Call Recording Featured Article

By its simplest definition, workforce management (WFM) is the process by which you ensure your customer service organization has the right person with the right skills in the right place and at the right time. It’s the hub of many of the vital processes that make the modern customer service operation possible, including forecasting, scheduling, preference and request handling. Getting it right usually requires precision and software, so when a WFM vendor receives top scores for its solutions, businesses should take note.

Verint (News - Alert), a provider of WFM solutions, recently earned perfect scores for customer satisfaction ratings in long-term planning capabilities and budgeting/cost management capabilities. When up against the top three vendors in this space, Verint took the reins.

“WFM solutions remain the most important productivity tools in contact centers. Increasingly, they are also being used to improve staff engagement and to enhance the customer experience,” said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting.

WFM lets you see who is working where and how well the work is progressing. With workforce management software, when you see one project is bogging down or needs extra hands for some reason, you can easily review other projects and determine which workers you can reassign to get the lagging project back on course without jeopardizing other projects. You can use it to address many logistics issues to keep your operation running smoothly and profitably.

According to Markets and Markets, WFM is expected to grow from $4,880.3M (News - Alert) in 2015 to $7,725.8M by 2020 globally. Verint’s good scores bode well in a market that shows promise.

Of course, the next generation of workforce management solutions must do more than just automate business processes such as scheduling. They must provide easy-to-use tools that enable businesses to make informed decisions and effectively guide the entire workforce lifecycle.

“Enterprise dynamics are changing as executives search for ways to improve the customer journey,” said Fluss. “Front- and back-office operating departments are starting to come together, or at least do a better job of supporting each other, which is creating the need for enterprise WFM. Additionally, the desire to better utilize the large number of back-office workers is driving interest in applying WFM to these operating departments.”

Many businesses waste valuable time and money managing their workforce manually. This prevents them from focusing on their core business and goals such as reducing labor costs, boosting productivity, increasing sales and improving customer service. Advancing technology and business process outsourcing have made WFM a universally accessible tool with promising results.