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Jornadas de Biblioteconomía de 1998 en Veracruz ADMINISTRACIÓN
EXITOSA DE LA BASE DE CONOCIMIENTO CORPORATIVO: UNA LISTA DE PRIORIDADES
PARA UNA ADMINISTRACIÓN DE ALTO NIVEL. Por. Mary E. Corcoran y Cheri
A. Robison en Creating and Launching Knowledge Products. Traducido por:
Lic. Zapopan Muela, zapopanmuela@yahoo.com En
los competitivos noventas es imperativo aprovechar al máximo sus mejores
recursos corporativos y potencializarlos en los procesos, proyectos,
productos, servicios y relaciones actuales y futuras. La práctica de
administración de conocimiento mejora la productividad, acorta los ciclos
de desarrollo de producto e incrementa los ingresos mediante la disposición
y el compartimiento de lo mejor del pensamiento y conocimiento acumulado
de su organización. Su organización necesita administrar su conocimiento
para realizar su mejor trabajo. Aquí está una lista de prioridades para
asistirle en fijar su estrategia para una administración de conocimiento
exitosa. |
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Organising in financial call centres 1. Introduction The very rapid growth of call centres has been one of the most striking features of work life in many industrialised countries over the past few years. Their development has changed the nature of white-collar work for the many people who spend their working days handling telephone calls in these purpose-built units. The old, often comfortably chaotic nature of office life has been replaced with a new discipline in the workplace, imposed by the demands of the automated call distribution (ACD) technology on which call centres are based. Call centres have already played a considerable part in the restructuring of the banking and financial services sector, in particular by facilitating the development of telephone-based ‘direct’ banking and insurance. Call centres are of course not the first or only structural change in the financial industry made possible by technology: the extensive relocation of back office functions which began in the 1960s and 1970s also made use of new technology to restructure banking and insurance operations. However call centres alter the nature of working life in a much more radical way than these previous changes. As a consequence call centres pose particular challenges and difficulties (but also possibilities) for trade unions. Call centre technology can increase productivity in telephone call handling to an often astonishing degree. Automated call distribution, computer-telephony integration (such as the ‘screen popping’ of customer information to computer screens) and the use of standard scripts by staff mean that the time taken to deal with calls, and the ‘free’ time between calls, can be pared to the bare minimum. The technique of predictive dialling (the use of software to dial outbound calls automatically, transferring calls when they are answered to available members of staff) alone enables ‘a day’s work to be done in an hour’, according to one call centre manager. This technology-induced efficiency however requires the human agents themselves to submit to a highly controlled work regime. Call centres have evoked comparisons with the sort of assembly-line working in manufacturing associated with Henry Ford and Taylorism. Some have described call centres as the electronic assembly lines of the twenty-first century. The degree of surveillance necessary has also invited unfavourable comparisons, for example with nineteenth century designs for prisons, or even (by one call centre worker) with Roman slave ships: "You feel like you are on a galley boat, being watched, answering calls every thirty seconds, monitored and told off if there are mistakes". [Channel 4 TV (UK), Special Report, broadcast 14.12.99] As the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has pointed out, trade unions ought to find call centres promising areas for recruitment and organisation: "Trade unions need to develop a strategy that aims.. at organising workers in the new call centres. It does not appear to be an impossible mission. The call centres are the modern version of mass production, usually fertile ground for the trade unions. Centres often employ several hundred operators in vast premises…" [ICFTU, Call Centres — the new assembly lines, 1998] However, trade unions do have to recognise that the particular culture and management style of call centres means that old forms of organising will not necessarily be effective. Recruiting call centre workers into a trade union, especially where there is a deliberate anti-union strategy from management, is likely to require a combination of good old-fashioned organising techniques and some more contemporary marketing tools. As this report hopes to demonstrate, there is now a considerable pool of experience among unions around the world to take advantage of. This report has three main sections: In the first part, we will look in detail at possible approaches to recruitment and organising in financial call centres We will then explore some of the key issues for negotiation Finally, we will look briefly at some current and future trends in the call centre industry. The report ends with a short conclusion. A report for UNI CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Reaching call centre workers: recruitment and organising a) Management style and culture in call centres b) Union representation and collective agreements c) Putting resources into call centre organisation d )Finding the right way to reach potential members e) Using the opportunities of new technology f) Using industrial action g) Organising of call centre workers — some concluding comments 3. Organising in call centres: the issues for negotiation a) What do members want? b) Pay16 c) Hours of work and shift patterns d) Employment status and rights e) Health and safety issues f) Surveillance, electronic monitoring and privacy g) Training h) Equal opportunities issues i) In conclusion: developing good practice 4. Some current and future trends a) Virtual call centres b) The internationalisation of call centre operations c) Technological change, the internet and electronic commerce 5. Conclusion Call centres have played a central part of the restructuring of the banking and insurance industries in recent years, especially the development of ‘direct’ banking and insurance services. During this time, there has been a gradual shift from a straightforward customer service ethos to a more directly targeted sales approach. This trend will continue as customers increasingly use the Internet for their banking and insurance services, though ultimately the development of electronic delivery systems may cause companies to reassess their use of call centres. Call centres offer considerable possibilities for trade union recruitment and organisation. This is despite the fact that some call centre managements have tried to adopt anti-union policies (even where there are recognition and negotiation agreements with parent banks or insurers). The current picture is mixed, with some financial call centres well organised and others almost entirely non-union. There are now many examples, from around the world, of creative ways in which unions have approached the task of organising call centres. It is not the case that call centre staff necessarily consider unions irrelevant to their working lives, though it is true that unions need to focus on issues of direct day-to-day concern to them. This demands an understanding of the call centre working environment and the dominant work culture. It can be argued that, if trade unions cannot demonstrate their relevance to the large numbers of people who now find themselves working together on the automated call distribution ‘assembly lines’ of the call centre factories, then frankly why do unions deserve to survive? Put more positively, the task of organising call centre workers can assist unions in identifying and if necessary redefining their role for the new century. Action points identified in the report: Reaching call centre workers: recruitment and organising Trade unions must put forward an image and message relevant to call centre workers, working in a highly structured but apparently informal working environment Call centre workers in the banking and finance sector should enjoy the same conditions of service and benefits as their colleagues working in more traditional areas of the industry. Trade unions should put resources into recruiting and organising staff in call centres UNI should consider repeating the joint FIET/Communications International call centre campaign of 1999 Where possible, unions should seek access to new staff during their induction training. Recruitment campaigns are more likely to succeed when planned and executed with attention to detail. Campaigning techniques can be borrowed from management techniques in call centres. Unions should maximise the possibilities of new technology for recruitment and organising purposes More traditional forms of industrial action may also be necessary when campaigning for better conditions in call centres Organising in call centres: the issues for negotiation Any organising strategy should start from the concerns and issues identified by the call centre staff themselves Call centre workers are generally poorly paid. Extra premium payments for evening or weekend working may not be paid. Performance-related pay and commission based on sales targets are a common feature of call centre life. Where possible, it is usually more satisfactory to link pay levels to demonstrable competencies. High staff turnover rates in call centres offers a possible lever for unions negotiating to improve pay levels or structures. Flexible working hours can benefit employees as well as management, but must be introduced by agreement. Call centre staff need to have influence over the hours and shifts they are asked to work. Shift rosters should be drawn up with adequate notice to staff. All the implications for staffing of 24 x 7 operating of call centres need to be adequately considered in advance. Unions should seek to organise and recruit agency staff Whilst superficially ‘clean’ working environments, call centres raise a series of health and safety issues and concerns, which unions should address. Stress is a particular health hazard in call centres. Call centre staff are subject to unacceptable levels of electronic surveillance and monitoring. Any such monitoring should be undertaken by employers overtly rather than covertly, and by prior agreement with unions. The issue of training has particular importance in the call centre industry, given the lack of career paths and the repetitive nature of the work being undertaken. The particular needs of women workers, often the majority of workers in a call centre, need to be addressed. Some current and future trends Unions should monitor the development of virtual call centres closely. Home-based working needs to be voluntary, introduced only after adequate training and carefully monitored by trade unions. The internationalisation of call centre operating raises challenges for trade unions at both ends of this process of work migration. Effective international cooperation and solidarity is necessary, to avoid social dumping. Call centres have grown very fast in recent years, but their future development is uncertain in the light of technological change and the expansion of the Internet. Adequate training is necessary to equip call centre staff to cope with future change. |