Outsourcing Employee Turnover in The Customer Service Department -- Using the Grounded Theory to Construct The Cause-Effect Model

• Main Authors: Pei-jung Chang, 張碧容
• Other Authors: Fen-Hui Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/13945847395398518503

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 資訊管理學系研究所 === 92 === The outsourcing business of the call center grew enormously in recent years, but there were only a few studies focused on the outsourcing employees, especially the turnover problems and related issues, which were deeply concerned by call center supervisors. This research aims to comprehend the turnover problems of the outsourcing employees; in addition, what policies the managers of the call centers adopt to solve the turnover problems. This is a one-case study. The qualitative research methodology follows the principles of the grounded theory. Eight supervisors of different call centers in the company were interviewed during April to November in 2003. The data collection and analysis is a long process of hard working. The research findings can be concluded as the following three aspects. The first is that the high turnover rates of outsourcing employees cause serious problems to various call centers. The unstable manpower quality and the lower department morale would generate inconsistent customer services. It turns out the operation costs increase as well as the outsourcing cost. Because of the strong impact to the operation in each call center, supervisors have adopted several approaches in order to solve the turnover problems in the last few years. The most significant improvement is from the following efforts, such as clarifying the basic salary and benefit for the outsourcing employees in the outsourcing contract, training the back-up personnel, and improving the management skills of the vendors. For the second aspect of the research findings, we conclude that the turnover problem is caused by the internal organizational factors and the external organizational factors. The internal factors contain the working environment associated with the climate, and the administration policy or style. The external factors include the personal concerns of outsourcing employees, and the vendor problems. Furthermore, there are two intervening conditions: employees’ personality and working life quality. That would reinforce the influential factors to the turnover problem and action/interaction strategies. Finally, some of the empirical results of this research are consistent to the literatures about the call center operation. By improving recruit process, employee training and encouraging policy, it may lower the turnover rate that may result in a better quality of customer service, and then have the outsourcing cost down.