Workforce management
process
The workforce management process was introduced in
Module 1 of this tutorial series. Workforce management is an
ongoing process that requires
monitoring and adjusting to the dynamic customer demand patterns and
agent availability. Figure 1 illustrates the workforce management
process.
Figure 1 - Workforce management
process
This module, the second of four in this series, will
focus on collecting personnel data and determining staffing level
projections and agent schedules.
Personnel data
Personnel data is the skills and schedule
preferences of each call center agent. This information
is combined with your workload forecast and service level objectives to
determine the agent schedules.
Agents should be profiled according to their
on-the-job capabilities. The skills you should consider in
your contact center are dependent on your contact strategy, and business
and customer needs. Some important skills to consider in the
profile include the following:
- Sales competencies (includes "cold-calling", cross-selling,
etc.)
- Relationship-building skills
- Technical knowledge of your company's product or service
- Problem-resolution skills
- Knowledge of computer systems and applications
- Ability to work in different channels (phone, email, live
chat, etc.)
The data collected from the agent skills profiles is an essential
part of the scheduling process. Managers will need to be sure that
all shifts have adequately skilled agents scheduled to meet performance
goals and customer needs.
The other component of personnel data is agent schedule preferences.
This includes what time of day agents prefer to work (early or late, day
or evening), preferred length of shift (part-time, full-time), requested
vacation days, and desired work days (weekdays, weekends).
Staffing level projections
Establishing your call center's staffing requirements is based on
workload forecast and service level objectives, as illustrated in Figure
2.
Figure 2 - Information necessary to determine
staffing level projections
The following items are important considerations when
staffing your center:
- Hours of operation.
Extended hours impact staffing levels and team structure.
If you are a 24x7 call center you may have significant staff
level variations at different times of the day.
- The mix of full-timers,
part-timers, permanent and seasonal employees.
More part-timers and seasonals will give you a greater ability
to vary the schedules in line with volume fluctuations.
However, you will have more training to deliver and your
recruitment costs will increase.
- Volume fluctuations.
Your center will have average periods, quiet periods and peak
periods. Build in the flexibility and capacity to handle
all of these without wasting resources.
- The support staff.
Staffing levels will impact the need for team
leaders/supervisors, business analysts, managers, technology
experts, and trainers.
- Your occupancy and service level
targets.
These performance metrics will influence tradeoffs
of staffing levels.
- Specific CSR skillsets.
Your staff levels need to match for each skill set throughout
the day.
- Multimedia contacts and blending.
Staffing needs will vary for different media and blending
contacts can add efficiency.
Follow these steps to determine staffing level projections:
- Gather the forecasted contact
volumes and types you developed for your call center
(see Module 1 of this
tutorial series for more information).
- Gather the service level objectives
you developed for your call center (see
Module 1 of this tutorial
series for more information).
- Develop a "typical week" table
by distributing the volumes and contact types across the days of
the week and the hours or half-hours of the day. Figure 3
shows a version of this table for one-half day in a multi-media
contact center. You will need to complete a table that
includes the volume and contact type forecast for each day of
the week.
| Time of day |
Phone |
Email |
Web chat |
Fax |
Postal mail |
| 8:00 AM |
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| 8:30 AM |
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| 9:00 AM |
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| 9:30 AM |
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| 10:00 AM |
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| 10:30 AM |
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| 11:00 AM |
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| 11:30 AM |
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| 12:00 PM |
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Figure 3 - Example of workload forecast table
for
one-half day in multi-media contact center
- Calculate the base staffing
requirements using Erlang tools or other workforce
management applications. Base staffing will tell you how
many active agents are required in each time interval.
Erlang tools are incorporated into most workforce management
systems. If you are not currently using a WFM system or if
you are not familiar with Erlang tools, you can use
free
workforce management calculators online.
- Add in rostered staff factors.
Rostering boosts the necessary staff level to account for
"unproductive" or "non-contact" time, such as breaks, lunch,
training, vacation, sick time and utilization factor (the
percentage of time agents are taking calls while logged into the
ACD).
- Create a variety of model or "dummy" schedules and
run simulation models to
test the impact on service level and occupancy. Produce an
aggressive model, a conservative approach and a mid-point model.
- Based on these test results, select
the optimum model for your call center. You can
now begin to actually translate staffing level projections into
agent schedules. Don't forget to refer to each agent's
personnel profile when formulating the schedule.
Workforce Management Systems
Creating work schedules manually is a very time-consuming and
sometimes very frustrating duty. Due to the complexity of the
scheduling process, one small change in workload forecast or agent
preferences can result in several hours of adjustment to achieve the
right combination again. Workforce management systems (WFM
systems) automate the process of creating work schedules. Using a
WFM system in your call center has some key benefits, including the
following:
- Ensures the right number of resources are scheduled to match
projected workload, thereby optimizing cost and service level
- Allows for greater flexibility with changes, large or small,
that may occur in your call center or among your call center
agents
- Reduces labor costs to create and administer employee work
schedules
- Improves accuracy in forecasting for budgeting purposes
- Enables more creative scheduling options (e.g. part-time,
split shifts, 4 day weeks)
There are several types of tools for calculating staff work schedules
with varying levels of sophistication:
- Spreadsheets or simple call center calculators
- Basic workforce management systems
- Fully integrated, skills-based, multimedia workforce
management systems
You will need to determine the level of automation your contact
center requires for its scheduling and forecasting processes (e.g. large
center, multimedia handling, skills routing, multiple work shifts, etc.) |
