The typical Contact Center is ridden by daily challenges; service levels, call accuracy, service quality etc. However, by far the most challenging currently is the mystery of adherence compliance or absenteeism.
By reading this article, I’m assuming you are a Contact Center professional either in a managerial position wanting to discover more on this seemingly insurmountable challenge. Likewise, you are an agent curious about what it is that leads you to make that phone call in the morning to your team leader to call in sick (legitimate or not).
The causes of absenteeism are plenty if you look at it from the agents’ perspective of excuses: food poisoning lost my voice, car broke down, the alarm didn’t go off, my cat died, and the list goes on. However, I believe the significant issues of absenteeism fall under the areas of People & Process. Furthermore, I am happy to report the solutions are within the Contact Center manager’s span of control.
Absenteeism can be divided into five main issues, and these issues, for the sake of simplicity, I would like to elaborate it in the ever-popular vowel sequence of A, E, I, O and U.
Accuracy – The accuracy of Forecasting and Scheduling* is imperative in any high performing contact center. However, the devastating effects of inaccurate forecasting and scheduling have far-reaching effects beyond the inability to accommodate inbound call volumes. Unfortunately, I have seen too many Contact Centres without proper forecasting and scheduling practices indirectly affected by adherence issues. The link? Agent morale and stress levels. Without an accurate forecasting and scheduling mechanism in place, agents are at the mercy of an unpredictable onslaught of calls because there just aren’t enough agents to handle the volumes. This inevitably leads to increased stress levels that take a toll on even our ‘super agents’. An agent walking into a Contact Center bearing the scars of previous experiences like these may decide not even to walk in at all.
Emergency Leave – is easily one of the most common curses in any Contact Center. The recurring issue of agents employing ‘Emergency Leave’ as a reason to not show up for work afflicts 90% of all Contact Centres. The solution to this issue lies in the heart of the performance management process.
In almost all Contact Centres afflicted with “emergency-leave-asitis”, this leave of absence allowance is not well defined in employee handbooks leaving loopholes for agents to exploit. The emergency leave is defined as: “Leave of absence resulting from physical incapacitation where one is unable to perform his/her responsibilities as described in his/her job description OR death in one’s immediate family (mother, father or sibling) with official documentation and line manager must be informed no later than 2 hours before your scheduled time of duty.” To add or provide further reasons to this definition is equivalent to committing adherence suicide for your Contact Center. Hold firm or lose a firm hold on performance.
I -As in “I have no say in my work schedule.” One of the most common gripes of agents is that they are not provided with any say in when they work. This leads to dissatisfaction in work schedules and endless griping. The solution? Operations analysts or managers who prepare work schedules should know incoming call patterns to base their forecasting, subsequently deciding on manning patterns ahead of time*. With this assumption, blank schedules with the desired time slots allocated can be distributed or made available to agents to fill in the time slots themselves. With some planning and experimentation, this is one of the most emancipating practices of Contact Centres for the agents. I have seen Contact Center agent schedules manage themselves (and agents manage themselves) by implementing this practice. It creates a whole new environment of trust and empowerment that agents appreciate and reciprocate with excellent schedule adherence levels.
Opportunity – Creating opportunities for reward and recognition on perfect and immaculate attendance is a topic of great debate in the Contact Center industry. There are two sides to the argument of rewarding agents for their adherence to schedule. On the one hand, management expects employees to be at work at ALL times. By any understanding, this is the expectation and agreement when an individual accepts a position with an organization for employment. At the opposite end of the argument, the industry is plagued with rampant absenteeism (due to the high-intensity agents that have to endure continuously). As a result, it has become a significant operational issue for Contact Centres.
We can introduce reward and recognition programs for adherence can be presented during the initial stages of eradicating the behaviour of absenteeism. Performed in stages, delicately reducing rewards as stability is attained over a pre-decided period can be highly effective in encouraging positive adherence behaviour; rewards and recognition can be ceased ultimately when a culture of adherence discipline is achieved.
Unpunished – As individuals responsible for the Contact Centre's overall performance and deep in the thicket of daily operations, we recognize that PEOPLE are our most important asset. We are left with the unenviable task of juggling the delicate balance of discipline and relationship with our agents. Absenteeism can and sometimes hesitantly goes unpunished. We often fall victim to the relationship problem we have with our agents. Often perceived as a “Catch-22” situation where we feel agents come to work because of the relationship we have with them; alternately, this relationship is threatened when we take action against these very same agents who are the perpetrators of absenteeism. Not taking action or not punishing has far more devastating repercussions, and we know this. Steeling ourselves to the task of reprimanding agents and conducting consistent coaching sessions can alleviate some of the pressures of disciplinary action. Setting the expectations of the calling floor has far-reaching benefits that establish a sense of consistency in Contact Center leadership.
How do you tackle the issue of absenteeism in your Contact Center? Share your experience with the industry.