HR Visibility in a 24/7 Telephone Answering Service-Phase One ...

Human Resources is one those support departments that rarely gets the spotlight.? No matter what business we?re in, whether our human resources department is one person or twenty, after the orientation of a new employee is completed, that department is rarely the talk of the town.

This can be especially true in a 24/7 operation, and more so in a call center and telephone answering service.? Why?? Because the agents representing our companies are busy doing their jobs, at their work stations.? They don?t have the opportunity to interact with personnel from various departments.? And, coupling that with varying shifts throughout a 24 hour period makes it even more of a challenge for the swing shift and graveyard shift.? Think about it.? Human Resources personnel usually work 8 to 5, Monday through Friday.? When do they get an opportunity to reach out to employees working the midnight hour cheerfully answering calls from our customers?

I?ve been thinking about this lately.? I think I?ve come up with some interesting ideas, and they can be especially useful when mixing in telecommuting agents, and expansion plans of the call center or telephone answering service into geographic areas physically removed from headquarters ? even in other states and other time zones.

We?re going to look at this challenge in a series of blogs.? Why?? Because it?s important, and because I get to write about what I want to write about in MY blog.

Some of the ideas I?ve been toying with myself are an e-brochure that can be emailed to employees introducing the HR department, and all the benefits it can provide an employee.? (If you guessed that HR falls under my umbrella, give yourself a gold star!)

Beyond processing new employee paperwork and orientation, the HR department can introduce itself to employees and list some of the services it can provide:? like copies of lost pay stubs, copies of W2 forms and other such information.? The HR department can be one of the best places to find answers to questions concerning company policies, benefits packages, even questions concerning wage laws, how overtime is calculated.

Another idea, since most call centers and telephone answering services limit access to email and internet at the agent stations, is to provide posters that do the same thing.? We all have places where we post mandatory governmental regulatory payroll information, so why not hang a poster in the same area that talks about our human resources department.

The HR department can help supervisors and managers too.? It?s a good place to have a job ad or job description vetted before being published or distributed.? It?s a good place to find someone who will lend an ear, and guidance, when navigating sensitive employee management issues.

This is paramount in a call center and telephone answering service where our agents often don?t have the same opportunities to communicate in house as in other businesses.? Often, agents will go to their supervisor or the call center manager.? And, helping the supervisors and call center managers understand all that HR can provide will make their lives easier, as they can then respond more quickly to employee requests.

We value our employees.? We value our agents.? They thrive on delivering professional, courteous, friendly service to customers, and our customers? customers.? Don?t they deserve to receive the same professional, courteous, friendly, service from the number service department in the company?

I think so.

Sydney Morgan Diamond joined Sound Telecom in March 2008, bringing over 20 years of experience in financial management to the company. As the Corporate CFO/controller, Sydney oversees all financial and administrative service operations for Sound Telecom.?? http://www.sound-tele.com/about-us/our-staff.aspx

Source: http://www.sound-tele.com/blog/hr-visibility-in-a-247-telephone-answering-service-phase-one

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