Call Center as a Hotspot for Cluster Infections... Difficult to Work from Home and Unable to Wear Masks (Comprehensive)

Risk of Information Leakage... Limits of Remote Work
However, Most Financial Companies Operate Multiple Call Centers

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] As a cluster infection of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred at a call center in Guro-gu, Seoul, the financial sector has also been put on alert. Due to the nature of the industry, there are many call center workers, and since call center employees have to work all day speaking in a confined space, the risk of infection is high.

According to the financial sector on the 10th, at least 50 people including employees, trainees, and their families at the call center on the 11th floor of the Korea Building in Sindorim-dong, Seoul, tested positive for COVID-19. Excluding family contacts, all 46 confirmed cases were confirmed to have worked at the 11th-floor call center, and epidemiological investigations and specimen tests are underway for 207 call center employees.

The call center has a booth structure similar to a study room, so the space is narrow and the distance between people is very close. Since employees have to work speaking all day, it is a densely populated space where various infectious diseases can easily spread. Although mask-wearing is recommended, it is reported that wearing masks during phone consultations is difficult due to breathing discomfort.

Nevertheless, working from home is difficult due to personal information protection issues. Call center employees respond while viewing various personal information related to customers when customers call, and working from home increases the risk of leakage of such personal information.

It is also pointed out as a problem that the vast majority of call center counselors are non-regular workers such as dispatched or subcontracted employees. Since their employment stability is low, the risk of unemployment is higher than that of regular workers if the call center is closed or the workforce is reduced due to COVID-19 confirmed cases.

Financial companies have started to prepare by reviewing measures to respond to the spread of COVID-19. Most financial companies operate multiple call centers. Shinhan Bank is dualized between Gangnam and Incheon, and Woori Bank between headquarters and Cheonan. Even if one center closes, another center performing the same tasks can respond to essential duties.

Insurance companies are also operating a distributed work system. Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance divided employees of its directly managed call centers at Bucheon and Busan offices in Gyeonggi Province into 5 to 6 groups for distributed work earlier this month. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance has subsidiary call centers in six regions nationwide and operates a floor-distributed work system even under normal circumstances.

DB Insurance, which has about 1,000 employees at call centers in Seoul, Anyang, Wonju, and Jeonju, equipped call center employees' homes with an environment to access the headquarters' call system and started a work-from-home system earlier this month. Kyobo Life Insurance, operating call centers in Gangnam and Gangbuk in Seoul and Daegu, relocated employees from the Gangnam call center, which handles tasks with high customer demand, to the Gangbuk call center. NH Nonghyup Life Insurance relocated about a quarter of call center employees to other office spaces and plans to expand distributed work up to 30% if the situation worsens.

Hanwha Life Insurance enabled customer consultations and other tasks through an automated response system (ARS) or mobile application (app), and Samsung Card uses a chatbot for customer consultations. KB Kookmin Card operates dual centers in Seoul and Daejeon.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.