Agent absenteeism is one of the worst things that can happen to your business. Just imagine, as workload peaks are getting close, there aren’t enough agents to respond adequately.

This leads to long queues of customers that wait for their turn. What happens next is – you get unhappy customers that are put on hold for a fairly long time.

In this article, we will define absenteeism as a term, and provide you with solutions for managing employee absenteeism. In the end, this underlying problem will not only be fixed but, it will become yet another easy-peasy job for you!

Absenteeism – Definition

There are numerous ways to define absenteeism. But, we will keep things simple, and provide you with the most simple one. Absenteeism refers to the habitual non-presence of an employee at their job.

To get the whole picture, it is important to note that employees may not be present at their job for numerous reasons. For instance, the agent may deal with health issues or have scheduled vacations.

Such things are completely normal, and that’s understandable. However,  in this case, employee absenteeism refers to unscheduled absences. This includes things such as: being late, taking excessive breaks, and other unexcused absences.

Which Are the Most Common Types of Absenteeism?

In practice, there are multiple types of absenteeism in the workplace, of those the most common are:

• Planned and approved absences – refer to absences where the employee has an arranged deal with the employer and/or superior. Great examples are paternity/maternity leave, holiday leave, scheduled vacations, etc;
• Unplanned but approved absences – well, such absences are the most common in the customer service industry and this is where things get complicated. Namely, agents tend to inform their superiors about their absence a few hours before they miss the shift.
• Unapproved and unplanned – as the name suggests, this type of absenteeism is unforeseen nor approved by the employer.  An excellent example would be lateness or unauthorized leave.

Since you already know the types, it is important to note that sometimes things just don’t go as planned. But, we can’t exclude the fact that the employee and the employer should have crystal clear communication.

Life can sometimes be difficult and complex, but, when it comes to professional life, balance is the key.

How To Calculate Absenteeism

Bring your calculator, a piece of paper and a pencil. It’s math time!

Jokes aside, the formula to calculate absence in your contact center is fairly easy. You need 2 variables:

1. The number of absences in a given period
2. Number of available workdays in a given period

Once you do this,  multiply the number by 100.

As a formula, it will look like this: (number of absent days/number of available workdays in a given period) x 100

Ta-da! You got the result. Just keep in mind that the chances that you will get a rate of 0% are rare. The industry average standard is around 1.8% which means it is healthy.  4% is very high, so keep this information in consideration.

How to Manage and Prevent Absenteeism

Dealing with such a problem isn’t easy, but they! There’s always a solution! Right? Let’s find out how can you put an end to the problem.

Create a Standardized Absenteeism Policy

Having a standardized policy where you have set clear expectations and rules is a great way, to begin solving this issue. Be careful though, the policy should be tailored in a way that suits your company’s goals.

Don’t enforce a totalitarian atmosphere within the company, but don’t get too easy as well.

All it takes is a little bit of simplicity and presenting the rules most clearly. As you create the policy, don’t forget to assign how should the call agent act in case of absence. These rules are key.

For instance, “employees must notify a supervisor about their absence ___(days) in advance). If these criteria aren’t met, there will be consequences. At the same time, encourage rewards from time to time if employees follow these rules.

Foster Healthy Working Environment

Employees are human, and they have their bad days and emotions, and sometimes they make mistakes. In the customer service industry, agents deal with numerous customer inquiries per day, and they always have to provide the best feedback and help.

Pushing them to the limits and adding to the stress non-stop will never get you anywhere. What happens, is that they will deal with burnout. If you’re a customer representative, you can learn how to manage stress here.

Back to the point. Your company should strive for creating flexible schedules, find ways for achieving work-and-life balance, and introduce team-building programs!

Do not hesitate to introduce bonuses and social interactions. The point is to create an environment where the employee is happy during the shift. Loyal and happy employees are the recipe for creating a successful company.

Track Your Employees`  Absences

Does your company deal with excessive absenteeism? Do you know the percentage of absenteeism at work? When is the last time you checked this?

To prevent and fix occasional absenteeism, you need some information. They are exceptionally important for the future. Just imagine, you know that something is going wrong, but you don’t know why employees are behaving in such a way.

Keep in mind that if you allow your customer representatives to be late, even the ones that do not practice this at the moment later will start getting late. It is simply in human nature to mimic certain actions.

Therefore, tracking should be a great priority of yours.

Provide and Request Feedback Periodically

Open communication is incredibly important for both, you and your employees. Failing to encourage feedback from both sides can undoubtedly lead to increased absenteeism.

So, what you should do on your side is to provide your employees feedback regarding their efficiency along with guidance on what they can improve.

Be clear and concise – encourage them to get better, tell them what they are doing right, but request feedback from them as well.

Nothing is perfect, and there are actions that maybe you take and are wrong. The feedback you receive from your customer reps is more than welcome for you. Why? Because you have the information first-hand.

The actions you take later can be crucial in managing and preventing absenteeism in the workplace. Fostering this kind of communication will help your employees feel heard and praised.

Conclusion

Employee absenteeism is preventable and manageable, however, your company has to have a clear vision. Providing a continuous effort to solve the problem can increase the chances of success.

By now, you already know which steps to take next, and by taking the aforementioned steps, both parties can benefit in the long run.

Last but not least, we encourage you to follow our blog in the future as well, because you may find many helpful information and tips for the customer service industry!