September 6

It’s like riding a bike …

In our on-boarding process for seasonal employees and new hires, we have a workforce training. This training includes the usual “Power of One” info but also talks about workforce optimization — why we schedule the way we schedule to get the right person, in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills.

We draw the analogy of an engineer designing a bicycle. The wheel of the bike is what transfers the weight to the ground to create friction so that it can move forward. In much the same way, contact centers are like bicycles. They carry the weight of sales, customer service, and issue resolution for a company to move it forward.

In the same way an engineer designs a bicycle to carry a specific weight, so does a WFM team design a contact center staffing model. To gauge weight, we use AHT and volume. Skills tell us what material we need to use for each spoke. Much like a child’s bike has 40-50 aluminum spokes and an adult off road bike has 150+ titanium spokes, a contact center has a specific number of agents or “spokes” in the right place to with the right skills to handle the weight of contacts. A well designed wheel can afford a broken or missing spoke, so absences can be absorbed but when the spokes aren’t in place, the wheel is compromised. No one wants to ride that bike … or work in that contact center.

The wheel analogy leads us into how we know the power of one, and where we need that power.

Note: This week’s tip submitted by SWPP Member Marshall Lee of SHPS, Inc. He can be reached at marshall.lee@shps.com.

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