Good Morning!

I'm considering introducing a banked hours scheme for my team in light of the seasonality of our business. Anyone have anything useful?

Many Thanks

Sharon,

I take it you're on about working extra hours in 'Up' times and carrying them over to 'Down' times to even out wage packets.

If this is the case whether you pay the agent or bank the hours across you'll have to watch that you don't fall foul of the Working time directive.

Remember unless you get the agent to sign a disclaimer the maximum hours
WORKED not paid in any 12 week rolling period counts toward the WTD restrictions.

If your question relates to something else sorry 'No Comprende.'

DaveA

Good Morning Dave!

How are you? Yup, I love the old WTD! As a concept banked hours is just as you described. Hours of work following call volumes. It can work very well if guidelines are strict enough (and legal!).

I'm just hoping that someone out there will have done some of the legwork as I don't have much time to propose this and get it signed off.

S

Not really my line unfortunatly.

I'm sure someone will be along in a minute with
an answer.

DaveA

Hi Sharon
The starting point for implementing a banked hours scheme is to move you workforce onto a 1820 contract, which defines the total number of hours an agent is required to work during the year without prescribing how those hours are apportioned. This will then allow you to schedule the hours to suit your fluctuating business volumes. You will need to include clauses around the ammount of notice required to call in banked hours, the maximum ammount of hours that can be banked / called back in any rolling period, and of course keep in mind the WTD restrictions.
You will also need to keep tight MI to ensure that you are not left in a position with too few or too many hours to resource for the end of your year. My experience of 1820 contracts from my ops management days is that staff expect you to be 100% accountable for the hours they have worked, and that this is often not the case with the resource team. There are also issues of morale & motivation when calling-in large blocks of hours.
In general 1820s work well, provided you can avoid the pitfalls.

Hi Dylan

Thanks for your help with this. I appreciate your advice. I don't suppose you have a non personalised copy of a typical 1820 contract? I am not familiar with this terminology (1820)and I doubt that my HR team are.
Dylan are you Welsh? I'm a Taff myself and other than Catherine Zeta Jones' addition, I've not heard your name since I left home 16 years ago! It's one of my favourites!

Best Regards
S

Dylan O'Sullivan does speak of a slightly mixed background!

I've seen this type of contract before but relating to Supermarket
staff not call centers. No names

IIRC it was very badly received mainly because it was stuffed down staff
throats with a 'sign this or else' attitude. The fact it was introduced 6 weeks before christmas didn't help either.

I know one dept manager who suddenly had a 60% atrittion rate.


I'm not sure about 'Making life taste better'!

The worst thing was if it had been introduced properly it was actually quite a good idea.

Brent you have any thoughts on the subject?


DaveA

50% guilty on the Taff side! I don't have a copy of an 1820 contract I'm afraid, but you may be able to find it on HR websites, either as "1820" or "Annualised Hours", the second being a term your HR department should be familiar with to some degree. I will have a dig around through some of my old stuff at home and see if I can find anything else useful on this.

Hi, Dave, thanks for asking. I afraid the labor laws over here in the US are quite different. If I understand '1820' correctly, a company can bank the total yearly hours that a person would work, then use them as necessary during that year to cover peaks in call volume.....?

In the US, labor laws dictate that any hours past 40 in a week must be paid as overtime (time and a half), regardless of how many hours are worked during a year. For instance, if an agent worked 20 hours three weeks in a row, then worked 50 on the fourth week, they would receive overtime pay for the extra 10 hours in week four, regardless of the low amount of hours worked the previous three.

It would be a nice variable in the old staffing model if we could staff up or down with a 'fixed' headcount. However, overtime and undertime (voluntary time off without pay) is the most common method here for managing unusually high and low volumes. That, and outsourcing, of course.

On the Welsh topic, my father's family came from Wales ~1740, (spelled the name Prees then). Mixed with my Irish ancestors (Medlocks) in the mid-1800's, and my English ancestors (the Westfields) in the mid 1900's. Pepper in a few Hispanics and Native Americans to the mix, and I'm a true Heinz 57.

Brent

Hi Guys,

Thanks very much for your input. I'll get searching and let you know how I get on.
Brent, Preece hails from my neck of the woods. It's a name from the South of Wales. There are still MANY, MANY of you around. If you are love music and a strong sense of yourself (that's probably why there are so many of you!)then you will be controlled by your Welsh(Preece)genes. There have been many politicians and public figures called Preece who have been prone to bursting into song! The name actually comes from the Welsh 'Ap Rees' which means son of Rees.
I'm sure your English and Irish ancestors will have had some bearing on your character but being Welsh is almost like being a different species!

Best regards
S

Sharon, that's really cool, thanks for the info. It's sometimes quite an arduous, but fun, task to trace one's ancestry. I have family members who devote quite a bit of time on the topic. I'd love to chat with you more about this, why don't you drop me a line when you get a minute.

bpreece@destex.com

LINK TO THREAD
This topic plus alternative schemes is under discussion at the above link

Also depends on the country you are operating in. US & UK for instance tend to be much stricter in these regards. In India though, you can do pretty much anything you want. Not to say that the employees will not become unmotivated if the scheme is too restrictive...


Thanks,
Steve Howell
showell@telegenisys.com
925.825.1122