Participatory interventions in call centres

This chapter describes the issues involved in planning, running and evaluating participatory job redesign interventions in call centres. Two case studies are presented of participatory job redesign (using a scenarios planning tool) in call centres within the public and private sector. The main phases of the process are outlined from preparation, screening and action planning through to implementation and evaluation. The scenarios tool is used within two consecutive workshops where participants describe the current work scenario and then develop alternative future scenarios which are refined into a preferred scenario that can be implemented. The current and preferred scenarios are evaluated against job design criteria and outcomes with a view to highlighting problematic aspects of job design that can be improved. Action plans are then made for implementing the agreed suggestions for improvement. Follow-up meetings are scheduled to facilitate implementation and evaluation is conducted via an organisational survey. This process requires the active participation of employees working within the teams affected. The employees develop their own ideas for how to improve their jobs (informed by job design principles) and the final ideas that are implemented are the result of consensus between the employees, managers and the researchers facilitating the process. The findings from these case studies indicate that it is possible to conduct successful participative job redesign within call centres.