OUTSOURCED STAFF PERCEPTIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON MOTIVATION AND RETENTION WITHIN THE OUTSOURCED ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

This research aim was to gain insight on employee motivation and retention within the context of outsourcing and to find out how much this is influenced by employee perceptions of the organisation utilising them in their customer support. In order to address the research question, a literature review and six semi-structured interviews with a questionnaire were conducted. Wiley and Kowske (2011) highlight that the way an employee perceives their employer as well as their processes and policies influence customer perceptions and therefore also customer satisfaction. Maheshwari and Vohra (2015) have found that employee perceptions impact workplace attitudes which in turn, influence employee behaviour at the workplace including willingness to work towards organisational goals and turnoverintention. The existing literature does not cover the role of employee perceptions in the context of outsourcing and whether an employee’s perceptions of an organisation utilising them in their outsourced services have similar effects. The primary data was gathered by conducting six semi-structured interviews with employees working at Sykes Enterprises for PlayStation’s outsourced customer support and therefore have been experiences working in an outsourced environment. Semistructured interviews were identified as the most appropriate method as they allowed an open environment where the researcher was able to gain insight on the respondents’ thoughts and opinions. In order to assess the job satisfaction and motivation of the respondents a questionnaire was used. By using tested tools for measuring the mentioned subjects, the researcher was able to increase the validity of the results. The research results suggested that employees with a more negative image of the company utilising them in outsourced customer support are likely to voice their negative opinions about the company policies directly to the customer. The study also suggested that employees with a negative view of the company outsourcing its services, are more iii likely to exit the organisation. The results suggested no direct correlation between the type of motivation experienced by the respondents and their perceptions. This study contributes to the groundwork on employee perceptions in the context of outsourcing. By conducting more research on the issue, businesses would be able to tackle the issues caused by negative outsourced employee perceptions and improve their brand image and employee turnover by doing so.