in the call centre under investigation, job characteristics do not play an important role in predicting frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave. Personal characteristics are also of minor importance for absenteeism. The type of contract offered and workplace attitudes, however, are directly related to frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave. Contrary to our expectations, job characteristics did not play an important role as determinants of intention to leave and absenteeism, whereas contract characteristics did. This raises the question whether it is job design that matters in call centre work, Human Resource Management, or other factors? Recently, Wood et al. (2006), using data from a sample of 145 UK call centres, suggested that the direct effects of work design on key performance indicators were more pronounced than those of human resource practices. Batt (2000: 557) noted that ‘. . . advances in information systems will continue to evolve, and provide the opportunity to automate and rationalise increasingly complex, higher value-added services’. In our case-study call centre, however, characteristics of the contract and workplace attitudes were the main factors influencing the intention to leave and frequency of absenteeism. What could be the explanation for this result? In the work process of the call centre, the telephone dictates and employees have limited discretion: there is a high degree of process automation. The way damages are handled is standardised. This could lead to high mental workload, absenteeism and turnover. However, the way the work processes are organised in this call centre and the experience of task characteristics do not seem to cause problems. The mean scores on the job characteristics are in the middle of the scale and explain very little variance in frequency of absenteeism and intention to leave. One reason for this result could be a selection effect. In addition, restriction of range could have occurred because we had only call centre employees in our sample. In our view, however, job characteristics were not experienced as problematic in this call centre because of the way this call centre was managed at the time of the study. This included policies that were implemented related to job characteristics. In the call centre, because of the awareness of the low autonomy, discretion and variety in the jobs, several measures were taken to try to cope with these drawbacks. Examples of these measures are:

• • • •

Employees were involved in the training and coaching of newcomers. Participation in special projects was made possible. Management put much effort into giving employees respect and recognition for their work. Success was acknowledged.

These measures contributed probably to a ‘high involvement work climate’ that fostered a focus on trying to achieve customer satisfaction. In addition, attention was paid to fulfilling promises on important issues that are often part of what employees think their employer is obligated to them (the psychological contract: Rousseau, 1995). This considered issues such as providing recognition and respect, providing training and coaching, offering opportunities for participation in decision making, which probably had a positive effect on employee behaviour. Another important issue was that the insurance company offered the call centre agents the opportunity to construct a job ladder that allowed them to build a career in the firm outside the call centre. That might be a reason for the low average score on intention to leave the organisation (1.7 on a scale of 1–5). Turnover in the call centre on an annual basis in 1999 was 15 per cent and about 90 per cent of the employees left the call centre go to another job within the insurance company. Turnover is, therefore, not considered as a real problem. Turnover could even be too low, instead of too high, because with a turnover percentage of about 15 per cent, an average employee stays for approximately 6–7 years in the call centre. The frequency of absenteeism was higher 270



with longer job tenure, indicating that when employees have been doing this job for a longer period, their absenteeism increases. Therefore, a turnover rate of about 20 per cent each year, with an average job tenure of about five years, might be considered more appropriate for a call centre. Employees whose (psychological) contracts with the organisation have an economic focus, who consider their activities to be stable over time were found to have a higher intention to leave. This group probably includes (university) students, who work for the call centre next to their studies, and are hired through an external employment agency, without the prospect that their contingent contract will eventually become a permanent one. Workplace attitudes were found to be closely related to the intention to leave. Employees with less affective and normative commitment, and lower levels of well-being were found to have a higher intention to leave. Contrary to our expectations, continuance commitment, which is conceptually closer to the intention to leave than other forms of commitment, was found to have no significant relationship with the intention to leave. A possible explanation for this finding is that the items measuring continuance commitment referred to ‘the organisation’ (i.e. the insurance company as a whole) and not to the call centre. The fact that 90 per cent of the employees leaving the call centre move to another job within the insurance company might be an important factor in this respect. The direct significant relationship between personal characteristics and task characteristics, on the one hand, and the intention to leave, on the other hand, disappear when contract characteristics and workplace attitudes are taken into consideration. Especially employees with a part-time contract and short tenure in the job were found to have a low frequency of absenteeism. This group includes employees hired through an employment agency on a temporary contract, with the prospect of getting a permanent contract with the insurance company after a year if they do their job well. It is not surprising that employees who are in a kind of probation period do not report ill very frequently. The finding that longer tenure is related to a higher frequency of absenteeism is also in line with the findings of Robinson and Rousseau (1994), who concluded that employees develop the idea over time that the obligations of the organisation towards them increase, and that their own obligations towards the organisation decrease. Those with a higher frequency of absenteeism have a lower continuance commitment and experience more negative carry-over from the work to the home situation. This last finding might be an indication of potential burnout-related problems in the future. To summarise, the main conclusions of our study are that, in the call centre under investigation, job characteristics do not play an important role in predicting frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave, and that personal characteristics are also of minor importance. The type of contract offered and workplace attitudes are directly related to frequency of absenteeism and the intention to leave. It should be acknowledged that the sample used in this study is rather small and limited to one call centre in one country. Therefore, we should be careful with generalising the findings of this study. As our study was done in a call centre setting, we cannot make a comparison with other work situations. We can only make inferences based on differences within the call centre. Future research in other (call centre) settings could provide further support for our results and provide the opportunity for a more in depth analysis. The findings underline the importance of adjusting HRM policies and managerial strategies to the specific situation in a call centre, for example, with respect to the payment system, the types of contract offered, roster protocols and working time regulations. As it is important to have a thorough stream of employees in call centre jobs, individual ‘routes’ for career planning could be created, not only within the context of the call centre, but also within the context of a company as a whole, to ensure job flexibility and employability, and keep specific knowledge and skills within the company. The aim should be to try to establish a permanent optimal flexibility by adjusting organisational and employee flexibility needs; for example, the employees’ desire to work a number of fixed hours each week can be included in the planning. © 2007 The Authors Factors influencing Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd


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