For every good reason a customer service employee has for skipping work, another five probably have bad reasons. That’s why leaders want to make work the place they want to be.
Illness and planned days off can put a small wrinkle in operations. Unplanned absences will cause major hiccups.
The good news: Leaders can take steps to get reps to their desks every day — even the first and last day of the work week. Here are five solid ideas to curb absences from Vicki Herrell, executive director of the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals and Intradiem Productivity Plus blogger.
Keep them happy
- Reward them with flexibility. Give reps who show up on your busiest or high-absence days more say in which hours/shifts they work.
- Include attendance or adherence to schedules in their performance expectations. If they call in “sick” consistently on Mondays, they’ll lose points and subsequently their place in line for things such as schedule bidding.
- Turn Monday into the most fun day. Have pizza lunches or bagel breakfasts. Hold special contests that are normally held off until the last day of the week or during special occasions.
- Make Monday casual. Let staff dress down on the first day of the week, which is when they’d probably enjoy wearing comfortable clothes the most.
- Do random prize drawings on the days when attendance is critical to operations — whether it’s one day a month, the first of the week or a few crazy weeks each year.
