SWPP has announced Sharon Jones of National Debt Relief as the 2020 Workforce Management Professional of the Year, which recognizes a workforce management professional who has shown outstanding leadership in the industry.  The Workforce Management Professional of the Year award winner is chosen from five finalists by the Board of Advisors and was announced at the 2020 Virtual Summit for Workforce Management.

“We are continually amazed by the quality of nominees for this award, and are so thrilled to recognize Sharon as this year’s winner,” said Vicki Herrell, Executive Director of SWPP.  “Through her leadership and vision, she was able to achieve great results for her company and their customers in the workforce management arena.”

The other finalists for the 2020 Workforce Management Professional of the Year Award included Christine Kolbeson of Rackspace, David Nietz of Telus International, Julie Reed of Pepco Holdings, and Rachel Johnson of WPS Health Solutions.

Sharon Jones is Head of Workforce Planning for National Debt Relief, one of the U.S.’s largest and most reputable debt settlement companies.  The organization operates three contact centers with 1500 agents utilizing inbound and outbound calls and emails.

The technology used by the company includes Calabrio Teleopti WFM, computer telephony integration (CTI), Twilio Reporting, Ytica CRM, and Salesforce.  The WFM team consists of 14 personnel including two forecast capacity planners, five schedulers, five real-time agents, and two managers.

At the beginning of 2019, National Debt Relief (NDR) still used antiquated methods to try to manage a growing and highly expectant customer service workforce. No measures existed to help leaders understand how effectively and efficiently its 1,500 contact center agents — spread across three states — handled more than 220,000 phone calls and 100,000 emails every month. NDR’s coveted customer satisfaction and expected future growth were at risk.

Company leaders knew they needed to roll out a robust workforce management (WFM) program at NDR. And they knew they needed a workforce planning expert with a proven track record to build it. That’s when they hired WFM veteran Sharon Jones as NDR’s first head of workforce planning.

“NDR had absolutely no WFM when I started there,” Sharon says. “My job was to create a WFM team plus technology.”

Sharon’s WFM strategy for NDR is comprised of three main components:

• A full-featured WFM technology platform with Calabrio Teleopti WFM
• A workforce planning team consisting of two forecast capacity planners, five schedulers, five real-time agents and two managers—all of whom are experienced WFM practitioners in their own right
• Deep, ongoing workforce planning training for all workforce leaders and team members, including an internship program for WFM analysts.

All in all, in less than a year, Sharon’s focused workforce planning efforts have given NDR:

• New measures and metrics to monitor the overall health of its Client Success contact center business
• New models for planning, forecasting, and reporting that develop and improve upon specific NDR use cases
• An efficient, “surgical strike” approach to scheduling that accurately predicts when and where agents will be needed at any given time
• The company’s first agent adherence process
• A pragmatic planned time-off process based upon availability and service level attainment
• Improved agent and queue efficiency via increased dialing
• The ability for agents to easily self-serve their own needs, such as when they need to trade shifts
• The ability for its Client Success contact center — the largest contact center at NDR — to maintain a service level of 80/30 with a 5% abandon rate while enabling agents to meet aggressive individual KPIs

Sharon knows workforce planning is a strategic investment. And, like any strategic investment, it needs to continually deliver value and prove its worth in order to avoid scrutiny and maintain funding. That’s why Sharon continually works to align her workforce planning efforts with corporate goals, and document and communicate her team’s successes along the way.

Sharon’s work, in fact, is so respected at NDR that the workplace planning data on which she bases her recommendations and decisions now is widely considered the voice of reason and knowledge within the company.  At NDR, the strategic value of workforce management now is truly understood.

Thanks to Sharon’s work, NDR’s contact centers are optimally staffed to handle the incoming calls; its agents are better trained, compassionate and confident; and its customers experience smoother, more effective and reassuring interactions.