An effective workforce management (WFM) plan ensures the optimum headcount to meet contact center demand at any given time.
Of course, it is impossible to do so and achieve 100% forecast accuracy across the day. But, planners can perfect a workforce planning system to get as close to that figure as possible while keeping employees engaged and satisfied with their schedules.
Such a system will likely include four fundamentals: forecasting, scheduling, intraday management, and reviewing. Here is a brief summary of each area.
1. Forecasting
Forecasting involves collecting and assessing a sample of historical data to predict contact volumes. Typically, this dates back at least three years, with some going back further to offset the impact of COVID-19 on critical trends and seasonality.
In addition to old data, planners must factor in new information, such as special events, the marketing schedule, and – in many businesses – even the weather.
With this data, many companies use forecasting algorithms built into WFM software to forecast demand. Others adopt forecasting techniques such as “triple exponential smoothing” and ARIMA.
2. Scheduling
The next step in workforce planning is to craft a schedule that aligns with forecasting demand and engages employees. In times of short staffing, such a task is difficult. Yet, by focusing on keeping staffing levels high early in the day, companies negate the additional pressure of repeat callers.
Spreadsheets are still a standard tool for scheduling. However, WFM tools are now coming to the fore, auto-generating schedules, which planners can manually adjust and optimize.
Automated schedules will fit into shift patterns that the contact center designs – often in accordance with agent preferences. Traditionally, such shifts would include full-time, fixed shifts and rotations. But, nowadays, more patterns are becoming popular, including casual, micro, and split-shifts.
3. Intraday Management
Once the schedule is rolled out and enforced, planners must verify that it meets demand as intended, in real-time. To do this, planners will monitor metrics such as:
- Service levels – Are they answering their desired percentage of contacts within an optimum period? (For voice, this is typically 80% in 20 seconds)
- Occupancy rate – Is occupancy staying below 85%? If not, the contact center risks overworking agents.
- Adherence – Are agents sticking to the schedules assigned to them? This could explain wayward service levels and occupancy rates.
- Shrinkage – Is shrinkage above normal? If so, what are the causes? – i.e., absenteeism. These causes may impact performance.
A WFM tool that displays real-time metrics to monitor the effectiveness of each plan is critical here. For instance, it may send real-time adherence (RTA) alerts if an agent has deviated from their schedule.
4. Reviewing
Finally, organizations must regularly assess the outcomes of their workforce planning strategy and make adjustments for better results.
Assessing the success of historical workforce planning implementations reveals learnings such as underestimating demand due to a holiday event. It may also inform the planner of which shift patterns are not working, agent preferences, and the most effective staffing configurations.
At the close of the review stage, planners have sufficient data to begin the workforce planning process anew. In this way, workforce planning acts as a sort of closed-loop feedback cycle, where there is continuous assessment and fine-tuning alongside workforce planning and execution.
By perfecting this cycle, contact centers can achieve many of their top priorities, such as increasing service availability with minimum impact on headcount, improving the quality of customer interactions, and enhancing agent and customer satisfaction.
Discover more about how workforce planning enables critical contact center goals by reading our article: Putting WFM at the Heart of the Contact Centre
