The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

"Good - I love thsi idea and am going to steal it!!"

"if such an option is to be made available, preferenc should be given to those who have been in the company for over a year; the option can also be considered where performance is flexible key component for outsourced contact centers"

"Good."

"This could be a good thing depending on the criteria used to determine performance. Using a statistic like the number of calls answered could encourage poor customer service, but if you could base performance on quality somehow, then it could encourage excellent customer service and provide a meaningful reward."

"Agreed but going one step further, it is good staff welfare if we also take into consideration special requests from staff who needs to work on a certain schedule due to family committments, health issues, etc..."

"Yes do this and routinely move poor performers to off shift this ensures that schedule related attrition is not impacting great results"

"Resolution is good as all incentives should be premised on level of performance. Length of time with company does not necessarily translate into good performance"

"Bad - Maybe this option is a workable one in large call centers with a larger resource pool, however it would not be possible in small to medium call centers. High performers also make excellent coaches and often the best times to make use of the high performers as coaches is on late and night shifts."

"Well, it can be offered as a one-time incentive for good performer but not on a reegular basis. A bit tricky as you need to handle the morale of the function as a whole."

"Bad, not all of the staff knows about business forecasting, it will be impact to the call handling acceptance."

"Equal opportunity to deserving candidates has always proved to be a win win situation for any growing organization. Young minds bring in energetic and enthusiastic ideas"

"bad resolution- each of the staff should not have any prioritized schedule unless they have an important matters"

"Good - I agree, tenure should have very little bearing on an employee's preferences (much less scheduling preference)"

"Good- It will encourage productivity"

"Agree that this is certainly a good suggestion."

"This is up to individual centres and not something that can be dictated"

"Good. Quite a few companies already do it and is a great motivator."

"These should go hand-in-glove, but clearly do not always do so. Allowing newer staff this option could create inter-agent resentments, but could motivate long-term people to achieve at higher levels to earn this privilege."

"i agree
We use this process for all opportunities - length of tenure is the tie breaker"

"Absolutely."

"Good, reward the right behaviour"

"Absolutely, what we do here is that we give this option to the team of the month. Everyone works hard to earn his/her team the top slot. The outcome is better."

"Agree"

"good - flexibility options to performers is nice form of recognition"

"Bad; We have to take into consideration business need."

"Disagree,
Where possible offer staff their choice and where this is not possible/achievable rotate shifts so that it is fair to all. Penalising lower performers (including inexperienced staff) will make it more difficult to improve the performance of these staff."

"Agreed"

"Good idea to encourage staff retention and motivation. If the center is big, this might not be feasible as there are admin efforts involved."

"This resolution has to be implemented with caution and staff are clear that there is no biasness involved"

"Yes. Allows for a better match of skill set and rewards performing agents."

"This is bad idea as most of the people end doing the same shifts and this would lead to dissatisfaction as everyone wants to do different shifts not the same shifts. There has to be equality among everyone. The best performer can be rewarded monetary or other incentives."

"Great-tenure based scheduling is a dissatisfier. We have a purely rotational schedule for all, however consultants can facilitate shift swaps with any of their co-workers in any of our National Centres or within our Work @Home groups-since implementing this scheduling complaints are null"

"I agree the Preferences"

"I feel schedule preference can be used as a great tool for employee motivation. It requires committment from the workforce management team to change their style of operation to become more accomodative in nature."

"Management should set the schedule and top performers should get their preferred hours/days."

"Not suitable for centres that have just enough agents. Also might subject to terms and conditions of company's employment rules."

"I Agree, if you are a top performer you should have some benefits."

"Great idea, so all the homeworkers can take the calls in bed"

"Good or bad. For large scale team this is doable with clear game rule announced to encourage the members."

"The scheduled preferences should have a bit of age in organization as well. i.e. A prefessional giving us a consistent performance over a period of 2 years and a person giving us the results for 2 months cannot be considered as same. in my opinion it should be a blend of both."

"Again this should be part of organizational policy based on internal enviroment & values they believe in. Highly performance driven organizations do give some 'intangible perks' of this kind - but they also need to know that there will be only ~20% high performers and most of the organizaitons are run by ~70 % average performers."

"Do not agree. Scheduling in my shops are strickly related to traffic needs. Length of senority notwithstanding."