Nowadays, most BPO workers continue to live unhealthy lifestyles of chain smoking and heavy drinking. They tend to shun proper diet and regular exercise, claiming that it’s better to sleep than give time to upgrade their health. Although a lot of BPO companies already promote health and wellness among BPO employees with Call Center Company Olympics, still, only a small percentage of workers participate in them. Call Center of the World Currently, the BPO industry is considered as the second largest foreign exchange source. In fact, it’s the dollar earner of the Philippines next to remittances coming from overseas Filipino workers. This is also the reason why the country is hailed as the call center of the world due to our huge English-speaking workforce that drives the continuous demand for BPO workers. The Atmosphere of Workers in the BPO Sector However, most BPO agents indulge in excessive eating, drinking, and smoking because they think that it’s the only way to combat sleepiness and tension. Unfortunately, the health of BPO workers has a significant effect on their performance and productivity, which are the primary criteria of BPO companies to hire agents. Source: s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com Unhealthy eating habits and the lack of sleep along with unusual working hours and work related hazards are contributors that can decrease the agents’ productivity and performance. If adherence to productivity and performance isn’t achieved, BPO companies are penalized that results in loss of revenue that undermines their competitiveness in this highly competitive industry.
The turnover rate or attrition rate in call centers may be attributed due to workers suffering from sleep disorders, eye strain, fatigue, neck/shoulders/back pains, loss of voice, hypertension, diabetes, and others. Burnout due to irate clients, odd hours, heavy workloads, matrix and other demands are also underlying causes of attrition. In order to maintain the physical, mental, and psychological health of BPO workers, each BPO company must establish occupational safety and health programs, and form a health and safety committee. The Government’s Answer As an answer to this growing issue, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) requires BPO employers to maintain an in-house medical staff composing of 1 safety officer, a health doctor or physician and a health nurse. The special needs of pregnant and lactating women should be looked after as well along with older and disabled staff. What lacks in BPO workers is the ability to exercise. Companies should be able to provide a gym with an easy access just like the provided sleeping quarters. Call center agents need sleep, the same way they need to exercise. So before leaving the premise or starting a shift, they can do a few minutes of exercise which can focus their mind to stay alert, active and alive. That beats going to a costly gym and paying those horrendous and humongous gym fees and losing precious time for beating traffic.
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October 2017
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