The goal of workforce management (WFM) is to optimize the deployment of the most valuable - and costly - resource in every contact center: the employees. To quote Brad Cleveland, "WFM is about having the right number of people in the right places at the right times, doing the right things". That won’t happen unless you optimize the shifts of your employees. Yet we often see contact centers using old-fashioned fixed shifts and rotas even when they have a WFM system that enables more sophisticated scheduling. Why does that happen? Why is it a bad idea? And what is the best way to transition from fixed shifts to optimized schedules?
If your organization has always scheduled its employees on fixed shifts or rotations, the move to optimized scheduling will probably be a culture shock. It is therefore tempting to avoid confrontation by simply recreating the legacy fixed shifts in the WFM system. That temptation is doubly strong where trade unions or workers' councils are present.
Introducing working time flexibility may require changes to employees’ contracts of employment. That may in turn require a consultation process or an intervention by Human Resources. Changes like this don’t happen overnight.
It’s common to find that some employees are unable or unwilling to move from fixed shifts to optimized schedules. Typically, these are senior, experienced employees, whose skills you don’t want to lose.
There’s no escaping the fact that you have to do more work to configure the WFM system for optimized schedules than for fixed rotations. Generating optimized schedules isn’t simply a matter of pressing the button marked ‘Optimize’. You need to set up all the constraints and rules that ensure the software generates schedules that are compliant with employees’ contracts, their working time preferences, the relevant working time legislation, and of course match the availability of agent skills with demand from customers.
Sophisticated WFM software opens the door to efficient schedules that match the supply of agents with customer demand, day in, and day out. Optimized scheduling is a win for customers, employees, and the business. When supply matches demand, customers spend less time waiting. If you have agents with the right skills logged in at the right time, you improve first-contact resolution. Optimized schedules reduce burnout and stress for agents by avoiding periods of under-staffing. And by avoiding periods of over-staffing, you improve utilization and therefore boost business efficiency.
On the other hand, fixed shifts and rotations are not aligned with demand. By continuing to use them when you could be using optimized schedules, you are leaving all those customer, employee, and business benefits on the table.
Legacy fixed shift patterns don’t provide the flexibility you need to adapt to changing business needs such as new product launches. They limit your options for coping with unexpected events such as employee absences. A good WFM system can quickly generate re-optimized schedules and reassign tasks to ensure that customer demand is always covered as well as possible.
A common misconception is that all agents want to work 9-5, Monday to Friday. In reality, some people actually relish working evenings and weekends. Take students, for example, who are often willing to work flexibly provided they can get shifts that fit their tuition timetable. By forcing them to work fixed shift patterns, you are reducing their job satisfaction and increasing the probability that they will leave.
Would you like some advice on making the leap from fixed shifts to optimized schedules in your contact center? From somebody who's been on that journey themselves? Our experts are here to help.