Creating a Workforce Management Strategic Plan

By Maggie Klenke

Elements of a Strategic Plan

Preparing a strategic plan for the contact center can be a daunting task at first, but once it is done and approved by senior management, subsequent updates will be easier. While each element of the plan needs to link back to the enterprise plan, the contact center has its own role to play and can do it better if the directions are clear. The same is true of the WFM department within the center.

7 Elements of a Strategic Plan

1. Mission and Vision Statements
2. Internal Environment Analysis
3. External Environment Analysis
4. Assumptions
5. Objectives
6. Strategies
7. Tactics and Goals

There are seven key elements to a strategic plan, and each is defined and explored below.

1. Mission and Vision Statements – The mission statement defines why the contact center exists and how it will conduct itself in its relationship with its stakeholders (customers, agents, management, and possibly other departments). It defines what products or services will be offered and which customer needs will be met (and perhaps what will not be done if there might be any confusion). The vision statement creates the image of the end result the center is focused on achieving; essentially “where do we want to be 10 years from now.” These statements will set the basis for the customer contact strategy including such things as hours of operation, use of automation or self-service options, outsourcing, etc. Statements about how customer information will be used (and protected), personnel and staffing strategies, and utilization of technology may also be included. These mission and vision statements are typically each confined to two to three rather long sentences or a series of bullet points. See examples below:
   • Enterprise plan – Maintain position as the low-cost provider of service in the product sector. Call center plan – Maximize the technologies and offerings for self-service options to minimize cost of support. WFM plan – Utilize a variety of shift lengths and configurations to ensure the best possible match between interval demand and staffing.
   • Enterprise plan – Provide unique and valuable products and services that meet the specific desires of each customer. Call center plan – Identify unique product requirements through customer conversations and communicate them to product development for customization efforts. WFM plan – Utilize an effective staffing plan with sufficient resources to ensure time for documentation for product development input.
   • Enterprise plan – Provide superior service that maximizes customer retention and recommendations. Call center plan – Implement customer contact strategy that maximizes availability and quality of customer interactions with emphasis on first contact resolution. WFM plan – Maximize utilization of skill-based routing plan to ensure required coverage of all skills during all intervals.
2. Internal Environment Analysis – The internal analysis is designed to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the company and the center. It might explore such things as workload, service metrics, sales results, quality control measures, agent satisfaction, and data supplied to other departments such as marketing and product development. Staff turnover and its root causes might be explored, or challenges of the center serving as an employee feeder to the rest of the organization resulting in high turnover. This is a good opportunity to gather thoughts from representatives of all levels and job roles in the center as well as from other departments such as HR, IT, Marketing, Product Development, etc. The WFM team may suffer from staff shortages or lack of training on its tools while having excellent reporting functions, for example.
3. External Environment Analysis – When looking outside the organization, the analysis is seeking to identify threats and opportunities. These include the competitive marketplace, regulatory issues, competition for staff in the area, overall impact of the economy, supplier stability, etc. Identify those things that represent a potential threat to the center and the company but don’t ignore those things that may be an opportunity. Look for ways the center can impact the competitive position of the company through differentiated service or more sales. Review the vendors and determine which may be candidates for replacement and which may have product capabilities that have not been fully exploited. The WFM team may be threatened by new centers coming into the area recruiting away their experienced staff, for example. When combined with the internal environment analysis, this part of the plan is often called the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).
4. Assumptions – When the SWOT analysis is completed, there may be some assumptions that need to be made to set the foundation for the rest of the plan. It is best to document any assumptions so that they can be validated with senior management and to remove any risk of confusion. These assumptions might include growth rates, opening of new offices, etc. This is a good time to review the beginnings of the plan with the senior management team or mentor. Validating the mission and vision and its alignment with the company goals, and the conclusions of the SWOT analysis will set the foundation for the rest of the plan on a firm footing. If there are company plans that have not been shared with you previously, this may give the senior managers a nudge to let you in on the plans or at least to tell you that one of your assumptions is not valid. Better to know now than after all the rest of the plan has been completed.
5. Objectives – This step begins the actual plan for the future. The objectives are the long-term goals that may take three to five years to achieve. They tend to be broad and long range, but they are the ends that are sought, not the process by which they will be achieved. These should connect back to the SWOT analysis so that an objective can be seen to shore up a weakness or capitalize on an opportunity. Perhaps you would like to work on lowering your turnover rate by some percentage or increase customer utilization of self-service options to some percentage of total transactions. These are typically things that are not achievable in one year but may be possible in several. The WFM team may want to define objectives over the next two to three years to increase the number of staff on flexible schedules.
6. Strategies – This is where the “how” is defined. You know there is a goal to achieve but how are you going to get there? The strategies might include such things as standardization of processes, implementation of technologies, upgrading supervisory training, etc. There could be multiple steps that will be addressed over the next few years. For example, a strategy could be to do a feasibility study to determine what needs to be done to achieve the objective. The next step might be to select a vendor and then to implement the chosen solution. The important distinction here is that the strategies are not an end in themselves, but the means by which the objectives will be achieved. For example, the WFM team can analyze a variety of scenarios to identify the most effective scheduling options to be offered to new hires.
7. Tactics and Goals – You are finally ready to tackle the plan for the next budget cycle. In this section of the plan, you define what will be done in the next year to 18 months to put the strategies into action. Each one should be specific, measurable, achievable, and have a clear timetable for completion. It may also be appropriate to define the impact on the objectives of not doing it. Include every reasonable plan and project since any that aren’t here are not likely to make it through the budget cycle. However, it is prudent to not over-commit since achievement of the results could affect credibility and career opportunities.

Now review the entire plan and make sure that each element links back to the one before it. Each goal links to a strategy and each strategy helps to achieve an objective, and all will move the center closer to the long-term vision. Sometimes a graphic can be helpful in seeing these connections. You are now ready to present the final plan to senior management for approval. It is best to do this prior to any budget discussions so that it is given the appropriate level of attention. Then when the budget process begins, you know exactly what to put in it and there will be no surprises for senior management.

Summary

When reviewing the metrics and measures utilized in the center, comparing them to the strategic plan goals and objectives may reveal some mismatch. If a measure does not support movement toward a stated objective or the enterprise mission, consider replacing it with one that does. Some measures are provided by systems automatically but that does not make them useful to your center. Others are critical to achievement of the goals but are very difficult to measure. Comparison to other centers is generally not very informative and may lead you to conclusions that are not in alignment with your organization and its mission.

Ensure that what you measure helps you to achieve your plans. And make sure that every metric can be tied to an action plan to improve results or reward excellence. Focus on constituent priorities and analyze trade-offs to present that will help management to make good decisions.

Maggie Klenke co-founded The Call Center School and has written numerous books and articles related to call center and workforce management. A semi-retired industry consultant, Maggie provides training programs and serves as an Educational Advisor for SWPP. She may be reached at Maggie.klenke@mindspring.com.