The Mayor's Telephone Tester Program monitors agency phone operations, but it is important that monitoring occurs at the agency level as well. Here are guidelines to conduct internal monitoring:

• Establish in-house telephone and voicemail monitoring to test agency numbers and determine if front–line employees are compliant with standards. Periodically call employees from outside the agency to determine how service is performed.
• Utilize senior staff meetings to communicate to managers the importance of monitoring employee behavior.
• Utilize senior staff meetings to perform random checks of front–line operator behavior. Using the speakerphone, place a call to main/small service numbers during the meeting to determine adherence to the standards. This allows managers to hear how employees are performing, and keeps employees on their toes.
• Encourage employees to help each other. Employees should understand that they are accountable to each other as well as to their supervisors.