{"id":1732,"date":"2015-06-30T11:03:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T11:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/uncategorized"},"modified":"2015-06-30T11:03:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T11:03:00","slug":"manage-your-staff-manage-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/manage-your-staff-manage-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Manage Your Staff, Manage Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 30, 2015<\/p>\n

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With contact centers everywhere looking for any competitive advantage they can find, it\u2019s no surprise that workforce management software is coming under closer scrutiny. And according to a recent blog post, the software is really coming into its own\u2014and for good reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe implementation of a Workforce Management (WFM) program within a call center can be defined as achieving and maintaining operational efficiency,\u201d wrote Gerald Sinclair, WFO Practice Manager at Uptivity, an inContact company. \u201cThis is achieved by ensuring that the right agents with the right skill sets are scheduled at the right time. Doing so can lead to lower operational costs, reduced churn, and a better customer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

As such, Sinclair offers some valuable insights that others can learn from. \u201cWFM has four key components,\u201d he notes. \u201cForecasting customer interaction volume; using the forecasted data to create optimized agent schedules; assigning agents to schedules; and analytics-driven performance management on an ongoing basis.\u201d He then breaks down and analyzes each component:<\/p>\n

Forecasting: \u201c<\/strong>\u201dForecasting is part history, part science, and part insight,\u201c Sinclair says. \u201dThe principal component enables the contact center to predict future workload based on historical data sets. The more historical data collected, the more accurate the picture of trends, analysis, and patterns.\"<\/p>\n

Scheduling:<\/strong> A WFM solution or scheduler that uses a spreadsheet will determine which shifts, hours, etc., need to be covered based on the forecast. \u201cWhen thinking about scheduling, average handle time should also be taken into account,\u201d Sinclair notes. \u201cAverage handle time (AHT) is calculated differently across many contact centers, especially across various channels. Traditionally, AHT consists of average talk time and after-call work. By taking this into account, you can then determine how many resources will be needed to handle the volume at the target service level and ASA goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assigning Agents:<\/strong> Shift bidding is a process that can simplify this task by taking into account agent performance, call-handling ability, tenure, and availability to assign agents a specific schedule, but \u201cthere are many WFM solutions that will also automate this process,\u201d Sinclair says in his blog. \u201cShift bidding can sometimes cause agents to feel uneasy, so complement it with shift trading, flexible time off, and work-from-home opportunities,\u201d he recommends.<\/p>\n

Analytics-Driven Performance Management:<\/strong> \u201cThis step involves reporting daily metrics such as ASA, phone-to-staff ratio\/utilization, staff-to-work ratio, adherence, and many others that contact centers track. This data can help ensure more time away from the phone is available for unscheduled activities such as recurring training, coaching, and team huddles,\u201d he notes. Furthermore, it can be used to determine whether demand exceeds the allocated schedule and to decide when to request overtime. This data is collected, reported, and incorporated into future forecasting or used to inform forecasting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWFM is \u201dnot an easy practice and can be one of the most complex components of all Workforce Optimization (WFO) solutions,' Sinclair concludes. But implementing it and learning to use it properly can yield significant benefits over time.\".<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 30, 2015 With contact centers everywhere looking for every edge they can get, it’s no surprise that workforce management software is undergoing closer scrutiny. And according to a recent blog post, the software is coming into its own, and with good reason. “The application of a Workforce Management (WFM) program within a call center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contact-center-outsourcing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudbposervices.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}