The VCN was invited to present a Paper summarising the significance of occupational voice use in Call Centres within the UK, and VCN experience in delivering workshops based on prevention and reducing issues.
Phyllida Furse, the VCN Development Officer, started by outlining the size of the Call and Contact Centre market in the UK - Now over 1.5M people, both in Public (Government) and Private (Business) Call Centres. These range from Financial Institutions (Banking,Insurance,Mortgages etc) to Customer Service and Help lines in individual businesses and even Charities!
Phyllida outlined for the delegates the unique nature of the VCN, bringing together both SLT and Voice Coaching expertise. Following pilot workshops nearly 10 years ago, VCN prepared a carefully developed response to a tender by the DWP (Department of Works and Pensions) in 2002/2003. The VCN won a 3 year contract and VCN members in the North West, Heather Taylor, Gillian Cohen and Frances Ascott, worked with Roz and David in delivering workshops across newly expanding Call Centres in Blackpool, Preston and Burnley. Further extensions were received due to the success of the programme.
David Comins pulled together the detailed individual evaluations from delegates who attended the workshops and produced a detailed report for the DWP. This report highlighted the impact of a number of significant factors - Age of the call centre operative, length of service, gender and whether they were involved in inbound or outbound calls.
The workshops covered how the voice works, how to maintain a healthy voice, exercises focussed on warming up, posture and breathing, and developing some vocal skills eg pitch, pace, resonance, tone and pause. Operatives were also told how to spot symptoms and when to seek medical advice early enough to prevent long term damage.
David Comins's report in March 2007 showed clearly the success of voice training as part of an overall occupational health strategy within a call Centre:
- Training increased employees awareness of the voice
- Employees reported the benefits of warming up the voice
- Longer serving employees appreciated the benefits more
- Supervisors and management needed to support the training
- Voice training should be focussed on those identified with higher vocal loadings (eg more stressful calls/longershifts/strange hours)
Phyllida outlined more recent VCN workshops delivered to other key Call Centre organisations, in particular NHS Direct.
Phyllida's short Paper clearly outlined to the delegates (mainly medical and SLTs) that prevention through targeted training, combined with other occupational health and environmental strategies, is clearly cost effective. The VCN is seen to be highly professional, skilled and experienced in delivering to Occupational Voice Users and valued as a key partner with Call Centres.