Four Things to Reconsider about Workforce Management in 2011

Transcription

1 Call Centre Helper Webinar Four Things to Reconsider about Workforce Management in 2011 Presented by:

2 Speaker Profile - The Call Center School Penny Reynolds is a Founding Partner of The Call Center School where she heads up curriculum development. She develops and teaches courses on a wide variety of call center topics, including workforce management, performance measurement, and call center technologies. Penny is a popular speaker at industry conferences and association meetings and a frequent contributor to industry trade publications. Her articles appear in numerous print and online publications as both a guest contributor and regular columnist. Penny has authored four books: The Power of One, Power Phrasing, Call Center Staffing: The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management and Call Center Supervision: The Complete, Practical Guide to Managing Frontline Staff. She has also co-authored the five textbooks for University of Phoenix s call center certification program. An honors graduate of Vanderbilt University, Penny was one of the first recipients of Call Center Magazine s prestigious Call Center Pioneer award. penny.reynolds@thecallcenterschool.com

3 Speaker Profile Invision Chris Dealy is Sales Director at InVision Software Ltd., provider of InVision Enterprise WFM and iwfm.com the cloud workforce management (WFM) solution. With a background in Operational Research, Chris has over 30 years experience in optimising business processes for blue chip organisations. For the last 10 years, he has focused on Workforce Management, primarily in contact centres and call centres, across Northern Europe, for organisations including John Lewis, the RAC, the NHS, Computershare, H&M and ABN AMRO. chris.dealy@invisionwfm.com

4 Worth Reconsidering in 2011 Measuring forecasting success Increasing scheduling flexibility Setting and measuring service goals Automating WFM tasks

5 WFM Dilemma 1 How do I measure forecasting accuracy and improve it?

6 Goals for Forecast Accuracy What are your goals for forecast accuracy? Industry benchmarks Your current benchmark Key Concept Aim for your own improvement, not someone else s accuracy level.

7 Measuring Forecast Accuracy Forecast Period: Monthly Weekly Daily Half-Hourly Calculation Approaches: Percent difference Standard deviation Correlation coefficients

8 Calculating Forecast Accuracy Calculating Percentage Error Forecast Volume Actual Volume % Error Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Total 15,552 16,

9 Calculating Forecast Accuracy Calculating Percentage Error Forecast Volume Actual Volume % Error Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Total 15,552 15,

10 Calculating Forecast Accuracy Which is better? % Error % Error Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Total

11 What to Reconsider Think differently about How you measure forecast accuracy (variations, not averages) What intervals you measure (the smaller the better) Root cause analysis for variations (trend analysis versus missing business drivers) Goals for improvement (internal, not external benchmarks)

12 WFM Dilemma 2 How do I set service goals and measure performance realistically?

13 Service Measures Service level or ASA Daily Weekly Monthly The danger of averaging Other measures: First call resolution Schedule efficiency

14 Service Measurement SWPP Survey Results 60% use service level; 23% use ASA. Most common goal: 80% in 20 seconds 44% measure success by daily average; 41% measure success by monthly number. Only 12% measure success by periods of day.

15 Analysing and Reporting Service Level Time of Day Call Volume Daily % SL (in 20 sec) 6:00 7: % 100% 7:00 8: % 95% 8:00 9: % 95% 9:00 10: % 90% 10:00 11: % 65% 11:00 12: % 70% 12:00 1: % 70% 1:00 2: % 65% 2:00 3: % 60% 3:00 4: % 90% 4:00 5: % 90% 5:00 6: % 95% Average: 82%

16 What to Reconsider Think differently about Setting a realistic speed of answer goal Determining interval should you measure/report Focusing on other measures as primary call center goals

17 WFM Dilemma 3 How do I get a better match of workforce to workload? How can I increase schedule flexibility?

18 People Schedule Inflexibility 6 am 10 pm Think of your shifts like LEGO building blocks. The more sizes and types of blocks, the better you can build your model.

19 People Optimized Schedule 6 am 10 pm The Result: A better fit with less understaffing and overstaffing

20 Scheduling Strategies As you build schedules, expand your mix: Full vs part-time mix Different shift lengths Days on/off mix Staggered start times Flexibility is the key.

21 What to Reconsider Think differently about Mix of full-time and part-time Variety of shift definitions Buying and rewarding flexibility Virtual at home agents

22 WFM Dilemma 4 How do I accomplish WFM tasks efficiently and cost-effectively?

23 WFM Software Considerations As you consider purchasing WFM software for the first time or a replacement of your existing system, there are 4 Factors to consider: WFM System Considerations 1. System Features and Capabilities 2. Support Services 3. Operating Platform 4. Cost

24 WFM Software Considerations 1. Features and Capabilities Data collection Forecasting Scheduling Intra-day management Real-time adherence What are your must have and nice to have software capabilities?

25 WFM Software Considerations 2. Support and Services Planning and installation WFM team IT/technical support Training System training/initial and ongoing Workforce management concepts Support services Ongoing customer support Professional services User community What are your internal capabilities and can you access necessary resources?

26 WFM Software Considerations 3. Operating Platform Traditional premise-based systems Hardware/servers IT support Upgrade schedule and process Ability to size to call centre growth/decline Is the traditional premise-based system holding you back in terms of flexibility and growth?

27 WFM Software Considerations 4. Cost Software cost Upfront license cost Ongoing maintenance costs Hardware cost Capital investment/roi and payback Have you done a proper cash flow analysis to evaluate the best use of your money?

28 The InVision Value Proposition 1. Features and Capabilities Flexible, full-featured forecasting Efficient scheduling mechanism with instant schedule views Multi-activity and back-office scheduling Comprehensive intra-day pictures Real-time adherence monitoring and reporting Training/meeting planner Standard and custom reports

29 iwfm Capabilities and Features Forecast

30 iwfm Capabilities and Features

31 iwfm Capabilities and Features

32 WFM Software Considerations 2. Support and Services Easy and fast deployment Online learning as well as classroom options Experienced consultants Applications Call centre operations Strategic labour consulting User community

33 WFM Software Considerations 3. Operating Platform On-Premise Cloud Capital Expenses Hardware Costly None Software license Up-front fee None Ongoing Fees Annual maintenance Per agent fee Implementation High effort Simple Training Variety Variety Upgrades Complicated, delays Automatic, immediate Availability Subject to downtime More reliable

34 WFM Software Considerations 4. Cost per agent per month No capital investment. Immediate ROI. Do the math!

35 Questions Penny Reynolds Chris Dealy