How Do You Keep Call Center Agents Engaged During Long Downtimes? Seeking Ideas!

Hi Guys,

I am new to the forum. I have joined as a team leader in an international call center. We have a downtime of 3-4 weeks between projects, wherein our agents sit idle. Could you guys help me out with ideas on how to handle agents during this time? I am thinking of training... but again, wouldn't this get irritating after a while? It would be great if you guys could help me out with ideas.

Thanks a lot.

Dear Suj,

Idle employees are best occupied when they create a project about future developments in the jobs they are currently handling and present it in a workshop format, rather than relying on external training programs.

With best regards,
Suj

Dear Rinu,

These are a few ways to engage idle employees:

a) Give them training on presentation skills or Train the Trainer.
b) Idle employees can be asked to prepare training programs and deliver them to other employees.
c) Involve them in recruitment or the preparation of a Recruitment Manual.

Thanks,
Dinesh V Divekar

Hi Sujatha,

Thanks a lot for the reply. That is a great idea. But what kind of projects do you think will be effective? I am thinking of getting them to prepare an employee handbook for new recruits. Do you have any other ideas?

Regards,
Rinu

You can also go for an ice-breaking session and other corporate games. You can ask them to give a presentation related to their job.

Hi, I am on industrial training in the HR department of a leading luxury hotel. I have been asked to prepare an employee engagement calendar, wherein I suggest activities and programs that bring employees closer to each other, enhance communication, increase interest in work, improve efficiency, and foster closeness and attachment to their jobs. The programs can be spread throughout the year.

Regards,
Aditi

Hello, I work for WorleyParsons, an oil and gas engineering design conglomerate. It's a project-driven organization, and there are downtimes when there are no projects.

What I do at such times is constitute project teams to work on closed-out projects (I use engineers that did not work on the live project). I also reconstitute the live project team of closed-out projects to go through the project again with the view to addressing the shortfalls experienced when the project was live. I intersperse these with short presentations on team building, presentation skills, communication skills, etc.

This way, engineers come back each day looking forward to doing something and not sitting idle. I hope this idea will assist you.

Regards,
Olarinde

Hi Olarinde,

Thank you very much for that post. That's a great idea. I shall surely try that out.

Thank you very much again.

Regards and Prayers,
Rinu Vimal

Hi, I have been instructed to obtain the format of quality parameters in the inbound process. Kindly assist as this is urgent.

Thank you.