Select Call Centre

What is IVR Work Alone?

IVR - Interactive Voice Response

IVR work alone plans are navigated mostly by touch-tone keypads (press 1, press 2, etc.). Rarely, "short voice messages" (say 'business' or 'residential') may be used.

The attraction of IVR Work Alone is automation. Once you have your telephone switch (a specialized computer) programmed properly, IVR systems can run for hours, days, and months with little or no human interaction. This saves time and money for both company and call centre. Large IVR systems are capital intensive for individual companies. Hardware and software development costs can easily run in to the mid six-figure range.

What is Work Alone?

The death of a convenience store worker in the 1990's prompted Alberta's first legislation for protecting workers who work alone. At this point the majority of Canadian provinces and many U.S. jurisdictions have work alone legislation. At minimum, work alone legislation requires employers who have workers working in isolation to have a plan in place to protect that worker. Legislation also requires that workers have knowledge of any work alone plans.

A sample IVR Work Alone Plan - 250 Employees

After the initial one time set up fee of $750.00 ($3.00 x 250 employees) the ongoing usage fee per billing period will be $850.00 per billing period for 250 employees ($3.00 x 250 employees + $100 line fees). This portion of the billing remains fixed regardless of how often employees check in or out because there is no operator "talk time". When employees quit or new employees are hired, programmers make the required changes for an hourly fee of $60.00 or $6.00 for each ten minutes. Each change usually takes less than a few minutes so ongoing maintenance costs are low.

If an employee fails to check in with the IVR system on time, a series of escalating events are triggered depending on how the account is programmed. The first response is usually for the system to call out to the employee's contact number. If no contact is made, then a supervisor number is notified. At any state the automated IVR system can be programmed to revert to a live operator who will then take appropriate actions - usually calling on-call supervisors and initiating an incident report.

IVR Work Alone - Sample Process

Typical Check In Conversation

Each account is programmable according to the customer's policies and procedures. This is one common example:

1. Employee dials IVR Work Alone number
2. Call is answered by IVR Work Alone system, and employee enters their PIN (personal identification number)
3. IVR system asks for work alone location. Employee states their work location: "Lodgepole gas plant #2"
4. The system asks for elapsed time before next check in. Employee presses '1' for one hour, '2' for two hours, etc. In some cases, the employer sets a standard call back time.
5. After two hours (for example), if the employee has not checked in, the IVR system will call the employee's contact number. If no answer, and after a programmable delay, the IVR system will then call the employee's supervisory contact number. If no response is received, the IVR system will then revert to a live operator who will take over and resolve this "person down" situation according to the customer's policies and procedures.

This is one example of many scenarios. The IVR system is programmable for each employee and employer.

Summary

IVR Work Alone makes managing employee work alone programs easy and economical. Usage reports identify who is using the work alone system, and customers can contact us for assistance at roll-out meetings, safety meetings, and company events like barbecues and award presentations.

Select Call Centre also supports and recommends operator assisted work alone plans. For more information, give us a call!