Agent burnout is a growing challenge in contact centres, as workloads increase and customer expectations remain high.
Burnout not only affects individual agents but also spreads across teams, impacting overall performance, customer satisfaction, and business success.
When agents feel overworked or unsupported, their ability to provide high-quality service declines, leading to frustrated customers and increased operational costs.
But what can contact centre leaders do to tackle agent burnout?
To find out, we spoke to Agam Kohli, UK Experience Director, Odigo, to find out what causes agent burnout, strategies to prevent it and how technology can help.
Video: How to Deal With Agent Burnout
Watch the video below to hear Agam explain the causes of burnout, how team leaders can help and the role of technology in preventing agent burnout:
With thanks to Agam Kohli, UK Experience Director at Odigo, for contributing to this video.
Understanding the Causes of Agent Burnout
The causes of agent burnout can be broken down into three key areas:
- People
- Processes
- Technology
Let’s take a look at each of these and how they can increase the likelihood of agents becoming burnt out
People
“Everyone’s stressed right? All the time. People have lots of things to worry about in terms of their personal lives, etc. You know you’re never going to get rid of stress, so that element always creeps into it, into the job.
You’ve obviously got things like job satisfaction, the environment that agents are working in, and obviously sometimes in terms of the calls that they deal with.
There are a lot of important calls that are being taken, there’s a lot of, let’s say, vulnerable customers out there that agents are having to deal with as well. And obviously that all adds into why agents are getting stressed.” – Agam
Contact centre agents often handle emotionally demanding conversations, particularly when dealing with complaints or supporting vulnerable customers. Over time, the pressure of these interactions takes a toll on their wellbeing, leading to stress and fatigue.
Personal challenges also play a role. Stress from outside of work can carry over into their job, and when combined with the pressures of meeting targets and handling difficult conversations, the risk of burnout increases.
Job satisfaction is another key factor. Many agents find their roles repetitive and feel undervalued within the organization. When there is a lack of career progression or development opportunities, motivation declines, making it harder for agents to stay engaged in their work.
Not only this, but if one agent is suffering from the cumulative effects of burnout, this can impact their team, which can have a huge impact on customers, as Agam explains:
“A lot of these factors obviously just pile up, emotionally and physically over time. You can imagine, you’re doing this day in, day out. You have three, six, nine, twelve months. And it obviously just increases as you go on and on and on and on.
Going on a holiday. Fine. That sort of helps a little bit in terms of you get that break, but then you’re coming back to the same thing again. So, in essence, just having a holiday isn’t solving it. The thing is, though, you’re always working as a team when you’re working as an advisor or as an agent.
So sometimes that kind of stress, that kind of burnout, starts to affect other members of the team as well. You can imagine in terms of that limiting effect, where obviously one person starts to feel it, then you’ve got others that then start to feel it as well. It then starts to impact their performance.
So, it’s one team’s performance, then obviously it starts to impact loads of people within that contact centre environment as well. Ultimately, what then happens is it’s not just draining people, burnout is then draining the business, as well as the teams.”
Processes
Many contact centres still rely on outdated workflows that create unnecessary complexity for agents.
In some cases, agents must manually calculate figures, such as insurance premiums, rather than having automated systems in place. These inefficiencies add to their workload and slow down customer interactions.
“In a lot of places, you’ve obviously got processes that are also very outdated. As an example, we work with an insurance company, and you will see they’ve got some super agents.
You’d have thought that everything gets calculated in terms of the premiums etc. automatically, but you’ve actually got, in some cases agents manually making calculations using calculators on their laptops and things.
And you look at and you think, “oh my God, I wouldn’t be able to do what they do”. So sometimes processes and back-end systems etc. don’t help, in terms of the work that the agents are doing.”
Repetitive manual tasks also contribute to frustration. Agents often find themselves re-entering the same customer details into multiple systems, which is time-consuming and could be easily automated.
When processes are inefficient, agents spend more time on administrative tasks and less time on meaningful customer interactions.
In addition, a lack of structured support can make high-pressure situations even more stressful. When agents deal with difficult calls, they may not have quick access to guidance or escalation options.
Without the right support, they are left to manage complex situations on their own, increasing stress levels and reducing job satisfaction.
Technology
Outdated technology is a major source of frustration for contact centre agents. Slow systems increase wait times for customers, creating additional pressure on agents who are trying to resolve issues quickly.
When applications take too long to load or frequently crash, it disrupts workflow and reduces efficiency, as Agam explains:
“You can imagine if you aren’t using up-to-date tech, laptops sort of backwards, or you’ve got screens that are continually going blue screen, or applications are taking ages to load.
That obviously just adds to the stress because they’re trying to respond to a call quickly, get the information as quickly back to the customer as they can, but then with applications and things hanging around, it obviously takes a little bit more time.
And that stresses them out because they know that the customer has also been getting stressed in terms of just waiting, hanging on, waiting to get that vital information from them.”
Many agents are required to juggle multiple disconnected applications to retrieve customer information. Without system integration, they waste valuable time switching between different platforms, which slows down responses and increases frustration.
Some contact centres also lack real-time support tools, leaving agents to rely solely on their own knowledge. Without AI-driven suggestions or instant access to relevant information, they must manually search for answers, which adds to their cognitive load and increases stress levels.
4 Strategies Team Leaders Can Use to Prevent Burnout
Preventing agent burnout requires proactive measures rather than reactive solutions. Instead of waiting until agents are already struggling, team leaders can take steps to reduce stress and improve working conditions, as Agam explains:
“There’s a lot of conversations around stress management, resilience, supporting individual team members. I think the real focus needs to be on proactive prevention.
What I mean by that is that once you’ve obviously got advisors, or a team, or agents, that are kind of going through burnout, you’re a little bit late to the party, in terms of trying to sort that out.
So, yes, obviously you need to help them out. I mean, that’s obviously a primary action that needs to be taken, but I think you need to be proactive about finding out the root cause of that burnout.”
Here are four key strategies that can help prevent burnout:
- Identifying burnout early
- Streamlining processes
- Providing emotional and professional support
- Creating a positive work environment
1. Identifying Burnout Early
Recognizing the signs of burnout before it becomes a serious problem is essential. Team leaders can monitor key indicators such as reduced call volumes, increased absences, or declining performance.
“Leaders need to recognize what burnout looks like. Sometimes the signs aren’t as clear as they should be. So, it’s about identifying when you’ve got agents that are burnt-out, so you can then tackle the problem quicker. If you wait too long, obviously it just manifests itself, and that’s what you want to avoid.
Things like when you’ve got agents that are answering as many calls, or some of their stats start to go down, those are kind of key signs in terms of where that person, or that agent, is now beginning to struggle a little bit, and so it’s time to have a chat and do something about it.”
By keeping a close eye on these trends, leaders can step in early and provide the necessary support before burnout worsens.
2. Streamlining Processes
“In terms of looking at the tech and looking at some of the processes that you’re running within your contact centre, those are kind of key drivers that as a leader, as a team leader, you can then affect or impact.
So that’s where if you start making small changes in terms of improving some of those things, and this will then have a larger effect in terms of how your agents feel about the work that they’re doing and how they’re working and some of the things that they’re doing.”
Inefficient workflows add unnecessary pressure to agents, making their jobs more stressful. Small process improvements can have a big impact on reducing burnout.
Changes such as reducing manual tasks, integrating systems more effectively, and ensuring agents have quick access to the right information can help reduce frustration and allow them to focus on more meaningful customer interactions.
3. Providing Emotional and Professional Support
A strong support system is key to preventing burnout. Regular check-ins, both one-on-one and in team settings, create an environment where agents feel comfortable discussing challenges.
Providing access to training, mentorship, and wellbeing resources can also help agents build resilience and manage stress more effectively.
4. Creating a Positive Work Environment
Burnout doesn’t just affect individuals – it can spread across teams, leading to a drop in overall morale and performance. Encouraging teamwork, recognizing achievements, and ensuring fair workloads all contribute to a more positive workplace culture.
When agents feel valued, supported, and engaged in their work, they are far less likely to experience burnout.
The Role of Technology in Reducing Agent Burnout
Technology is becoming an essential tool in reducing stress and workload for agents, helping to address the three key areas of burnout: people, processes, and technology.
By providing better support, improving workflows, and streamlining systems, technology is playing a crucial role in creating a less stressful and more efficient working environment.
People
Many contact centres now use real-time monitoring tools that allow supervisors to listen in on calls and step in when needed.
This ensures that agents dealing with emotionally challenging or complex customer interactions are not left to manage them alone.
Agents also have the option to escalate difficult conversations, reducing the pressure of handling high-stress situations without support.
“I think from a people point of view, and this has largely been there for a long, long time, it’s nothing new.
You’ve got systems that obviously allow you to have supervisors listen in on agents, you’ve got the ability for agents to bring supervisors into some of those very complex, tedious conversations, some of those sensitive conversations as well.
So, some of that kind of tooling helps. As long as the agents and advisors know that there is help available, they don’t have to handle everything on their own, I think from a people perspective that helps immensely.”
Processes
Inefficient processes are a major source of frustration for agents, but AI-powered knowledge bases are helping by making relevant information more accessible, as Agam explains:
“From a process point of view, I think a lot of what we can do from a contact centre perspective is obviously have the right, and the relevant, information available to those agents and advisors.
Because I think a lot of the struggle is like you can almost imagine in the contact centre environment, where you’ve obviously got calls coming in, the call lands and you answer the call, but actually they have no information in terms of why that person’s calling and what the problem is.
So, they’re waiting 3 or 4 minutes for the systems to catch up to work out exactly why that person may be calling, before they can then start to resolve that query.
But you can build process in, in terms of some of that stuff to help enable more information, knowledge bases, etc., to provide the right environment for agents to be able to find the right information and provide that right information back to customers.”
Instead of searching through multiple sources, agents can quickly find the answers they need. Automation is also reducing manual workloads by handling routine queries, such as billing issues, allowing agents to focus on more meaningful interactions.
Technology
As mentioned previously, technology itself can sometimes be a source of stress when systems are outdated or slow. AI-powered automation is easing this burden by handling repetitive tasks like data entry and appointment scheduling.
A unified agent desktop brings multiple systems together into a single interface, eliminating the need to switch between different applications.
AI-driven real-time suggestions also provide agents with relevant articles or scripts, helping them respond to customers more quickly and confidently.
“From a tech perspective itself, everyone’s talking about AI. AI is all the rage. But what does AI mean in terms of agent burnout? There’s a lot of discussion in terms of automation.
Now, automation can obviously be right at the front end, in terms of some of the low-value tasks being handled by bots, or just literally anything that can be done digitally on a website, for example. Like self-service.
But there’s also tech that can also help advisors in terms of doing their job, and that can be as simple as having a single agent desktop, for example, where all the information is available, which stops them from going from application to application.
But they’ve also got AI, where it comes in to help them in terms of providing the right articles from a knowledge management perspective.
If a customer, let’s say for example, is leaving, providing the right kind of intents and the right documentation to basically aid the advice of the agent to provide that information as well. Rather than having them search through loads and loads of knowledge bases or articles and things.”
While technology plays a key role in reducing burnout, it is not a standalone solution. The best results come from a combination of improved leadership, streamlined processes, and the right technology.
When these elements work together, contact centres can create a healthier, more sustainable working environment for their agents.
If you are looking for more great insights from the experts, check out these next:
- Agent Self-Evaluation – The Pros and Cons
- The Secrets to Writing Better Customer Emails
- What’s the Best Sample Size for Quality Scoring?
- Using the 3 Strike Rule in the Contact Centre
Author: Robyn Coppell
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman
Published On: 4th Mar 2025 - Last modified: 5th Mar 2025
Read more about - Latest News, Agam Kohli, Health, Odigo, Stress, Well Being
