Workforce Management Featured Article
Getting the Most Out of Your Workforce Management Investment
Making the most of an investment is good advice regardless of the industry in which you compete. We often examine where money is spent from the standpoint of the return, yet how do you measure the return when it’s tied to your workforce? The answer may be found in getting back to the basics in workforce management, understanding why you made the investment in the first place.
A recent Monet Software blog examined the same concept, pointing out that a number of contact center managers and agents discover their workforce management blog for the first time. If they’re too far along in the discussion of more complex operations of their platforms when the blog is discovered, new visitors may miss out on valuable information. As such, they like to examine the basic guidelines on how customers can get the most value out of their workforce management implementations.
Using Monet Software’s Workforce Live solution, for instance, is a great way to keep high attrition rates at bay and still remain current in the operations of the center and the management of your greatest asset. To ensure you extract the most value out of the platform, make ongoing training part of your DNA so as to avoid knowledge erosion. At the same time, it’s a good idea to refine the data gathering process so as to ensure the accuracy of the numbers you’re working with on a daily basis.
While shrinkage is never a fun topic, you have to monitor it regularly and balance it correctly in your forecasts. Likewise, it’s important to set adherence targets that are realistic, while also applying real-time calculations or achieving them. Ensure your intra-day forecasting is consistent and don’t forget mid-range and long-term calculations for future planning, even as daily forecasts remain the top priority.
Agents can easily input schedule and vacation requests directly into the system, eliminating the need to optimize a supervisor’s time to do so. To ease the responsibility put on call center management, it’s always a good idea to allow the system to manage holiday and shift swaps. It not only eliminates human error, it also allows managers to spend their time focused on other tasks. This is where it’s important to keep in mind that the benefit you realize from the platform is completely dependent upon how it’s used.
If you stick to the basics and apply fair policies across the board, you’re bound to see more success with your workforce management platform. As a result, you’ll see optimal performance throughout the center and better outcomes overall.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi