THE TOP 5 STEPS TO WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT SUCCESS

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While implementing a new workforce management program can dramatically

improve your call center in a number of ways, if you don’t transition correctly, it

can be a disruptive experience for everyone. This eBook was written to assist you in

introducing a new scheduling process to your call center in a painless matter. Using

this guide, you will be able to effectively:

• Get organized

• Involve your agents

• Share your strategy

• Put together a test plan

• Give time to adjust to the changes

IntroductionThere are many reasons you may want to change your scheduling process, but your

overall goals should be to improve your processes, save money, and increase agent

satisfaction.

Perhaps you want to move to a shift bid process, or change from seniority-based

scheduling to performance-based scheduling. Whatever the need may be, before

you jump feet first into a schedule process change, take the time to understand the

problems and plan for what you want to change.

Getting OrganizedThe first step is to Get Organized. A great way to do this is to form a workforce

strategy committee. We all know the expression that two heads are better than one,

and that expression certainly applies in this case.

A workforce strategy committee can identify pain points and provide collaboration

in creating a strategy for scheduling success. Then when the time comes, you’ll

have advocates that are knowledgeable, ready and willing to implement and drive

the changes.

When creating your committee, be sure to involve all levels of the contact center.

This will ensure that you get perspectives from all angles. The committee members

should be open to change, have a positive attitude, be willing to provide constructive

feedback and be prepared to contribute in a meaningful way.

So, you’ve got your workforce strategy committee together. Now what? As

previously mentioned, any little schedule tweak can cause a tidal wave. Why?

Well, because, you’re impacting the lives of your agents’ and most often, they

don’t get any say. Let’s change that.

After talking to many different contact center schedulers on a regular basis,

everyone has their own way of scheduling. Some have static schedules; some change

schedules quarterly, some monthly and some even weekly. The common bond

with each of these centers is that when changing schedules (not processes), the

scheduler goes to great lengths to make sure there is equality in shift distribution.

We care so much about pleasing our workforce, but getting agent feedback is rarely

considered when changing processes.

“Over the course of three months, we delivered over 8,000 eLearning courses and removed hundreds of inefficient hours from shrink time to wait time and specifically 3100 hours which was a huge efficiency gain for us and our organization. In the same three month time period in the pilot that we did we were able to reduce the coaches time that it takes to complete a coaching opportunity with the analysis and the delivery by 73% reduction.”

Kathryn Ashton Work@Home Solutions Director Sitel

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Involve Your AgentsThere are several ways to Involve Your Agents about proposed scheduling

process changes, but inContact usually recommends that you create an anonymous

survey. Anonymity allows your agents to give honest and candid feedback about

what works and what’s broken. And, there are some great free web survey tools

available that will allow you to easily create and distribute a survey to your agents.

Some of these tools will even calculate your results depending on the type of survey

you create.

Consider including these questions into your survey:

• Is the schedule process fair?

• Does the current schedule process work well?

• What challenges, if any, do you face when getting your schedule

communicated to you?

• What challenges, if any, do you face when asking for time off?

• What challenges, if any, do you face when asking for a schedule change?

• Is it easy for you to swap shifts with another employee?

• Do you like your current schedule? If no, why?

• Knowing that it is not always possible to have your preferred schedule, what

are some schedule options you would like to have?

After you compile your survey results, it’s time to sit down with your committee

to review them and see what you can apply to your process changes. Asking these

types of questions could uncover scheduling options that you never knew existed.

You may find that you have employees that prefer nights or weekends, or prefer

to have their days off spread out. Most importantly, when you Involve Your

Agents, you empower them and give them a chance to positively contribute to a

process that affects their daily lives.

Share Your StrategyProcess changes can be difficult to handle; and especially if they are unexpected.

All too often communication is a forgotten necessity of the workforce management

team. When listening to workforce managers talk about why their new schedule

plan failed, almost always, the top reason is because the changes were too hard to

implement. There was too much resistance from the people who were impacted.

To help prepare your center for the changes, the workforce strategy committee

needs to get out there and Share Your Strategy.

After all the surveying, your agents can guess that changes are coming. Take the

guess-work out of the equation and announce the upcoming schedule process

changes in advance. In order to see your new strategy through to success, you’re

going to have to get the buy-in of your center.

While it will be nearly impossible to get everyone on board, you can certainly gain

advocates by sharing the strategy and putting an explanation behind it. Let your

agents see that there is a method behind the workforce madness before turning the

dial. Explain why the changes are necessary, encourage your agents to share their

thoughts, and look for feedback that may help you refine your strategy before it is

implemented. Ultimately, the schedule process changes are for the benefit of the

center. Don’t get discouraged if you get negative feedback in the beginning; in time

your agents will get used to the idea.

Put Together a Test PlanWhen you’re ready (or when you think you’re ready) to roll out your new workforce

management process, that’s when it’s time to Put Together a Test Plan.

Hopefully by now you’ve been able to identify good candidates within your contact

center to participate in a test group for your new workforce processes. Candidates

in your test group should have similar qualities to those you selected for your

workforce strategy committee, but should be employees that have been outside the

planning process. A fresh pair of eyes can do wonders.

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Benefits of running a test group are:• You will get the chance to iron out most of the kinks before launching to your

entire center

• You will be better prepared to handle the reactions of your center

• You will have even more advocates to help implement the new processes

• Most importantly, you will be more likely to succeed in the launch and

sustainability of the schedule process changes

You should designate six to twelve weeks for your test group to work within the new

scheduling processes. You can also incrementally add more testers while making

tweaks and adjustments along the way.

Give the Organization Time to Adjust to ChangesOK, the schedule process changes are in full swing. Now what? Immediate and

overwhelming success? That may be the case for a lucky few, but for the rest of us,

we have to Give the Organization Time to Adjust to the Changes.

When comparing this experience to starting a diet or new exercise program. You

count calories or exercise daily yet you don’t see results overnight. It might take

weeks or even a month before the results start to take shape. Logic says that these

things take time, but anyone who has ever been on a diet knows you want results

right away.

Sound familiar? You might not see the results you want immediately, but in time,

you will. Stay actively engaged while the contact center culture is adjusting and

continue to be the champion for the process changes. Keep your workforce strategy

committee engaged and meet regularly to discuss progress, pain points, and areas

for improvement.

Most importantly, remember to celebrate. Encourage, thank, shower with praise

and give credit where credit is due to your committee, your test group, your agents,

and anyone else who helped you along the way. Plan to celebrate and make it a big

deal… because it is. When all is said and done, your hard work will be well worth

the effort.

Plan for SuccessWhether you’re the agent or the operations manager, scheduling changes impacts

everyone. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be stressful as long as you keep the

following key elements in place:

• Get Organized

• Ask Your Agents

• Share Your Strategy

• Test It

• Giving the Organization Time to Adjust to Changes

With a solid plan in place, you’ll soon find out that there is a light at the end of

the tunnel.

About inContactinContact is the world’s leader in cloud-based call center solutions. inContact

provides call centers with cost-effective tools that help them increase profitability

and can drastically improve the quality of their customer interactions.

Find out how inContact is helping hundreds of contact centers significantly reduce

costs while simultaneously increasing their customer satisfaction levels.

customer.experience@inContact.com

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