Workforce Management - KM2 Solutions

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT (WFM)

Maximizing Productivity while Reducing Costs

March 2023

What began as a traditional approach to staff scheduling and time management, workforce management (WFM), has evolved into a critical operational function in successfully managing human capital and a game-changer for driving cost-saving efficiencies and maximizing productivity while fostering employee well-being. In recent years, technological advancements have transformed WFM with manual spreadsheet-driven calculations giving way to all-encompassing, AI-driven software solutions that integrate processes such as forecasting, automation, and real-time reporting. This article looks at some of the fundamentals of WFM and best-case applications in contact center environments.

What is Workforce Management (WFM)?

WFM is the process of effectively managing a company’s workforce to optimize productivity and efficiency and involves a range of activities, including forecasting workforce needs, scheduling employees, and tracking attendance and time-off requests. By optimizing the allocation of human resources, workforce management can help businesses achieve their goals more efficiently and effectively by maximizing productivity while reducing costs. Increasingly, agent experience and overall employee well-being have become a primary focus of WFM.

How is WFM measured?

As opposed to measuring productivity in dollar values, WFM relies on monitoring a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure that customer needs are met while also maintaining high levels of productivity and efficiency. Common KPIs monitored include:

Service Level: The percentage of calls answered within a specific time frame.

Average Handle Time (“AHT”) is the average inbound call handle time in seconds, inclusive of talk, hold, and wrap time.

Talk Time = the total amount of time a phone agent talks to a customer during an interaction as measured by the automatic call distributor (ACD)
Hold Time = the total length of time a call center agent places a customer on holdWrap Time\After-Call Work (ACW) = the time it takes to complete call-related tasks after an agent interacts with the customer

Occupancy Rate: The percentage of time agents actively engage in handling customer interactions.

Schedule Adherence is the percent of the time that agents adhered to their schedule as a percent of the total scheduled hours. The formula used will be:

Actual Staff/Required Staff = % of requirement attainment.

Absenteeism: The frequency and duration of employee absences from work.

These KPIs can be tracked and analyzed so a WFM team can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize their workforce management practices.

What makes for good WFM?

Successful workforce management involves a range of practices and strategies to optimize productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Three key elements of good WFM are:

Accurate forecasting: Analyzing call handling metrics, historical data, prior-day results, and seasonal patterns, among other factors, helps accurately forecast call volumes and required headcount.

Effective Scheduling: Creating optimal schedules that maximize agent productivity and minimize wait times for customers while balancing the needs of the business with the needs of the employee.

Accurate Reporting: Standardized reporting allows clients and stakeholders to look at and measure success in a concise, easily digestible format with no room for interpretation.

Good forecasting and scheduling are crucial to ensuring the deployment of the correct amount of agent resources for any function at any time. At the same time, accurate reporting gives clients essential visibility into the effectiveness of the WFM strategy.

What happens with bad WFM?

Bad workforce management caused by both overstaffing and understaffing can lead to a range of negative outcomes that can impact everything from customer satisfaction to costs, employee retention, and in some cases, compliance issues. Some of these include:

Decreased service levels: Low service levels, including long wait times and high call abandonment rates, can lead to reduced customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Employee burnout: Overworking agents can lead to employee burnout, which can result in increased absenteeism, decreased productivity, and, ultimately, higher attrition.

Increased costs: Overstaffing can result in unnecessary labor costs as more agents are scheduled than are needed to handle the volume.

Decreased productivity: Less work can result in long agent available times and a decrease in overall efficiency and performance.

Lower morale: If agents feel they are not being fully utilized, it can lead to decreased motivation and engagement.

It is essential for contact centers to prioritize effective WFM practices to avoid these adverse outcomes and ensure optimal performance and success.

What are the biggest challenges in WFM?

There are many challenges in delivering successful WFM. Contact centers are high-change environments with constant shifts in call and transactional volumes, both daily and seasonally, and usually with high levels of employee turnover. Some of the key challenges include:

Daily volume spikes: Sudden and significant daily increases in transaction volumes can occur due to unexpected events or marketing campaigns that drive increased customer engagement. These spikes can place a considerable strain on resources. Practical strategies for managing these spikes include dynamic scheduling of agents to ensure adequate coverage.

Seasonal changes: Seasonal changes can also significantly impact transaction volumes and vary dramatically depending on the nature of the business. For example, retail & e-commerce companies often experience a surge in the holiday season, while travel & hospitality clients drive peaks in the summer. Preparing to handle the increased volume during these times involves hiring additional staff and adjusting workflows.

Due to the complexity of these scheduling and staffing needs, companies must balance service-level goals with employee needs and preferences. Effective WFM can overcome these challenges by leveraging the right tools and strategies to reach optimum performance and efficiency.

Why KM² for WFM?

KM² Solutions’ seasoned workforce management team relies on years of experience across all verticals and program types to ensure correct staffing needs are being met but with a primary focus on employee wellbeing. After all, a positive work experience drives better performance, even over-delivery, while mitigating the risk of attrition. Moreover, WFM is a top priority from the top down. Leadership buy-in is vital for a successful WFM strategy, as its data-driven nature can sometimes make for seemingly uncomfortable decision-making. The appreciation for the effectiveness of our WFM approach comes from more than just within. The demonstratable efficacy of the program is also a hit with clients, who increasingly lean on KM² not just for their partnership with us but as a service to support their internal operations. Even at the basic level of adopting best practices, this approach to WFM has proved a transformative experience for clients. And by leveraging cutting-edge AI-driven technology and automation, KM² Solutions is establishing its workforce management program as a better, faster, and more effective solution than anyone else.

About KM² Solutions

KM² Solutions ( KM2 Solutions ) operates contact centers throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, providing outsourced inbound and outbound customer service contact services for voice, chat, email, and mobile. KM² Solutions provides these services to clients in financial services, multi-unit healthcare, insurance services, travel & hospitality, eCommerce, technology & telecommunications, home services, and other sectors. The company provides clients with a host of solutions, including customer support and care, telesales & retention, claims management & processing, appointment setting & schedule management, loan origination & verifications, back-office processing, and technical support. KM² Solutions maintains PCI DSS compliance, completes a SOC 2 audit annually, and has a Compliance Management System that meets the FDIC standards.