Attendance Policies

[MLFox]

We have a very strict attendance policy for our entire organization. Have any of you found an attendance policy that works for your group? It takes us about 3 months before someone can go on the phones due to lengthy training. It seems that we just get them on the floor and they are in trouble with their attendance. We just cannot function with 60% turnover due to the length of training and the learning curve.

I work in a Manufacturing company and we currently have 40 agents.

[cjw17]

My company (a major bank) has a guideline of 5 instances or 8 days within a rolling 12 months...after that, non-exempt employees are docked & subject to corrective actions. We chose in our call center last year to drop the 5 instances & just go with the 8 days. We still have as many people on warning as we did last year, but our exit interviews are no longer pointing to our strict attendance policy as the reason for leaving. We also give them two personal days which they are allowed to call in in an emergency if they need to, so they really have to be out 10 days in a year to be in trouble.

[callcenteradmin]

Have you tried reward programs for good attendance? For example, if an employee has perfect attendance for 120 days, give them a $50 bonus or an extra vacation day. Besides the reward, make sure to give your employee a huge pat on the back for a job well done! Public recognition for good performance is key.

Realize that poor attendance and high turnover is almost always a reflection of poor management. Employees call in sick (or quit) as a passive aggressive effort to fight back at their employer. The more strict you make your attendance policies and the more you punish employees for poor attendance, the MORE your employees will call in sick and the higher your turnover will be.

A survey conducted by http://www.CallCenterCareers.com suggested that a leading reason why employees quit is because they do not feel appreciated by their employer. By simply showing your employees appreciation for low absenteeism and rewarding them for a job well done, you will lower absenteeism and turnover.

Best regards,

Peter C. Geisheker
http://www.CallCenterCareers.com
Find Your Dream Job Today!

[Matt Schmitz]

The attendance policy I've seen is based on points: 1/2 a point for being late to work, 1 point for being absent without a doctor's note. We use a sliding scale for what types of warnings acrue at different point levels. At 12 points, the employee is termed. We do allow and reward agents with improved attendance by letting them "buy back" points. After 1 month of perfect attendace, they get 1 pt back. Every 2 weeks after that gets another point back.

This method works, but requires a lot of supervisory diligence. I've seen some teams get out of control when a floor supervisor doesn't log the points, or fails to follow the progressive warning level procedures. I've also seen teams use this method with outstanding success.

I actually think the best system should be the easiest system, one that is automated or preferably controlled by an outside group like workforce management, intraday, or HR. I think the supervisors on the floor would be better suited to give out the warnings as directed by a third party, instead of doing all of the logging and documentation as well as the disciplinary functions. Just my humble...

Matt

[Alec]

Hi, I am a consultant and I am often asked about reducing sickness rates in companies. You donÂ’t mention if you think the staff are genuinely sick or malingering. If they are genuinely sick, sickness falls into 3 categories; 1) Short notice sickness (less than 24hrs notice), 2) notice greater than 24hrs, 3)Elective sickness, where they tell you in advance. These are handled in different ways.

Avoiding staff falling sick is a management issue, often connected to staff not drinking enough water whilst at work. Water is the body’s primary defence against bacteria and viruses. If you restrict water intake, staff lose their defence barriers and fall sick. This is both from mixing with other staff and from the food they eat. Perhaps, when they move onto the ‘floor’ they restrict their water intake and are exposed to mass infections, until they become immune. If this is a possible cause, then the staff are genuinely ill, but it is curable if managed correctly.

You don’t mention if the company has staff working shifts. If you don’t have shifts then the following is one possible cause. Most people need to take days off for personal reasons, and they can only do this in 2 ways. First method (Option A)is to have a days leave when they want a day off, the second method (Option B) is to claim to be ill for the day. If they have no leave entitlement left, they can only be ‘sick’ for the day. You need to have a mechanism in place which allows staff to take ‘their important days’ off. Whilst this is undesirable, it is a fact of life which you cannot afford to ignore. Otherwise, staff will not mention they need the day off and give you no notice of absence. This is definitely not a desirable way to run an organisation, but is the case all too frequently. There are various mechanisms that can be used to remove the problem.
If your staff work shifts, then you should have an easy shift swapping method for the staff to use to rearrange their shifts to suit their personal lives. When staff are ‘locked’ into a pattern and cannot swap shifts, they can only take days off as above. Many shift patterns are such that swapping shifts is difficult.
If you impose a limit to the number of staff that can be off at any time, and most companies have that policy, then when that limit is reached anyone wanting a days leave will know it will be refused. Thus they can only use Option B.

If all this sounds difficult to manage and could lead to staff chaos, it isnÂ’t. If staff know that if they need a day off, they can have one, you can plan the workload around that absence far easier in advance. Secondly, most people only have a few important days a year. Thirdly, you have ample time to bring in back up staff.

Best regards
Alec Jezewski

[ALFAGTV-6]

I run a contact center in Southern California. Having been in the business 12 years, what we have adopted here works best. We scored 96.7% attendance last quarter on a target of 95%. The percentage includes only non-scheduled occurances, meaning all scheduled vacations and leaves are not included.

First, anyone having to pay their staff to come to work has some serious workplace issues. That is why i shun any attandance bonus. What behavior are you rewarding? How does this fit with your corporate statement of direction? Reward for quality and accuracy and you can get the same "warm fuzzies" for the job that way.

Try this..... it's even easy to administer ! We use a 30 day period. Two or more absence in this period triggers adminstrative action. But here's the best part... and this elimates the excuses and the accoutability tide begins to turn.. We are no fault.. We don't care the reason, you did not show up today.

Had a sick baby today.. Sorry but that counts as an occurance as you were scheduled to work today

Out sick and came back to work with a Dr. excuse... Sorry but that counts as an occurance as you were scheduled to work today

Car broke down and can't make it in....Sorry but that counts as an occurance as you were scheduled to work today...

It starts to sink in... may seem rough at first but Agents find there is no way to raltionalize their way out of not showing up to work. It's simple, you are either here or your not, we don't care the reason, you were scheduled to work. It's easy to administer and easy to understand from the Agent's perspective.

By the way our annual turn-over was 42% for an inbound center. A figure certified by our COPC visit and subsequent certification.

Good luck

[tteamer]

Attendance policies are always a tough subject. From the business perspective, the company pays the employee to show up to work and gives them an allotted amount of days off for unscheduled absences. From the employee's perspective, there could be many reasons why absences occur. There is the occassional unforeseen illness, there is the age old" I could not get the day off, so I am calling in sick or I don't like my job and I am calling in, and the reasons go on and on. There has been a lot of discussion around the reasons employees call in. What I haven't seen yet is the fact that some employees call in because they can't work the schedule they are assigned but need the job so they accept the job. I recently came across a case where an employee was about to be terminated for his attendance issues. He was a good employee (high quality and performance statistics) but had a personal family issue that required he take off on Saturday mornings.

I am sure that this and like scenarios occur in many call centers. Perhaps a way to address issues of these types is through the scheduling practices. It is very difficult to balance the business, customer and employee needs.

There are ways to accommodate all without being unfair, overly rigid or risking the business, thus resulting in a win-win for all.

If you are interested in some suggestions, feel free to contact me directly at tteamer@callcpm.com.

Tracy Teamer

[hallbj2]

ML,
One of the areas I've not seen addressed in your replies is the direct corolation between the length of training and absentisim.
Are your agents in a classroom setting for 3 whole months?
Look at it this way - personally, I feel it's way too long to get on the phone. Even if your training is VERY technical - I see it as Burn-out.
Are you "weeding" people out in the initial interview process. i.e. explaining to them the extensive training period before they can actually do what they were hired to do? Don't paint the "rosey picture" in the initial interview. Explain they will be sitting for prolonged periods of time in a classroom setting.

If your company is considering redoing the corporate training, I'd love to provide some ideas.

Hall & Associates
Beverly Hall