Does everyone here schedule all breaks for the agents on the phones?

I support 3 different groups where I work, and only one of them want scheduled breaks (they're a customer service/billing inquiry group) while the other two, which are technical support, prefer not to schedule breaks because their calls generally take longer to finish and they'd miss their breaktimes all the time.

I was once told to make them accept scheduled breaks but seeing that I started out in tech support, I know that it makes sense for them to handle their breaks themselves.

What do you all do?

Thanks,
Jen

Jen,

I would have to agree with you. I work in a centre that handles both inbound as well as outbound. When it comes to outbound, I do think a scheduled break is okay, helps the whole team get off phones, interact etc. When we talk of inbound though, it's another ball game altogether. I haven’t been working in this industry for too long but in my experience, I do believe that technical support agents are better off without scheduled breaks. They do tend to prefer managing their own time and their own breaks. Longer calls, high call volumes, all cause these agents to miss their scheduled break times.

However, we must also consider the other side of things. A scheduled break ensures that everyone gets their breaks and enjoys them together. I believe that team mates should be able to get in some R&R together. It’s less of a brake if you’re the only one on a brake.

There is also a chance that this could be misused by some. Let me give you an example. We give our agents three different breaks. Two coffee/tea breaks and a lunch/dinner break. Now, if an agent gets smart, and decides to take his first break just before the longer lunch/dinner break, that would not be acceptable would it. Hence self managed as they might be, there's always that one guy that tries to be extra smart. In my opinion breaks should not be coupled. They are meant to release load and stress and particular times during the work day.

What I would suggest, would be a go between. What could be done is to give the agents a broad window for break times. That’s still leaving it to them, but at the same time ensuring that all breaks are taken within a particular time frame. It’s not like they cant take their brake outside of this window, I mean you always have that one extra long call. But the company can make it known that it would prefer the agents to have a break within this window. This differs from scheduled breaks that tell the agent that his break is between this time and that time and that's it. Giving them a broad window allows them the freedom to choose the best time but also gives the company a chance to ensure breaks are taken within an acceptable time frame.

Again, let me say I am new to the industry but I believe that this could be a suitable answer to the breaks problem.

Cheers

Mike

Breaks in my opinion shouldbe scheduled, after all, why do you go to all that trouble of creating the worlds biggest spreadsheet that tells you where all the peaks and troughs are going to be just for your agents to take their break in the middle of the biggest peak of the day, with 5 other people at the same time.

From my experience as an agent and a planner scheduled breaks are best when coupled with an agents charter, for instance, we promise that we will not scheulde breaks more than 3 hours apart or less than 1 hour apart.

This works well and the agents like the regularity, if they want to change a break they come and ask and then we check to see if its okay, i.e. not in the middle of that big peak and not with the rest of the call centre for a team lunch!

My advice is scheduled breaks with flexibility, after all if you issue shifts in advance, they can arrange to swap with people and arrange to meet people like their bank manager or a job interview with a company that doesn't schedule breaks ;-)

I have introduced in a number of different centres a flexible self-managed breaks system which gives the agents more control over when they take their break and who with regulates caffeine/nicotine fixes etc and still enables the business to control how many are away at one time, and negates teh impact of overlap when scheduled times are missed...

Depends on your centre size/layout etc - you'll need to adapt it locally, but in essence, decide how many people can be at break in the different time slots, then tell the team to basically sort it out themselves. You will need some form of physical marker system, eg flags, batons etc which they take and replace on their return (controls the numbers) positioned centrally, or in subdivisions in the office.

I know it sounds a bit childish, and it is usually greeted with scepticism, but after a trial, most people much prefer it (and none rate it lower than the assigned system). It takes far less policing and resourcing than other systems.

Try it and see (and let me know if you want further details; this is just a brief overview)

Z

I run an operation of 300 + FTE and let me tell you it would be chaos in my inbound center if we did not schedule breaks. I too come from a technical support background and see the merits in having flex breaks, however, this is where a 95 % schedule adherence goal may work for you. This will allow your agents to take their breaks relative to your plan. My motto is, if you don't plan ahead you are dooming yourself. Be a smart scheduler - plan.