Improving Attendance In The Call Center
May 17, 2007 · Print This Article
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Improving Attendance
By: Melanie Hartzell
Of all Call Center performance metrics, the easiest one to improve is attendance. Unfortunately, it is also the one that can do the most harm to customer satisfaction, department morale, and can cost the company a lot of money. There are three basic steps to improving attendance in any Call Center environment. If they are followed, you will be well on your way to developing a successful Call Center, and taking a huge step forward in battling performance metrics.
- Set attendance guidelines
- Make them clear – use basic terminology, and close loopholes
- Outline consequences - Examples
- 1st offense verbal
- 2nd offense written
- 3rd offense termination
- Communicate them. First on paper, then verbally. Talk about them regularly. Get a signed contract after a verbal discussion. (This is not necessary, but it helps the employee take responsibility for their attendance, and shows that you are serious).
- Be consistent
- Treat all employees equally. In a Call Center environment, as a supervisor, you are bound to have favored employees. Make sure you treat all employees exactly the same. If you show flexibility to one, you must show the same flexibility to another. This is imperative to improve attendance.
- Set a clear plan, and follow it consistently with all employees. If your guidelines state: after the second absence you will get a verbal warning, regardless of the reason, stick with it. The first time you waiver, it sends a message to the entire staff it is ok to be absent if your excuse is deemed worthy.
- Bad things happen to good people, try to be patient, but also understand that all people are not cut out for Call Center work. It is difficult to enforce a policy or guideline when you feel sorry for a person; remind yourself that although you feel sorry for that person, you are typically not the person who has to pick up the work load. It is their peers, and rarely will they understand when they are stuck with a heavier workload.
- Understand that abusers get themselves into trouble. A policy or guideline just helps you deal with it, so the abuser cannot infect your entire staff.
- If the employee is a protected class and falls under FMLA, make sure they understand what they need to do to be protected. Know the laws that govern FMLA. This should be the responsibility of anyone who manages people. Understanding the law will protect people with legitimate problems, and it will protect the company financially.
- Know when to terminate
- You don’t fire people with attendance issues, they fire themselves. Don’t internalize or make excuses for the employee. Hold them accountable for their actions.
- Be careful not to justify delaying termination of an employee due to being short staffed. This is a very common mistake in the Call Center environment, and it will cause your employees to hold you hostage. Headcount numbers are based on employees who come to work. If the employee does not come to work, they are skewing your numbers and robbing you of valuable headcount.
You cannot make your employees come to work, but you can hold them accountable, and by holding them accountable, you send a message that poor attendance will not be tolerated. Your loyal employees who show up for work everyday will respect you and will work harder for you, because they have a reason to.
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