Banking Time Off
It is common to have times when the staffing is not sufficient to meet the desired service goal. Overtime is one of the ways this can be addressed but it has a budget impact. Another way to ensure more man-hours available without the budget hit is to allow agents to bank time off in exchange for their overtime. For example, if an agent works 2 extra hours during a busy period, 2 hours of time off is placed into that agent’s bank for use later. This works well if the banked time can be used when the center is a bit overstaffed. Generally, the payroll implications would require that the banked time be used during the same pay period as the overtime was worked. This can be attractive for agents who desire more time off without impacting their base income.
Managing Time Off Accruals
In some companies, time off is accrued incrementally throughout the year. For example, one day may be added to the agent’s bank every 4 weeks. Once it has been accrued, it can be used for sick days, vacation, or other approved time off. It is common in these situations to find a spike in absences immediately after the accrual occurs. In one company, the accruals were posted to the agent’s accounts on Fridays and there was a spike of absences the following Mondays. Since Monday was the busiest day of the week for this operation, that spike of absences was keenly felt in the contact center with service level impacts and overtime costs. Negotiations with management and the HR department resulted in shifting the accrual day to Tuesday instead of Friday. The result was a significant smoothing of the rate of absences across the week with more experienced in the slower days and less on the busy Monday. If your operation has a similar problem with time off accruals, consider opening negotiations with your HR department. Prepare some charts/graphs that show the impact to customers of the current accrual timing. If overtime is used to fill in the gaps, include that in your argument as well.