Call Center Management Made Easier through Workforce Management

Call center management could easily be argued as one of the most challenging positions within the telecommunications industry. Call center managers must be able to accurately forecast for call volume, schedule according to skills and availability of agents, and manage disputes that can arise over schedules, work load and more.


Without getting in the broad requirements of call center management, let’s instead consider the basic process of managing agent shifts. For this scenario, imagine a call center with 100 agents that operates on all three shifts. While it could be as easy as putting together a basic schedule of who works when, it usually is much more complicated.

Proper call center management in terms of scheduling requires a balancing act of tracking availability, skill sets, projected need, training, coaching, requested time off, breaks and other events that impact an agent’s availability. With so many things to juggle, that call center manager could easily spend all of his or her time working on the schedule.

To make sure call center managers can use their time more wisely and focus on contributing to the success of the call center as a whole, many organizations have implemented workforce management solutions. Such systems allow much of the scheduling process to be handled automatically and online, putting more of the power back into the hands of the agent.

For that call center that supports 100 agents, there are bound to be disputes over shifts. With an automated solution delivered through a Web portal, agents can bid on shifts, swap shifts, cancel out of shifts, and more without ever needing to get the call center manager involved. Instead, upon implementation, the call center manager establishes parameters for shifts. As long as requests fall within those parameters, they can be allowed.

When the headache of scheduling can be reduced, call center management can be instead a focus on driving performance and delivering a better customer experience. Plus, in an environment where the scheduling is managed by an automated – and unbiased – system, there is an inherent boost in morale, making everyone feel a part of a team working toward a larger goal.

Implementing a workforce management solution from a provider such as Monet Software can take much of the stress out of call center management and allow for the creation of an environment that focuses on core business processes and human resource issues. In addition, such an environment creates more camaraderie between managers and agents, eliminating much of the tension that can often be present.