Workforce Management Featured Article
October 26, 2006
Call Center Scheduling: A Vital Element in Workforce Management
Managing today's workforce is no walk in the park. With employee skill sets becoming more multifaceted and as employee demand for more flexible work schedules and conditions increase, the dynamics of operations have definitely changed.
In the call center, workforce management is a vital part of its survival and having the right tools and solutions are necessary. Over the years, workforce management has evolved beyond just payroll and attendance maintenance to include solutions for forecasting, intelligent planning, and improved levels of productivity and efficiency.
One of the most important elements in workforce management solutions of today is scheduling. Call center scheduling not only helps meet staffing needs, but also takes the burden of maintaining schedules and workflows away from managers, allowing them to focus on business areas that matter most for their operation.
Call center scheduling tools can help staff agents based on their skill sets, their preferred work time as well as on call volume. Call centers are also able to use tools to plan break times, fit in training times and plan vacation times for all workers, without ever disrupting workflow or productivity levels.
More important than just knowing who will be on which shift, is the ability to plan ahead for events and make decisions that are intelligent and based on actual data from your call center.
With these capabilities, agents are more pleased with their schedules, productivity increases, downtime drops, callers are more satisfied because they are reaching agents who can help them, and both the agents and the call center benefit from a work environment that is more productive and less concerned with time-off and other scheduling issues.
A provider of hosted solutions for workforce management, Left Bank Solutions offers call centers, Monet-- a flexible, scalable solution that improves productivity in the call center by helping to see "the big picture."
For more information, please visit: www.leftbanksolutions.com
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Stefania Viscusi is an established writer and avid reader. To see more of her articles, please visit Stefania Viscusi’s columnist page.