Keeping it Real in Real Time Reporting
October 3 – Reporting isn’t all that we do in Real Time WFM, but it is one of the most visible aspects of the job. You may be called on to design or implement a new report or dashboard in your role. It’s possible to have so many custom ones that you may have the […]
Big decisions require a longer view.
September 26 – Point in time analysis (an hour, a day, a week) is not representative and you should look long term when making important contact center decisions. Too often, big contact center decisions, like call routing, hiring, developing new channels, opening and closing centers, hiring freezes, outsourcing, etc. are decided looking at short-term performance […]
The new hybrid normal: Four ways to drive value through flexible scheduling.
September 19 – While life has by and large returned to pre-pandemic norms, remote workers are pushing against business as usual if it means a return to the office: Gallup research shows nine in 10 remote-capable employees prefer continued remote-work flexibility going forward, with six in 10 reporting they expect a hybrid work model. In response, hybrid […]
How well do you know your people?
September 12 – Great leaders know their people. How well do you know yours? Do this little exercise: Write your name at the top center of a page. Then write the names of each of your team members/employees and underneath each, write: The name of their spouse or significant other. The names of their children. […]
Interview tips to build the best WFM team.
September 5 – In recent tips, I shared that I focused on building out my WFM teams by focusing on the soft skills of curiosity, how they respond in chaos, transparency, and kindness. Here are some tips on how to identify those during an interview: Curiosity: After having a bit of small talk with the […]
What to look for when building a WFM team.
August 29 – In last week’s tip, I shared that I focused on soft skills and the collective whole when building out teams in the past. Here are the things I focused on and why: Curiosity: I focused on making sure people were comfortable being curious and asking questions. I wanted team members that would […]
Hire for the team, not the individual.
August 22 – During my career I’ve had the opportunity to hire dozens of WFM professionals and I’ve honed in a few key areas that have helped me build out amazing teams. The four keys are curiosity, how they respond in chaos, transparency, and kindness. I’m a firm believer that soft skills beat hard skills […]
Do your goals and metrics foster employee engagement?
August 1 – I once worked with a healthcare system that set up a resource center that patients could access 24/7 without the need to go to a physical facility. They incorporated the latest thinking and tools in telemedicine, and staffed the center with doctors, nurses, and physicians’ assistants (PAs). All very cool and very […]
How “Real” is your Real-Time Access Management Plan?
August 15 – In WFM, we try to do a lot of planning…for Long-term Staffing, Forecasting, setting up Schedules, and Reporting. But how much planning do we do to manage our real-time operations? Are we setting up processes for how we’ll react to significant changes in volume and resource requirements? Is our daily management of […]
Rightsize your workforce.
August 8 – Workforce management (WFM) continues to be one of the most important contact center productivity tools, even more so in times of recession. Business needs are changing, along with customer expectations, at a rapid pace during increasingly uncertain times. So how can contact center strategies shift in order to manage the workforce during […]
Do your goals and metrics foster employee engagement?
August 1 – I once worked with a healthcare system that set up a resource center that patients could access 24/7 without the need to go to a physical facility. They incorporated the latest thinking and tools in telemedicine, and staffed the center with doctors, nurses, and physicians’ assistants (PAs). All very cool and very […]
Plan for WFM shrinkage.
July 25 – Now more than ever, we know that people can call in sick and miss work. We plan for it in the contact centers with our shrinkage models, and generally have plans in place to ensure coverage in case the unexpected happens. What about your Workforce Management team? Your people can get sick […]
