Employee Wellness in an ODL institutional contact centre

Abstract

Organisations can benefit from contact centres because they reduce the cost of functions and extend and improve service to customers; but do contact centres benefit an employee? A contact centre can be a stressful and demanding environment for an employee. The objective of this study was to establish the level of employee wellness in a contact centre within an open and distance learning (ODL) institution, from a sample of 102 of 138 employees working in the contact centre of an ODL university. The assessment was voluntary and the completed assessments provided for expert information with regard to the experiences of employees. The results indicate that there is an imbalance between job demands and job resources. There is also a concern with regard to the psychological conditions which negatively impact on the employees’ work and life outcomes. There is also severe pressure at this institution’s contact centre especially with regard to the availability of job resources which makes it difficult for employees to function optimally.