Statement:
I intend to effectively apply the principles of color therapy to the current interface design used by the telemarketing workplace.
Research question:
How can the fundamentals of color psychology be integrated into the work environment of telemarketers to relieve stress? How can the current interface be altered to improve work conditions?
Why is this important?:
Many companies rely on telemarketing to reach clients. Telemarketing is used to sell something as simple as a household appliance to something as complex as insurance policies. It’s also used to recruit voters for a particular Presidential candidate.
Telemarketers have a stressful job and a bad reputation, yet these are the people responsible for selling a companies product. Making minor adjustments to the work environment of telemarketers can decrease stress levels and increase employee attitude.
Additionally, a positive attitude can be heard in the voices of telemarketers. The voice is all telemarketers have to sell a product. “Softening” the voice will help improve company/customer relations. In conclusiton, High morale among employees leads to an increase in employee productivity which ultimately leads to greater sales for the company.
Research Methodologies:
Context-Based Research
For this methodology I will begin my research by choosing an example company. I will research as many aspects of the typical employee workday; these aspects will include, but are not limited to, the employees’ daily tasks, commute, and social environment.
When dealing with a matter such as color psychology it is very important that I have a full understanding of the fundamentals of such a subject. I need to understand the theories related to color psychology to better understand how it can be implemented in the work environment of telemarketers to achieve the desired affect: stress relief. I intend to do extensive research using both the Web and hard textual sources to study the fundamentals of color psychology. I will also investigate research that has already been performed in a similar context, focusing on color and media technologies, as well as color and its use in the workplace. With this information I will be able to use my other methodologies effectively.
Surveys
I intend to create an online survey using a site such as Survey Monkey. This survey will be targeted towards those currently working in the field of telemarketing. It will address the issues of their current work environment while also seeing what sorts of improvements they would like to see made within their office. The majority of my questions will be broad and open-ended, in hopes of gaining a better understanding of what employees would do to change their workplace for the better. A few questions may be more narrowly focused on the subject of color.
I don’t know many people who work in the field of telemarketing so I will use the Internet to reach that audience. Facebook is actually a good source for reaching a particular demographic because there are groups created for every type of person. There are a few groups created by and for those in the telemarketing industry (though there are a lot more dedicated to the hatred of telemarketers!). I intend to either post my survey within the groups profile or contact the creator of each group who in turn can send the survey out to each individual member of the group. I may also look into other online forums for telemarketers to reach a wider and older demographic, as most users of Facebook are part of a younger generation.
Interviews
Using the same online groups and forums mentioned above I intend on selecting individuals who will offer a deeper insight into their professional lives. Interviewing individuals will allow for a more detailed description of his or her work environment and personal attitudes towards those conditions. This portion of the research will allow me to delve further into understanding the needs and wants of someone working within the telemarketing industry.
I may discover that they want and need something completely different from my assumptions. I intend to let this research shape my final design instead of shaping my research to fit my idea for a final design.
1. What are the two or three most important “foundational” sources that everyone should read [about your choice topic]?
The topic I am looking to research is how color psychology can be incorporated into the working environment of telemarketers to decrease stress levels and increase work productivity. For someone to gain more insight on this topic it would be beneficial for him or her to have a general knowledge of both color psychology and employee morale and its connection with work productivity.
A good reference for understanding color and its affects on human emotions is an article entitled “Color: A powerful mood-altering tool” by Jean Nayar. This article gives a brief outline of research done in the field of color psychology. It gives the names of a few prominent researchers in this field and gives a summary of their research findings. The article itself is very colorful and easy to read. It’s a quick and painless way for someone to gain general knowledge of the affects of color.
For someone to understand the importance of my particular research topic it helps to take a look at the Newswise article “Research Links Employee Satisfaction, Profits.” This article outlines the research done by professor James Oakley at Purdue University on employee satisfaction and its relationship to a company’s profits. Oakley surveyed 100 employees of American companies and found that the “companies’ corporate culture” has a “direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and improved financial performance.”
The third article I would recommend links the effects of color psychology on the workplace. In the article, “Freud’s couch: the psychology of office design” Brent Wilhite discusses different design components within an office environment that influence employee morale. He explains that “many aspects of design will affect how employees interact and how well they can do their specific work.” Wilhite incorporates a discussion with William Persch, the owner of Salt Lake’s Corporate Office Environments. Persch explains that color schemes such as “gray on gray” can drain the energy from employees. He also warns that bright colors can make employees feel “edgy, like you’ve had six cups of coffee.” Persch does make a point that I had not previously considered. He notes that if employees spend all day shifting their eyes from the dark surfaces of their office environment to the brightness of a computer screen, the affect can cause headaches and eyestrain. It is clearly very difficult to find a color scheme that will have positive effects on employees. Perhaps this is why many companies have not taken the time to change the work environment.
All three of these articles are pertinent to my research topic and are sure to give everyone a basic understanding of the two most prominent fields of thought in which I will be developing my research project.
2. What are the one or two big issues that set the terms of the “conversation” about your research topic?
The issue my research topic is choosing to address is that of employee morale and satisfaction, particularly within the field of telemarketing. The article, ” Call Center Morale Boosting Strategies” by Michael Russell discusses the benefits of high employee morale within call centers. Russell’s article explains what many researchershave confirmed–increased morale leads to increased productivity and company success.
Telemarketers are often overlooked. They are despised by many people who view them to be aggreviating little pests that only bother them as they’re sitting down at dinner time. Most people roll their eyes or hang up immediately when they receive a call from a telemarketer. This means employees have to work extremely hard to even earn the attention of the potential customer. For an employee to put in that extra effort his or her morale must be high and that is a difficult task in such a high-stress environment.
Many telemarketing centers use a very bland, monochromatic interface. With color proven to have affects on human emotions, can the use of color within the telemarketing interface lead to improved employee morale? For instance, can the color blue, which has been proven to have a calming effect on people, decrease stress levels for employees? Is a change in the interface the best way to incorporate color psychology or is there a better way? There are many options available for exploration. Through my research I intend to find how best color can be used to achieve maximum benefit.
3. What are one or two very recent items that appear very important to your research topic?
An article entitled “Color Meanings Around the World” by Susan Gunelius that appeared on the website brandcurve.com in September of 2007 discusses the meaning of color within different cultures. To best apply color for my topic, I must stick with American companies whose telemarketing services are located within the United States. Designing a color palette for an outsourced telemarketing company could be disastrous if using American color psychology.
Gunelius’s article uses the theories of Jonathan Groucutt to “illustrate” how color is represented in different cultures. As I mentioned previously, the color blue has been proven to have a calming effect, but this is just within American society. In Iran, for instance, the color blue represents immortality. In Brazil, the color purple represents mourning. According to this article, the color green is forbidden in
Indonesia.
Even if I am only designing for American-based companies, applying color successfully will be no easy task. Though studies may have found that Americans interpret color in a very specific way, America as a whole is very diverse; it is filled with people of varying backgrounds and cultures. I have not looked into it yet, but I imagine the telemarketing industry is very diverse. Further examination into the field of color psychology will hopefully yield new avenues of how color can be applied effectively.
Pilot Study
An Interview with Leigh Mann*, Dial Universe* employee
Methodology
I decided to conduct a one-on-one interview with a current employee in the industry of telemarketing. After reviewing my choices of methodology, I figured this would be a good starting point because I would be able to gain a general insight into the world of the telemarketer. I met in-person with a friend of mine named Leigh Mann in hopes of learning what her physical work environment consists of, while also learning what her attitudes are towards her workplace.
Description of Work
Leigh currently works for a company called Dial Universe. It is in her job description to be the liaison between advertising agencies and radio stations. Leigh does not call potential costumers and she does not solicit a product. She does, however, call individuals from a client list sheet to ask for a call of action on their part. Her position may not be what we typically associate with telemarketers, but she does indeed work for a call center, which makes her an appropriate participant in this pilot study.
The Interview
I first ask Leigh to give a physical description of her work environment. She explains to me that she works in a giant rectangular room. In the middle of the rectangle are cubicles. The outsides of the rectangle consists of individual offices for “higher-ups” in the company. “Harsh” florescent light fills the space and when all of the individual offices have their doors closed, no sun light enters the center of the room where the cubicles are arranged.
I ask Leigh to describe the colors that decorate her office space. She says that the walls of the room are white. The walls of her cubicle, and the rest of the cubicles, are grey. The computer interface used by her company displays black lettering on a white background. The carpet appears to be the only source of color in her workplace–it is dark blue.
Leigh gives me a description of her daily tasks at Dial Universe: She arrives at the office, which is located only a few blocks from her apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, at 9 AM. She checks in with her boss who gives her a list of “affiliates” she is to call on that given day. These affiliates, as mentioned above, are radio stations. Leigh must request that each station send Dial Universe the appropriate paper work stating that they have been playing the advertisements they are required to play on air. She also corresponds with radio stations via email and attends meetings with her boss to ensure that she is doing her job correctly. Leigh does this until 5:30 PM. She gets an hour for lunch which is usually around 12:30 PM. She spends an average of seven hours a day sitting in front of a computer in a small cubicle. She can, however, go to the bathroom whenever she wishes, which she tells me with a smile.
I ask her when she feels most stressed at work and she tells me it is when she’s given a long list of affiliates to call and email after spending an entire morning without an assignment. She also feels that her boss doesn’t trust her enough; that she watches over her with a scrutinizing eye. Leigh tells me that she has gotten in trouble in the past for checking her personal email and surfing the Web when she didn’t have an assignment to do. But she assures me that she always gets her work done and insists that everyone in the office surfs the Web during down time, she’s just the only one that’s gotten caught. This seems to frustrate Leigh more than any other aspect of her job.
I ask her what would make her feel more motivated at work and she says two things: sun light and employee appreciation/recognition. Feeling unappreciated has had the biggest effect on Leigh’s attitude towards her boss and her job in general. She tells me that feeling unappreciated by her boss decreases her motivation more than her lack luster work environment.
This comment gets me thinking in another direction, but it’s still important to me that I learn what she would physically change about her work environment. She tells me she would like less walls. She likes the privacy of cubicles, but doesn’t like the confinement. Space is a big concern of Leigh’s, she would like more room between her and her coworkers. She says she would also fix the ceiling of her office building, explaining to me that wires and pipes are exposed, leaving the ceiling unfinished; she doesn’t think anyone has any intentions of finishing it.
Leigh first tells me that she would like the walls of the office and cubicles to be a pastel color, but then she explains to me that she really likes the design of some of the post-production houses she’s visited in New York City. She explains that they’ve all had hardwood floors, which she likes a lot, and they’ve all been painted “rich” colors, like dark red. She then says she likes “earth tones.” She seems to actually prefer the darker colors to the previously mentioned pastels. She would also like to have music playing in the office; believing that she could still get work done, but would also be relaxed and more interested in her job if she could listen to music
Observations
I found Leigh’s comments about employee motivation to be particularly useful. Though she didn’t happen to mention that color affects her motivation, it was very obvious that her boss does have a huge impact on Leigh’s motivation levels. She worries that her boss doesn’t recognize her achievements and doesn’t believe she’s actually fulfilling her responsibilities. Though I wanted her to say, “A different color computer interface would greatly improve my motivation!” that of course, wasn’t realistic. But it is apparent that Leigh prefers color to the current black and white of her workplace. So color is important and it does play a role in the work environment.
Immediately after this interview I began to think about how employees could feel more appreciated by their bosses. I’ve read several articles about employee morale and many claim that the boss of the company plays a crucial role in boosting the morale of the employees. Everyone wants recognition. Everyone wants to feel appreciated.
For some reason, I am reminded of my time as a camper at the YMCA. Counselors gave out different colored beads to campers who showed good sportsmanship or kindness to other campers or counselors. There were many different categories, each with a different color bead, and campers were rewarded with these beads when they did a good job. We all felt so honored to earn a bead and we wore them on necklaces and showed them proud, like trophies. I’m not suggesting that we give telemarketers beads for their achievements, but I am playing with the idea of changing the color of the computer’s interface when an employee has reached a certain number of sales, or has reached a goal for that particular day. Like with the colored beads, other employees, as well as the higher-ups, would be able to visually see each person’s individual achievements during the course of each day. As campers, we were all motivated to do well because we wanted to earn a bead, perhaps this idea could be effective for professional adults as well.
(*Names changed out of concern for all parties involved.)
Work Cited
Gunelius, Susan. “Color Meanings Around the World.” 23 Sep. 2007. Brand Curve. 10 March 2008. http://www.brandcurve.com/color-meanings-around-the-world/
Nayar, Jean. “Color: A powerful mood-altering tool.” 4 April 2004. One Work Place. 10 March 2008. http://www.oneworkplace.com/pdfs/whitpapers/ColorAMindAlteringTool.pdf
Oakley, James. “Research Links Employee Satisfaction, Profits.” 13 Sep. 2004. Newswise. 10 March 2008. http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/507040/
Russell, Michael. “Call Center Morale Boosting Strategies.” 16 Feb. 2007. EzineArticles. 10 March 2008. http://ezinearticles.com/?Call-Center-Morale-Bosting-Strategies&id=456718
Wilhite, Brent. “Freud’s couch: the psychology of office design. 1 Dec. 2002. All Business. 17 April 2008. http://www.allbusiness.com/business-planning/414307-html
