How do you manage unscheduled absences?

[Kathryn Jackson]

I was just talking with a member who is trying to figure out how to manage unscheduled absences on Monday (the highest call volume day). What do you do? Incentives? Disincentives? Specific examples and/or guidance would be greatly appreciated by this member. Please respond below. Thanks!

[Kathryn Jackson]

From a LinkedIn Member

Hi - we plan for them, using WFM (Totalview) - we schedule a 25% overhead above actual requirements, so over a month, we know we can hit our monthly GOS targets, regardless of the odd Monday absence throwing GOS spiralling - while also accommodating normal sickness and holidays etc.

We also look for trends - I've written a VB program, which monitors our WFM system, looking for lateness, sickness etc - which points out things like 'person A has had X absences in Y months, of which Z were on a specific day (dates can be added to identify days following popular football matches, weekend music festivals etc etc) - and if certain attendance triggers are hit - we have absence review meetings, leading to PIPs and so on.

HTH

Mark Tait, Operations/Problem/Knowledge/Workforce Ops Manager, and Tools Programmer, Capgemini

[Kathryn Jackson]

I really like this option that looks and responds to trends versus one-off occurences (i.e., always out on Mondays). The response is reflected in the performance review/appraisal. As soon as the trend is noticed, the supervisor talks with the employee to figure out what is happening, warn appropriately of consequences (if they apply), etc.

[Pauline Mills]

Keeping a 'Call Me In' list is one method that works great for filling unexpected absetees--We have several agents that want the extra hours and ask to be 'on call...

[Kathryn Jackson]

Great idea to help meet those days when absences are high.

Has anyone used an agent initiated swap to cover days? I've seen some centers allow agents to swap shifts up to the day before the shift. The swap can be done automatically between agents without management intervention.

[Pauline Mills]

We also use the swap days...This works especially well for planned absences...

[Pamela Dodrill]

Yep. It's fantastic! We just implemented a WFM system that allows agents to post time frames they would like to cover and agents to accept covering it. The manager is notified - but does not need to approve. While my client has just started using the system, I can see already that coverage will be much better!

[Alexis]

I am currently unemployed, but when I was managing a contact center, I found a few approaches that helped. In my centers, all agents were scheduled to come in every day. The first thing I did was to review the expected behaviors, including attendance, during team meetings. I let the team know that I was looking at this issue and that I would follow-up with disciplinary action. I made sure that I actually followed through with counseling, PIPs and more serious action for the repeat offenders. Secondly, I met with each individual to get a feel for where they were in terms of the job. Did they want to be there or was this a placeholder until they could find something they really wanted? If this was a placeholder for them, I assisted them in their effort to find something else, while letting them know that they had to live up to the expectations while they were in my department. Lastly, I rewarded them. I would host activities on high volume days, such as free lunches, department competitions for prizes, etc. These would serve as incentive for those poorer performers and stress-relievers for top performers.

[Thomas Buiel]

Kathryn,
I would suggest a different approach. Oftentimes we try to handle issues by overscheduling to allow for such blips in an effort to delivery the highest quality service. But even the best forecasting and schedule cannot accomodate an immediate out of adherence situation o a 10 minute spike in call volume. Hold Queues get longer creating higher toll costs for on hold time, and your personell costs increase as well in an attempt to keep those queues down. Another solution is to consider using technology that manages those spikes or even out of adherence occurances and delivers a level quality of service to your customers. There is technology in the marketplace that will keep ALL calls to your specified service level and give your callers an option of staying on hold for the next available agent, or opting out for a call back say, in 5 minutes or less. There are hundreds of companies using this technology and they feel it is a better service to their customers. The application estimates wait time and only occurs when your queue times threaten to exceed your standards. The results are callers that opt to hold are more likely to not abandon once given the option. Callers who get called back are impressed with the response and accuracy of the returned call. The system predicts when an agent will be vailable and launches a return call within the promised timeframe. Callers can even schedule their own date and time to be called if it is more convenient for them. You can see how this reduces 800 toll time on hold and the need for staffing to avoid a 10 minute spike in your queues.

If you want to know more about this I can give you some suggestions ...feel free to contact me. Be glad to help.

Tom Buiel 480-664-8827

[Pamela Dodrill]

We're actually just implementing a program called 30 points for one of my clients. I have the details to share and will upload them to this posting. I was given the idea by Austin Brown, a very talented Professional Services guy with inContact. He used it in a call center he managed in a previous life - with great success. The gist of it is everyone starts with 30 points. If you come in late, you lose 1/2 a point. If you call in sick, you lose a point. (in this particular case - perhaps you lose more than a point for calling in sick on Mondays??). If you go an entire month without any point loss, you gain a point back. Every three months (you decide the timeframe), he/she with the most points wins.....fill in the blank. I have a rough draft of the program - it should be attached to this posting.

Pam Dodrill
[e-mail]

[Kathryn Jackson]

From Jim Beuoy, Compliance Officer & Quality Champion (LinkedIn CCPF Member)

In addition to what Mark says about tracking it and then planning for it, we implemented a pay differential in the base pay based on schedule adherence. e.g. 94% adherence or above = top tier, and etc. You might also want to look at the relationship between your supervisors and the agents. It's been my experience that poor coaching and mentoring practices contribute to this problem.

[Kathryn Jackson]

From Robert Cowen, Representative at Snowfly (a CCPF LinkedIn Member)

Incentives (positive) are always better than disincentives (negatives). Just a few ideas: if your call center pays a commission or incentive for sales, offer a bonus for sales on Monday; offer small rewards for daily attendance and bonus rewards on Monday or for five days in a row. This does not need to be expansive. I’ve seen numerous cases where KPI’s (including attendance, upselling, adherence, reduced turnover) improve at least 20% almost immediately while spending the equivalent to two hours of wages per month.

The keys are: break-down large activities into their smallest components and reward them as they occur (behavior shaping, continuous positive motivation), closely tie the timing of the reward with the desired activity, make earning the reward fun & exciting (random intermittent reinforcement), separately pay the award rather than put it on regular payroll, allow choice of the reward (refillable debit cards are the most popular).

[Kathryn Jackson]

In our Supervisor Training webinar (on June 18) we talked a lot about absenteeism and how supervision can affect it positively. Some great examples were given. I will have the webinar recording posted by June 22 on www.responsedesign.com/webinar (you can listen to it from the site or download it for later).