Running a successful business while keeping a happy and efficient work environment for your employees can require a delicate balancing act. Employees are undoubtedly one of the greatest assets that any company can have, but there are also factors that can lead to poor performance and an unpleasant work environment.
Employee attendance is one of the factors that can have a significant impact on the running of your business. Regularly poor employee attendance also puts extra pressure on the rest of your staff, since they will have to scramble to make sure that all the daily tasks are still being covered. Over time, this can become a big problem for any type of business.
So, what can you do to improve employee attendance? It may surprise you to hear this, but a virtual answering service can actually help in this area. It’s possible to set up a virtual call center that helps your own staff in addition to your customers.
Here are 5 ways in which a virtual answering service can help you improve your business’ attendance.
Improve the overall workflow
Most of us know what it is like to work for a business that is messy, hectic, and where things just don’t run efficiently. This state of affairs can have a significant effect on your employees’ lives, sometimes even requiring them to work longer hours or try to fix issues that are outside of their scope.
When this happens, your employees can become dissatisfied and unmotivated. Under these conditions, it’s very likely that their attendance will suffer – and your business with it.
Provide clear instructions
Having your members of staff call a virtual, automatic reporting line will make it more likely that they will take the time to fully explain the reason why they need to skip a day of work, which will in turn make it easier for you to understand what is happening and what you can do to make the situation better.
Your virtual answering service will always work according to the instructions you provide, so it’s important to make sure that there is a protocol in place for when an employee can’t come to work.
Remote operators will be able to provide clear guidelines so that the employee knows how to report their absence, how much time they can take off, and discuss how their tasks will be handled during this time.
Streamline your communication lines
If you have a convoluted system to communicate with your employees, it becomes a lot easier for miscommunication to happen frequently. When employees don’t know exactly who they have to call to discuss their schedule, or communicate that they need to skip a day, there could be errors in the communication process that lead to anxiety, stress, and an inefficient workplace.
It’s also possible for some employees to take advantage of these “glitches” in your system, trying to take longer leaves of absence or skipping several days of work by communicating with different people each time. Although most employees won’t do this, it’s still a possibility that you need to prepare for.
Centralizing all your communications into a virtual answering service can quickly fix this issue. Rather than trying to figure out who they need to call, employees will always be able to communicate with the business regarding their schedule, and you will be able to easily track employee attendance.
Help the rest of your staff to focus on the workday ahead
If your staff has to adjust their schedule and tasks to cover for a coworker, they may need to take some extra time to figure out how to keep everything running smoothly in the meantime. This can lead to unnecessary stress, a tense environment, and poor employee satisfaction.
Having the benefit of a virtual call center can help alleviate this extra pressure. Even if your staff has to cover for certain responsibilities, they won’t have to worry about taking phone calls and providing customer service, since those tasks will still be handled by the remote operators working with you.
As a result, it will be much easier for your employees to handle the rest of the tasks for the day, keeping morale high and creating a work environment that they will want to return to the following day.
Keep messages from getting lost
If your employee has to skip a workday because they’re not feeling well or have to run an urgent errand, they will probably really appreciate it if their call gets picked up quickly. Being able to easily communicate with the office will give them peace of mind and allow them to take care of the issue at hand. In return, this will allow them to use their time more efficiently so they can return to work as quickly as possible.
