Winter Attendance Management - Help!

[CareerGirl23]

I currently manage the attendance and punctuality of over 50 employees. We have always had problems with staff being late or absent for their shifts, but every year, attendance gets MUCH worse during the winter months. This is for obvious reasons: snow storms, sick children(daycare wont take them), sick employees, car accidents in storms, etc... Its taking its toll on the business, and I need some advice on what I can say (Memo, meetings, etc..) to try and fix this for the next few months..

[gkern]

I do not think there is anything you can "say" that will change things. None of the reasons that you cited for agents being late or absent will go away by you sending a verbal or written message to your team. One options is to schedule more people to account for this problem with schedule adherence. Another is to consider a home agent approach. Home agents will fix all the "commute" related problems you mention.

Our call centers have an activity based compensation model in which agents receive bonus pay based on schedule adherence, quality, and AHT. There base pay is slightly lower than market rate, but top performers earn almost a third more pay than average. We have fewer attendence problems as a result.

[N o o R]

Originally Posted by CareerGirl23

I currently manage the attendance and punctuality of over 50 employees. We have always had problems with staff being late or absent for their shifts, but every year, attendance gets MUCH worse during the winter months. This is for obvious reasons: snow storms, sick children(daycare wont take them), sick employees, car accidents in storms, etc... Its taking its toll on the business, and I need some advice on what I can say (Memo, meetings, etc..) to try and fix this for the next few months..

yea...............................

[mpccallcenters]

I suggest against even offering an in-home agent possibility as a solution to the attendance problem. Perhaps offering that as a perk for attendance is a better avenue. For instance - operators would need to prove themselves in the office before they are offered any work at home positions.

Attendance is tough in any call center and turnover is a fact of life. With some employees, benefits and money are enough to keep a person happy and at work, for other people with chrinic absences, there may be nothing you can do. In our call center, we are very strict about attendance and lateness. We have adopted a 3 strikes and you are out - no excuses policy. It works amazing for us but we do pay our operators well above industry average.

[WindsAloft]

My company implemented a Work At Home segment of our workforce and I can testify that their productivity and compliance is twice as bad as the rest of the workforce. (Imagine being able to go into Idle while doing laundry)

I recommend Performance based incentives

[gkern]

I agree that an improperly managed home agent program will not yield good results, but a home agent program that strictly manages KPIs (schedule adherence, AHT, and quality) combined with good HR selection processes will work. In fact you should see better results overall. An incentive based program based on those KPIs, whether in home or in an internal call center will help drive positive results.

[TheTerminator]

Top and most important. Do not be afraid to terminate your worst offenders. Usually, these are the lowest performers and do you want them anyways? You'll be amazed how attendance improves after a few terminations.

Next, get a bonus incentive in place where fair attendance is 1/2 a bonus and poor attendance is no bonus. Make sure the bonus is enough to change attendance pattern, otherwise you're throwing money away.

Make sure your employees understands the attendance policy and progressive steps toward termination.

[GinaD]

I agree with the other postings . Remote agents really puts an end to shift problems plus it gives you a diaster recovery system.
Another way you can try is a WFM maybe having your reps plan their own work schedule they will feel more compelled to work it.
I think overall the best way is remote agents. Even offering it as a reward for the top producers or overall best performace.

I can help you with info if you like.

Gina Dohna
InContact
gina.dohna@incontact.com
801-386-8353

[Daniel Rock]

Seems to me that the only thing to do to tackle these problems is to get some flexible temps in. Get in touch with a good agency which can send extra people at short notice, provided that you can more or less get the same people coming back.