It is hard to imagine that someone would not love the holiday season, but for many companies and call centers, it is a hectic season. Employees can get stressed out and skip work to spend time with their family. In many cases, the holidays mean chaos for call center managers and they probably might not like this season as much as everyone else.

But we want you and your agents to have a happy holiday season, enjoy work, and be more productive through the end of the year, or during any other holiday in the year. Here are some great ideas to help you reduce absenteeism this holiday season.

 Show Appreciation
As we have mentioned in previous articles, motivation is linked to appreciation. When the agents feel appreciated, they are more likely to be productive. Why? Because they know their efforts count. There are many ways you can say thanks to your call center team, especially during the Christmas season. You can give Christmas cards to everyone with a special thank you message written by you, organize a Christmas party for them (they also need to have fun and socialize with their coworkers), give them personalized gifts. The end of the year is a good season to hand out yearly awards and recognitions. When an agent is motivated and feels appreciated, they will show up to work this season.

Pamper Your Team
Who doesn’t like to be pampered? Employees will be willing to show up to work every day for a company that pampers them. If the season is stressful, you can hire a massage therapist to give them free massages one day of the week. You can also bring a yoga or meditation instructor that could teach them some simple exercises to relax at work. Free food is always welcome, buy them some pizzas or food that they like just for the simple act of doing it. You don’t need a specific reason to treat your team to free food, this is what makes it special. You can also give special treatment to the agents that don’t miss work or that volunteer to work on holidays. They deserve it.

Read: Simple Ways You Can Make Your Call Center Agents Happy

Make It Fun!
Again, make them want to go to work. How? By making it fun! Embrace the Christmas spirit, bring some decorations, and let your agents decorate the office. You can have a contest too, within campaigns, departments, or cubicles. What about an ugly sweater contest? Organize small events in the office: pajama day for the cold weather, a gift exchange. If you can, put some music or videos on the screens, try to make work more relaxed. Make them look forward to this season all year, get them excited to come to work these days.

Set Clear Goals
It’s important to remind your agents why they are here. There must be a goal they need to reach. Make sure that what they need to accomplish before the end of the year is clear, and if they only have regular goals, set a challenging goal for the season. Most important, communicate it and make all the team part of it. You can also make friendly competitions within the team. Give special gifts to the agent than generates more leads, or the top collector, depending on the process they handle. You should also ask yourself if you are overstaffed for the holidays. You might realize that you do not need a lot of workforce this season. If this is the case, maybe you can give your agents goals to let them go home earlier as a reward. Just keep this in mind: make sure everyone understands the goals and the rewards they will get.

Let Them Have Some Time Off
You might think, “why? If what I want is for them to stay at work this season?” Well, if you give your agents schedule flexibility, or give them permission to have the day off when their kids are sick or performing in a school festival, or if you let them leave early when there isn’t a lot of work, be sure they will be there when you really need them to be. Agents miss work because they feel stressed, because they want to spend time with their family, because they are busy. If you let them have some time off during the year, then they will not miss work because they already had time to do what they needed or wanted. It’s important that they know you understand that they have a life outside work and that they have a family. So, if you don’t really need them to be there, let them have some time off. They will appreciate it and be more motivated when they come back.

Now you are equipped with some strategies to motivate your agents to stay at work during the holidays and close the year with great performance.

Call Center Services International has motivated bilingual and bicultural agents. You can expand your U.S. contact center in Mexico while reducing operational and overhead cost by 50%. One of the benefits CCSI has for you is that you pay for worked hours and you do not have to worry about the holidays. Contact us to learn more about our model and how it works.

Read: Useful Tips To Manage and Avoid Absenteeism In The Contact Center