Special Agent Insider Information

If you're reading this, then you've passed the Certification and are now a fully qualified Special Agent congratulations! The following information will guide you through everything you'll need to settle into your new role, as well as provide you insider knowledge to help you perform more efficiently. Lets go!

Working Hours
Maximum Hours Policy: Special Agents should not work more than 7 hours per day or 38 hours per week. Agents must adhere to this policy or they may put their positions at risk. Agents exceeding these hours will be sent a Performance Notice via email. Minimum Hours Policy: Special Agents must work a minimum of 10 hours per week to remain in good standing. Weekend Hours Policy: Special Agents must work at least six (6) hours on the weekend between 12:00AM Saturday and 12:00PM Monday PHT. Agents failing to adhere to this policy may be sent a Performance Notice via email. New Agents If you become a Special Agent near the end of a week or month, you will not be required to meet the minimum requirements for that period but will need to meet the requirements in the weeks/months following. Minimum Wage Policy The Text Handling Performance Policy covered in Training and in your Employment Contract states that Special Agents must handle enough texts to meet the minimum wage requirement of 50.50PHP per hour. If you do not make the minimum wage requirement in a given hour, you will still be paid the minimum wage for that hour. However, if it is a constant trend that you are not reaching or exceeding the minimum wage through answering questions, you will be contacted by your Unit Operative for coaching. We do understand that this is also a matter of how busy the system is when you are working. Working in Both Tools (UK and US) With the launch of the UK/Ireland text handling tool, please note that all policies are related to individual Special Agents and are NOT tool specific. For example, maximum hours per week is 38 total per agent, and that should not be exceeded. If agents choose to work in both the US and UK/Ireland tools, then those agents should total their hours from both tools and be sure not to exceed 38 in one week. Working in both tools simultaneously is not allowed. Work Week for Calculating Minimum/Maximum Hours Your work week for calculating minimum and maximum hours begins on Friday at 12AM PHT and ends on the following Thursday at Midnight PHT. This now aligns with a pay cycle work week

What if I know Im not going to meet the weekly 10 hour target due to vacation, sickness, etc?
Special Agents are certainly permitted to take time off. However, you are only allowed three occurrences of failure to meet the th weekly minimum target within the agreement period. On the 4 occurrence, you will receive a termination notice. (Special exceptions may be made in certain situations.) It is very important that you email SpecialAgentsSchedulingPH@kgb.com if you are unable to meet your weekly 10 hour minimum and/or miss the target.

When will I get paid?

Special Agents are paid every other Friday. To check how many questions you have answered in any given month, visit the Pay Reporter in the Text Handling Platform. You can access it in two ways: 1. 2. By clicking the View Payment link in the Special Agents Portal. By clicking the Pay Reporter link, found via the Control Panel in the Text Handling Platforms drop-down menu.

Simply choose a date/week from the Report on: drop-down box, and click Submit Query for a day-by-day breakdown of your shifts and questions handled.

Peso amount earnings are not displayed in the Pay Reporter because behind-the-scenes calculations are also run to ensure agents are achieving the minimum wage. However, you can do the math to understand your per piece earnings by multiplying any Normal Answers by 3.4 PHP and any Used Answers / Send Now Answers by 1.7 PHP.

Shifts
There are four types of shifts: These are regular shifts that youll book on the Rota and work most often. If you book these shifts, you should login to work them. Sometimes the volume of texts is high, and well need back-up from the community when all Standard Shifts are already filled. Schedule for Try Me shifts if all Standard Shifts for a timeframe you want to book are full, but you are still interested in working. Agent Otto will email you if help is needed. Otto Message: "Special Agent [Your Name], We are currently very busy and could use a little help. If so, sign in to the text handling tool now. Thanks, Agent Otto" All scheduled hours will appear in Shift Summary e-mails, but even if you have scheduled Try Me shifts, do not login these hours unless Agent Otto has contacted you asking for help. If you cannot make a Try Me shift when Agent Otto contacts you, dont worry you dont have to sign in (nor tell us that you cant), if you can just login to the platform and start to work. Also, its important that you dont exceed your 6 hours per day or 36 hours per week maximum. If you are at or close to your maximum hours and Agent Otto asks you to come to work or extend your shift, you should not accept. We understand if you go over by a bit when youre finishing up that last question, but it really is important that you dont consistently go over the maximums. Default Availability is Agent Ottos second port of call if the amount of Try Me Agents logging on does not help meet demand. Your Default Availability is blocks of hours in which you know you are regularly available to be contacted by e-mail if the need for back-up arises. Default Availability Being Agent Ottos fall back after Try Me shifts, is a great way to pick up extra hours when you have time to work, but there is no guarantee that you will be contacted. All scheduled hours will appear in Shift Summary e-mails, but even if you have booked in your Default Availability, do not login to work these hours unless Agent Otto has contacted you asking for help. If you cannot make a Default Availability shift when Agent Otto contacts you, dont worry you dont have to sign in (nor tell us that you cant). When were slightly understaffed, the system may let you login without having booked a shift. If you do want to work right there and then, you should first go to Rota and schedule a shift before you start taking texts. Example: You login at 14.25 and want to work 14.30 until 15.00. You should login to the Rota and schedule the 14.30 to 15.00 time block before starting to take texts.

Standard Shift

Try Me Shifts

No Shift Booked

The Rota and Booking Shifts

How do I use the Rota?
Go to the Rota tool (Login to text platform -> kgb_ tab -> click Scheduling). Click on a calendar date to select a day, and then drag from the start to end time to mark your desired shift. The block of time will change color to confirm your selection. The Color Key helps you identify what types of shifts are available. Pay particular attention to the PINK (understaffed), BLUE (shifts available) and YELLOW (Try-Me) fields.

How do I add my hours of Default Availability?

To add your hours of Default Availability, first sign into the Rota and click on the My Profile link. Scroll down to the Your Default Availability table, then, as above, click and drag with your mouse to select blocks of hours you desire.

How do I set the Rota to align to my own time zone?

The Rota is automatically set to local PH time, so you dont need to do anything. If you ever need to change your time zone manually, in the My Profile section of the Rota, scroll down to the Contact Settings heading. The Philippines is GMT+ 8:00, but Manila is not listed, so choose any of GMT+ 8:00 locations instead (Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong etc.)

How can I check what shifts I have booked to work?

Login to the Rota and click on the My Shifts link to view your scheduled shifts.

What do I do if I know I wont be able to attend a shift I have scheduled?

First, try to cancel the shift in your Scheduling page. To cancel a shift, double click on the shift you wish to cancel. If there is enough coverage for that shift, it will be deleted and canceled immediately. If there is not enough coverage for that shift, a pop up will appear letting you know that our Scheduling team will work to find a replacement and will let you know as soon as possible whether you are able to cancel that shift. If no replacement is found, you will be expected to work that shift. If you cannot access your Scheduling Page to cancel a shift, please email SpecialAgentsSchedulingPH@kgb.com and let us know that you cannot make your shift and the reason why. We receive tons of emails, so trying to remove your shift first on your own is always the best course of action for all of us! Note: There is no need to let us know if you are running late or plan to leave early. Also, if Agent Otto asks you to leave early and you accept his offer, your minutes scheduled will be adjusted.

Why is scheduling important?

When you schedule a shift in the Rota, it helps Otto our Scheduling daemon to know when we have enough agents to cover a shift. Otto will then prevent agents from just logging into the platform, thereby ensuring that there are enough questions to go around for the scheduled agents. With everyone just hopping in to work without scheduling, Otto has no way of knowing that we have too many agents working. In this situation, there are not enough questions to go around and everyone loses. Remember, you CAN schedule shifts right before you want to work (no advance notice needed), so whenever you find you have a little extra time, go to the Rota first and schedule before you sign in. If the Rota is full and we get busy, Otto will email agents to log in and help. Be sure to remember to update your Default Availability so Otto can contact you at our busiest times! (Text alerts are not yet available in the Philippines, so be sure to select Email as your preferred method of contact.) Go to the Rota at https://scheduling.insidethekgb.com/ and schedule your shifts today! Remember, when the Rota is Red, we REALLY need agents. When it is Blue, there are still a few openings available. When it is Yellow, there are on-call type Try-Me shifts available and when it is White, all shifts are full. If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to e-mail us at SpecialAgentsSchedulingPH@kgb.com

Why else is scheduling important?

When Agents aren't engaged and up-to-date with our text handling processes, the database suffers, and in turn we all suffer when pre-populated answers don't meet our ACE Guidelines. Also, when Agents don't show up for booked shifts, other Agents who would have liked to work don't get the opportunity to make some extra cash. The above not only negatively impacts the Special Agent community, but also our customers - and where would we be without them?

Absence Without Notification (AWN)

As employees of the company, you are expected to work when you have scheduled a shift, just as you would if you were going in to a brick and mortar office or building to work. As you create your own schedule, it is up to you to create a schedule that works for you and also to notify our W orkforce Department in advance when you will not be able to work any scheduled shifts. You can easily do this by going into your Scheduling Page NO LATER THAN 2 HOURS PRIOR to any scheduled shift and removing any shift you are unable to work. By doing this, you provide our Workforce team ample time to enforce contingent measures. Reasons such as being too tired, an ill spouse or child, oversleeping, shopping for groceries, need to study, birthdays, or forgetting your schedule are unacceptable. Absence Without Notification (AWN) is defined as not removing shifts from the ROTA 2 hours before the shift, failure to log-in 40 minutes after the scheduled shift, failure to log-in during those scheduled shifts, AND failure to notify Workforce through the SpecialAgentsSchedulingPH@kgb.com mailbox within 48 hours to provide an explanation as to why you missed the shift. If we do not hear from you within 48 hours of the missed shift, or if we receive an email explanation after 48 hours has passed, you will be issued a Written Warning on the first offense, which can lead to termination with succeeding violations. In consideration, only one Written Warning will be given in a week. Meaning, if you scheduled and failed to cancel one or multiple shifts in the ROTA and did not log-in to work those shifts in a week, you will still get only one Written Warning. The warning will fall off after 30 days in the absence of commission of the same violation within the 30 day period. It is extremely important that you are meeting your 10 minimum hours weekly with three of these being between the hours of 6AM Saturday and 12PM Monday, Manila Time. If you have tried to delete or change your schedule by following the normal procedure and you receive notification that your shift cannot be changed and you must work, then we fully expect that you will be logged in and taking texts during that shift.

If you start a shift and receive a message from Otto telling you that you are not needed
If this happens, you still need to email Scheduling at SpecialAgentsSchedulingPH@kgb.com to cancel your shift and explain why (because Otto has told you that you are not needed)

Performance Metrics, Special Agents Scorecards

Every Special Agent is assigned an electronic Scorecard, a performance-tracking tool that updates against a number of key metrics. Your Scorecard will include your overall ACE quality score, a link to your reviews, as well as the following performance metrics detailed in the table below: Performance Metric No Charge % Explanation Number of texts sent with no charge. Percentage of answers that are pre-populated and sent to customers with no change. Percentage of answers that are reused from the database edited or not. Percentage of answers that are reused from the database and a minor change is made. Time between taking a question and sending an answer. Average character length of answers sent. Percentage of answers that are being attached. Percentage of questions that are dismissed. Percentage of questions where help is requested. Target 7% or less

Send Now Answers %

Finalizing

Database Answers %

Finalizing

Trivially Changed Database Answers %

Finalizing

Time To Answer (TTA)

120 seconds

Average Character Length Attaches % Dismissed % Request Help %

102 characters per message Finalizing Finalizing Finalizing

Your individual Scorecard will be posted on your Special Agent Portal homepage so, you will be able see how you are doing each time you login to work, and which areas you might need to focus on to do an even better job.

Why is it important not to share information on pay, benefits, scheduling policies / Rota release schedules, and more in chat?
We are running different programs in the Philippines, US, and Canada, so it is very important that you do not discuss anything related to terms of employment and policies in Special Agents Chat or elsewhere. If you have any questions or concerns, please email one of our mailboxes instead of discussing in chat.

Text Handling Platform Policy and Performance Notices

Wed like to take some time to provide you with additional information on our Text Handling Performance Policy. The Text Handling Performance Policy covered in your Employment Contract states that Special Agents must handle enough texts to meet the minimum wage requirement of 50.50PHP per hour. For many agents, approximately 60% of their answers are Researched Answers (paid at 3.4PHP), and approximately 40% of their answers are Database Answers (paid at 1.7PHP). This means that, typically, agents should answer somewhere around 20 messages per hour in order to meet the minimum wage requirement. To help you gauge, consider that an agent who sends only Researched Answers would need to send 14 messages per hour in order to meet the minimum wage requirement. Conversely, an agent who sends only Database Answers would need to send 28 messages per hour in order to meet the minimum wage requirement. Each agent will have his or her own unique percentage of Researched/Database Answers. Use the above as a guideline to help guide you in determining the number of messages you should send in order to meet the minimum wage requirement. It is important to note that a blend is your best option to meet the performance requirements. Efficiency in answering questions also plays a big role in ensuring that minimum wage is met. In order to answer around 20 messages per hour, your Time To Answer (TTA) will need to average around three (3) minutes per question or 180 seconds. (For Database Answers, you must always check to ensure the answer is accurate and addresses the customers specific questions before sending, but these take a much shorter period of time to respond and are important to meeting your overall performance requirements.) In order to become more efficient so that you can achieve the minimum wage requirement, we recommend that you: Hone your Search Skills! Refresh on the search techniques you learned about in Training by visiting our Reviews website and re-reading the Search Techniques and Internet Efficiency: Internet Function Keys documents, for example. There are many resources on the Reviews website to help you with honing your search skills, refreshing on kgb text handling protocols, and more. Practice! Complete some Boot Camp Field Training Exercises. Use the Hints to guide you along, and then hide the hints later and time yourself. While you wont be paid for this training, it will help you to become more efficient. Read the new Tips & Tricks document linked off of the Special Agents Portal Homepage! Learn the skills our top earners employ to rake in the dough! Pay attention to the clock while you answer! After you categorize a question, you will see the time taken counter displaying on the left hand corner of the screen. Based on your unique percentage of Researched/Database Answers, you will want to set your targets for achieving an efficient TTA. Schedule at our busiest times! This one is important. Our busiest times are Weekdays 8PM-12 midnight EST and Weekends 3PM-8PM EST and then busier from 8PM-12 midnight EST. (Add 12 hours to account for the time difference in the Philippines.) You should also check the Daily Ad Schedule linked off of the Special Agents Portal Homepage for times when we expect traffic spikes. If youre attempting to work when Otto says we dont need agents, then you wont be earning enough to meet the minimum wage requirement.

Please be advised that we are now beginning to track adherence to the Text Handling Performance Policy. We will notify agents who are not meeting minimum wage by sending them a Performance Notice via email.

Enhancement Training and Skills Development

On top of the Special Agent skills you have already gained, the kgb_ team will continue to boost your knowledge through Boot Camp Field Training.

How do I find new Boot Camp Training to do?

Announcements will be made to the community as new Boot Camp Field Training Exercises become available. They often take the form of practice questions for you to answer. Login and click on the Work Menu. In the drop-down menu, select the link to the Field Training Exercises. A box will appear with the available exercises. Select the exercise youd like to take and click the Begin button to start.

Anything else I need to know before I get started with Boot Camps?
Some exercises include a training manual that you may find useful to read before starting the field exercise (the rules of baseball, for example). Although the sample questions look as if theyre from real, live customers, they arent so take your time and dont panic! Use the hints provided to ACE each question! The answers you submit in Boot Camp training will not be scored or reviewed, nor will feedback be given to you. This makes studying the hints and model answers carefully even more important, so that you know exactly what were looking for. Although you are NOT REQUIRED to complete most Boot Camp Training, it is very helpful, so be sure to take advantage of it!
Those who pass through Boot Camp successfully will be inducted into the Boot Camp Center of Excellence. Their names will appear every Friday in the Documentation section of the Reviews site!

IMPORTANT: You are NOT PAID for completing Boot Camp Training, and it should not be carried out when you are scheduled to answer texts. Additionally, time spent working on these training exercises will NOT count towards your minimum working hours. If you plan to complete these exercises, you should do so when not on a scheduled shift.

In the future, we may launch mandatory training exercises that will be paid, and we will let everyone know when that happens.

Operatives
I hear that Ill be assigned an Operative?
Correct! Once you become a full Agent, you will be assigned an Operative who will be your first port of call for any questions and queries you have while doing your job. For easy identification, in Chat, all Operatives usernames are highlighted. Theyre all very friendly and happy to help you 24 hours a day. To check who your Operative is, go to your profile. You do this by going to "control panel" -> "account settings" -> "my profile." Scroll down and the name of your Unit Operative will be in the Mentor field. Sign into the tool first, and then click this link to learn more about your Operative and how to contact him or her: https://reviews.insidethekgb.com/documents/318695 If you have questions on you reviews, quality, or performance, send them to your Unit Operative. There are also Operative Assistants on hand to help, too. For easy identification, in Chat, Operative and Operative Assistant usernames are highlighted. Theyre all very friendly and happy to help you 24 hours a day.

Whats the difference between an Operative and an Operative Assistant?

An Operative Assistants main role is to help on the texting platform. Their responsibilities include answering any queries in chat, pantsifying poor responses in the database, and monitoring all outgoing answers. Meanwhile, as well as assisting on the platform, an Operatives role includes sending out performance reviews and coaching emails to Special Agents.

What is a Quality Agent and how do I become one?

If you consistently meet ACE guidelines, you may be considered for a position as a Quality Agent. This is a dual role with your Special Agent responsibilities in which your experience and expertise is used to review batches of text responses to make sure they meet kgb_ expectations. At this time, we are currently not hiring Quality Agents, but we expect additional positions to open in the future.

Monthly Reward Programs

With our monthly reward programs, you could pocket yourself up to an extra $50!

The Top Cherry Award

Our Top Cherry Award is an incentive for Agents to add the "Cherry on Top" and ACE quality by "Extending the Brand." Here's how it works: The Top 10 Agents with the highest proportion of cherries to answers are chosen. Those 10 Agents select one answer as their best "cherry pick" for award contention. The community votes for their favorite cherry and determines the winner. One Agent will receive $50 and the bragging rights of Top Cherry! Each Top Cherry Runners-up will receive $15.

The Operative Choice Award

The Operative Choice Award recognizes five agents for going above and beyond, be it sending an outstanding answer to a VIP, helping out in chat, pantsifying brand-damaging answers, and many more. Operatives send in nominations throughout the month. Operatives vote and the five chosen Agents will receive a $20 cash prize!

Youre done!
Youre now equipped with everything you need to know to begin your role as a Special Agent. If you need any further help, get in touch through one of the addresses below.

Useful Contact Information

Useful web addresses and contact info for Special Agents: Useful kgb Web Addresses Login to the Text Platform Shortcut to the Rota Shortcut to the Question Reviews Inbox Shortcut to Special Agent Chat Ultimate Links List (US) Ultimate Links List (UK and IRE) https://work.insidethekgb.com/ https://scheduling.insidethekgb.com/ https://reviews.insidethekgb.com/ https://chat.insidethekgb.com/ http://docs.google.com/Edit?id=dfrp3pkf_2hfngp5gj http://docs.google.com/view?id=dfrp3pkf_8hrvg4jdj

Useful kgb Contact Addresses Queries about Special Agent Training Queries about Registration Queries about HR and payment Queries about your hours of work, time off etc. specialagentstrainingPH@kgb.com specialagentsregistrationPH@kgb.com
specialagentspaymentPH@kgb.com

specialagentschedulingPH@kgb.com