What is an Employee Call-Off Hotline?

It's simply a fact of life. From time to time, employees are going to call in sick or have to miss work for another reason. And every time one of them does, it can wreak havoc on you as an HR manager.

A lot of mid and large size businesses lack a standardized protocol for employees calling off absent, late or when needing to leave early.  Some employees may call their manager, a coworker, the HR manager or anyone who’ll pick up the phone including the overnight security guard. That kind of ad hoc system makes it impossible to know if the right individuals have been notified or if absenteeism is being appropriately tracked.

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What Exactly Is An Employee Call-Off Hotline?

An employee call-off hotline is a dedicated number that your staff members call at any time of the day or night to advise when they are going to be late or absent from work. The service is provided by a professional call center on your behalf.

Operators answer the call in your name, gather all of the information required, the call off is time stamped provide the employee with a confirmation number, and lets the caller's supervisor and HR know.

Depending on your specific needs, employee call-off services are frequently combined with informational hotlines and text messaging.

Complete and Accurate Documentation

When employees call coworkers or leave messages for their manager, all too often, important pieces of information aren't communicated, are misunderstood or get lost when the message gets conveyed to those who need to know.

With a professional absence management service, you’re ensured that all of the vital information required is accurately obtained. This includes the employee’s full name, when they were scheduled to work, the reason they will be missing work and how long they anticipate being away from work.

A Dependable Source of Records

Without an absence management service and its accompanying protocols, there is room for error and conflict regarding employee absences. There's no way of being certain whether or not an employee called in regarding missing work, when they did, or what they said.

Calls made are automatically time and date stamped and recorded. The system also notes the number from which the employee called. When a conflict occurs, records can be provided as well as audio copies of every conversation.

Prevents Work Interruptions

Even if you have a clearly defined attendance policy with details on who to call for absences, it can still leave you scrambling to fill shifts. Even if the message was left overnight, a shift supervisor might not pick up the message until he or she arrives at work in the morning to find out that the team will be short staffed.

With an employee call-off service, those that need to know about a call off are immediately alerted. This can include the employee’s manager, shift supervisor, as well as the human resource manager. The system is flexible so that the message can be delivered to the right people, the right way.

Increased Productivity

In addition to the reduced work stoppages, it's easy to see how the implementation of an employee call-off service can help to boost productivity elsewhere within your organization. With its detailed reporting, assured accuracy and timely delivery of information, it will help to make your HR and payroll processes much more efficient.

Additionally, your employees won't have to waste time trying to figure out who needs to know about an absence and getting that information to them.

Finally, a system like this will help reduce non-legitimate absences. If an employee is aware that a foolproof and formal system is in place that records and tracks all of their absences, they will be less likely to try to take advantage of it.

After you've introduced an employee call-off service in your company, you'll soon see the headaches associated with communicating and tracking absences completely disappear. You'll wonder how you ever got along without it.