Sometimes we over-think phonathon. I've consulted on many programs that have extravagant training materials that include dozens of policies and procedures. Management methodically puts together a list of the dos and dont's of the call center and goes through each thoroughly during the new hire portion of training. All in all, this is a good thing as students have a clear understanding of what their expectations are. However, I have also been to programs that leave much to the imagination in terms of the rules and structure of the phonathon. This tends to leave callers playing the guessing game when it comes to making sure they conduct themselves as management wishes. Yes, some management discretion is a good thing, but I've always found that transparency is the key to a good set of policies and procedures.
Here's a couple of additional pointers on putting together a good set of rules for your upcoming phonathon.
1) Consistently enforce the rules. Nothing will tear apart your call center more quickly than the impression that the policies apply to some callers and not to others. Fairness doesn't seem like a major issue until the callers feel that there are untouchable employees or favorite students on the calling floor. By then, it's too late. The trust between you and your staff is gone.
2) Post your policies somewhere in the call center. Refer to those rules periodically and encourage your callers to read them more carefully on their time between calling shifts. This helps management stay transparent and leaves no surprises when it comes time to enforce the policies.
3) Have a supervisor or other manager sit in on disciplinary employee meetings. Two managers total is sufficient; what you want to strive for is two people hearing the discussion in case of differing opinions or sensitive HR issues.
Young phonathon managers who are in their first professional position tend to have more issues with enforcing policies than experienced managers. That's ok...it's a learning opportunity. But my advice to avoid making mistakes that cause employee relations issues is to let the verbiage of the policies speak for itself. Provided that the policies and constructed well, students will appreciate the transparency in the call center and will work hard to avoid conflict with the rules.
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