Call Center Management Featured Article
January 25, 2010
How Workforce Management Improves Schedule Adherence in the Call Center
Back in the “early days” of call centers -- say, during the early to mid 1980s -- most call center managers did a really sloppy job of tracking schedule adherence, if they even bothered tracking it at all.
In those days, balancing agent resources with call volume was typically based on a “best guess,” or was non-existent. Companies would schedule basically the same number of agents for every shift, regardless of predicted call volume -- and many of them simply accepted the notion that the call center was a “cost center” -- a department that had to be fully staffed at all times in the event an unexpected spike in calls suddenly materialized.
Back then, companies accepted the fact that there would be days when agents would be sitting around idly, doing nothing, waiting for calls to come in -- and days when call volume would increase to the point where call hold times would become excruciatingly long, resulting in customer frustration -- and defections. They also accepted the fact that some agents would always show up late and be lazy on the job.
Fast forward to 2010 and man have things changed. Now that companies have cut their call center staffing to the bone, due to the global recession, they are desperate to get every bit of performance out their agents as possible. In addition companies today are more focused than ever on the customer experience – and customer loyalty – which means customer service levels must be maintained at all times.
As such, call center managers are expected to ensure that every minute of each agent’s time is being used efficiently. Not only must they ensure that agents aren’t showing up late for their shifts, taking excessively long breaks or clocking out early, they must also ensure that they are working practically every minute while they are on the clock – including ensuring that they are engaging in “intra-day” activities, such as training sessions, in a timely fashion.
Traditionally, call center managers have tracked schedule adherence using a combination of spreadsheets and time clocks. While the time clock continues to play the same basic role in the call center, spreadsheets are now being replaced with workforce management systems – advanced software systems that are used to forecast call volume and schedule agents accordingly.
The main advantage today’s workforce management systems have over spreadsheets is that they enable call center managers to more accurately track and control schedule adherence. Although schedule adherence is less of an issue in smaller centers, once you get up over 30 agents it can get pretty challenging, and time consuming, to track it on a daily basis. In larger call centers it can be very challenging for managers to track the comings and goings of all the agents using manual systems. Whereas with a workforce management system they can track schedule adherence by the individual, group or the entire center, down to the minute and in real time, with quick and easy “views” giving them key adherence stats.
With a workforce management system, a call center manager can easily see how many agents were out of adherence for any particular shift, and take corrective action. They can also get a better handle on “shrinkage,” which is the total amount of time agents are on the clock but not on the phones (or handling other duties). What’s more, with today’s Web-based WFM systems they can track adherence across multiple, geographically-dispersed centers.
In those days, balancing agent resources with call volume was typically based on a “best guess,” or was non-existent. Companies would schedule basically the same number of agents for every shift, regardless of predicted call volume -- and many of them simply accepted the notion that the call center was a “cost center” -- a department that had to be fully staffed at all times in the event an unexpected spike in calls suddenly materialized.
Back then, companies accepted the fact that there would be days when agents would be sitting around idly, doing nothing, waiting for calls to come in -- and days when call volume would increase to the point where call hold times would become excruciatingly long, resulting in customer frustration -- and defections. They also accepted the fact that some agents would always show up late and be lazy on the job.
Fast forward to 2010 and man have things changed. Now that companies have cut their call center staffing to the bone, due to the global recession, they are desperate to get every bit of performance out their agents as possible. In addition companies today are more focused than ever on the customer experience – and customer loyalty – which means customer service levels must be maintained at all times.
As such, call center managers are expected to ensure that every minute of each agent’s time is being used efficiently. Not only must they ensure that agents aren’t showing up late for their shifts, taking excessively long breaks or clocking out early, they must also ensure that they are working practically every minute while they are on the clock – including ensuring that they are engaging in “intra-day” activities, such as training sessions, in a timely fashion.
Traditionally, call center managers have tracked schedule adherence using a combination of spreadsheets and time clocks. While the time clock continues to play the same basic role in the call center, spreadsheets are now being replaced with workforce management systems – advanced software systems that are used to forecast call volume and schedule agents accordingly.
The main advantage today’s workforce management systems have over spreadsheets is that they enable call center managers to more accurately track and control schedule adherence. Although schedule adherence is less of an issue in smaller centers, once you get up over 30 agents it can get pretty challenging, and time consuming, to track it on a daily basis. In larger call centers it can be very challenging for managers to track the comings and goings of all the agents using manual systems. Whereas with a workforce management system they can track schedule adherence by the individual, group or the entire center, down to the minute and in real time, with quick and easy “views” giving them key adherence stats.
With a workforce management system, a call center manager can easily see how many agents were out of adherence for any particular shift, and take corrective action. They can also get a better handle on “shrinkage,” which is the total amount of time agents are on the clock but not on the phones (or handling other duties). What’s more, with today’s Web-based WFM systems they can track adherence across multiple, geographically-dispersed centers.
Most workforce management systems are integrated with the call center ACD or automated call distributor. Not only does this facilitate accurate forecasting of call volume (based on historical call volume data captured through the ACD) – it also helps improve schedule adherence by tracking when agents “log on” to the system.
Tracking ACD log on time is important for one major reason: It ensures that agents are getting to their phones and starting to take calls in a timely manner, after they clock in. This is important for ensuring service levels: There is a critical period in every call center when the shift changes over – while some agents are leaving their workstations and others are arriving – where service levels become vulnerable to short-term resource shortages.
Without any tracking or enforcement, during any given shift change, it’s possible that upwards of half the agents in a facility won’t be available to take calls. This can result in increased hold times, which the arriving agents must “work down” over a period of time after the shift begins. How long this period lasts can vary, but the main point is, it is something below the expected service level.
The other important advantage WFM systems have over spreadsheets is their reporting capabilities: With today’s WFM systems, call center managers can quickly and easily generate detailed reports showing statistics such as schedule adherence or shrinkage which upper level managers can use to drive business decisions. Whereas with spreadsheets, clock time and ACD reports need to be run separately and one imported into the other in order for schedule adherence issues to be quickly and effectively identified and resolved.
As such, the amount of time saved in tracking schedule adherence and creating detailed reports on behalf of the call center manager is a major contributor to the return on investment a WFM system can deliver.
Monet Software is a leading provider of Web-based workforce management solutions for the call center. The company’s WFM solution, Monet WFM Live, automates key tasks that have an immediate impact on the bottom line through more accurate call volume forecasting, optimum scheduling and daily performance tracking. To learn more about Monet WFM Live, click here.
Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard