a ssWorkforce management refers to a set of processes and procedures that are designed to maximise operational efficiency and employee productivity.
Workforce management strategies include:
- Accurately forecasting labour requirements
- Optimising scheduling and planning
- Managing labour costs
- Enhancing overall customer service
Why is workforce management important for a contact centre?
When applied to a contact centre, workforce management can enable organisations to effectively forecast the volume of customer interactions – such as calls, web chat messages, or emails – and ensure an optimal number of appropriately-skilled agents are available to handle the anticipated volume.
As a result, workforce management for contact centres can lead to increased efficiency and productivity, reduced operational costs, and improved customer service.
What is workforce management software?
A workforce management solution is a system designed to streamline and automate the processes involved in workforce management.
For example, in the context of a contact centre, workforce management software will leverage historical call data to predict future call volumes and associated staffing requirements and then automatically create a schedule to fit this model.
Effective workforce management software will help you with:
- Forecasting: By analysing call data, a contact centre workforce management solution can accurately predict future call volumes, which can be undertaken at both an agent and team level for a granular approach.
- Workload management: A workforce management solution will provide intelligent scheduling and rostering capabilities to measure call volume spikes and shrinkages, enabling the system to calculate staffing requirements effectively. This helps managers to effectively handle their employees schedules.
- Reporting: A workforce management solution can provide valuable insights into areas such as punctuality, schedule adherence, contact centre agent activity, call volumes and call outcomes – empowering you to increase efficiency and performance further.
What are the benefits of workforce management for a contact centre?
From lowering costs to delivering a better customer experience, workforce management solutions can bring several advantages to organisations with a contact centre.
Here are some of the ways a workforce management system can benefit your company:
- Reduce administrative overheads: By automating functions such as time sheets, leave requests, and agent availability, workforce management solutions can cut the cost of administration management.
- Optimise scheduling and planning: A workforce management solution makes scheduling and planning more manageable and more accurate, allowing you to ensure your contact centre runs smoothly and is equipped for changing demands.
- Improved customer experience: Through effective forecasting, a workforce management system will ensure you have the optimal number of agents with the right skills, enabling queries to be answered better and faster and improving your first call resolution rate.
- Increase operational efficiency: Offering accurate forecasting and scheduling capabilities, workforce management tools can help your contact centre operate more efficiently.
- Enhance employee satisfaction: Equipping your agents with tools and integrations designed to streamline their work – such as shift scheduling or facilitating shift swaps – can improve employee satisfaction and create a happier, more productive workforce.
When to look for a workforce management solution
Organisations looking to achieve operational efficiencies and streamline processes in the contact centre should consider implementing WFM solution. Organisations that also would like to leverage useful tools such as real time leave management and task management should consider a workforce management solution. You should be clear on your requirements and what objectives you would like to achieve – this can include improving rostering, scheduling, reporting, or reducing administration time.
Businesses should also factor in the size of their workforce before looking for a solution. Contact centres with agent numbers above 50 will find the most value in a workforce management solution.
Want to find out how ipSCAPE can help boost efficiency and productivity in your contact centre? ipSCAPE works with various workforce management solutions to help businesses optimise their contact centre rostering and budget allocation and reduce administration time.
Learn more about our sophisticated contact centre workforce management solution.
ipSCAPE is a feature-rich, scalable cloud communication technology solution with advanced integration capabilities. We help businesses connect with their customers through multi-channel communications, including Voice, Web Chat, Email, SMS, IVR, and other emerging channels.