Every company is constantly looking to improve its efficiency to stay on top of global competition and the external business factors that impact an organization's activities in a big way. Many strategies have been formulated in the past to improve efficiency, but the dynamic nature of businesses entails constant innovation. One of the more recent trends is to use workforce optimization (WFO) as a tool to improve the efficiency of a company's operations.
WFO is a strategy that uses technology to empower call center employees to boost their performance. Specifically, it is a suite of software programs that bring together call recording, quality management, liability recording, speech analytics, performance management and workforce management on a single platform to make it easy for employees to oversee all these activities from a single panel. It provides greater transparency about the performance of employees, and helps managers to better plan future trainings. It also brings together different reports on functions that happen across the enterprise to give managers a complete picture of the company's performance.
A salient aspect of WFO is that it uses real-time information, which means, all the reports and data tend to be up-to-date. In turn, this data can help managers to get the most actionable insight out of it, according to James King of contact-centers.com. It also facilitates real-tie customer survey tools, which when used properly, improves customer satisfaction, motivates employees, reduces operating expenses and increases the rate of employee retention.
Due to these advantages, WFO is currently experiencing significant growth and is expected to continue over the next few years. One of the drivers for this growth is the many mergers and acquisitions that are taking place across industries to consolidate operations. To cater to this growing WFO market, many small and big vendors are creating customized products that will meet the needs of different companies.
Edited by Alisen Downey