WFM
WFM
WFM
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Introduction:
Roles and Responsibilities
In order for an Core Functions and is not universal – in smaller
businesses the responsibilities
organisation to fully Typically, WFM tools require around each of these core functions
benefit from a Workforce three core capabilities. These can be merged and the role
are Forecasting, Scheduling and
Management (WFM) Intraday Management.
becomes more of a generalist role
as opposed to a specialist one.
solution, it is important In many organisations, these The following sections detail
that the project is not functions are actual roles in a the roles required for the
only treated as an IT Resource Planning team, where ongoing success of a Workforce
individuals or even groups of Management tool, and list the
project where a new individuals are responsible for each required tasks associated with each
system is installed of the core functions and role. Consideration should be made
are managed and given objectives
and the benefits are focussed on each of
whether it is necessary to create
new roles within the organisation
expected to be realised the required outputs. or to merge these tasks into existing
automatically. This set-up is determined by size and ones, depending on workload.
complexity of the sites concerned,
Successful WFM is as much about
people and processes as it is about
the software. A good WFM system
is an enabler, but it is the people
and processes that will identify the
tangible benefits, drive performance
and make the difference.
Through many years of WFM
deployment experience, Sabio is
acutely aware of the necessity of
involving Operations in any WFM Forecaster Scheduler Intraday Analyst
deployment – they are the key to
its success and therefore buy-in is
crucial.
Having suitably skilled individuals
with clear objectives and Generalist
appropriate operational
relationships is essential for effective
WFM.
The following sections will highlight
the roles and responsibilities all
organisations need to fill in order
to bring WFM to the centre of their
operations, and in turn, accelerate
the benefit realisation of having a
“Best in Breed” WFM tool at their
disposal across the enterprise. Generalist
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01 Forecaster
long term
The long term forecaster Tasks are:
should be responsible • Creation and maintenance of • Working with the short
for long term planning, a long term forecast for each term forecaster to ensure
ensuring that future queue, building in intelligence that the whole forecasting
from marketing or other process is aligned through
contact volumes and known influences. Queues to delivery, improving the
FTE requirements are to be forecasted include all process where possible.
forecasted and enough contact centre queues – i.e.
Frontline & Back Office. • What-if analysis and sizing.
staff are recruited • Capacity Planning – ensuring
• Working with the managers
on time to meet this in both Frontline and Back that each site / campaign
demand. Office to ensure that each is within capacity limits.
Incorporated into this role are area is modelled accurately • Providing ongoing staffing/
aspects of financial management in the long term plan. forecasting MI to the operation
and capacity planning – ensuring • Tracking and monitoring – e.g. identifying available
that budgeted staff and seat seasonal variations in holiday allocation by forecasted
management are accurately volumes and AHTs. skill, by day for the coming year.
tracked and predicted on an Updating where appropriate.
ongoing basis. • Creation and maintenance of
a recruitment plan / tracker to
Intelligence should be passed to
match the long term forecast
the person responsible for the short/
to ensure enough staff are
medium term forecasting to ensure
available throughout the year,
that both processes are adequately
highlighting areas of significant
aligned.
surplus/deficit to the operation.
This role would use reports and long
term ‘what-if’ functionality from WFM, • Provision of forecasting and
alongside excel based reports to schedule data to finance.
produce the required information.
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02 Forecaster
short/medium term
Primarily responsible Tasks are:
for the collation of • Creation of campaign level • Final cut of forecast prepared
relevant data to be forecast based on agreed and sanity checked before
used in the short term window (e.g. 4 weeks ahead). the end of the week and
This campaign forecast handover to the real-time team.
forecasting process, includes all media types (i.e.
creating forecasts within telephony, email, chat etc) • Working with the scheduler
to ensure it can be planned to ensure plan has been
the desired forecast accurately as a whole. optimised thoroughly for
accuracy guidelines. the following week.
• Collation of contact intelligence
The forecaster must ensure that the • Working with the scheduler
derived from previous
forecasts are kept up to date with to create reports showing
weeks’ data and also any
relevant intelligence applied so that following week’s anticipated
future events known about
the schedulers are able to create performance, contacts,
for inclusion in forecast.
efficient and optimised schedules. hotspots etc by day/
This role is responsible for the • Review and analysis of interval for discussion.
‘working’ forecasts in WFM and is historical contact, AHT and
Shrinkage data, normalising • Building and maintaining
required to create and maintain relationships with key
these forecasts on an ongoing where required.
stakeholders that have
basis, whilst using any intelligence • Tracking of ‘special days’ information relating to
provided by the long term process using forecast Profiles and contact impact – monitoring
to accurately predict the demand Pulse Notes and external this impact and feeding into
on each queue. This role works tools where necessary. forecast intelligence as well as
with both the long term forecaster reporting for
and the scheduler to transition the • Validation of shrinkage to future learning.
process from its initial planning to be used in forecasts (both
actual delivery. historical and planned), • “What-if” forecasting
feeding back into the long and impact analysis.
term plan about changes
in shrinkage behaviours. • Analysis of contact centre
performance via available MI.
• Analysis and calibration of
patience factor by queue • Attaining an overall accuracy
on a regular basis. of forecasts, recommended to
be 95% - 105% overall, with 75%
• Application of weightings to of intervals within +/- 5%, whilst
forecast where appropriate. being able to demonstrate that
the methodology used provides
• Scaling of weekly/daily the most accurate results.
volumes by queue.
• Editing and manipulating non-
representative call spikes from
forecast where necessary.
• Production of further “cuts”
of forecast based on new
intelligence at regular intervals.
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03 Scheduler
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04 Intra-day Analyst
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05 Administrator
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06 Supervisor/
Team Leader Support
Supervisor support Tasks are:
and buy-in are key • Working with the scheduler
to the success of any to ensure offline time is
WFM deployment, as preplanned into the schedule.
well as Service Level • Making requests to the Real-
delivery. The Supervisor Time team when wanting
agents to come off their
role should support the scheduled activity for ad-hoc
organisation’s planning events. Respecting the decision
of the Real-Time team.
processes, since they
will largely determine • Being aware of centre
performance (both actual
its success or failure in and forecasted) through ACD
real-time. reporting and through Pulse,
so that any requests for offline
time are sensible and realistic.
• Maintaining a view of their
teams adherence, ensuring
the team collectively and
individually maintains a
real-time score of 90%+.
• Dealing with any agent
escalations, before they reach
the Planning Team – being
able to train the agents on
correct usage of Time Off
Manager and Shift Swap.
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07 System Administrator
As mentioned previously it is
recommended to incorporate
the tasks from this role into the
Scheduler role, since it is likely
the Scheduler will understand
and provide expertise in
most areas of the system.
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08 Generalist roles
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