Before going into details regarding the role of a telephone operator in an organisation, it is important to mention here that the part played by a telephone operator in an organisation is as important as any other designated person in the workplace.   Some people may presume that the job of a telephone operator is not a difficult task and it could be handled by anybody. 

Some people will also have a tendency to think that this is a low profile job and it does not need any basic qualification, etc. But in reality it is not so. In view of the above wrong assumptions, an attempt has been made in this article to illustrate some of the basic requirements a telephone operator should have to make the position more meaningful and valuable in the organisation.
 
Some of them are here under: The role of a telephone operator in an organisation or in a workplace is one of the important one.

Respond politely
Any new entrant or an outsider, at the fist instance, contacts the telephone operator before entering into the main workplace.  The telephone operator should be in a position to brief about the organisation and to provide necessary information that a new person wanted to have, in an effective and interesting way. In fact, the quality and name of the organisation will reflect in the tone and functioning style of a telephone operator. 

If a telephone operator speaks politely, and attends to the needs of the caller in a pleasing and courteous manner, people will say high about that particular individual as well as that of the organisation.  On the other hand, if the information sought by an outsider is not provided in a proper way, they simply feel bad about the firm as well as that particular individual.

Maintain punctuality
It is necessary on the part of the Telephone Operator to reach the work place punctually, i.e., on time, without any undue delay.  In fact the telephone operator is the person who feeds the information about the arrival of other employees in an organisation to higher authorities and also to inform others who enquire on the phone. In such a case, if the telephone operator himself comes late to the work spot, imagine the situation!  So the telephone operator should make it a point to reach the workplace on time.

Messages on time
Messages are of very important for both the organisation as well as to employees in the workplace.  These messages may be of personal or official in nature, and even some personal messages may be fatal or very urgent to be attended to. 

In addition, sometimes, the top executives in organisations may be expecting some important calls on a priority basis.  In such cases, the telephone operator should connect the calls to the right person without any delay.

Personal conversation
 If concerned person is not available at that point of time, message should be collected from the outsider and passed on to the person concerned, on a priority basis.  But it is sad to see in some of the government organisations that the telephone operators can take their role casually and many a time they don’t care to pass on the messages to the person concerned on time.  In some cases, telephone operator will give message only when other person ask, “is there any message for me”?  It is important if the operator maintains a separate register for incoming and outgoing calls to register the names of the callers, their telephone numbers, etc., to be passed to those to whom the messages are meant.  In the absence of this, an important message can be skipped out from the mind.

It should be ideal if a telephone operator keeps his or her personal conversation on the phone very short and brief. 

If the personal conversation goes on for a long time, outsiders who wish to contact somebody in the organisation urgently will have to hang on for a long time till the line is cleared.  One should know the importance and value of telephone and it should be used sparingly and scarcely, keeping in view of the urgent and emergency calls from outside.

Attend courteously
The tone of a telephone operator should be courteous and soft.  If a telephone operator gives rude answers to the outside callers, or projects disgruntled face with outsiders, people will get a bad feeling not only about that particular individual but also the Organisation as a whole.  

 Telephone operator should also have a pleasing personality.  He or she should come to the work place in a decent and dignified manner and receives new entrants or guests to the work place with a smiling face. The important duty is to greet people who come to the work place,  telephone operators should wear  neat dress .

New device
It is pity that after the advent or introduction of recording voice mail system in telephones, most of the telephone operators have taken their profession very casually. 

In fact, if you try some of the big organisations over the phone, first of all, you will hear the welcome message saying that ‘Welcome to so and so organisation, if you know the extension, you may please dial or wait for the operator to assist you’, etc.

 After hearing the entire story, telephone operator in most of the cases will never come on the line and the caller will fed up of hearing all sorts of music, wasting lot of money and time!.  
So, availability of the telephone operator at the reception is utmost important at all time, especially during office hours.

Awareness of events
Telephone operator should be aware of the important events that are going on in an organisation or workplace to convey the same to outside caller immediately on enquiry without asking him to hang on for a long time.
It is very sad to know that in some of the government organisations, if you ask the telephone operator to provide the name of the Director or Head of the Institution, instead of telling you the name directly, the telephone operator will straight away connect to the Director or CMD’s Office itself, and many a time PA or PS will be busy and the call will come back to reception again! 

So the point to highlight at this juncture is that the telephone operator should be aware of general things and important people in the organisation to feed the outsiders beforehand.

Hand over charge
If a telephone operator wants to avail leave on any day, he or she can do so after having taken all necessary precautions. 

In the sense, telephone operator should hand over all important and necessary telephone numbers to the person concerned who will look after the telephone calls temporarily during his absence.

It is also seen in some of the organisations that telephone operators are made responsible to segregate incoming and outgoing mails.  He should maintain a register in which reference numbers for out-going letters are written neatly. 

He should also segregate incoming mail and enters the name of persons to whom letters have arrived, etc.

The author can be contacted at adevaraju@gmail.com, adr@nias.iisc.ernet.in