Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

Nadinegrl asked a very good question and it’s something that all team leaders have to face on a daily basis. 

She states, “Let me ask for your opinion on how you can improve a team's attendance. Most of my teammates are not coming in for work or they are late. My TL (team leader is assigning me a task on how to improve attendance."

I like her team leader’s strategy to fix this issue.  What he has done was to delegate it to one of his members.  He has entrusted Nadine a task to give her more responsibility and accountability to help the team.  It’s a good way to find out the “real” reasons why they miss work or are late.  This is something that team leaders may not get if asked, especially if agents are not comfortable, fear them or just plainly feel guilty.  Fellow colleagues (usually on the same level) would normally trust each other.

When you know the reasons, this will trigger some ideas on how to improve attendance.  One reason may be due to their current schedule; either the office is too far from work, they have to do some personal errands or worst scenario is that they are just not motivated or burnt out.

Usually operations would think of giving additional incentives (money) for attendance, but it’s not a personal favorite.  This will work for only a short time.  You could encourage schedule swaps and have the manager approve planned leaves. Other incentives would be giving them ‘time off the phones’, a weekend off, free lunch, or team building activities.

Lastly, it is critical that you discuss the impact of absenteeism and show them the bigger picture.  Ask for suggestions and fix it while it’s still an absenteeism issue before it gets worse and it turns out to be attrition.