Work Force Management

THE PURPOSE OF THIS MODULE IS TO

PROVIDE AN UNDERSTANDING OF
WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT (WFM)

WFM Overview 1
 2

At the end of this session you

should be able to describe:

 What is WFM
Module Objectives:
 Importance of WFM
 Core functions of WFM
 Understand WFM process
 Basic Metrics and their Calculations

WFM Overview
 Workforce management is the art and3 science
of having the right number of agents, at the
right times, to answer an accurately

WFM Overview
forecasted volume of incoming calls at the
service level standard set by the call center.

Workforce management is essentially a

What is Work Force tradeoff between costs and service.
Management - WFM ?
The objective is to balance the need to provide
top-quality service with the need to keep
staffing costs under control, which directly
affects the service provided to customers or
the bottom line of the operation. From
efficiency in operations, to effectiveness in
dealing with customer interactions:
  Placing WFM technology at the center of the
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contact center ensures that the organization
efficiently and effectively meets operational
goals on a consistent basis.

WFM Overview
 WFM provides additional value in the way it
handles the core functionality of forecasting,
scheduling, intraday management and
reporting.
Importance of WFM
 WFM is central to the day-to-day, month-to-
month and year-to-year running of the contact
center
 WFM plays an important role as both, a source
of information and an enabler of contact
center strategy

Now that you appreciate the importance of effective

workforce management, take a look at the four basic
functions in the process.
 5
Functions of WFM

WFM Overview
The four core functions of WFM:

Intraday
Reporting &
Forecasting Scheduling Managemen
Analysis
t
 The WFM Process 6

Interactions with the

WFM Overview
wider business
Strategic Pro-active

Analytical process

Lots of people contact

What-if scenarios

Pragmatic approach
Number-crunching

Contact-centre centric

Re-active Tactical
Real-time decisions
 You can’t influence the future. Or can you?
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For workforce planning to be successful, you

WFM Overview
must be able to accurately predict your short,
medium and long-term staffing requirements.
To be able to have the right number of
employees in the right place at the right time,
figure
Forecasting
the first thing you need to out is what that
right number is?

Tools like IEX accurately forecast not only how

your business activities will develop in the
short, medium and long term, but also how
these developments will affect your staffing
requirements. This means you can effectively
influence the future of your company.
 Staff scheduling can be more of a science than
an art. 8

WFM Overview
Automation, optimization and employee
integration. These are the key ingredients of
ideal staff scheduling.

The central objective of staff scheduling is to

Scheduling
create schedules which ensure that you
consistently have exactly the right number of
people with the right skills in place in order to
achieve business objectives - never too many,
never too few. At the same time, you must
observe all relevant legislation, local
agreements and the contracts of individual
employees. Other factors such as Shrinkage,
Vacation, training etc. must also be taken into
consideration. Only by taking into account all
these factors can you create efficient, workable
 Helping you to stay in control.
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The faster you detect any deviation between
your plan and the actual situation, the more
effectively you can react.

WFM Overview
The Real Time team (Response) analyzes every
deviation between your plan and the actual
situation. It can also determine whether your
requirement forecasts were accurate and
Intraday whether everything is going according to plan.
Management What’s more, comprehensive reports based on
your business needs help you to compare
targets with actual data — and that’s what the
team will provide you from different feeds
available.
This team can respond more quickly to
changes, and you can adapt the plan to keep
schedules as efficient as possible.
Based on the real time shrinkage/absenteeism
etc, real time team shares the Over Time
requirement with operations team in order to
 Schedules and forecasts are extremely
valuable: tracking and analyzing1
contact
center performance against plan ensures
this value.
0

WFM Overview
A WFM system that provides historical
information about where the plan might
have gone wrong is a good learning tool.
Reporting & But a WFM system that reports in near
real-time allows the problem to be
Analysis tackled as it occurs.

This task is managed by MIS team in

CVG.
 Forecasting :
1
Gathering Historical and business data in order to predict future call
patterns.
1

WFM Overview
 Scheduling :
Calculating the number of people required to handle incoming &
outgoing calls and distributing exact work hours to the staff members.

 Intraday Management :
Managing real time services to the best with available resources.

 Reporting and Analysis :

Tracking and Analyzing contact center performance.
 Metrics and Calculation
1
In all professions, it is necessary to have the means to 2
measure
performance. This includes our individual achievements as well as team,

WFM Overview
program, client and company goals.

There are client contractual obligations that set out our responsibility to our
client’s vision as well as corporate, program and individual goals. The metrics
and measures used in our contact centers provide the foundation. for
measuring our success.
 Metrics and Calculation
1
At the conclusion of this module, you will have an understanding of 3
the
following metrics used in our contact centers:

WFM Overview
1. After Call Work (Percentage)
2. After Call Work (Average Time)
3. Average Talk Time
4. Average Handle Time
5. Agent Productivity
6. Occupancy
7. Schedule Adherence
8. Service Level
 After Call Work percentage :
Measures the percentage of time the agent spends in
After Call Work following a call.
1
4

WFM Overview
Calculation : (Time spent on After Call Work/Total
Logged Hours) x 100

Example:
An agent takes a customer call that lasts 4 minutes
After Call Work (including hold). As the call wraps up, the agent
realizes to complete a manual form to fulfill the
customer’s request. The agent changes the mode on
their phone to “After Call”, the customer disconnects,
and the agent completes the required form. If the
agent spends 2 minutes in After Call Work, this would
create a total Handle Time of 6 minutes for the call.

After Call Work % = 2 Minutes (After Call Work)/6

Minutes (Total Handle Time) = 33%
 1
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Average After Call Work :

WFM Overview
Average After Call Work Time measures the actual
average time an agent spends in After Call Work following
the call.

After Call Work Calculation : (Time spent on After Call Work/Total

Inbound Calls)

Example:
An agent takes 50 calls during his shift and had total Call Work of
160 minutes

Average After Call Work = 160 Minutes (Total Call Work)/50 Calls
(Total Calls Handled) = 3.2minutes
 Average Talk Time : 1
Measures only the actual time spent 6
by agents
talking to customers on Inbound Calls. Average

WFM Overview
Talk time does not include hold time.

Calculation : Total Talk Time/Total Inbound

calls
Average Talk Time
Example:
An agent spends 15000 Seconds talking to the
customers and has handled 60 Calls during the
day, please calculate the Average Talk Time?

Average Talk Time = 15000 (Total Talk Time)/60

(Total Inbound Calls) = 250 Seconds
 Average Handle Time :
1
Measures the length of time it takes for an agent to handle a
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call. This includes Talk Time, After Calls Work, Hold Time and
Aux Time used while transferring calls.

WFM Overview
Calculation :
 (Total Talk Time + Total Hold Time + Total Call
Work)/Total Inbound Calls
Average Handle Time
(AHT)
 Average Talk Time + Average Hold Time +
Average Call Work

Example:
An agent handled 100 calls during the day with Total Handle
Time of 22510 Seconds, calculate the AHT?

Average Handle Time = 22510 Seconds (Total Handle

Time)/100 Calls (Total Calls Handled) = 225 Seconds
 Agent Productivity :
1
This measure compares the time the agent spends
taking calls or doing offline production work to the
payroll hours.
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WFM Overview
Calculation : Total Logged Hours
Delivered/Scheduled Logged Hours
Example:
Agent Productivity Jon has delivered 3 Hours of login with completion of
his training however his Scheduled Activity was as
below , calculate his Productivity for the day :
Shift Start Time : 8:00 AM
Break 1 : 9:30 AM
Lunch : 11:30 AM
Training Start : 1:00 PM
Training End : 5:00 PM
Shift End : 5:00 PM
Jon’s Productivity = 3 Hours (Logged Hours Delivered)
+ 4 Hours (Productive Offline)/8.25 Hours (Scheduled
Hours after removing Break/Lunch) = 84.85%
 Occupancy:
The Occupancy measure is calculated by taking the total 1
amount of agent productive time (Time Spent talking with 9
customer, on hold, call wrap-up) and dividing this number by

WFM Overview
the total time logged in and ready to take a call.
Calculation :
 Program Level : Agents engaged in serving customers/Total
Agents Logged in during an Interval
Occupancy  Agent Level : Total Occupied Time/Total Logged Hours
Delivered

Example:
Program Level : If in a given Interval we have 100 agents staffed and
75 of them are actively engaged in serving customers : Program
occupancy would be 75/100 = 75%
Agent Level : If in a given interval a staffed agent handles call for 12
minutes and the remaining 3 minutes were spent waiting for a call :
Agent occupancy would be 12/15 = 80%
 Schedule Adherence
2
Schedule Adherence is a comparison, minute by minute, of
0
each agent’s scheduled versus actual activities. An agent
may have worked the appropriate number of hours, yet

WFM Overview
have very low adherence, if they do not perform their
scheduled activities when they are scheduled to do them.
Calculation : Actual Adhered Time/Possible
Adherence Time
Schedule Adherence Example:
Jon is scheduled to start work at 9 AM for 8 hour
shift. He arrives 40 minutes late. He shortens his
lunch by 20 minutes to make up for some of his lost
time. However, he leaves 30 minutes early at the end
of his shift. Calculate Schedule Adherence for Jon?
Jon was out of Adherence for 90 minutes out of total
480 minutes he was scheduled.

Jon’s Scheduled Adherence = 390 Minutes

(Scheduled Adherence)/ 480 Minutes (Possible
Adherence Time) = 81.25% Schedule Adherence
 Service Level

Service Level: 2
The Service Level Measure is calculated by the percentage of incoming calls1that are
answered within a specified threshold. For example service level target for a program is

WFM Overview
90/30, this means 90% of the offered volume has to be answered in 30 Seconds.

Calculation : Calls Answered in specified Threshold/Total Calls Offered

10 45 50 16

30 18
20

15 25 32

In above situation considering 20 Seconds as threshold, 5 calls were answered within

threshold duration
Service Level = 5 Calls (Calls Answered in threshold duration)/10 (Total Calls Offered) = 50%
 Service Level will be 2
Impacted due to below 2

WFM Overview
factors :

Impact on Service  Short Staffing

Level
 High AHT
 High call volume
 Short Staffing :
50 Agents were required to handle 250 2 calls with
200 Seconds AHT, however on real time36 agents
were absent and 5 on Transport delay. This impacts

WFM Overview
the required staffing for the interval to handle the
required volume and hence will impact the Service
Level.
High AHT :
Impact on Service 50 agents were required to handle 250 calls with
Level 200 Seconds AHT, however on real time AHT is
running high by 15 Seconds. This would lead to
calls in queue and will impact the Service Level.
High call volume:
50 agents were required to handle 250 calls with
200 Seconds AHT, however on real time more than
250 calls are offered. This would lead to calls in
queue and will impact the Service Level.
 Short Staffing can be caused due to below reasons :
 High Absenteeism 2
 Transport Delays 4

WFM Overview
 Ad-hoc Supports pulled out of schedules
 High Production Loss cases (sick in shift, ID issues,
Impact on etc.)
Service Level High AHT can be caused due to below reasons :
 Nesting/Less tenured Agents on floor
 New Call Types
 Faults
High call volume can be due to below reasons:
 Faults
 Incorrect Routing
 New call types/driver
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WFM Overview
Questions
Please…..??
 WFM Overview
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