Workforce Management Featured Article
Trends to Boost Workforce Management Investments
In business, we like to monitor trends to get advance notice on anything that may affect our performance, revenue, customer behavior, etc. It also helps to know whether or not trends will affect employee outcomes. If you’re already making the investment in workforce management, wouldn’t you like to know how trends could impact outcomes?
The experts at Monet Software, a company steeped in workforce management knowledge, have a lot to say about how you should manage your employees. They also know when it’s important to pay attention to trends. The company recently published a blog, listing five trends that are having an impact in the market. Let’s check out their list and why you should pay attention.
Laws change over time and in a number of industries, there isn’t a lot of impact. In the call center industry, however, changing laws often create a ripple effect. Consider increases in minimum wage and the Affordable Care Act. If the call center is large enough, implications will be felt beyond the cost of higher wages. There’s also likely to be compliance concerns and even changes in scheduling, which could affect opportunities for part time agents.
At the same time, call centers are starting to pay attention to the impact that satisfied employees has on satisfied customers. Not only are satisfied employees much more interested in providing solutions for your customers, it’s also very clear to the customer when he or she is speaking with a happy agent. To truly make an impact on the satisfaction levels of the customer base, your best bet is workforce management strategies with a focus on employee satisfaction.
To that end, any technology investments have to be in platforms and applications that are easy to use and make sense to the user. If an agent has to use technology just to use technology, it won’t be adopted or deliver the benefit you want. If they instead understand why it matters and it blends easily into the workflow, agents – who are more likely to be Gen X and millennials – will make it a part of their routine.
Finally, the experts also suggest that investments in workforce management make sense for the call center. Such applications not only provide management with the tools they need to effectively forecast activity and schedule according to agent availability, they also enable the organization to gather important business data. With the right information on hand, key business decisions are made to move the company forward.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi