so with monday being officially the

7/28/2019 So With Monday Being Officially The

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So with Monday being officially the most depressing day of the year, we asked for your advice on

dealing with staff absence.

We seem to have hit a bit of a raw nerve and have had 46 tips provided, from 22 different people.

1. A clear attendance policy

Geoff Sims

Having a clear attendance policy that is communicated to all staff is key; employees need to understand

what is expected of them and what is considered to be acceptable. Having absence procedures in place

should ensure that all employees know exactly when they should call in to report their absence and who

to. There should be a high level of consistency in the way that the business deals with unacceptable

absences.

2. Return to work interviews

Conducting return-to-work interviews can be particularly helpful in ascertaining the reasons behind an

absence and assessing whether they are genuine. It is also important for the company to continually

look for ways to keep staff engaged. Overall if strong procedures are in place and are adhered to, they

can help reduce absence across the business.

Geoff Sims, Managing Director of Hays Contact Centres (www.hays.co.uk/contactcentres)

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3. Flexible scheduling

Flexible scheduling can reduce absenteeism if handled correctly. Some employees are forced into

absenteeism situations for reasons that are beyond their control. Allow employees the opportunity to


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choose custom-designed schedules that better match their personal needs and help them to maintain

predictable work patterns.

4. Good documentation

For employees with chronic or habitual late arrivals or absenteeism, a good occurrence programme is

essential. Documentation is key, and the rules should be applied evenly across the entire population of

contact centre agents.

5. Incentive programmes should be tied to attendance

Chris McCallister

Lets say you have two employees with nearly identical sales achievements for the month. Both are in

line to receive cash bonuses. Is it appropriate for one employee with an abysmal attendance record to

receive the same bonus as the employee that has a stellar attendance record? No. Both employees were

present during core selling hours, but only one employee was conscientious enough to arrive at work on

time and help their team.

6. Tie promotions to attendance

In that spirit, tie promotions to attendance as well. Nothing deflates a team faster than seeing a co-

worker promoted into a leadership position where they will be required to enforce attendance policies

that they themselves could not adhere to before they were promoted.

7. Is your attendance policy too strict?


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You need just a little wiggle room to allow for some unanticipated absences (i.e. build in an exception

for snow storms, traffic accidents tying up major highways, or commuter trains being delayed). The key

here is to make sure these events are verifiable and they impact a broad population of agents.

8. Shift swaps

Allowing for shift swaps (i.e. trading shifts) can also reduce absenteeism. Some centres maintain a shift-

swap board where agents post days they need off and their schedule, and other agents may volunteer

to trade days off or shift start times, etc. Larger contact centres may automate this process using their

scheduling software.

9. Tie absenteeism to agent engagement survey results

There are agents that are habitual offenders, and agents who will show up every day without fail. But

there is a larger population of your employees that fall somewhere between these two groups, and for

them their working environment can be a tipping point in your battle to improve attendance. Survey

your agents, and ask them what would contribute to a happier workplace and encourage attendance.

You may see responses that indicate you need to make their break areas more attractive, or they may

want to personalise their cubicles. In extreme cases, you may see agents that want new parking

arrangements, or perhaps you can arrange local daycare discounts for working parents.

10. Increased absenteeism on Mondays, Fridays and weekends

Most contact centres that track attendance data notice increased absenteeism on Mondays, Fridays and

weekends. If attendance is tied to your centres financial results, think about offering an incentive plan

that includes perfect attendance as one of the key targets. You may want to look at an annual

recognition bonus for those who have perfect attendance over all four quarters.

Chris McCallister

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11. The employee is in charge of their destiny

I would suggest reading the book, Discipline Without Punishment. This features partners in

accountability.

Basically, the employee is in charge of their destiny.

For example, Employee A has only 48 hours of sick time or 6 occurrences. Employee A has used up all 48

hours and is on their 7th occurrence. At first, Employee A has an undocumented discussion with their

manager just stating the facts and letting it be known that if they call out again, then there will be an

action plan discussion.

If the same employee calls out for the 8th time, then upon their return, the manager has a discussion

that is documented where the employee must create an action plan to take care of their problem of

calling off from work.

Responsibility is thrown back on the employee. Together, the employee and the manager craft a plan to

get the employee back on track. The employee signs the document and it is placed in their file. If the

employee violates the action plan, then they have another documented discussion and are given an

ultimatum of whether or not they should be employed with the company.

The employee is given a 24-hour period to decide. If the employee decides to remain with the company,

then they must recommit to the action plan. The manager then explains that any more infractions will

result in termination. While this is a lengthy process, it results in far less employee turnover.

Susan Leighton, Project Analyst II at CitiFinancial

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12. Tie attendance via pay for performance


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Dana Masel

By doing this you will help curb absence and set the tone for the suggestions above.

This has worked out nicely for me in five countries. Setting this expectation up front will not only filter

out those who are in it for their hourly pay as well as curb the Monday/Friday/weekend/holiday call

outs.

Dana Masel

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13. Perfect attendance = free day off

Arnold Talbott

I supervised a dysfunctional team which enjoyed burning up their sick leave. I created an incentive

programme giving them one free vacation day every six months if they did not call in sick. Of course

visits to the doctor would not count against them. It worked! I gave out more vacation days for perfect

attendance than any other manager. I even allowed for planned vacation without affecting their score if

they really needed a break.

Pizza is also a good team-building experience.

Arnold Talbott Latin America Operations & Project Manager at AT&T

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14. You need flexibility (and the patience of a saint)


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Denise Fitzgerald

I have not found a single solution that meets all needs. I have run large contact centres in B2C

environments as well as smaller, highly specialised/technical help desks in B2B environments and the

solutions are often as varied as the individuals they work for.

I find that the best plans are those that are flexible (as well as my own ability to be flexible in identifying

and changing a plan that doesnt work). The patience of a saint is quite handy as well!

Denise Fitzgerald VP, Customer Support at nGenera CIM

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15. The worker base is relatively young

I agree with most of the suggestions listed above. Action plans, follow-up sessions with the employee,perfect attendance programmes all have worked for me at one time or another. I have also found

taking a survey of the teams skills to be important as well.

The worker base in call centres is relatively young. In some cases, these individuals are looking at getting

through the door in hopes of obtaining another position that could expand their skills and interests.

Unfortunately, they have yet to understand that attendance will affect their ability to move within the

organisation or even receive opportunities to take on new projects. In team meetings, I clearly

communicate the attendance guidelines and explain how attendance plays in promotion opportunities

or new projects.

16. Find the root cause


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For those who continue to abuse the attendance programme, I try to find the root cause and if able, will

try to provide a more flexible schedule arrangement. Otherwise, with an action plan in place, I will

continue to let the employee know where their attendance stands and the next step in the discipline

process to avoid any surprises. As far as incentives go, it may work if you are looking at various ways of

awarding perfect attendance but you run the risk of higher cost to the organisation and state

limitations (depending on where you are operating the call centre). In the end, I believe an employer

that offers sick days in todays environment is already providing an incentive to an employee.

17. Look at the current scheduling guidelines

If Mondays are presenting a problem, look at the current scheduling to see if maybe it is too strict, or

allow the employees to schedule for vacation if they havent taken off on the previous six Mondays.

Melisa Ervin, Master Coach at 21st Century Insurance

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18. Hiring the wrong agents

David Filwood

Hiring the wrong call centre agent is the root cause of many call centre performance issues including

absenteeism. Its a significant drain on your budget and bottom line, on customer satisfaction ratings

and sales results.

Call centre agent pre-employment screening software can screen out job candidates who will burn out

fast because they arent suited for the work and identifies the people with the personality/job-fit, soft

skills, motivation, and work ethic to be top call centre agents.

David Filwood, Principal Consultant, TeleSoft Systems


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19. Peer pressure drives individual accountability

Dave Salisbury

I found an interesting principle that has really turned things around, I raised the bar.

Working small teams, driving individual accountability, and insisting that agents meet a higher standard

in personal appearance, personal integrity, personal actions, with the group deciding adherence has

made all the difference. This uses peer pressure positively, drives individual accountability, and hones

the team atmosphere that is so crucial in call centre work.

Proper incentives like pizza parties, ice cream sundaes, team dress-down days, etc all provide the

impetus for striving a little more. Stretched over six months or so, the improvements are barely

noticeable on the individual level and many dont even realise they are changing until the changes have

already been accomplished.

Dave Salisbury, MBA-GM & HRM

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20. No Show, Call In policies

Carlos Lopez


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I have implemented or enforced No Show, Call In policies in call centres I have worked in. The process is

a little dragged out but the decrease in turnover and increased retention as well as morale helps out the

centre overall. The key is really consistency. If the process is not fair across the board and there is no

real follow-up auditing the process. It wont work.

Having a good working environment, allowing centre employees to take ownership in their roles and

using metrics that include attendance to review individual performance is, of course, key. Employees

who understand their incentives, bonus, raises and promotions will be tied to this metric as well.

Carlos Lopez

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21. The number 1 priority is engagement

We built and communicated a Vision for our organisation and our No. 1 priority is enagagement. We

clearly communicated that absenteeism was a sign of poor engagement or we had very sick people

(both a problem). I also let them know that I look at our absenteeism evey day to ensure we do not have

the above problems.

I also task the leaders with managing this metric and it is part of their variable compensation. What we

have seen are employee engagement scores in the +80% for the last four quarters and a reduction in

absenteeism of 30% YOY.

David Bradshaw, Vice President, Sales and Service at ING DIRECT

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22. Get rid of our old ideas


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Michael Lloyd

Absenteeism, along with agent churn, is an ongoing theme in every call centre. I think that as leaders we

need to get rid of our old ideas of what worked for us and look at what will drive or motivate the current

generation of agents to come to work.

Todays generation of agents are fiercely loyal so leverage that. Get that personal commitment to you as

an individual, not their manager.

When youre 24 and living at home money isnt always a big incentive, but time off is.

Social relationships are very important to this generation, so lack of flexibility in schedules will oftencauses absence; so add some flexibility.

23. Let agents come up with their own schedules

Let agents come up with their own schedules that fit into the needs of the centre. If it works, what does

it matter if it adds complexity to the resource team or to their supervisor, arent they there to support

the agent, not the other way around?

Lets face it, its a tough job that most of us wouldnt do again, even at our management salaries. So put

yourself in their shoes, what would it take for you to do that job again?

Michael Lloyd, Senior Manager, National Quality Operations at Rogers Communications Inc.

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24. Link absenteeism to lack of rewards or promotions

Anyone who exceeds the agreed number of tardies or absences will not be eligible for growth in the

company. Link missed punches to the build-up of an occurrence (such as one missed punch = 1/3


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occurrence or whatever you wish the guidelines to be) to stop the manipulation of not clocking in to

prevent being late.

25. Suspend an employee without pay, before termination

Larry Cook

Once an employee is late a specified number of times, and has gone through the step-by-step write-up

process to the brink of self destruction, suspend the employee without pay before you terminate. If you

want to get their attention quickly if discussions do not work, then take their pay away for a few days asan alternative to termination. If that doesnt do it, then youre dealing with someone who just doesnt

care.

When the employee returns to be introduced to their new 90-day probationary period set up these

guidelines:

1. Any tardy within the 90 days = termination

2. Completion of the 90-day probation period will be considered a success as long as the employee does

not show a pattern of going tardy again within 30 days after the end of the probation. Another tardy

within that grace period shows that the employee is habitual and begins the 90-day probation over

again. This will send a strong message that manipulation will not be tolerated. And, lets face it, not

many problem employees are going to last through 90 to 120 days of No Tolerance. If they do, then

coach to that if you see them getting a little loose later on and discuss that you both know they can do

this.

26. Watch out for the I dont care generation

If that too likely fails because of the I dont care generation flaws of the younger folks, terminate them

and promote hiring for the older worker. Promote hiring seniors who need a good job or adults who


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know the importance of integrity and responsibility. Let the wild hairs job hop through the fast food

chains until they too realise they cant afford anything nice as they get older.

It will be a long time before there is another Greatest Generation present.

Larry Cook, National Accounts Coordinator at Siemens

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27. Focus on staff well-being but only when you have established the real resons for absence

John Picken

UK employers spend around 750m a year on conventional wellbeing interventions to try and help

tackle absence. This is before you include any costs of training, job design or operational re-structure.

The business case behind much of this expenditure and the return on investment is highly debatable.

Dont waste time and money on absence initiatives until you have assessed and measured employee

wellbeing properly. Only then will you be able to manage absence within your control successfully.

John Picken of www.shandwell.com

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28. Train line managers

If a line manager is able to understand more about the absence and the needs of the employee they will

be able to facilitate a quicker return to work.


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29. Be flexible

Businesses that acknowledge that their employees have varying needs and often require a degree of

flexibility to help them balance their work and home lives will be rewarded with responsible employees

who will go the extra mile.

30. Communicate regularly

It is crucial to maintain contact with employees whilst they are absent from work.

31. Incentivise

We ensure that every recognition or reward scheme includes qualifying criteria of satisfactory levels of

attendance before a reward is issued. Helen Roberts, KCOMs HR Director said: People joining our

business have a very clear understanding from day one about what is a satisfactory level of attendance

and how unacceptable levels of absence can negatively impact their reward and recognition. The

bonus policy allows the business the discretion to make a reduction to an employees bonus payment if

their absence has reached unacceptable levels. Helen continues: Our people feel this is a fair process

as it recognises those people who come to work every day and provide cover for those people whoregularly take time off. We have seen an improvement in absence levels since the policy was introduced

and everyone understands what this means to them and how they can influence this.

32. Ensure your sick pay rules reflect your absence policy

33. Set triggers for lateness, short- and long-term absence

34. Take disciplinary action for unacceptable levels of absence

35. Involve occupational health


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Helen Roberts, HR Director, KCOM (www.kcom.com)

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36. Include attendance as part of the advisors KPIs

Sheron D Copeland

Weve included attendance as part of the representatives KPIs. We use the monthly KPIs and the scores

earned to determine everyones ranking for shift bids. Each of the KPIs has different weighting and

attendance has one of the highest (40%) because its one over which the employee has a great amount

of control.

37. Bring in shift bidding

We shift bid every quarter so our reps know that they have the opportunity to move into a moredesirable shift simply by performing well.

This has worked tremendously well for us.

When I took over the contact centre three years ago we were struggling with churn of close to 200% and

chronic absenteeism. In 2008 we reduced our churn to a miraculous 2% and had no churn in 2009. We

have also reduced our attendance occurrences to a very negligible amount. There were no unplanned

absences for the entirety of 2009 and only 15 tardies for the entire year.

Sheron D. Copeland, Director, Care Center Americas Region


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38. Bring in a sense of accountability

When I took over my last position I requested the files of the team only to find out that the company

had team members with over 40 attendance events and no action. The team was basically a good team

but had no sense of accountability.

Gustavo Arias

To address the issue I started re-writing job descriptions and adding working with the team to build up

responsibilities and accountability. In the process we added attendance to KPIs and included a weekly

team performance communication. A simple email with the totals call, abandon rate and service level of

the week including the attendance events.

So the team had first-hand knowledge that when the attendance was down the service level was lower

and so on. In addition we included progress reports and, yes, we placed some agents on probation and

some as a result of not following up with their commitment upon the individual progress cards.

39. Include team games

As a complement, we included team games where KPIs were the guide to a Home Run or a bingo game

in which anyone with less than perfect attendance was out of the contest for the payroll period.

After a few months and two separations the behaviour started to change up to the point that at thetime of the yearly evaluations 85% of the team showed absence below the maximum allowed by the

employee handbook.

Gustavo Arias, Call Center Operations


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40. Find the root of the problem

Stephen Shooster

Are the calls they are taking fair. Sometimes agents are placed into a toxic environment. This can be

caused by poor management and not pushing back on the department or even executive team that is

asking for the impossible. This is delicate, but executives respond quickly to cost of training and quality

issues, so focus on these instead of individuals.

Then there is the flaky employee that is just messed up. A few of these and youre surrounded by

comedians who take over the environment in gang-like behaviour. The only way to weed these out is

to get a good handle on the dress code, train against harassment of all types, and put back positive

rewards.

I know these are polar opposites and there is a wide spread in between. You could also try outsourcing a

portion of the work and comparing the stats in a board for all to see. Outsourcing will help you see lots

of aspects of your team that you might not see because youre too close.

41. Value long time service

We have an awards ceremony for 10 years (diamond earrings or a fine watch) and on a real fine day a

trip around the world for 2 (20 years of service).

Stephen Shooster, Call Center Technology Specialist

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42. Tie the salary to attendance

Hiring the right folks in the first place, motivating and leading them and taking care of them, tying the

salary to attendance, creating a flexible work schedule environment and then managing them out if all

possible attempts dont work (like action plans, etc.) will create the right environment for improved

employee attendance. Reward good attendance, motivate employees so they want to come to work

and, as a last resort, fire those who dont fix their issues is the key.

Shobhit Bhutani

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43. Use tokens for five days in a row attendance

The bottom line that we have found to improve attendance immediately at our clients is to give tokens

for daily attendance and extra tokens for five days in a row attendance. Note the difference between

M-F extra tokens and five days in a row. It is critical to award tokens for all desired activities as soon as

the activity is completed. The number of tokens depends upon the budget.

Robert Cowen

The tokens are used to play brief games that generate a random (but controlled) number of points. The

points are then used to buy prizes such as time off, money onto a debit card or anything (tangible or

intangible) that the client wishes.

There are a few key factors involved here. The first is continuous positive reinforcement and is a great

way to change behaviours in conjunction with receiving the tokens and the ability to redeem points for

prizes immediately. Another factor is random intermittent reinforcement and is an equally powerful

motivator. Finally choice of reward is key because an undesired prize has no value.


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As a rule of thumb, spending about two hours worth of labour per month on incentives and programme

management will improve KPIs by at least 20% almost immediately.

These methods are nothing more than what weve all observed at contact centres that run reward

contests with tickets put into a bowl and draw for prizes. The problem is that many companies look at

incentive/reward programmes as short-term fixes rather than on-going and dont regularly monitor the

ROI. The result is that KPIs revert to prior levels once the programme concludes.

Robert Cowen, Representative at Snowfly

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44. Weight attendance on the scorecard

In one of my previous centres, we not only linked absence to performance and made it a key

performance indicator, we weighted it appropriately to indicate how important good attendance was to

us.

We had a complete balanced scorecard that included productivity, quality/accuracy and professionalism

metrics, and the chief metric for professionalism was attendance. This included on-time log-in/log-out

for shift, timely return from break and lunch, and full absences.

Marla Goldman

Everything was included on a per-instance basis, and each instance was awarded a point value, with an8-hour or longer absence in a day having the highest number of points (2.0), and a small point value

assigned to a tardy instance of 10 minutes or less (.25 pts).

Agents were allowed a rolling 90-day balance of three points total. Any greater than that was a call to

action for their supervisor, starting with a documented discussion during their monthly scorecard.


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If the balance continued to rise or did not decrease over the next 30 days, a performance improvement

plan (PIP) was developed. If, during the PIP term of 90 days, an agent was absent or tardy for anything

other than a legitimate FMLA instance, the agent could be terminated. Supervisors were also made

accountable for delivering these discussions and PIPs in a timely manner by means of a measurement (%complete) on their monthly scorecard. I developed the reporting for this, and tracked it from

implementation to finish.

We sustained a 20 per cent decrease in overall absenteeism in a six-month time frame without

increasing our attrition.

This plan was paired with both monetary and non-monetary rewards for perfect attendance, attendance

that met the target, and most improved attendance on each supervisor team.

45. Build flexibility into the workforce management system

I do agree, however, that some schedule flexibility is warranted in a call centre. In the centres where I

was the WFM (Workforce Management), agents were required to be available to work during a

minimum 10-hour time frame daily, 6 days per week in a 24/7 centre, or 5 days a week in a regular Mon-

Fri centre. Within the limits of business need, agents could choose the 10-hour time frame during which

they were available, and they could request a change to that time frame no more often than every six

months.

We re-scheduled every two weeks, and agents had approximately ten days warning of their upcoming

schedule. Shift swaps or giveaways were allowed between any two team members with like skills, so

long as no overtime was incurred by the agent taking on the shift. Swaps could be executed with a

minimum of two business days notice. In an emergency, one business day was allowed. That helps a lot!

Marla Goldman, Project Manager & Call Center Industry Pro

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46. Share the statistics

To help reduce many problems in one particular call centre we posted all agent stats that had exceeded

threshold levels next to the exit door of the call centre and in any break room areas.

This way, the agents can review each others stats and see where they rank. Be careful as to which stats

you use, pick solid indicators Hold times, Talk time, Days off, Days missed due to illness, etc. as the

agents will start judging themselves and start some improvement. As for all adherence problems, the

management team must stand together.

James Hall

so with monday being officially the

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