Metrics Troubleshooting Part 1-Attrition and Absenteeism

ASA...ATT.. CSAT..FCR..QA..BU..

No.. they are not alien language.

They are perpetual niblets of motion constantly measured for future reference.

Or what we simply call as metrics.

Call Centers have a ton of metrics.

Metrics exist not only because they are an effective measure of performance, but they also play a vital role in decision making. Every call center employee knows this. However, a few people seems to know that by understanding and managing metrics, you could also expose it's diagnostic capability.

Today's problem metrics are called attrition and absenteeism. I first experienced attrition when my dog died. But nowadays, I feel that good team managers feel the same way when their agents leave. As one former agent turned client, told me, "it feels like you lost a part of your body". Some actions should be:

1. Track/Isolate attrition data
-Do most of the agents that leave belong to the same team?
(Management Issue) This could be due to a possible incompatibility

between the supervisor's management style and the team members' work style .
Do most of the agents leave at particular period of time?

(Company Issue) This could be due to perceptions pertaining to an account's rumored EOL or a
company's stability. Or the company is a bad company period.

Do most agents transfer to the same company? This is could be due to the fact that some former co workers recruit your employees. Or that company is a better company period.

2. Set expectations in recruitment and training

Some call centers have a highly structured set up. Rules are implemented for everything, like using cellphones at work, taking CR breaks, quality monitoring, chasing ATT targets, etc. Aside from learning this new culture, agent must also develop new sets of skills. This can be doubly tough especially if agents have no call center experience.

- During hiring, make a realistic description of an agent's shift cycle. Discuss how the call center culture is different from the traditional work set up. Do not oversell the job so that the negatives are overlooked.

- During training, invest in a lot of time for confidence building activities.Have new agents sit beside seasoned agents and listen to their calls. Allow agents to make mistakes while in training. Structure tasks for quick wins. Discuss calls.Make sure new-hires have all the necessary tools to hit the ground running and succeed. Track the effectiveness of your initial training process and try to customize it as much as possible to each new-hire. Remember that training becomes an expense if attrition is not controlled.

3. Build a value proposition in terms of learning and career growth

If supervisor positions or promotions are scarce in your company, then perhaps you can offer the opportunity to work on or lead a project. Senior-level agents want to be in a role where they can feel empowered and responsible. Con­sider delegating some of your managerial tasks to veteran agents to provide them with new challenges — ask them to run a team, represent a training session, create a contest, lead the team for a day, etc.

4. Make your team managers equally responsible for attrition

a. Relationship coaching- Develop trust and friendship.Focus on opportunities to create an environment where our employees enjoy coming to work each day (should not only be our goal, but our responsibility).Encourage agents to do the best they can. Remember to praise your staff frequently and find ways to keep motivation levels high.Create an environment in which agents feel that they can speak their concerns directly with their manager without the fear of retaliation. Don’t let the stress and worries of your job filter down to your agents.

b. Retention Road Map- Create a tracking system/process so that it will be known which managers have the ability to make agents stay.

5. Incentivize
Create a bonus structure that will keep agents focused on reaching their goals. Continuously encourage and motivate your employees with small but meaningful gestures to let them know you care and appreciate their hard work.

6. Fix the Job
If you can't find the right person to fill a job and people consistently leave the job, the problem lies in the job, not the people. Consider re-organizing the job, break it down into smaller parts and reassign certain tasks so that more brains could be applied to the various challenges.
In the call center industry, we tend to do the opposite. We script the job, micro-manage it and apply a withering array of metrics to track.

Absenteeism

One of the trends that managers has to look out for, when it comes to Attrition, is unscheduled absenteeism.

In addition to ensuring that work is appropriately covered during the employee’s absence, there are a number of other critical actions that supervisors need to take to manage absenteeism.

They should:
a) ensure that all employees are fully aware of the organization’s policies and procedures for dealing with absence,

b) be the first point of contact when an employee phones in sick,

c) maintain appropriately detailed, accurate, and up-to-date absence records for their staff, (e.g., date, nature of illness/reason for absence, expected return to work date, doctor’s certification if necessary)

d) identify any patterns or trends of absence which cause concern,(if this is only for 1 team, investigate if issue is due to low morale)

e) conduct return-to-work interviews, and

e) implement disciplinary procedures where necessary.

f) Recognize agents with perfect attendance-Some examples could be: splitting health bonuses into two, so that the agents can immediately reap the rewards at an earlier time.