Key Capabilities for a

POWERFULWorkforce Management SolutioneBook

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The USERS of Workforce Management solutions have different requirementsthat need to be provided for in an integrated environment to enable CLEAR VISIBILITY AND INSIGHT.

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The Key Questions!

User: Forecaster

What will happen longer term?

How do I build an accurate forecast?

How can I spend less time on preparing data & more time on value added analysis?

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The Key Questions!

User: Planner

What is the best way to deliver a comprehensive schedule to meet the forecast?

How do I accommodate for leave and breaks, shrinkage and training?

What does my coverage look like after the training? How does it change?

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The Key Questions!

User: Team Leaders

Where are my team members?

Are they doing the right work at the right time?

Do they have the right skills to do the work assigned to them?

How is reality different from planning?

What can I do about it?

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The Key Questions!

User: Team Members

What does my schedule look like?

When is my break?

Can I pick/trade a shift?

Can I take leave?

How does my performance match up with expectations?

How can I get additional training?

Can I share transportation with my colleague?

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7 Key Capabilities For a POWERFUL Workforce Management Solution

Cross-channel Workforce Management

Forecasting SchedulingReal Time

ManagementEmployee Empowerment

& Enrichment

Interaction DeliveryReporting

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1 Cross-Channel Workforce Management

Cross-channel workforce management leads to superior customer experiencesA recent survey shows that almost 75% of consumers use at least three, and sometimes five, different channels of communication to interact with your business. Are your employees ready?

You need to have the right resources in the right places at the right times, handling each interaction and work item in the most appropriate way. A cross-channel workforce management strategy provides cross-channel insight for more accurate forecasting and scheduling. It also helps ensure that you’re distributing work to the employees who are the most skilled at handling each particular type of interaction (voice, email, chat, web, etc) – so that you can provide the best possible experiences for your customers, each and every time.

1 channel 2 channels 3 channels 4 channels 5 or more channels

25%

52%

22%of consumers use�1 or 2 channels

of consumers use�3 or 4 channels

of consumers use�5 or more channels

Source: Ovum Research

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2 Forecasting

Track capacity shrinkageForecasters must be allowed to select and apply multiple overhead templates that show individual shrinkages which can be applied to a forecast at interval level. This greatly improves the accuracy of your staffing.

Define ‘external events’ that impact the forecastExternal events such as thunderstorms and floods, or other events like marketing campaigns you are not aware of, can influence your organization’s performance. You should be able to separate these events from your historic information, or insert them at the precise moment they happen, so that you can better analyze the impact based on both the relevant history, and on individual occurrences.

Cross-channel workforce management leads to superior customer experiencesFor strategic planning and tactical purposes you want to create multiple forecast scenarios to understand what the staffing and cost implications are. What happens if my volume grows 5% each year or what is the increase in performance outcomes if I add 25 FTE to an activity?

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3 Scheduling

Build schedules across multiple sitesEach individual site should be integrated into a comprehensive view when building schedules, so that meals, breaks, meetings and task sequences are accounted for as a whole, rather than having isolated views for each site.

Display agent schedule on a mobile deviceGiving employees the option to view their schedule on their smart phone or tablet is a great communication tool, and keeps employees informed, even when they are not at work.

Schedules with hypothetical ‘profile agents’By quickly adding ‘profile agents’ you can build schedules without knowing the exact details of these agents. This is extremely useful when it comes to planning for the future, especially when you create schedules for your outsourcers, for example.

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4 Real-time Management

Compare forecasted, scheduled and actual dataUnderstanding what the deviations are between what you forecasted, how many employees you scheduled and what the reality is, gives you actionable data to make real-time decisions when you may not be reaching your performance objectives.

Real-time adherenceEmployees do not always adhere to the schedules you give them. Having real-time insight as to what your employees should be doing, and what they really are doing, will help provide a better customer experience and ensure constant coverage.

Visual AlarmsConfiguring visual alarms that automatically activate when the variance between expected values and actual values breaches a specific threshold, increases your ability to determine and resolve issues quickly.

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5 Employee Empowerment & Enrichment

Request time off and keep track of preferences Providing team members easy-to-use tools to request time off and list their preferences can be a big time-saver – especially an integrated, agent-oriented web application. Based on configurable rules, requests can be taken into consideration, granted or revoked automatically or by a team leader or manager.

Trade or bid on a shiftTrading and bidding on a shift helps organizations to find the right balance between providing schedules that meet business objectives, while still providing flexibility to your team members. Within defined parameters, team members can trade a shift without compromising your service levels.

Enable automated employee training and enrichmentA really good workforce management system should be able to determine areas where improvements can be made (Handle times need improvements? Skills need a boost?) and automatically incorporate customized training at the optimum time – all the while taking into account employee availability, trainer led and/or eLearning options, classroom availability and potential service level impact.

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6 Reporting

Out of the box report templatesReports for forecasting, scheduling, time off, overtime and other parameters should be available, and in use, when you first install it.

Trend reportsIt’s important to create multi-day, cross-channel reports, using intraday granularity, for contact center and workforce performance. This helps you to more easily spot trends and issues that might impact the business.

Export information to external systemsSome of your other information systems, like HR or payroll, may need information that resides in your workforce management solution. You should be able to make this information accessible across the business.

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7 Interaction & Work Delivery

Deliver interactions and work items Scheduling and delivery of interactions and work go hand in hand. One cannot live without the other. Modern Workforce Management solutions should be tightly integrated with your contact center environment for maximum effectiveness.

Reduce overtime costs By integrating your workforce management solution to your routing system, you can stop delivering work to employees whose shifts are about to end, or who are already off-shift, reducing the high costs often associated with overtime.

Create a happier work environmentBy ensuring that your employees only get assigned to work that is both timely and appropriate to their skill sets (Channels or work types? Languages? Special customers?), they will be happier doing their jobs, which reduces attrition and the high cost of employee turnover (replacement and training).

Outbound

Mobile App

Branch Office Self-Service

The Web

Inbound

Front Office

Back Office

“Changes to the schedule drive routing decisions and put the operations team firmly in control.”

Schedule-based Routing

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These 7 Capabilities Provide The Tools You Need For AMore Successful Workforce

Cross-channel Workforce Management

Forecasting SchedulingReal Time

ManagementEmployee Empowerment

& Enrichment

Interaction DeliveryReporting

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For more information, visit

www.genesys.com/workforcemanagement

About GenesysGenesys, the world’s #1 Customer Experience Platform, empowers companies to create exceptional omnichannel experiences, journeys and relationships. For over 25 years, we have put the customer at the center of all we do, and we passionately believe that great customer engagement drives great business outcomes. Genesys is trusted by over 4,700 customers in 120 countries, to orchestrate over 24 billion contact center interactions per year in the cloud and on premises. For more information www.genesys.com.