Posted On: 3-24-2014
Position Title: Senior Manager, Forecasting & Planning
Company: Cox Communications
Job Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Requisition Number: 46654

Interested candidates must go to cox.com to apply for this opportunity; search by title or requisition number.

                          

Role Summary

The Senior Manager of Forecasting & Planning leads a team of analysts responsible for national planning for a specific line of business.  This position will support either Customer Care or Sales/Retention. This role has significant responsibilities impacting revenue, OPEX and customer satisfaction (NPS).  The scope of this position includes long range and short term workload forecasting, hire plans for 1,000-3,000 reps and budget preparation. Responsibilities include planning for internal and external resources.   This individual is accountable for attainment of key performance indicators such as Service Level, forecast accuracy and capacity plan attainment.

Primary Responsibilities and Essential Functions

Forecasting & Hire Plan Management

  • Lead analysts in maintaining a firm 6 month capacity plan, with 18 month guidance for each line of business supported
    • Analyze forecasted volume with consideration to historical trends and initiatives known to impact workload minutes or staffing
    • Coordinate with marketing and pricing team on offers and initiatives that will impact volume
    • Evaluate enterprise staffing needs and weigh against effectiveness of available capacity within enterprise and with external partner sites
    • Recommend a staffing plan for internal and external resources which maximizes capacity and performance
    • Ensure leadership team & Mission Control teams are aware of unmitigated capacity shortages that will put key performance indicators at risk
  • Finalize and communicate 6 month capacity plan to all regions and external partners by established monthly deadline
  • Evaluate and approve monthly contractual locks of vendor forecasts
  • Evaluate performance against the established plan on a weekly basis
  • Provide monthly outlook of upcoming months to regional and enterprise mission control teams and leaders
  • Coordinate with boundary partners, such as Recruiting & Partner Management, to drive adherence to hire plan
  • Liaison with center led functions such as product and marketing to ensure initiatives impacting contact centers are properly planned
  • Lead analysts in short term planning for each line of business supported
  • Conduct regular trend analysis
  • Maintain accurate headcount numbers and hire plan data
  • Maintain accurate historical data on enterprise performance for reporting and modeling purposes
  • Regularly publish forecast accuracy results at monthly, daily and interval level
  • Escalate any forecast variances that pose financial risk or risk to attainment of Key Performance Indicators
    • Weekly refresh of interval forecasts per established deadline
    • Lead weekly meetings to review forecasted volume and net staffing
    • Work with leadership team to implement any short term staffing contingencies to optimize staffing levels (Overtime, voluntary time off, etc)

Budgeting

  • Lead annual and quarterly budget process
  • Support modeling requests and data compilation
  • Create, maintain & upload budget inputs by established deadlines
  • Coordinate with boundary partners (Marketing, Pricing, Product, etc) on budget inputs and assumptions
  • Track budget variance weekly
  • Submit budget inputs to Capacity Planning team by established deadlines

Leadership

  • Facilitate meetings with senior management team
  • Participate in regular meetings with the leadership team
  • Present analytical data to senior management team
  • Identify & implement internal process and/or tool improvements that align with industry best practices
  • Ensure supported departments align with enterprise for WFM best practices
  • Set clear expectations for performance through establishment of goals for analysts
  • Create a high performing team through regular coaching & development of team
  • Foster an environment of strong communication through regular 1:1’s, team meetings & multi-directional feedback
  • Establish strong relationships with the locals ops teams and outsource partners through continuous dialogue and support
  • Partner closely with center analytics team and support quest for single source of truth
  • Regular and predictable attendance is required

Skills & Qualifications:

Minimum

  • 7 or more years of experience required in call center forecasting discipline
  •  5 or more years of experience required if candidate possesses a related advanced degree
    • Proven experience presenting & consulting with operational leadership required
    • Proven aptitude for decision making required
    • Proven aptitude for math and analytics required
    • Strong Microsoft Office skills (Excel, Word, Power Point) required
    • Strong relationship management skills are required

 Preferred

  • BS/BA degree in related discipline strongly desired
  • 2 or more years of experience in a management role preferred
  • Experience in telecommunications industry desired
  • Experience interacting, presenting and influencing senior leadership decisions impacting call center performance.

Other Notes:

  • Remote locations not considered; relocation required
  • Relocation assistance available