Dealing with the unexpected What if a typhoon hits, as can be the case in tropical offshore settings, cutting power and making it difficult for agents to get to work? While usually considered part of disaster recovery and business continuity planning (DR/BCP), why not ask for examples of worst case scenarios—how staffing for unusual situations was accomplished? Questions for the workforce management team might include:

n Can calls be re-routed to other locations, including other sites and/or geographies?

n Will the voice and data network allow for global, next-available-agent call routing?

n Can agents in other locations still take calls in the languages required?

n How much notice is needed to put alternatives into action?

Looking at other scenarios, what if your latest product version is faulty and a massive recall is implemented? Or perhaps your product is so popular that you need “all hands on deck” to take orders. In both cases, immediate action is needed. Can the same disaster recovery resources be used temporarily to address sudden call volume spikes due to program exceptions? Requesting scheduling examples during times of crisis can certainly reveal a lot about the responsiveness and flexibility of your provider.

Planning for things you know

While stuff does happen, contact centers would fail without a solid workforce management framework. A good provider will identify specific goals associated with each step:

1. Forecasting: ensure accurate inputs are combined with the right assumptions

When selecting a provider, be sure to ask which forecasting methodologies are used for staffing calculations and queue dynamics. Proper planning involves long-term Staffing Forecasts (6 months out) coupled with short-term, detailed Scheduling Forecasts (up to 2 weeks out and at 30-minute intervals). Call history can be used to determine accurate inputs including call volumes, arrival patterns, handle times and abandonment rates. Identifying patterns, fluctuations and deviations, especially around holidays or special events, helps determine future staffing requirements.

TELUS International Global Outsourcing Insights

Workforce Management: planning contact center program ramps — consider the unusual firstA contact center’s largest expense generally comes from its agent population, making staffing levels a focus of management’s attention. From the outside, it may look like a balancing act. On the one side, you need the right number of agents with the right skill sets to deliver exceptional customer experiences, while on the other side, you need to control costs and achieve operational efficiencies. The goal is to prevent overstaffing while avoiding service level failures.

Over the years, workforce management has become very sophisticated. As a result, today’s RFPs often require providers to detail their workforce management processes and how call volume changes are handled. While important, perhaps more telling is how that provider deals with volume fluctuations during unusual situations—when stuff just happens.

2. Scheduling: establish stable agent schedules while controlling costs

The next step is to balance staffing resources against costs. Effective scheduling is important because it impacts so many areas of the business including service level achievement, employee and customer satisfaction, the ability to execute non-voice activities, and of course, the bottom line. The goal of scheduling should be to combine all inputs and aim for stable agent schedules with a small proportion of the agent population kept flexible to address changing call curves.

3. Intraday Management: establish a culture of disciplined adherence to schedule

Even with effective forecasting and scheduling, things can change quickly. Your provider must be capable of making real-time schedule changes to maintain service levels. To truly establish a culture of disciplined adherence to schedules, agents must be empowered to track their own performance and make adjustments as needed. In this way, agents see how their individual contribution impacts the operations of the contact center program and everyone becomes accountable for proper staffing levels.

4. Post-day Management: ensure granular visibility on performance to drive accountability

Post-day management requires review of the previous day’s metrics. Reporting should range from the short interval, granular level (e.g. 30 minutes) to daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly levels for overall trend analysis. Ideally, your provider should view post-day reporting data as a repository of valuable information for actionable forecast and scheduling improvements.

At the end of the dayWhen it comes to managing staffing levels, there are some things you know (like holidays and back to school volume spikes) and some things you just don’t. For the former, solid workforce management practices with clear goals can keep things on track. For the latter, having insight into your provider’s flexibility when things fall outside the box may be what counts when evaluating your contact center partner.

Learn more

As a premier provider of contact center

and BPO solutions, we successfully

manage call volume fluctuations for

several Fortune 500 clients. Backed by

a multi-billion telecommunications

company, TELUS International has the

financial stability and communications

expertise to support your business.

Our track record covers:

n Back to school programs

n Seasonal/holiday demands

n Product launches

n Marketing campaigns

n Program exceptions (product recalls, updates)

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