Absenteeism and Attrition

[Valencia]

I am looking to curtail absenteeism and reduce attrition. What are the steps that can be taken to improve on these 2 areas.

Valencia Ferrao

[Michcall]

Those are two very large topics. As a starting point, I would do a root cause analysis of attrition. Why are people leaving? If you have the ability to do exit interviews with those leaving it can be a great insight to where the problems lie. You can't stop attrition in a call center environment, but you can't make it better without understanding why it is. Interview some of your best/most tenured agents and ask them what they like and what can be done better. Do an anonymous employee survey to find out what the employees are saying about working there. There are literally hundreds of action plans that can reduce attrition, but you need to understand where to start.

Are you hiring the right agents and setting their expectations correctly? Not everyone is cut out to work in a call center. Do you allow your interviewees to go on the floor and observe the work they will be doing. Do you set expectations in the interview of what their scheduling and adherance responsibilities will be?
Perhaps people are leaving because they didn't understand what was to be expected of them.

As far as absenteeism, I would say you need to have a clear, delineated attendance policy and then need to enforce it. If people clearly understand there are consequences for missing work, they will either abide by the rules or look for employment elsewhere. It is far more detrimental to have a lax attendance policy or not enforce the one you have than to have a clear policy that employees can understand.

Good Luck.

[Dismuke]

Originally posted by Valencia
I am looking to curtail absenteeism and reduce attrition. What are the steps that can be taken to improve on these 2 areas.

Valencia Ferrao

Make sure that your attendance policy is one that you can live with - and then stick to it.

The reason I say "make sure you can live with" is because, when you have an attendance problem on top of a attrition problem, it can make things very tricky. I have been in the situation a number of times where, in the short term, I simply could not afford to fire people because of bad attendance. So I have an employee who misses three days per month. That is unacceptable. But at least he is here 17 days per month - and if I fire him, I won't even have him for that and I am already short of people and I won't have anyone to replace him for several weeks down the road. Fire him and my center's performance numbers become even worse - and I have to worry about my boss and/or client becoming upset in the short term. Ignore it and I risk destroying the credibility of the company's attendance policy which will, in the long term, hurt attendance even more. You are darned if you do and darned if you don't. Sometimes you have to worry more about putting out the fire that is burning now than the one that will eventually burn down the road - because, otherwise, you might not get down the road at all.

If attrition is not a problem, there should be no reason why you cannot come up with an attendance policy that meets your needs and enforce it consistently.

For those who do have an attrition problem, my suggestion when developing an attendance policy is to not be excessively idealistic.

You have to keep in mind that you are usually dealing with people who do not make a lot of money - and that is going to have a certain impact on their life situations outside of work. Someone making $9 per hour is not likely to be in a position to afford transportation as reliable as someone making significantly more. Nor is he likely to be able to afford a rental car when his is in the shop. You have to be willing to accept up front that "life happens" and car problems are a fact of reality that some of your employees will have to face. You can help minimize the situation by doing things like helping to organize an "emergency carpool" network amongst your employees who live in the same part of town. But if that is not possible - well, the employee may have no choice but to miss work. Same thing if a child gets sick and is not allowed to go to daycare. Call center workers usually do not earn enough to be able to afford to hire someone to take care of a sick child on short notice - and if they simply leave the child at home by itself, well, they would be bad parents and could actually go to jail if something happened while they were away. If an hourly employee's water pipes break - he may not be able to afford a plumber and will have to miss work to fix it himself. As I said, life happens.

The key is to devise an attendance policy that is flexible enough to take a certain number of extenuating circumstances per year into consideration while, at the same time, allowing you to clamp down on those who are habitually taking off on Saint Monday and Saint Friday. My suggestion is to have fairly strict consequences for attendance "occurrences" and fairly liberal standards as to what constitutes an "excused absence." Don't base your attendance policy on what you would like for your show rate to be. It needs to be based on what you can realistically demand and expect. If you are not realistic, you will soon feel pressured to become lax with enforcement. Once you have determined what is realistic - stick to it. Enforce your progressive discipline no matter what. Also, try to tie being on progressive discipline with the loss of certain privileges and perks. If you find yourself in a staffing crunch and cannot afford to fire anyone - keep the progressive discipline going and become lax only with those who are on the final step. As soon as the emergency subsides, then take immediate action with those people or else hire their replacements in your next training class. Talk with your HR department on how to go about it in a manner that is consistent and legal.

I would also tie any commissions and/or bonuses to attendance, regardless as to whether the absences are excused or unexcused. If they get paid a commission every two weeks, then pay out those who worked every day during the period at 100%. If an employee missed one day, pay his commission out at 90%. If he missed two days, pay it out at 80% etc. If they whine that their absence was excused and it wasn't their fault, simply answer with "Well, it may not be your fault, but is it my fault? Is it the company's fault? We lost money and faced consequences because you were out - and now so are you."

[daveste]

I agree with Dismuke and feel that the recommendation is on the mark. However, the only change I would make is to offer the incentive amount as "X" and then bump it up for each attendance level made.

Example -

The agentÂ’s bonus could be $50.00 and if they only were absent once they get an additional $5.00; if they have perfect attendance, including tardies, they receive an extra $10 or $15.

I did an incentive plan where reps made a dollar amount and then could receive extra percentages if their adherence numbers were a certain percentage. This way the agent does not feel penalized for the absence, yet feels rewarded for good attendance.