Off Topic- Technical Oncall Pay- Are we paying enough?

[Matt Pellowski]

Hey folks, I apologize, I know this is way off topic....



I'm looking for advice from anyone that receives oncall pay, or has to pay it to their employees.



My employees are angry because they feel they are not getting compensated enough for oncall pay. We work for a technical company here in Minneapolis that sells technical products that cost between $10,000 and $50,000. Each week, a tech is scheduled to work oncall, that means they have to take technical support calls between the hours of 5:30PM and 7:30AM Monday through Friday, and over the entire weekend.

They take on average 17 calls per week, average call time is 10 minutes per call. We pay them $400 per week.



I need advice on whether we are compensating them enough, or maybe too much. If anyone has a similar experience, please let me know what you are getting paid for oncall, or what you are paying for oncall...



Thanks in advance!



-Bubba

 

[Gavin Allan]

I've been a tech on call in a past life. Being on call absolutely sucks because you cannot plan anything and you always have to be ready to go at a minute's notice. You can't have a drink or enjoy a movie. I finally got fed up and refused to wear the pager.



If you are "on cal" you are working. Pay them their normal hourly rate as technicians when they are on call, including time and one-half after 40 hours a week.



"On-call" is one of the reasons employees leave or vote in unions. On-call without full pay is damn near criminal.

 

[mookie]

Do you have employees that work other than on-call?

What is their pay?

 

[Kevin Hachey]

So they're actually only working a little over two hours a week, you're paying them $400 and 'they're' complaining? Seems a little backwards to me!

I work in the heating industry at a parts counter Monday through Friday, 7 to 5. However, I can be called in to work if a heating technician needs a part or a whole furnace or boiler in the middle of the night. In the winter time, it's not uncommon to be called in 10 or 12 times a week. Every time I ( or someone ) goes in, we charge a $30 "night call", which goes into our checks.

I'm not sure how this would even apply to your situation, but maybe some food for thought.

 

[Matt Pellowski]

We pay the techs $16 to $18 an hour for their regular hours.... Mind you... the $400 extra oncall pay is in ADDITION to their regular pay...

 

[Kevin Palmer]

I can understand where it is a damner on planning events. But.... it is a needed job and you simply need to plan out the schedule better and all will be happy. Make it rotational. For example. You have 5 employees. Three take the calls for this week. That leaves two of them to do their own thing. Then you rotate off one of the employees and one back in to the rotation. This give you as the employer three employees to take the calls no matter what.



This does a few things. Lowers your payroll for one, still accomplishes what you need to do for your clients, and gives your employees some time to plan out things to do.



I suggest you give them the choice. By that I mean; you approach them and tell them you are going to work out a schedule as noted above for example. If any of them say they would rather not get into the rotation then they have determined that the money is worth more than their potential free time. This helps you and them. If they chose to be part of the rotation then so be it. You save money and they are happy to do their own thing.



From the sounds of it the money is fair, they just need to get out of the loop every now and then to relax, wind down, go fishing or what ever.



What do you think???

 

[Dale Carlson]

Bubba,



I think that whether you pay them more or not is between you and them, but take a look at it from a different perspective. Now you didn't say, but I'm assuming that "oncall" means that they are not physically present at your place of business, but have to answer a pager/phone/email call for help.



I'm no lawyer or labor specialist, but I think technically that qualifies hourly wage-workers (as opposed to salaried workers) as being on-the-clock. If my calculations are correct, the oncall tech has to be available for a total of 118 hours/week: that's 14 hrs/day x 5 days + 48 hrs over the weekend. Divided into $400, that comes to about $3.39/hr pay. And being available probably means no out-of-town trips, no mind-altering drugs of choice, and no personal events/appointments during that week. In addition, the hours are over 2nd and 3rd (or swing shift and graveyard shift, if you will), and the weekend, which normally gets some kind of differential pay for hourly wage-workers.



You mentioned that on-average that they take 17 calls a week that are about 10 minutes apiece. I'm assuming that you mention it because you're making a correlation between those taskings and the oncall pay. Looked at another way, is it really worth it to your business to offer 24/7 tech support for the number of calls that you get?



OK, finally, you might chart the hours that you're actually getting those calls. Maybe you don't really need somebody on call from midnight until 7am, or later than 7pm on the weekends. Reducing the oncall hours might help reduce your employee's agitation - or not. Or, maybe you could phase in different levels of after-hours service for your customers - like the free service gets you help during normal business hours, and a premium-for-pay service gets you help 24/7. The premium service would allow you to pay your employees what they think they're worth without cutting into your margins.



With these kind of issues, it might help to think more like a business manager and less like a employer (though I know that's at the forefront right now).

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

When I worked for a software company in support we were paid 600.00 for the weeks worth of 24/7 on call tech support service. I thought that was a deal considering we were billing the customer 350.00 and hour plus they had to have it contracted in their service agreement which was 18% for the total software and professional services sale. 400.00 seems really low.

 

[M B]

Holy crap! Hire me!!!

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Bubba, the thing to consider is how many on-call hours, per week, you are having the people scheduled to work (118, right....5 weekdays at 14 hours + 48 hours for the weekend), and not necessarily consider how long the person actually works, you and as others have said.



You are paying someone to be "on call". The fact that some nights they get few calls and others they get more tends to all "come out in the wash." You are paying for them to be available and responsive, and that means they give up the ability to do many other things they might be able to do during their normal, free time.



Now, with all that said, what is proper? If you normally pay between $16 and $18/hour for regular work from these same employees, I would tend to think that up to but probably not more than 1/2 that rate is proper for on-call pay. I have seen factors from 1/10th the overtime rate (e.g. 15% of regular pay) up to 1/2 or 50% of regular pay in various industries. I know that upper-end seems high, but Gavin is right. You can't marginalize this type of work. It is WORK. It is scheduled, and people can't do whatever they want instead. Think of what you would have to pay someone, minimum, with the experience your guys have to do this job, if it were their ONLY job...because that is where you will be if you can't make this work advantageous to the techs.



So, with the range mentioned (15% to 50% of regular pay) that would be anywhere from $3/hour on the lower end to $9/hour on the upper end; or for 118 hours a total pay range of: $318 to $1062. That's quite a spread.



I would consider making it based on OT pay rate, like many companies do, and pick a percentage that is based on some meaningful and impressive amount; say 15% of OT pay rate; which would be $477.9 for your $18/hour wage earners (18 * 1.5 * .15 * 118)...and $424.8 for those making $16/hour.



Why do I say that is meaningful? Because the amount changes per each techs regular (OT) hourly rate, which means you pay those with higher rates more for this work, which is only fair, assuming you recognize their increased value; and because fractions and portions are meaningful to people in making judgement an comparisons. 15% of their OT rate MEANS something to people...but be careful, if the rate is too small, you may send the wrong message.



Check around...see what is customary as an hourly rate stated as a portion of the techs regular and OT pay rates. I suspect you will find a sweet spot between 10% and 20%.



And, yes, your current rate seems on the low-end.



P.S. Basing this work on the OT rate, and classifying it as OT, but at a different pay rate is pretty common so as to pass legal muster (have to pay someone a different rate for overtime hours in excess of 40/week or 8/day...varys from state to state).



TJR

 

[Jacob Dryer]

Every 5th week I'm on call. This means if a customer is willing to pay the after our charges (double our normal rate) that they will get the on-call tech in their home and any hour they please.



That means that we get very little on-call work since most people problems can wait until the morning. But if they can't wait they can get the service if they want.



Me being on call does mean all of the above posted things, but in the 6 months I've worked doing this I've gotten 0 calls. One of my co-workers has been doing this for 2 years with only 3 calls.



As soon as we get a call job we start making time and half from when we leave our house until we get back to it. But we get zero compension if we do no call jobs. It's just part of the job you know it when you accept it.

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Last time I was on-call (about 2 yrs ago) there was a flat $500 bonus for the week.

Other people taking regular afterhours shifts did get a differential payment on their checks, which I believe was 3%, but not sure.



We got $500, even if we we got 0 calls or dozens...

 

[Richard L]

I Have only worked at one place (a Hospital) that paid for "On Call" time. At the hospital, we paid only $1.oo per hour while on call, which was 5:00pm-8:00am weekdays, and 24 hours on weekends and hollidays. It would be very rare for anyone to ever get a call during the week, since anything over one call per month would be extremely rare. I was the Programming Manager, and even I took my week at being On-Call. We typically had 6-7 people on call so it was not that often, and we had people volunteer to take On-Call for anyone who had the slightest reason why they could not do on call. I did the scheduling and ran it like an Army duty-roster and each individual was responsible to ensure that they had made arangements to have someone cover their On-call time if they could not. They had to let me know the changes because I submitted the paperwork for their On-Call pay.



In this case, all the people on call were programmer/analyst, salaried and did not receive Over-time pay and did not need to punch a time clock. Most calls were related handled by simply advising the operator to call a repair tech or call the software vendor. The on call consisted of carrying a beeper/pager and calling in if you were paged.



I suspect that if the people are getting paid $400 per week of On-Call for Monday-Friday, and still complaining, that there are very few people pulling this duty and their On-Call period is occurring too frequently. That may also indicate that most of them may be single and would prefer to be able to go out socializing rather than hanging around waiting for a phone call. Cell phones might improve their mobility, but if they have to also have access to a PC, that may not work well in your situation.



If you have documentation of the actual number of calls they receive and how long they are on the phone with each call, you may want to change the pay to a flat fee per hour and pay an additional amount for each call they handled during their On-Call period??



Personally, I think $400 for 14 hors of On-Call per day Monday thru Friday, is more than most companies pay, but paing an additional fixed fee for each call might be a good idea. Employee's often complain about pay, when the problem is too much work and too few people to do it. Sometimes a scheduling change is all it takes to make them happy.



If you only have 2-3 people doing the On-Call, then the excessive frequency of being On-Call is probably more of an issue than the money. Then you should look to try to get more people working the On-Call so that each individual does not get On-Call duty more than one every month or more. Perhaps a change in rotation so that a person would skip a turn in the rotation and that may allow someone to get a whole month off from On-Call every few months.



...Rich

 

[Gene Zenk]

The software company I work for is looking at implementing 24x7 on-call support as well and as expected it is being met with some resistance. Currently, the company is looking at options on how to handle calls and compensation, so everything is up in the air and I think that is what scares some people. Probably 90% of our employees are salaried and exempt and are already scheduled for 42.5 hours per week - which equates to 3 weeks more per year of work more than the regular 40 hour work week.



Our clients are requesting after hours support, so we need to implement something to meet our client's requests. In our case, I'm assuming this would be considered a premium service that our clients would pay for in addition to their regular support costs.



Being on the employee side of this, I will be required to take call time. However, I do think the compensation needs to be fairly significant. How much is my free time worth? Most people work to live, not live to work, and I think that is important to consider. Where is that fine line about getting away from work and still having an adequate personal life?



In my case, I believe each department will be required to have someone on-call. There are 4 people in my department - that most likely means I will have call for one week per month. Some of the other departments have 10 or more people which means they will be on call one week every two months.



During the summer months, my family rents a cabin at a somewhat remote lake and I spend nearly every weekend there. It is doubtful that I would be able to do this if on-call as I most likely would need decent internet connectivity to support the client when they call. So, that reduces the time available I can spend at the lake, therefore reduces the value of my family having the cabin, etc. That's just one example of how it affects someone's free time.



Currently, most employees are not compensated for any time over 42.5 hours per week if they are working at the home office. However, if they are at a client site, they are compensated. Many times, work being done at a client site is closely coordinated with work being done at th main office so if someone is working late at a client site, more than likely someone is working late at the main office. This situation creates friction that I see also affects employee's attitudes towards being on-call.



Initially, I expect the after hours calls to be few and far between, but as this service is offered and expanded, I do see it gradually increasing in use.



I appreciate everyone's comments since the company where I work is in the process of implementing this as well. Please keep the comments coming.

 

[Dre L]

If you want to keep staff happy, pay them fairly, and let them expect to work on-call on a fair basis, at most 1 week per month. 2 is pushing it unless there is very little need for on-call services after hours, in which case it should be balanced out fairly across the team, and salary should still reflect it. If the employee is hourly, then they should at the very least be compensated at their normal rate for the after hours work.



Salary normally reflects additional duties, rendering a bonus unnecessary. For example, it is assumed that a systems administrator will need to work after hours as needed, and the salary should be within the industry standards for that position (salary.com).



All team members should pull their fair share of the load, special circumstances notwithstanding, in order to foster a sense of teamwork, and balance, where no one is getting "screwed". Those frequently found to avoid work when they are on-call must be corrected immediately.



The employer should also be understanding and oblige if the employee needs comp time during that on-call period or shortly thereafter, especially if the employee has been up all night, working multiple days, working under difficult or abnormal circumstances, etc... Working from home, coming in late, leaving early when possible.



In this manner, a professional understanding, attitude, and relationship should develop, where the employee goes above and beyond, yet does not take advantage of the generosity of the employer's offering of flex-time. In this manner, the employee should realize and display a sense of responsibility, duty, a positive work ethic, and not be "doing it for the bonus".



Too often, businesses try to entice workers into doing something, rather than just hiring good people, paying them fairly (what everyone knows is fair), and demanding good service both to the business and to the customer. Good workers are an asset, not an auctionable item which you try to pay bottom dollar for.

 

[farout squarecat]

Exempt or non-exempt?



Exempt - you are paid for doing your job, not by the hour.



At our company, (tech support) we rotate the pager weekly. We are Exempt and "overtime" is not an issue.

 

[Area 51]

Having worked "on-call" at several different jobs now, HOW it is handled makes ALL the difference.



Certainly getting paid an extra stipend is a necessity. Those who are ONLY looking at it from the standpoint of X number of minutes per call X number of calls taken per week = X$ per hour is missing a lot here.



My present job's on-call definition says we will be reachable by cell-phone 7x24 for the period we are on call. We also carry pagers linked to software that monitor every mission critical server/app...most times if there is a problem, we know about it before users ever reach us to report it. If we can not resolve the problem by the phone call, we are to be either on-site, or remotely working on the problem (if it is something that can handled via remote connection) within an hour's time TOPS from when the problem was first reported/when we got the page.



That does not preclude you from going to a movie, or shopping, but it does mean that IF you get a call you can't resolve over the phone, you have to be in a position to be back on site within an hour. If that means others are with you, then if you only took one car, they are leaving with you.



So while you are certainly not "working" every hour you are on call, you are limited in many ways in what you can really do while you are on call. For those that say...well I usually have to take work home several nights a week...not the same. You can schedule WHEN you do said work, and still schedule other things, without fear of said work interupting what you are doing.



Money alone however is not the answer. Having a sufficient number of people handling said on-call duty, and ensuring that people have MORE time being off-call than they are on-call is HUGE. We have 3 of us handling it here, we each take 2 weeks on, then have 4 weeks off as we rotate. We are all pretty flexible about covering for each other as needed, so none of really feel pinned in by never getting to go out and do things.



And IF any of us end up spending an inordinate amount of time resolving a problem (say a server dies that is critical, and we are in half the night into the morning fixing it)...we are usually told to go home after lunch, and not to come in the next day in many cases as well, in an effort to compensate even more for an extended period of working off hours.



As such, although on-call is still certainly a "pain", it is not such that I truly despise being on it.

 

[Matt Pellowski]

The rotation for my crew is once every 5 weeks. In discussion with them, they felt that raising the weekly flat rate to $500 would be sufficient.... I'm having our HR team look over what is considered average to the industry... When I find out, I'll let everyone know what we found, and what we ended up implementing. Thanks all for your comments. They are very helpful!