{"id":356367,"date":"2020-12-07T19:25:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T03:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genesys.com\/?post_type=blog&p=356367"},"modified":"2020-12-07T19:25:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T03:25:07","slug":"3-ways-to-simplify-contact-centre-workforce-planning","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.genesys.com\/en-sg\/blog\/post\/3-ways-to-simplify-contact-centre-workforce-planning","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways to Simplify Contact Centre Workforce Planning"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Contact centres across the world have had to shift their operations in 2020, especially their workforce planning efforts. Traditional forecasting and scheduling methods worked in the past \u2014 when agents were on site. However, the new reality of remote work means forecasters, managers, supervisors and planners have the added obstacle of physical distance. They can\u2019t walk down the hall and consult with peers. Often, they find themselves overburdened with creating, adjusting and staying on top of schedules.<\/p>\n

Supporting the Workforce Planner <\/strong><\/h4>\n

A planner\u2019s job can be taxing. Not only do they have to build schedules that support service goals, but they also must take into account agents\u2019 preferences, adjust to last-minute demands or issues, and keep an eye on both longer-term scheduling needs and the day-to-day grind. In some companies, planners might handle forecasting; in others, a planner receives a forecast and makes sure there are enough agents scheduled to handle the projected volume. That\u2019s all easier said than done.<\/p>\n

Planners often have no way to know if \u2014 or when \u2014 new agents come in or leave. This can throw a wrench into planning. Likewise, they have to deal with inaccurate forecasts, too many or too few agents being scheduled, and clunky manual processes (to name a few issues) to determine if the number of agents is balanced against actual requirements.<\/p>\n

Despite all this hard work, planners\u2019 efforts can go unrecognised, leaving them feeling unappreciated or ignored. An effective and productive contact centre in the modern age can only be achieved when the workforce is truly nurtured and engaged<\/a>. That\u2019s why these team members need more help when it comes to creating, managing and evaluating schedules \u2014 and overall plans.<\/p>\n

Here are three ways to make life easier for your contact centre workforce planners.<\/p>\n

1. Leverage Planning Groups to Simplify the Planning Process <\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to creating a schedule, workforce planners often need to consider not just agent availability, but also appropriate skill sets and proficiencies. If an organisation wants to be sure it has enough agents scheduled to handle interactions in a specific language or respond through different channels, it needs to make certain the agents who can handle these types of interactions are on queue. For a planner, this creates additional variables when creating a schedule.<\/p>\n

Using Planning Groups in the Genesys CloudTM<\/sup> Workforce Engagement Management solution gives planners and forecasters the ability to logically group queues, media, languages and skillsets. This simplifies the forecasting and planning process<\/a> because planners can create forecasts for aggregated groups of data. And companies can standardise queue membership, languages and skilling across pools of agents, based on factors that are meaningful to them.<\/p>\n

2. Automatically Rotate Your Workplans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planners often become the target of agents\u2019 ire because they\u2019re in charge of creating shifts. If an agent feels his preferences or requests aren\u2019t being taken into account \u2014 or that the planner is favouring other agents \u2014 things can quickly sour toward the planner. By creating shifts that rotate on a weekly basis, planners give agents the opportunity to work all shifts \u2014 not just their desired ones. This balances the distribution of popular and unpopular work times and days.<\/p>\n

Genesys Cloud Workforce Engagement Management lets planners<\/a> create a predictable pattern and configure a rotation in their work plans on a weekly basis. For instance, if a planner wants to create a plan for six weeks, where agents rotate between two Monday through Friday day shifts and one week of Monday through Friday night shifts, she can create a \u201cDay work plan\u201d and a \u201cNight work plan.\u201d This allows the planner to set a pattern of Day-Day-Night, which the system will repeat continuously for the six-week period. Planners can also set constraints to assure things stay fair, such as a maximum of consecutive weekends scheduled, a maximum of days off per planning period, a minimum time between shifts and more.<\/p>\n

3. Understand What\u2019s Happening Behind Your Scheduling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scheduling mistakes aren\u2019t ideal, but they happen. When scheduling issues arise, it can be difficult to pinpoint the source of confusion. Allowing administrators to view changes in a workforce management schedule, and see the date that changes were made, can help teams track and evaluate the effectiveness of previous changes.<\/p>\n

Genesys Cloud Workforce Engagement Management lets users with administrator permissions quickly view schedule information, including status, start date, generation start time, completion data and more.<\/p>\n

See how the Genesys Cloud platform<\/a> can support your workforce planners.<\/p>\n

Download this research report to learn how to choose a WFM provider<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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