image courtesy of http://www.businesscartoons.co.uk/

Back in the time when I was still working in the BPO industry, I’ve heard numerous stories from representatives, from the mundane to the downright horrendous stories as to why they were absent. Some are completely creative, some are habitually absent because of family issues, and some due to health concern. I remember one rep who became the topic of a hot debate in one of our management meetings. She apparently used up all possible health reasons she could think of just to have her poor team lead excuse her absence. Apparently, she the only things we thought she wasn’t able to use is athlete’s foot and hemorrhoid. Anyway, she cried her way back to work when she did a drama special in front of the senior manager (who could barely speak English! but that’ll be another story.) and had her sweet revenge on her team lead when she got her termination revoked by the senior manager. Later on my co-team lead, got her vindication when the problem agent, finally went on AWOL because she got another call center job in the Middle East.

Here are a few tips on how to curtail Attendance Issues:

• Make coming to work exciting. Let’s admit it, working for a contact center especially if you have a graveyard shift, and taking in calls back to back can be dragging at some point. There has to be something that your reps will be able to look forward to at the end of the day, to make them want to get out of bed. Come up with a game, a contest or give them a prize when they are able to hit a certain attendance goal.
• Know your reps and what motivates them. Perhaps one of your old-time agent has a big time crush on that new team mate, then perhaps you can have them sit close to each other to motivate your old-time agent.
• Be genuinely concerned about their welfare. You are working with people after all, not robots. So try to be more humane and look beyond the numbers that you are supposed to hit. Because at the end of the day, in this industry, your people are your best defense.

Hope those few pointers helps. Now if you have a problem agent who uses hemorrhoid as an excuse, click here to find out how you can put that health problem of your rep to rest.