SWPP · trunks needed for inbound and outbound calling? WFM team IT department Dedicated telecom...

SWPP Winter 2015

I N S I D E

Service Level Metrics and ManagementB y P e n n y R e y n o l d s

There are several ways for a call center to define its speed of answer goals and many factors

involved in determining what the quanti-tative service objective should be.

There are two primary ways to define speed of answer or delay time in a call center. These definitions are service level and average speed of answer (ASA).

The most common way to define speed of answer is service level. Service level is noted by X% of calls answered in Y Seconds. The table on page 10 shows a distribution of calls and wait times for a simple, two-person queue in a 30-minute window of time.

In this example, one can easily see the percentage of calls handled in less than any given wait time. If the desired

wait time was 20 seconds or less, then simply note the number of calls that wait 20 seconds or less in queue compared to the total number of calls. In this example, nine of the fifteen calls meet this guide-line, so the resulting service level would be 60% in 20 seconds.

The other way to describe speed of answer is average speed of answer or ASA. This number represents the average delay experienced by all calls during the period, including the ones that get handled immediately with no wait in queue. In the 8:00 – 8:30 example shown here, the ASA is calculated by taking the total delay for the period of 336 seconds divided by the 15 calls to arrive at an average delay of 22.4 seconds.

WFM Survey Results . . . . . . . . . . . 2

WFM Winter Survey . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Revisited: The Importance . . . . . . . 4 of Planning

Events Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Communicating Power of One . . . 6 Concepts

Ask the Workforce Wizard . . . . . . . 8

Have You Attended an SWPP . . . . 9 Regional Meeting?

SWPP Web Seminar Series . . . . . 11 Begins With Focus on Setting Strategic Goals for WFM

Our Sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Join SWPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Continued on page 12


Thinking About WFM Certification?B y M i c h e l e B o r b o a , C W P P, C o n t a c t C e n t e r R e s o u r c e s

After many years in the call center field, including more than one stint in Workforce Management

(WFM), I heard about something interest-ing that the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) was introducing: a WFM certification. Other fields had certi-fications, like HR, Finance, and Account-ing so it was only fitting that Workforce Management cement its credibility with a certification of its own. And I was eager to see if I could pass the muster.

Over the years, I learned the WFM function the informal way, like most people do: by taking a variety of classes, reading the trade journals, attending webinars, and attending user conferences hosted by the software vendors. And for the last 10 plus years, there have been

some great learning opportunities at the SWPP conferences as well. And now, I can say that I am a Certified Workforce Planning Professional (CWPP).

Introduced by SWPP almost nine years ago to provide a professional devel-opment opportunity and recognition for the workforce management community, this program is available to any and all interested workforce management profes-sionals. Membership in SWPP is not a pre-requisite, but SWPP members do receive discounted pricing. Here is an overview of the certification program, but more infor-mation is available on the SWPP website at www.swpp.org.

The SWPP Workforce Management Certification program consists of three

2

W F M S u r v e y R e s u l t s

This article details the results of the most recent SWPP quarterly survey on critical workforce planning topics. In this survey, which focused on job qualifications for

workforce management professionals, approximately 165 call center professionals representing a wide variety of industries participated and provided insight into numerous workforce planning questions.

Participant ProfileThe largest percentage (56%) of the participants was from large

call center operations with over 500 seats, followed by 12% with 100-200 agents. However, 10% of the survey participants represent centers with 100 or fewer agents. All types of call center operations were represented in the study, with the biggest percentage repre-senting financial, insurance, and telecommunications.

Forecaster QualificationsThe survey participants were asked to identify the qualifica-

tions that are required or desired when recruiting a new team member for the WFM group that will be in the forecasting role. Respondents were able to pick all that apply and choose between Required, Desired, and Not Required or Desired. In terms of education, nearly all require a high school diploma while about a quarter required a bachelor’s degree. Most of those that do not require the bachelor’s degree have it on the desired list. The other qualifications with the highest level of requirement are experience in the contact center and in WFM. While the SWPP certification is required by only a few, it is desired by a growing number of centers.

When asked to identifiy the skills/capabilities required for the Forecaster, the items gaining the highest number of Required responses are strong knowledge of spreadsheet applica-tions, written communication skills, and demonstrated team player. In addition, over 50% expect knowledge of WFM principles, oral presentation skills, and puzzle-solving skills and interest. Very few of the potential qualifications on the list were neither required or desired.

Scheduler QualificationsWhen recruiting for a new Scheduler, the education require-

ments are a bit less stringent than for Forecasters with a very high percentage requiring the high school diploma, but some-what fewer requiring the bachelor’s degree. Once again, experi-ence in the contact center is very high on the list with experi-ence in WFM highly desirable but not required as frequently as for Forecasters. In both cases, experience in the company’s industry and in any customer service role is highly desirable.

When asked to identify the skills/capabilities for the Sched-uler, the responses are remarkably similar to those requested of the Forecaster. There is a slight reduction in the need for strong knowledge of spreadsheet applications and knowledge of WFM principles, but they are overall very similar.


3

ACCESS A

ND

AVAILA

BILIT

YSWPP conducts a survey each quarter on critical workforce planning topics. These results

will be published in upcoming issues of On Target, as well as published on the SWPP website in the members-only Library section. You may fax this page to 615-352-4204 or fill

in the survey online at www.swpp.org. There are various metrics to measure the availability of the contact center to customers. It

begins with gaining access in the first place through proper trunk design and having enough staff for reasonable service levels. If callers wait too long in queue, some may abandon and there are various levels of what is deemed acceptable in terms of abandoned call rate. The questions below address goals, metrics, and actual performance in the area of access and availability.

W F M S u r v e y

Respond and Win!Not only will you receive a report of our findings, but you’ll have a chance to win a free SWPP Membership for

responding to the survey. Please return to SWPP by May 25, 2015. Congratulations to Terry Gleason of Citi, who won a free SWPP Membership last quarter for completing the SWPP survey.

Name __________________________________________________________________________________________

Company _________________________________________________________________________________________

Email Address _____________________________________________________________________________________

1. How many agents are in your call center?

Under 50 301 – 400 401 – 500 51 – 100 201 – 300 Over 500 101 – 200

2. What industry do you represent?

Telecommunications Health Care Travel Retail/Catalog Insurance Financial Government Outsourcer Utility Other

3. Who is responsible for designing the number of trunks needed for inbound and outbound calling?

WFM team IT department Dedicated telecom resource Telecom vendor Combination of above

4. Do you have a stated goal for percent of callers who receive a busy signal?

Yes No Don’t know

5. If you do have a busy percentage goal, what is it?

Less than 2% 5-10% Don’t know 2-5% More than 10%

6. In an “All Trunks Busy” situation, what would callers experience?

A busy signal forcing retry but no message A message explaining busy situation with suggestion to retry later

Don’t know Other

7. On a typical Monday in your contact center, what percent of callers might receive a busy signal?

Almost none Less than 2% More than 10% 5-10% 2-5% Don’t know

8. In times of severe understaffing, would your call center switch off some trunks to prevent callers from entering the queue and waiting for an unacceptable amount of time?

Yes – often Never Yes – only occasionally Don’t know

9. Do you have an abandoned call percentage goal? Yes No Don’t know

10. If you do have an abandon rate goal, what is it? Less than 2% Over 10% Don’t know 2-5% 5-10%

11. How do you incorporate abandoned calls in your service level calculation?

(Calls Answered in Threshold + Abandons)/(Total handled calls + calls abandoned)

Calls Answered in Threshold/Total Calls Handled Calls Answered in Threshold/(Total Calls Handled + Abandoned)

Other Don’t know

12. What percent of your abandoned calls retry in the short term?

Almost all of them Don’t know A small fraction of them

13. Does your staffing calculation take into account call abandons when determining the number of bodies in chairs needed?

Yes No Don’t know

14. Does your center provide 24 x 7 access?

Yes No

15. If No, do you track the number of call attempts by hour during the closed hours of operation?

Yes No

16. Does your center use the Call Attempts During Closed Hours to regularly assess its Hours of Operation?

Yes No

4

Revisited: The Importance of PlanningB y R i c K o s i b a , P h . D .V i c e P r e s i d e n t , I n t e r a c t i v e I n t e l l i g e n c e ’ s D e c i s i o n s G r o u p

A Quick AnnouncementI have to say that I am pretty proud that we have been

hanging out with the SWPP community for 13 (!?!) years. I did some rough math and we have developed over 50 articles on contact center planning.

But we were wondering what to do with these old articles— all of which are, for the most part, still applicable. We’ve decided to revisit many of them, post them to a new (and admittedly amateurish) website, and update them with any new thoughts or new experiences. These can be found at www.decisionsandplanning.com, and we would love it if you dropped by our spot on contact center planning. The first one we are placing there is “Top Ten Tips for Contact Center Planning”.

The Importance of Planning ReduxOne of the first SWPP Advanced Topic articles we wrote,

when SWPP was just starting out, was about the importance of contact center planning. While it was true then that plan-ning for call centers was important, it is truer now that contact centers, being even more complicated, require a solid strategic plan to enable it to run efficiently.

With 15 years under our belt, we have real evidence that a focus on developing long-term capacity plans that are efficient and accurate leads to terrific benefits for the company.

What is Long-Term Planning?What we are discussing goes by a few names; some call it

strategic planning (our favorite), capacity planning, or long-term planning. But whatever it is called, its goal is to tame the seasonality of the contact center operation and to present to executives the tradeoffs between resources provisioned and the customer experience and revenues expected. This is by no means easy.

First, all important contact center metrics are seasonal. Volumes, handle times, sick time, vacation requests, agent attri-tion, outbound contact rates, revenues per call, outbound lead lists, and many other important metrics vary significantly week by week. So the planner must understand and manage this seasonality.

Next, even with the best forecasts, we all know that there is uncertainty and variability associated with our plans. This uncertainty must be quantified, understood, and presented to decision makers. The best plans outline the cost and service risks of planning wrong.

Contact center operations have always been complex, but today the complexity has skyrocketed as contact center opera-tions have become multi-site, multi-skill, and multi-channel centers. The math required to evaluate staffing in these opera-tions has become extremely complex. Simplifications like the old Erlang C and workload calculations are simply no longer accu-rate. Accurate staffing is sort of the point of the whole exercise.

Fourth, resource decisions are also getting harder and

harder. When should we hire? When should we offer vaca-tion and training? What is the best way to get to my seasonal peaks—with overtime or by hiring? Determining this by hand, using a spreadsheet with an “over/under” line is impossible to do efficiently. Developing multi-site, multi-channel, and multi-skill staff plans by hand? Forget about it.

Finally, the old standard technology, the big Excel spread-sheet, is simply the wrong technology for building great plans. They are slow, cumbersome, and easy to mess up.

But the focus of a contact center strategic plan is to develop hiring, shrinkage, overtime, and undertime plans that ensure that the staff available is very close to the staff required to hit targeted service goals through the seasonal peaks and valleys of the modern contact center operation.

Dangers of Not PlanningThe purpose of this discussion was to point out the impor-

tance and the benefits of planning well. But let’s start with the converse; what happens when you don’t plan well?

The obvious repercussion of poor planning is being over-staffed or understaffed during the day. If you don’t hire enough agents, you’ll be understaffed. Hire too many, and agents will be looking for things to do. Hire at the wrong time? Again, you will likely be overstaffed or understaffed (or both at different times of the year). Either will lead to workforce management chaos as the real-time team works to remedy the poor plan. Agents can burn out if understaffed or be bored (and useless) when overstaffed. Neither is ideal.

Chronic mis-staffing also leads to service inconsistency, as customers receive very different levels of service. In an era where customer experience is important, an erratic experience will always be problematic.

An inefficient plan by definition means that the call center operation will be paying too much to service its customers. Hiring too soon, or hiring too late and incurring unplanned overtime all come with significant and wasteful costs.

Strategic planning at its core is about making decisions, and the best strategic planning processes embed the ability to accurately perform what-if analyses for the big picture questions of the call center executive. It follows that these systems must be accurate over the range of service levels that what-ifs might contemplate. When asked for the effects of a hiring freeze, say, the capacity planning process must be able to accurately and quickly quantify the service, costs, agent effort (occupancy), revenue, and profit repercussions of this decision. A what-if that is inaccurate will lead to significant decisions that are wrong.

Helpful ToolsDeveloping capacity plans is an exercise in mathematical

modeling. There are three sorts of models that every capacity planner needs:

• Predictive models to help planners develop forecasts.Continued on page 5

5

• Descriptive models to help planners determine the service, cost, and revenue implications of any staffing scenario. These models simulate the operation.

• Prescriptive models to optimally develop hiring overtime, undertime, and controllable shrinkage plans.

All three models taken together allow a company to accu-rately and quickly (within a few minutes) evaluate any what-if analyses, forecast, or staff plan.

What We Have ExperiencedI have the strange bragging right to have seen more contact

center planning systems and spreadsheets than possibly any other human being in the history of the world (other than Jen Dziekan in our office). Here are my observations:

• Too many companies still use an Erlang-based plan-ning system to perform their capacity planning. Almost universally, these companies have issues hitting service goals without being chronically overstaffed.

• Companies that have invested in developing a rigorous planning process, with each of the three model types, universally run a tighter operation. They provide more consistent service with slightly higher occupancies than those without the appropriate tools. Their distributions of service delivery are much tighter.

• Companies that have invested in models and business processes saw a dramatic shift in costs per call when they migrated to the new process—their costs were taken down a notch (5%-10%).

If providing consistent customer experiences and service at a frugal cost is important to your organization (it is), then investing in the capacity planning process is critical. Good planning always leads to a smoother and less expensive operation.

P.S. If you are a planner and are dying to have better tools, print this out and leave a copy for your COO and CFO.

Ric Kosiba, Ph.D. is a charter member of SWPP and vice president of Interactive Intelligence’s Decisions Group. He can be reached at [email protected] or (410) 224-9883.

Revisited: The Importance of PlanningContinued from page 4

Trade Shows/Conferences:

Title Date Location

SWPP Annual Conference March 2-4 Omni Nashville Hotel, Nashville, TN

ICMI Training Symposium March 17-20 Hard Rock Hotel, San Diego, CA

San Diego SWPP/QATC Regional Meeting March 17 Hard Rock Hotel, San Diego, CA

Las Vegas SWPP/QATC Regional Meeting March 19 Las Vegas Valley Water, Las Vegas, NV

Aspect Customer Experience (ACE) April 26-29 The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas, NV

Contact Center Expo & Conference May 4-7 Walt Disney Dolphin & Swan, Orlando, FL

Interactions 2015 – NICE User Conference June 1-4 Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, TX

Driving Innovations – Verint User Conference June 8-11 Paris Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV

Call Center Week June 15-19 The Mirage, Las Vegas, NV

ICMI Training Symposium June 23-26 Alexandria, VA, Nashville, TN

QATC Annual Conference Sept 22-24 Marriott at Vanderbilt

Contact Center Demo & Conference Oct 19-21 Las Vegas, NV

WFM Virtual Conference Nov 2-6 www.ecrmevents.com

ICMI Training Symposium Nov. 10-13 Scottsdale, AZ

E v e n t s C a l e n d a r

6

Communicating Power of One ConceptsB y P e n n y R e y n o l d s

It’s important to educate and regularly remind frontline staff about the important role they play simply by being in place and on time. Their impact on service, occupancy, and cost

should be communicated early in the cycle of training and then again with regular, ongoing reminders. It’s also useful to make sure that the supervisors and managers of these staff understand these principles and are committed to providing feedback and coaching as part of a Power of One program.

This article outlines what to communicate to each level of personnel in the center so each person understands his or her role and contribution to service.

Power of One Concepts for AgentsEvery person in the center needs to understand basic Power

of One principles. This is especially true for frontline staff whose decision about whether to be on time or not directly impacts the staffing levels and the resulting service, occupancy, and cost. Sometimes an emphasis on adherence can seem like “Big Brother” from an agent’s point of view. A new person unfa-miliar with staffing tradeoffs might think, “I’m just one person. What difference can I possibly make?” It’s easy to think that, especially when there are dozens of other people active on calls. Agents should see examples with real numbers of what happens when one or two people are in place or not. In this example with 400 calls per hour with a 3-minute handle time (20 erlang workload), the impact on service and occupancy is shown with 21–26 staff.

Workload Hours

Number of Staff ASA Service Level

(x% in y sec)Staff

Occupancy20 hours 21 staff 137 sec 35% in 30 sec .95

20 hours 22 staff 51 sec 59% in 30 sec .91





When explaining the impact of just one person, one can see that if service is very good with 25 staff in place to handle calls, then adding or subtracting a person does not make a huge difference. Adding another person improves service level by 3% or ASA by 3 seconds. The impact of one fewer person is bigger (6% service level change or 6 seconds ASA increase), but not significant.

On the other hand, if the service situation is one that is problematic to start, with only 22 staff in place for the 20 hours of work and a 51-second ASA, a one-person reduction will make a huge difference. At this point in the service and staffing curve, the impact of just one person will be alarmingly high – a drop of 24% in service level and an ASA increase of 86 seconds.

Another way to look at this situation is to take a more positive slant. Note how the situation with 21 people (ASA 137 seconds or a 35% in 30 seconds service level) realizes a big improvement with the addition of only one person. A person

added here looks like a hero by improving delays from 137 to 51 seconds. At this point in the curve, adding just one more person is a powerful action.

Of course the impact of one person is big in a relatively small center or even in a large center with many small agent groups. At these smaller sizes, each person is responsible for a bigger portion of the workload and therefore has a bigger impact when missing.

However, it’s not just small centers or small agent groups where one person can make a difference. Even though the impact of one person is smaller, there are still points in the curve where one person makes a significant difference. Consider the following example with 800 instead of 400 calls per hour, resulting in 40 hours of workload.

Workload Hours

Number of Staff ASA Service Level

(x% in y sec)Staff

Occupancy







Just like in the other staffing scenario, at very good service levels, one person has very little impact. Compared to 45 staff, an addition of one agent impacts ASA by only 4 seconds while minus one adds 7 seconds of delay time. One the other hand, as staffing levels deteriorate, the impact of one person is much more significant. The difference between 42 and 41 staff is 88 seconds or a drop in service level of 22%.

While the difference that one person makes in service is not as significant in larger groups, it can still be a big difference if service levels are low to start. It is important to help staff understand what this difference is as part of their group size and call volume. Calculate your call center’s numbers and provide real examples that show how customers are impacted when just one or two people are not in place as planned.

The other impact of missing people is something that really hits close to home for the staff. Communicating occupancy rate helps agents understand how their adherence to schedule impacts how busy their fellow team members will be. While communicating the delay time experienced by customers may be somewhat concerning, it is not necessarily personal enough to drive different behaviors. On the other hand, realizing the impact of adherence on the occupancy rate of their team members can actually drive a change in behaviors.

In the previous tables, staff have a bigger share of the work-load in a smaller group and therefore a change of one person results in a bigger change in occupancy than the larger group example. In the example with 20 hours of work, occupancy changes about 4% when a person is added or subtracted. This 4% of an hour equates to 2.4 minutes of extra time throughout

Continued on page 7

7

Communicating Power of One Concepts

the hour for each person to work versus having a breather in between calls. With low staff to workload ratios, this extra 2 ½ minutes multiplied by the number of people missing can mean a marked difference in how busy a person is handling calls.

As the group gets larger, there is less impact on occupancy when just one person drops out. With 40 hours of work the impact on occupancy is between 2–3% for each headcount change.

The other difference that plus or minus a single person makes is on overall operating costs. As fewer staff are in place to handle the calls, the average delay time increases. As delay times increase, so does the cost of the delay time in terms of increased telecommunications usage costs. For example, in the 20-hour workload scenario, the difference in 21 and 22 staff is a difference in 137 seconds and 51 seconds of delay – an increase of 86 seconds per call. When multiplied by 400 calls, that is 34,400 seconds or 573 minutes of delay. Priced even at a low $.03 per minute equates to an additional $17.19 per hour, or over $300 per day. A discussion of how this money could be spent on performance bonuses, pizza parties, or something else much more desirable can make adherence behaviors take on a much more personal note.

Communicating all these concepts involves showing staff the actual numbers and explaining the tradeoff, including what happens when agents are added or subtracted in relation to service, occupancy, and cost. It’s important to educate them on the numbers, but the charts and graphs may not be enough to ensure knowledge takes hold and the right behaviors emerge.

Many centers utilize hands-on activities to drive home the important Power of One concepts. When agents see the numbers and then participate in activities that illustrate the impact on service or occupancy, there is a much better under-standing and buy-in for the desired behaviors. There are many different Power of One activities that can be used as training aids that support adoption and retention of a schedule adherence mindset.

Communicating with SupervisorsThe workforce team will likely have the opportunity during

new-hire training to talk with agents about the workforce management process, how scheduling works, and the impor-tance of adherence and the Power of One. However, much of what happens related to adherence reminders and coaching after that is up to the agents’ immediate supervisors. Therefore, it is critical that the supervisors and team managers are also aware of all these staffing, service, and cost tradeoffs and are equipped to coach their team members regularly on Power of One concepts.

It is up to supervisors to ensure their team members’ adher-ence behaviors are in line with expectations and that coaching takes place to address any performance gaps. It is sometimes a small change by a supervisor in attention to adherence numbers that can make all the difference in agent performance. Dealing with tardiness or other non-adherence issues on a timely, consis-tent basis is key to keeping performance on target. Providing

positive consequences in the form of recognition for good adher-ence and negative consequences for non-adherence is usually the responsibility of the supervisor, so it’s important to have all the supervisors and managers on board to reinforce Power of One principles.

Supervisors can also play a role in the adherence of team members by how they choose to pull agents off the phone or schedule events that involve one or more agents. While it is sometimes necessary to have an impromptu one-on-one coaching session with an agent, it’s always best to check with a workforce specialist to see when the best time would be to mini-mize the staffing impact. Likewise, working with the workforce planning team to schedule the best time for team meetings, off-phone projects, etc. will minimize understaffing and detrimental effects on service and occupancy.

Communicating with ExecutivesIt is not just frontline supervisors that need to understand

Power of One principles. Upper management also needs to be well informed on the potential impacts of their staffing decisions. While executives care about service provided to customers and the happiness and satisfaction of the frontline staff, they also always have an eye on the budget and a focus on minimizing operating costs. Since the biggest cost in operating a call center is for labor, senior management may lean toward having fewer staff in place in order to minimize costs.

Senior management needs to be briefed on how lower costs for staffing can sometimes be outweighed by excessive delays, overworked staff, and increased telecommunications costs. Especially if there is revenue associated with the calls, such as in a reservations or catalog center, adding more staff to maximize revenues can impact the bottom-line in a positive way.

Power of One ActivitiesThis article has outlined the “need to know” information

for agents, supervisors, and senior management. It’s important to provide real-life numbers and realistic examples of all the statistics and tradeoffs. However, in addition to the facts and numbers, it is often necessary to find other ways to drive home Power of One concepts. The successful workforce team and training department will find programs, games, and activities that illustrate Power of One principles in ways that everyone will remember as they go through their day-to-day activities.

The new book available from SWPP, Workforce Management Essentials: Principles and Programs for Call Center Staffing, has a chapter devoted to many Power of One training programs. The book will be provided to all attendees at the SWPP Conference in March and will be available for purchase at SWPP.org.

Penny Reynolds was a Co-Founder of The Call Center School where she oversaw course development and taught a wide variety of training programs for over 12 years. Penny is now semi-retired but still participates in industry conferences, writes for a wide variety of publications, and does call center consulting. She may be reached at [email protected] or 615-812-8410.

Continued from page 6

8

Question: We are working on our plan for hiring for our Workforce Management team. Could you give us some insight into interview questions that will help us find candi-dates that would be well-suited for workforce management?

Answer: There are many different areas to ask about when interviewing for potential workforce planners. And different questions may apply depending upon whether you are hiring someone off the call center floor that would be promoted to this position or someone from the outside with previous workforce management experience.

Here are a few ideas of questions for an in-house candi-date:

• What is your perception of what the Workforce Management team does? This will establish a base understanding of the entire operation or at least how much the applicant knows coming in.

• On a scale of 1 to 10, how is your own compliance to schedule and Quality Indicator scores? See how the applicant rates themselves versus the reports you can run on them if they are in-house hires.

• Scenario: A friend needs a favor (adjust an excep-tion to cover compliance, adjust available hours to get some time off since limits are full) and asks you to help them — how do you respond?

• Commitment to quality is ensuring that the work is delivered and completed on time and accu-rately. Getting a job done correctly and under time constraints may require unusual determination. Please give me your best example of when you were able to remain effective in this type of situation. What were the results? Please be specific.

If the candidate has previous experience, these ques-tions might be applicable:

• Have you ever been responsible for scheduling staff? What were your methods? What did you find challenging about it? What did you find rewarding about it?

• Have you worked on a project that required “buy-in” from management? What kind of pre-work was required? Was a presentation required?

• Scenario: Every Friday, a department of 48 agents experiences high call volume between 12:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The hours of operation are 7a.m. – 7 p.m. M- F. The shifts for the employees are: 15 agents with a 7-4 shift, 10 agents with an 8-5 shift, 5 with a 9-6 shift, 5 with a 10-7 shift, and 13 floating

shifts. All lunches and breaks are the same every day. Provide a solution to this problem. Note: You can give any scenario that fits your departments. Also remember there are no right answers. Look at the method in which the applicant thinks this through. Are they methodical, and can they think outside the box?

• A key responsibility of this position is preparing and maintaining a call center staffing model. Ask the candidate what experience they have with this process.

– How many representatives were involved?

– What are the components of this process?

– How did you prioritize them?

– Did you involve anyone else? (who? why?)

– What were the results?

– How often did you update the model?

• Decision-making, or judgment, is using logic and facts to choose a course of action. We are faced with several decisions on a daily basis, from the mundane to the serious. Ask the candidate to tell you about a decision they made concerning modifications to staffing that had the most positive impact at their last position.

– How many reps were impacted?

– Did the modifications work within the “normal guidelines” of the call center?

– What type of analysis was used?

– What were the results?

– Did you receive any feedback from the managers or staff? If yes, what was it?

– Was the process adopted by the call center? If yes, is it still being used?

• Another key responsibility of this position is to fore-cast the demand for phone and non-phone coverage. Often, this has severe time constraints associated with it. Ask the candidate to describe their expertise in this area.

– How long have you been forecasting?

– What components did you weigh when making your forecast?

– Did this include existing and potential business opportunities?


9

Have You Attended an SWPP Regional Meeting?B y V i c k i H e r r e l l , S W P P

Over the past 13 years, we have held dozens of SWPP Regional Meetings around the world. If you have attended one of these events, you know the value of

spending a few hours with other workforce management profes-sionals to discuss the hot topics in our industry and specifically in your organization. If you haven’t been to a regional meeting yet, we hope you will attend one soon!

Over the past year, SWPP held regional meetings in many different locations, including Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Hunt Valley, MD, Nashville, Denver, Boston, and Chicago. Several hundred workforce management professionals participated in these events to look for answers for their workforce management issues, and share some of the solutions they have found with the other attendees.

Most regional meetings are a half-day event that kicks off with a short keynote address, followed by a hot topic roundup, where the attendees introduce themselves and tell the group what the biggest issue is in their organization. The topics are posted on a flip chart, and then the group discusses the issues. Sometimes there can be some easy solutions shared on an issue,

and other times, it is something that everyone has faced and no one has found an easy answer for. But there is always great camaraderie and willingness to help among the group. If a meeting is held at a call center site, there may be a call center tour included at the end of the event.

There are some issues that have popped up at almost every regional meeting since the very beginning, including better communication between WFM and other areas of the organiza-tion, schedule adherence issues, shrinkage, hiring and/or turn-over problems, and the dreaded four-letter word, FMLA. And although there aren’t easy answers to many of these issues, there are always some interesting ideas that hadn’t been considered and plenty of empathy.

We had our first regional meeting of 2015 in January in Salt Lake City at IHG, and a couple of other meetings have already been scheduled:

San Diego, CA – March 17 – 4:30-5:30 p.m. (followed by a reception) – Hard Rock Hotel (held in conjunction with the ICMI Training Symposium)

Las Vegas, NV – March 19 – 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. – Las Vegas Valley Water District

Other meetings are being planned in the Washington, DC area, Boston, and Toronto. Many of these meetings are also held in conjunction with our sister association, the Quality Assur-ance & Training Connection (QATC).

Everyone is invited to attend these events and there is no charge for attendance thanks to our hosts. For more information or to register for a regional meeting, go to the Events & News section of our website at www.swpp.org and click on Regional Meetings.

We would love to come to your town, too! If you are interested in hosting a meeting in your area, please call me at 615-352-4292 or e-mail me at [email protected].

Hope to see you at a regional meeting soon!

10

Setting Service GoalsDefining a speed of answer or service objective is an impor-

tant part of the workforce management process as it has a direct influence on how many staff will be needed each half-hour. There is absolutely no such thing as an “industry standard” for speed of service. Each call center’s service goal should be based on many different factors, including the following:

Customer expectations. First and foremost, the customer contact strategy, including the setting of speed of answer goals, should be based on customer needs and expecta-tions. Customer expectations are today being based on a wide variety of service experiences, and it is important to consider these in defining a service goal to meet customer expectations. Customers should be surveyed regularly to see what their service expectations are in terms of both quality and speed of service. It may be appropriate to have faster speed of answer goals for some customers than for others rather than having one goal that applies to all calls.

Competitive influences. Certainly, most call centers will want to also benchmark against what similar companies are doing and how quickly they are responding to customer contacts. To some degree, the call center may base its speed of answer goals upon how captive its customer base is. If part of a highly competitive industry where callers have many options for service, the call center may wish to set more aggressive service goals, while those with a monopoly on a product or service may settle for less strenuous ones. Even in a single center, multiple situations may exist. For example, an automobile insurance company may want fast speed of answer on the sales lines, but not such an expensive goal for staffing in the claims processing department.

Market position and branding. In some cases, speed of answer may support the overall brand image and reputation of a company. Those organizations known for speedy service may wish to set high service level goals to support the company’s brand image.

Budgetary guidelines. Ideally, service objectives should drive staffing requirements and the budget. But in reality, service objectives may be driven to some degree by available budget dollars. While a call center might like to deliver a 90% in 10 seconds speed of answer, there may simply be insufficient budget to support such a high goal, and therefore the objec-tives should be set to a level that is actually attainable by the center.

There are many factors that should be considered in estab-lishing a speed of answer goal and careful consideration should be given to this number since it dictates resource requirements and a significant portion of the call center’s operating budget. Careful thought should be given to this objective on a regular basis to ensure the objectives make sense in terms of budget dollars, customer expectations, and support of the company’s

mission and goals. Too often call centers set service goals and then never think about them again even as the business grows and changes. It is recommended that service objectives be evalu-ated at least every two years, with an annual review being the preferred timeframe.

Service Reporting

There are many options for reporting speed of answer numbers, either as service level or ASA. Some of these common reporting approaches are problematic as they present a picture of service that is not necessarily representative of the customer experience.

One option is to simply review and report the simple average of service level or ASA at the end of the day. As a simple average, the end-of-day service level for the day noted in the chart on page 11 would be 82%. With a goal of 80% in 20 seconds, it at first looks like the day was a success in terms of meeting service goals. However, a closer look shows that the 82% number averages out quite a few highs of 100% with lows of 65%, with all hours weighted equally. This really overstates the actual service picture for the day.

Another approach is to evaluate and report the numbers as a weighted average for the day, using each hour’s percent distribu-tion of calls. Using this approach, the service level for the day was 79%, another number that suggests a successful service day. While a better approach than a simple average, it still does not provide any information about the variation of lows and highs for the day.

More call centers today are using an interval approach to evaluate speed of answer success over a day. In this example, look at the number of intervals that actually met the 80% service goal. Even with this simple an observation, there can be several ways to measure. Some centers might view any hour with 80% or higher as a positive. If counting this way, there are 8 of the 12 hours that meet these criteria. However, it could be argued that an hour with 100% service level is overstaffed with too high a level of service. By having too many staff in place in some hours, there may not be enough to go around during busier times.

A preferred approach is to look at the percentage of inter-vals in the day that meet the actual target service level within

Service Level Metrics and ManagementContinued from page 1


Arrival Number

Time of Arrival Handle Time Time Call

BeganTime Call

EndedDelay of Call

1 8:02.2 2.4 8:02.2 a 8:04.6 02 8:02.4 2.6 8:02.4 b 8:05.0 03 8:03.6 2.0 8:04.6 a 8:06.6 60 sec4 8:04.3 3.2 8:05.0 b 8:08.2 42 sec5 8:06.6 2.4 8:06.6 a 8:09.0 06 8:06.8 2.4 8:08.2 b 8:10.6 84 sec7 8:07.2 3.0 8:09.0 a 8:12.0 48 sec8 8:10.1 1.2 8:10.6 b 8:11.8 30 sec9 8:12.2 2.8 8:12.2 b 8:15.0 0

10 8:17.2 2.6 8:17.2 a 8:19.8 011 8:18.8 2.4 8:18.8 b 8:21.2 012 8:21.0 6.0 8:21.2 a 8:27.2 013 8:24.0 4.2 8:24.0 b 8:28.2 014 8:26.2 2.4 8:27.2 a 8:29.6 60 sec15 8:28.0 2.4 8:28.2 b 8:30.6 12 sec

11

a reasonable range. This might be within 10% (70% - 90%) or a more stringent criterion of within 5% of target (75% - 85%) to count as a successful period.

Looking at service level in this way will actually provide more actionable information to see where overstaffing and understaffing occur. This forces a more active look at the forecast accuracy for the intervals that are off, or perhaps at some different schedule plans that provide better coverage with less variation.

Managing a call center means managing by the numbers and one of the most important numbers that drives major decisions on the long-term planning side as well as the day-to-day manage-ment of the center is the speed of answer. Whether service level or ASA is used as the primary goal and measure, it is impor-tant to regularly review the target to make sure it makes sense. Ongoing review of service performance should be done in a way that provides a realistic view of what is happening with numbers presented in a way to identify gaps and make needed changes.

Daily View of Service Level

Time of Day Call Volume Daily % SL (in 20 sec)

6:00 – 7:00 85 4.5% 100%

7:00 – 8:00 90 5.0% 95%

8:00 – 9:00 95 5.5% 95%

9:00 – 10:00 145 8.0% 90%

10:00 – 11:00 185 10.0% 75%

11:00 – 12:00 195 10.5% 70%

12:00 – 1:00 165 9.0% 80%

1:00 – 2:00 185 10.0% 80%

2:00 – 3:00 220 12.0% 65%

3:00 – 4:00 210 11.0% 70%

4:00 – 5:00 145 8.0% 80%

5:00 – 6:00 125 6.5% 85%


Service Level Metrics and Management

SWPP Web Seminar Series Begins With Focus on Setting Strategic Goals for WFM

As workforce planning professionals, we play a pivotal role in the success of our contact centers and the organiza-tion as a whole. In order to be as effective as possible, we

must align staffing goals with those of the enterprise. That is the strategic nature of the planning process. While the ultimate goal is to schedule enough personnel to be in place to meet the speed of answer goal, there is more to strategy than that.

According to Professor Stanley Ridgley, PhD of Drexel University, “Strategic thinking is is about unraveling the mysteries of the chaotic world around us and harnessing powerful forces to our own ends. It means utilizing tools of analysis and tactics to take decisive and prudent action that gives us the best possible chance of achieving our objectives – whether those objectives are personal or professional.”

Strategic thinking is about setting goals and developing long-range plans to reach those goals. These plans are based on careful analysis of internal and external environments and on the actions of others. Thinking about where you want to be three to five years from now should set the stage for what you are doing today. Recognizing the fluid nature of reality and the constantly changing environment, strategic thinking does not end with the crafting of the plan. Successful strategy is dynamic, adaptive and opportunistic, and it depends on the swift, bold, and decisive execution of tactics.

Join SWPP for two in-depth web seminars on Setting Strategic Goals for WFM, to be held on April 16 and May 7. These seminars are available only to SWPP members, and there is no charge for attendance. Industry expert Maggie Klenke will deliver the program on both dates.

In Part I on April 16, the seminar will address the process of

developing a strategic plan. Attendees will learn about the six steps of assembling a strategic plan, including how to:

• Define mission, vision, and values• Perform a SWOT analysis• Set long-term strategic objectives• Establish strategies to achieve the objectives• Set short-term goals• Establish tactics to achieve the goalsPart II of Setting Strategic Goals for WFM, scheduled for

May 7, will include a discussion of the ten most common goals in contact centers including those that affect financial results, impact customer experience and likelihood of continuing the relationship, and influence employee satisfaction and reten-tion. While all of these can be tactical goals, they may also be strategic to the company’s competitive position and long-term sustainability. Open discussion about other long-term objectives and strategies of the attendees will also be encouraged.

Stay tuned for future web seminars brought to you by SWPP, exclusively for SWPP members, and all are scheduled for Thurs-days at 1:00 Central.

June 18 – Preparing to ForecastJuly 16 – Creating Monthly, Daily, and Interval ForecastsAugust 20 – The Math of Call Center StaffingSeptember 17 – Scheduling Solutions and Strategies

For more information or to register for these web seminars, please visit our website at www.swpp.org.

12

Thinking About WFM Certification?


exams, which cover the core workforce management competen-cies of Planning and Strategy, Staffing and Scheduling, and Managing Daily Staffing and Service, followed by a project. The exams test our workforce management knowledge, and the project requires us to demonstrate our knowledge in practical application. From the time a workforce management professional registers for Workforce Management Certification, he/she has two years to complete the entire process.

CompetenciesIf you decide to undertake Workforce Management Certi-

fication, reviewing the workforce management competencies is the best starting point. They were developed by thought leaders in our field, and cover virtually every knowledge area required of a workforce management professional. Split into three catego-ries, there is a separate exam for each area. The Planning and Strategy area covers things like workforce management roles, responsibilities, and key processes, the tools and technologies that support those processes, and the development of workload forecasts. The Staffing and Scheduling area covers the calcula-tion of staff requirements and telephone resources, the creation of workforce schedules, and related items. And the Managing Daily Staffing and Service area covers the main elements of intra-day management, attendance and adherence, and reporting. There are over 100 competencies/sub-competencies in all, and a copy of them is posted on the SWPP website. I can tell you from personal experience how important it is to study these prior to taking the exams!

ExamsCertified by a psychometrician, each multiple-choice exam

is taken online and must be proctored. A copy of the proctor guidelines and signature page is available at the SWPP website. (Exams are not “open book.” ) There is a two-hour limit per exam, although most participants have been averaging one hour each. Exams can be taken back to back, or one at a time. Results are provided via email for each exam individually, and show the percentage of correct answers for each section of the exam. The requirement to pass is 80% correct, and, if necessary, re-testing is available.

ProjectOnce an applicant has successfully completed all three

exams, it is time for the project portion of Workforce Manage-ment Certification, the purpose of which is to demonstrate a practical application of the workforce management knowledge just tested for on the exams – and the ability to communicate that knowledge well to others. Applicants present their proj-ects via teleconference to a Certification review board, which consists of SWPP Advisory Board members and other workforce management professionals who have already achieved workforce management Certification.

This project can be selected from a list of pre-approved

projects (the list is posted on the SWPP website), or an applicant can create his/her own project idea and submit it for approval. The project can be pulled from the “real world,” taking advan-tage of work already completed, but care should be taken in these instances to omit any sensitive or proprietary information from the presentation. Project feedback is provided via e-mail as soon as possible after the presentation, often within an hour.

DesignationUpon successful completion of all three exams and the

project, applicants receive the right to use the CWPP designa-tion after their names on business cards, resumes, professional correspondence, etc. An example would be Jane Doe, CWPP. Hiring managers who wish to verify the designation may contact the Executive Director of SWPP, Vicki Herrell, via email at [email protected].

Associate CertificationIn recognition of the many workforce management special-

ists in the field, and to offer them a substantial development opportunity, SWPP offers Associate Certification. This requires successful completion of one exam, along with a project to demonstrate knowledge in the same competency area as the exam. This is a great alternative for someone who has spent years as a Scheduler, for example, and who might not have a strong interest in overall certification. This might also be an alternative for someone who prefers to certify in one compe-tency area at a time, or over a longer time period than two years. Once Associate Certification is achieved, the designation would appear as Jane Doe, Associate CWPP, or Jane Doe, Associate CWPP – Staffing and Scheduling (or whichever of the three competency areas applies).

Continuing Education RequirementsOnce certified, there are annual requirements to maintain

the designation. Using a points-based system similar to that of other professional certification programs, certified profes-sionals need to accumulate 40 points per year to keep their CWPP status. Associate certification requires 25 points per year. Points can be earned for attending (or even presenting at) the annual SWPP conference, for submitting “Tips of the Week” and articles to the SWPP newsletter, and for a variety of other workforce management-related activities. A full list is posted to the SWPP website.

Certification FeesFull CWPP certification is offered at $250 for SWPP

members and $350 for non-members. Associate certification is offered at $100 per competency for SWPP members and $150 for non-members. There is a $50 fee per exam for any re-testing.

ResourcesFor those people who are interested in pursuing this oppor-

tunity, there are many resources available, all of which are refer-


13

enced at the SWPP website. There is a practice test, which would be a helpful exercise to see what kind of questions to expect in terms of multiple choice structure. And there are over a dozen articles and/or white papers posted on the SWPP website which address many of the competencies.

Suggested Action PlanIf you think Workforce Management Certification is right for

you, the process is pretty straightforward. Just register online at www.swpp.org, review the competencies, determine any gaps you might have, and prepare using the resources mentioned above. Take the exams, submit your project, and then maintain your certifica-tion. Looking at those who have certified to date, there appear to be three critical success factors: experience in more than one compe-tency area, experience in more than one call center environment, and test preparation.

ConclusionMy own personal experience with certification is a positive one.

In spite of my years of experience, I did study hard for the exams. I read the Call Center Staffing book by Penny Reynolds, and also read most of the articles posted on the web site. I passed all three exams the first time around, but one of the three was pretty close. What I should have done more of was review the workforce management competencies. I should have looked at each one and really asked myself if I “knew my stuff” in that area, studying up whenever I felt a weakness. Because I didn’t do that, I was surprised by some of the questions. If I had reviewed the competencies more closely, I would not have been!

Because of my role at work, there weren’t any pre-approved projects that matched up to anything I was already working on at the time. For that reason, I think I spent a little more time on my project than most people would. But now that it’s done, I have something on the shelf that I probably will use in the future. As I presented it, I tried to remember that I was explaining it to a panel of people who didn’t know anything about the call center opera-tion in which I worked. I avoided jargon and acronyms as much as possible, and tried to answer their questions while remaining aware of my allotted time.

As a workforce management professional, I am glad that SWPP has created this certification program. It elevates the workforce management function and recognizes the professionalism required to achieve success in this part of the business. When I was a hiring manager, I knew that a resume that includes the CWPP designa-tion really meant something. It also provides some direction for the professional/career development of all of the workforce management professionals working in call centers all over the world.

Michele Borboa is a Certified Workforce Planning Professional (CWPP) and serves on the Advisory Board of SWPP. She can be reached at [email protected].

WFM Certification?Continued from page 12

Thank You to

Sponsors

Interested in becoming a sponsor?Call Vicki Herrell at 877-289-0004.

Gold Level

Silver Level

Platinum Level

14



Real-Time Analyst QualificationsIt is interesting to see that the respondents look for similar

qualifications for Real-Time Analysts and Schedulers. Given the common career progression in many WFM departments, looking for the appropriate qualifications to move up to the next role is reasonable.

Skills/Capabilities for the Real-Time Analyst track with the other WFM professionals with a somewhat reduced requirement for spreadsheet knowledge.

Report Specialist QualificationsRecruiting for a report specialist has similar educational

expectations as the other WFM professionals. However, experi-ence in contact centers, customer service, and even the custom-er’s industry are less important.

Report Specialists have a higher requirement for strong knowledge of spreadsheet applications than most of the other WFM professionals, but other requirements and desirables are similar.

Workforce Manager/Supervisor Qualifications

When recruiting a manager or supervisor for the WFM team, the bachelor’s degree is required by more than half and desired by most of the rest. However, the most significant differ-ences from the other team members are the requirements for experience in contact centers, managing people, and in WFM (all over 70%).

When it comes to the skills/capabilities needed for the WFM Manager/Supervisor, nearly every item is required at a high level with more than 60% choosing Required and almost all of the rest choosing Desired. Negotiating skills and oral presentation skills are required in over 80% of the responses versus the 50% or less in all of the other roles. Even knowledge of the specific tools used in the center is required in 60% of the cases, which is well above the requirement in the other positions (although nearly all respondents put it in the Desired category if not Required for all roles).


15



Additional Requirements/DesirablesSome of the additional skills/capabilities that are mentioned

by the respondents include the following, which may be specific to the roles within certain organizations:

• Project management (for the Manager)

• Budget management (for the Manager)

• SQL and Access knowledge

• Ability to analyze trends and make decisions

• Ability to understand and interpret the collective agreements

• Attention to detail

• Ability to multi-task

• Experience with ACD and other technologies in use as well as WFM system

• Statistical experience

• Ability to communicate with multiple levels of management

• Ability to handle high-stress environments and work under pressure

• Outbound experience

• Outsourcing experience

ConclusionToday’s workforce management professional is an educated,

multi-talented individual. While the initial requirements for hiring may vary some among the various roles in the WFM team, they are quite similar. This can support a strong career progression and back-up plan within the team as well. Clearly, the WFM professional of today is a key player in the success of the contact center and indeed the organization as a whole, and brings a wealth of knowledge and skills to the role.

We hope you will participate in the Winter survey, which is in this newsletter and will be available on our website soon.

– What steps did you take to communicate the results?

– What was the outcome? – Did you receive any feedback?

– How accurate was the forecast?Besides the normal analytical skills type questions that

should be asked, you can use a scenario question that helps get a feel for the individual’s capabilities around analyzing issues that may come from multiple areas. Ask them to describe a situation where they had to look at multiple pieces of data and determine which ones were having an effect on each other and what course of action (root cause anal-ysis) would they use to determine what would be the best approach to improve the situation. It may take some time to develop a response, but it usually shows how a person is

thinking about issues, whether one-dimensional or multi. A workforce manager has to be able to look at data and issues from a multi-level perspective to get a true picture of the impacts of numbers on each other.

The other area you might ask about is in the balancing of good customer service, with the need to keep labor expenses at a reasonable rate. Ask them, “What do you feel is a better situation — having more people than you need to answer calls, or not enough?” Look for an answer that shows they would try to balance that number so that there aren’t too many on either side. This tells you that they recognize the need to balance the workforce with appropriate staffing and also get the most from your labor expense.

Whether you are hiring a brand new workforce manager or someone with several years of experience, these questions should help you determine if a candidate has the necessary skills to be successful in our hectic, fast-paced world.


Have a tough question? Send it to [email protected] and we’ll try to find an answer!

16Visit us on the web at www.swpp.org

Society of Workforce Planning Professionals6508 Grayson CourtNashville, TN 37205

Join the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals

Become a part of an organization designed specifically to facilitate professional development of workforce planning professionals. SWPP provides its mem-bership with a variety of benefits, including this quarterly newsletter, regional

networking meetings, online forums, an annual conference, and more.Membership in SWPP is available to anyone in the workforce planning or related

profession. There are three distinct levels of membership in SWPP: individual/associate

membership, site membership, and corporate membership. One of these memberships is right for you! Membership costs vary with the type of membership. Prices for each membership are as follows:

• Individual/Associate Membership $295 USD

• Site Membership (up to 3 members) $595 USD

• Corporate Membership (unlimited number of members) $4995 USD

Membership applications are available on the web at www.swpp.org. Still have more questions? Call us at 877-289-0004 or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

SWPPWinter 2015

A quarterly publication of the Society of Workforce

Planning Professionals,

6508 Grayson Court Nashville, TN 37205

877-289-0004

www.swpp.org

Editor: Vicki Herrell [email protected]

©2015 Society of Workforce Planning Professionals

SWPP · trunks needed for inbound and outbound calling? WFM team IT department Dedicated telecom...

Documents

Transcript of SWPP · trunks needed for inbound and outbound calling? WFM team IT department Dedicated telecom...