Ask your associates when they are willing to work.
December 26 – Do you know what your Associates are willing to work? Find out with a survey. Survey your staff with open ended questions like: Are you willing to work a flex shift with variable hours? Would you work one weekend day if we ensured 2 days off consecutively? Would you work a split […]
2023 in the Contact Center — Opportunity for Proactivity.
December 19 – As 2023 approaches, we all know that no matter what calendar your financial team follows, your agents run on a twelve-month calendar. That is how most folks plan for Personal Time Off (PTO) and vacations. Human Resources (HR) does a great job of explaining the means by which vacation time is earned. […]
Look for new Flexible Scheduling Options.
December 12 – In the ever-moving business of contact centers, we are always looking for ways to be creative with our scheduling flexibility that not only allows Workforce Management the ability to meet customer demands, but also allows our Team Members (TMs) a good work life balance. Here are a few scheduling options we have […]
Start planning for 2023!
December 5 – What is your teams “North Star” for the upcoming year? Although most organizations don’t necessarily have all goals and objectives for the new year fully established by year end, consider starting now! Make sure you and your team have a theme for the next year. What is going to be the team’s […]
Connecting the data divide for optimized BPO partnerships.
November 28 – Increasingly complex BPO partnership models call for automated data integration and activation A 42% attrition rate* coupled with a competitive labor market and a shift to remote or hybrid work environments have spun up a perfect storm for contact center hiring leaders. It’s no wonder those leaders are increasingly turning to business process outsourcers […]
Don’t just accept Service Level (SLA) achievement as job done.
November 21 – Most companies see achievement of SLA, or over-achieving SLA as cause for celebration; if it is achieved, everything is great. If we are better than the target, we are golden. However, the job does not stop there. If you are achieving SLA, examine whether this is because you are right-staffed (good) or […]
Developing a shadowing program.
November 7 – It can be very difficult to get the buy-in from Operations when they’re trying to pull people off phones at inopportune times and they may not understand “The Power of One” as well as your Workforce team might. One good way to get their buy-in is to develop a shadowing program for […]
Developing a shadowing program.
November 7 – It can be very difficult to get the buy-in from Operations when they’re trying to pull people off phones at inopportune times and they may not understand “The Power of One” as well as your Workforce team might. One good way to get their buy-in is to develop a shadowing program for […]
Start your holiday planning now.
October 31 – The holiday season is approaching! Here are some things to think about for holiday staffing. Should you do specific shift bids for the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s? Should you change your allowable time off to only allow a certain number of people off on the week of the holiday? […]
Help agents understand the 3 C’s of schedule adherence.
October 24 – Helping agents understand how important being in the right place at the right time is critical to managing real-time activities in WFM. In working with many centers, I’ve found that one of the best ways to talk about what they can do to help adherence is by using the “3 C’s” of […]
Change your perspective on metrics.
October 17 – During the 2022 SWPP annual conference, I attended a session by Ric Kosiba of Sharpen, someone that I’ve respected and known for well over 10 years. His presentation about considerations of a new metric (ACR – Active Contact Resolution) was intriguing to me as I felt that it could help in indicating […]
Four ways artificial intelligence makes good on the hope for optimized scheduling.
October 10 – Digital channels have multiplied, work environments have gone hybrid, and the demands on contact center agents are increasingly specialized. And yet far too many contact center leaders rely on manual or outdated workforce management solutions they hope will do it all: Accurately forecast staffing, coordinate intraday scheduling, meet employees’ flexible scheduling demands, […]