Call Centre Staff Given Wireless Headsets.

Call Centre Staff Given Wireless Headsets.

Images of customer service agents chained to their desks have been consigned to history at an innovative call centre in Wales, claims Dial, a major contact centre employer.

The 350-seat inbound and outbound contact centre, which had a £5 million turnover last year, invested £10 million into the business providing the very latest in communications technology.

"Staff attrition in contact centres in some parts of the UK can be as high as 45 per cent or even more," explained head of operations Richard Overy. "We have a rate of under 10 per cent which means we must be doing something right.

The company claims that the workplace environment has been greatly enhanced by the introduction of the Plantronics' Bluetooth equipment which allows staff to walk around the centre while answering calls at the same time."

Dave George, senior board member at the Welsh Contact Centre Forum, said that flexible working was becoming key to maintaining staff motivation and efficiency. "Any technology that can improve the quality and clarity of a customer's voice is valuable," George commented. "In the contact centre environment, being able to converse in a clear and concise manner is essentially what the industry sets out to achieve."

However, there is an issue over safety and a question over any risk assessment that should have been done prior to the equipment being given to the employees. Further, what about staff who do not wish to sue the blue tooth headset because of health concerns?

Jean Philips from Power Watch Uk says that, "Bluetooth earpieces for mobile phones work at lower power, but they emit microwaves all the time that they are switched on.

If you only use the earpiece when making or receiving a call, and then remove it, you will be reducing your overall exposure to microwaves."

However, given the fact that call centre workers will be using the headset for all of their shift, Union Safety Reps should be alert to possible problems and concerns from their members.

A number of questions need to be raised given that the issue of mobile phone radiation emissions remain still to be resolved, despite current research. Whilst using a headset connected to a piece of call routing equipment such as that used in call centres may not be the same as one connected to a mobile phone, the issue of the user's head being exposed to radio waves close to the head may be a concern here.

Risk assessments should relate to these issues.

source: eCCF (Contact Centre Forum) newsletter