Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

Workforce Management Essentials

Name_____________________________________
Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

INTRODUCTION TO
WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
Overview:
The objective of this chapter is to provide introduction to the role that workforce
management plays in various industries. It delineates choosing and calculating the
appropriate service level goals. This synopsis defines fundamental steps of workforce
management and the most commonly used WFM tools.

What is Workforce Management?

One of a company’s biggest ongoing investments is in its people. Managed properly,
this asset can be the source of innovation and growth, competitive advantage, and
future leadership. Managing and Optimal usage of this resource can be broadly termed
as Workforce Management. Workforce management has evolved from basic needs of
handling workload to “an art of having a right number of skilled people with appropriate
resources in place at the right time to handle an accurately forecasted workload at
service level and with quality”.
Workforce management is all about assigning the right employees with the right skills
to the right job at the right time. Although that might sound simple, it represents a
complex business challenge. Many companies resort to pen-and-paper or simple
systems such as spreadsheets when it comes to staff scheduling. The consequences can
lead to expensive overtime payments, unproductive idle time, poor customer service
and untapped revenue potential. That’s where workforce management comes into play.
By optimizing, standardizing and automating staff planning
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Elements of Workforce Management:

 Forecasts Requirement: so you know how many employees with which skills
you’ll need in the future
 Work Schedule Planning: so you have exactly the right number of staff to meet
your needs.
 Time Management: To accurately determine your employees work time
accounts
 Analysis & Monitoring: To monitor your results against the targets and take
effective actions if deviations occur.
Good to Know Facts

Workforce management can be put into practice in

virtually any department of the enterprise. It leads to
tangible benefits and an impressive return on
investment.

Fundamental Steps of WFM:

Workforce Management is critical for success of every contact center. It requires
systematic planning and it can be summarized in the following steps
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1. Fix up service goals

Service level which is in the format “X percent of calls answered in Y seconds” should be
appropriate for the services provided and the caller’s expectations. Service level is the
critical evaluation parameter which is used as a performance indicator.

2. Collect and Examine data

One of the first steps in workforce management is to collate historical data which is a
representative sample and analyze it to predict future call volumes and patterns. This data
is easily obtained from the automatic call distributor (ACD) the data can be carefully
reviewed

3. Analyze Forecast
The forecasting process begins with gathering historical data and applying forecasting
models to this data to predict future work load. Annual and monthly trend rates are
calculated to determine seasonal factors. Following monthly forecasts day of month and
time of day factors are applied to get daily or hourly even half-hourly forecasts. This will in
turn form basis of staffing.
4. Derive Base staff requirements
This step requires calculating the right number of staff to handle call volumes in a desired
service timeframe. Different staffing models exist which can be implemented to take into
account the call arrival patterns and queuing scenarios. Mainly Erlang models are used to
determine staff needed.

5. Plan Capacity
The two important resources which require planning are staff who attend the calls and
telephone trunks needed to get the calls in the contact center. Capacity Planning involves
inputs from all stakeholders and detailed process results in getting optimum balance of
projected demand and supply.
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6. Plan Recruitments
Depending on the capacity plan we can understand our shortfalls in advance and begin
recruitment so that we can continuously meet our service level goals in spite of growth in
business and attrition.
7. Create and Organize Staff Schedules
An important step in resource planning is to create workable schedule to attain staffing
requirements. Base staff requirements are calculated and matched up with potential
staffing pool and its scheduling rules and constraints to design a schedule plan.

8. Daily monitoring and adjustment of real-time performance

This step involves actual tracking of performance against staffing and service level. Actual
call volumes, average call handling time and the number of staff is compared to
forecasted values to attain net staffing counts and make necessary changes to ascertain
service level requirements.

9. MIS Reporting and Post-mortem Analysis

The final step in Workforce management cycle deals with reporting and documentation of
actual performance defined by key performance measures and then presented to senior
management to provide vital information required for billing, improvements in process,
future planning and refinement.

About Workforce Optimization:

We have used the term "Workforce Management" to describe systems that enable
people to deal effectively with the complexities of forecasting and staff scheduling. While
this can increase efficiency, they are only one part of a more comprehensive solution that
increases the productivity and performance of your customer-facing employees. Other
essential components include strategic planning, budgeting, performance evaluation, skill-
gap analysis, recruiting etc.
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Hence Workforce Optimization is an important term that describes the practice of

leveraging the totality of these systems and practices to continuously align people, skills,
and business goals

Real Results

Real Results- Santos Inc. A major Australian oil &

gas company recovered US$ 391,000 in manpower
expenses as a result of more detailed time tracking
and automated error checking system

Understanding Service Level / Grade of Service:

A Service Level is defined as “the percentage of calls answered in a given time/seconds”.
Different managers can have different versions for example some may express it as 95
percent calls answered which would inherently mean a 5 percent abandonment rate. But
the correct format is “X percent of calls answered in Y seconds”. Planning should be based
on achieving targets and choosing appropriate service level is the first step in effective
WFM.
Some other terms for SL is telephone service factor (TSF) and grade of service (GOS). It
can also be called accessibility and service standards

Calculating Service Level / Grade of Service:

There are a lot of methods which ACD can use to calculate SL, the most common ones are:

 (Calls answered + Calls abandoned in Y seconds) / (Calls answered + Calls abandoned) It

provides a complete picture of what’s happening in the contact center.

 (Calls answered in Y seconds/ Calls answered)

This only considers answered calls and it’s not a complete reflection of all activity.
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 (Calls answered in Y seconds) / (Calls answered + Calls abandoned)

The least favorite of managers as calls which enter the queue and then abandoned, drive
down the service level.

 (Calls answered before Y seconds) / (Calls answered + calls abandoned after Y

seconds)
In this calculation the service level is affected if the calls are abandoned after the specified
Y seconds
Choosing Appropriate Service Level:
Service level targets must be more realistic and the ones which can be achieved. There
isn’t any industry standard service level. The correct service level should meet caller’s
expectations, keep abandonment at an acceptable level, minimize associate workload and
exhaustion, minimize costs, and maximize revenue as agreed by senior management or
the parent company if it’s outsourced work.

Response Time
Response time is the equivalent of Service level for transactions that don’t have to be
handled when they arrive. This makes response time the key performance indicator and a
critical link between
company resources and
targets.
Think About?

By eliminating 1 unnecessary lane at 40 lane retail business

with 200 stores through optimized schedules $ 15 million in
savings would occur annually.
6 days at 24 hrs per day = 144 hrs, work per lane per week and
$10 per hour = $1440/week * 52 weeks * 200 outlets = $14.96
Million.
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Important Points to Remember:

1. Workforce management is to get the right resources in the right place at the right
time by doing the right things, to provide service level with quality.

2. Service level (SL) is tried and tested performance objective for all transactions that
must be handled as they arrive for example inbound phone calls.

3. Response time is the performance objective for the other category of inbound
transactions, those that can be handled at a later time.

4. ASA is average speed of answer. ACD is automatic call distributor, abandoned calls
are those calls which do not reach to an associate as the customer disconnects after
getting into a queue

NOTES
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Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

FORECASTING TECHNIQUES
Overview:
In order to manage contact center effectively all the contact center resources must be
accurately matched up with the workload. So, effective contact center management
would eventually translate into: “Having the right number of skilled people and
supporting resources in place at the right times to handle accurately forecasted
workload, required service level and with quality”.
So, one can imagine that if forecasting is not accurate then the rest of the planning
process would also go off the mark. In this module we will learn how forecast is the
basis for determining staffing needs and requirements for other resources

Forecasting Definition:
As per dictionary definition, Forecasting is the process of estimating the future. In
business terms forecast is to estimate future trends by analyzing available historical
information. In a contact center the purpose of the forecast is to predict workload in
terms of the number of calls expected and the time it will take to handle them. The
forecasting process involves a statistical interpretation of historical data to predict
future workload.

Forecasting an Art & Science:

One looks at the historical data to determine patterns in the way people had called in
the past and considers possible trends that will affect the call patterns in the future.
Information is then broken down into different Months of the Year, Weeks of the
month, Days of the week, and Times of the day. After doing this, one factors in the
Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

handling times of the transactions. Finally the art part comes into picture, where in
obtained results after factoring in handling times are modified on the basis of conditions
which are anticipated in the future and had not happened in the past.
Forecasting Timeline:
One way of classifying forecasting is to consider the timescale involved in the forecast
i.e. how far forward into the future we are trying to forecast. Short, medium and long-
term are the usual categories but the actual meaning of each will vary according to the
situation that is being studied.

Long Term 6 – 12 Months

Medium Term 2 – 6 Months

Short Term 0 – 2 Months

1. Long term forecasts are done for a year and beyond and they are used for
estimating annual budges, establishing hiring plans and defining system
requirements.
2. Medium term forecasts in some contact center environments are done three
months ahead and are necessary for hiring and training plans and as well as for
accurately adjusting scheduling requirements, planning for holidays, and
anticipating seasonal trends (Month on Month) etc

The basic reason for the above classification is that different forecasting methods apply
in each situation, e.g. a forecasting method that is appropriate for forecasting sales next
month (a short-term forecast) would probably be an inappropriate method for
forecasting sales in five years time (a long-term forecast).
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Plotting Data:
Basic data required for forecasting would include the following:
1. Sufficient historical data on the past transactions
2. Data on past Average Handle Time (AHT)
3. Past data on Shrinkage
4. Once this data is validated it can be plotted to visualize trends or patterns.

Forecasting Patterns:
There are various types of patterns, which may exist in a single set of data.
1. Trend: The long-term tendency of a series to rise or fall (upward trend or
downward trend). Trend is something which extend, incline, or bend in a
specified direction

2. Seasonality: The periodic fluctuation in the time series within a certain time
frame. These fluctuations form a pattern that tends to repeat from one seasonal
period to another.

3. Cycles: Long departures from the trend due to factors others than seasonality.
Cycles generally occur over a large time interval, and the lengths of time
between successive peaks or troughs of a cycle are not necessarily the same.

4. Irregular movement: The movement left after accounting for trend, seasonal
and cyclical movements; random noise or error in a time series.

Repeating Patterns across Various Timelines:

All Incoming contact centers experience three dominant patterns in how calls arrive
1. Month of Year Pattern or Seasonality: At least 3 years of data is recommended to
arrive at seasonality. Seasonality means that there is a pattern in the data on account of
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the month of the year. For example, for a particular process February may experience
high volumes, while July may be the month with least volume. For some other process
this seasonality may be entirely different.

Cal l Vol ume 2006 2007 2008 2005

200, 000

180, 000

160, 000

140, 000

120, 000

100, 000

80, 000

60, 000

40, 000

20, 000

-
Jan Fe b Ma r Ap r Ma y Jun Jul Au g Se p Oc t No v De c

Mo n t h s

Other than few outliers (Data which seems to be out of pattern due to some special
cause), in the above mentioned graph, there is a seasonality pattern across all the years
for various months.
Graph: Month of the Year Pattern
2. Day of Week Pattern: As Mentioned in the graph further, in most of the processes
there exist patterns by the day of the week. As shown further, there is a pattern, where
in calls are maximum on every Thursday and Minimum on Sundays.
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Day of Week Trend

25

20 Week 1
Weeks

15 Week 2
10 Week3

5 Week 4

0
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Days

Graph: Day of Week Pattern

3. Time of Day Pattern: Mostly calls are lesser early in the morning, however they grow
in numbers with time, for the process illustrated further in graph, Calls are at peak at
around 1:00 PM, and then they decline in the evening.

Time of Day Trend

25
20 Day 1
15
Days

Day 2
10 Day 3
5 Day 4
0
00

0
:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0
8:

10

12

14

16

18

20

Time Interval

Graph: Time of day Pattern

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So, an important thing while forecasting is first to plot the data and look for various
patterns across time lines. Apart from looking patterns across various time lines, one
can also find different type of patterns in the data for a single time line, those are
discussed further.
Understanding Basic Components in a pattern:
a) Stable/Level

19

18
17

16
15

14
13

12
11

10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

b) Linear Increasing / Decreasing Trend

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

c) Seasonality
30

25

20

15 Series1

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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Steps for Forecasting:

1. Collect the historical data, along with historical events.

2. Plot the historical data to determine patterns by WOM, MOY, DOW, HOD,

Special days etc in the correct format.

3. Analyze data to determine patterns where they exist.

4. Forecast = Level + Trend + Seasonality

5. Divide the historical data into two

a. Data after correction for BAU.

b. Special Days / Events to forecast for similar days.

6. Arrived two sets of data should be further divided into two parts,

chronologically.

7. Create multiple models for forecasting on the first part of the divided data

8. Validate the forecasting models using the second part the data.
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Various Forecasting Approaches

1. Data Centric: It mainly involves Time Series (Stochastic) & Causative; various sub
approaches are listed further
• Point Estimation, Simple Average, Weighted Average, Moving Average, Single
Exponential Smoothing, Double Exponential Smoothing, Winter Holtz Method (Triple
Exponential Smoothing), ARIMA, Regression Analysis (Single & Multivariate)

Time Series: is the kind of forecasting approach which works on naïve or simple rules,
and it uses averaging approaches and time series decomposition etc. The basic
assumption behind this approach is that using the past data we can predict the future.
(In above list points (i) to (viii) are Time Series Methods.
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Causative approaches: include Regression Analysis, multiple regression analysis and

multivariate method etc. This approach is a more robust approach which establishes
links between causes and effects, e.g. what are the causes behind a particular trend in
call volume, Increasing Customer Base can be one, and so on.
2. Non Data Centric: This approach involves all the forecasting methods, which are
based upon expert opinion. One very commonly used method is Delphi Method.

Kindly Note: For this module we will only elaborate on the below mentioned forecasting
approaches for detailed module please ask for the advance forecasting booklet

Point Estimation Method

The simplest approach to predict is to simply use an equivalent point in time in the past
and replicate it. This approach can be illustrated by thinking about another type of
forecasting – weather forecasting. With a point estimation approach, a prediction of the
high temperature for May 1st of the coming year could be derived by simply using a
number from last May 1st as the estimate.
This point estimation approach has obvious limitations as a forecasting methodology.
Simply selecting one point in time to represent another future period is problematic in
that the selected data may have not been representative of the time period to be
forecast. In the example earlier the first part of May have been unreasonably warm or
cool, and not at all indicative of what early May temperatures is the majority of the
time. When applied as a call center forecasting model, the point estimation approach is
weak for various reasons. There is no guarantee that the past information being used as
a predictor is valid in the first place. But even if deemed valid for the past, the data does
not reflect any long-term change that may be happening in the business. It does not
provide for the fact that there may be an upward or down-ward trend in the actual call
history. Therefore, the point estimation approach is rarely used in the call center
forecasting.
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Averaging Approaches:
A step up from point estimation is the averaging approach, where several points of data
are used as a predictor for the future. This approach is clearly better since multiple
points of information are used, reducing the possibility that one invalid piece of
information could drive the forecast in the wrong direction. One can see how this
approach would serve as a better predictor by thinking back to the weather example.
Rather than just taking last year’s high temperature information, meteorologists
typically take the last 50 years worth of information to determine an average high and
low temperature for a particular date.
There are a variety of methods that incorporate simple mathematical averaging, ranging
from a simple average of several past numbers, to a moving average where older data
is dropped out when new numbers are available. The most accurate averaging approach
involves weighted averaging, where more recent events are given more weight or
significance than older events

First Monday of 2000 2001 2003

April
Call Volume 2400 2500 2600

Simple Average
So if the call volumes on the first Monday of April for the past three years have been
2400, 2500, and 2600 calls as shown in the above table the simple average would be
2500 calls. This number might be used to predict the call volume for the first Monday of
April next year.
Moving Average
A moving average is one in which old data is dropped out as a new information is added.
The moving average might be 2550 calls (dropping out the oldest data).
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Weighted Average
Another averaging approach may be used to account for the fact that some data may be
more reliable as predictors than other data. So in this example, we might assign an 80%
weight to the most recent number, with only a 10% weight assigned to each of the prior
years giving us a prediction of 2570.
But while the weighted average approach is probably the closest to what an actual
forecast would be, it still misses the upward trend in the data that simply cant be
identified and incorporated by averaging together old numbers. While these averaging
approaches are preferable to the point estimation approach, they are still lacking in
terms of their applicability to a call center business model.
Contd…
Date 8:00 – 8:30 volume
June 2 234
June 9 239
June 16 244
June 23 250
June 30 252
July 7 235
July 14 258

Assume that the data provided in the above table which shows the number of calls
received from 8:00 to 8:30 am on the last seven Mondays. There is clearly an upward
trend in this data, and one would expect the next number in succession to be a higher
number than any of the numbers in the table. None of the averaging approaches listed
earlier would give a higher number than any one of the single data elements. Therefore,
averaging approaches will typically not yield realistic predictions when there is an
upward or downward trend in the calling information.
Forecasting Average Handling Time:
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Many people focus too much on call volume, and not give enough emphasis to Average
Handling Time. However, as all of us know, that Workload is equal to the product of Call
Volume and Average Handle Time. So Forecasting Average Handle Time is also equally
important. And Luckily, Average Handle Time (AHT) also falls into predictable, repeating
patterns bracket.
When forecasting workload, it is critical to include accurate representations of handle
times. The handle time forecast should reflect the time of year, day of week, and time of
day, since call length may vary for a number of reasons having to do with business
variations as well as caller behavior. The handle time will likely vary by time of day as
well as by day of week. For example, AHT may be higher during the evening shift with
newer staff working the undesirable hours, or with callers that simply like to talk a little
longer during the wee hours of the morning.
Various techniques that are applied for forecasting Call Volumes can also be applied for
forecasting AHT. However before starting any arithmetic calculation on AHT, it should
be converted into seconds first
1. One should ideally first plot the data, after converting it into seconds and then
look for patterns, which may exist by hour of the day, day of the week, week of
the month or month of the year, it would also helps us in removing the outliers
2. Identify Average Handling Times for Different Call types. Arrange the call types in
the ascending order of AHT, and then if Call type 7 is more in proportion then
Workload will be high and if Call type 1 is more in proportion then Workload
would be lower.

AHT by Call Type

600
500
400
AHT

300 Seconds
200
100
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Call Type
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3. Assessing the impact of new associates and process changes would also help, as less
experienced associates often require more time to handle the calls, and as they learn
they can better navigate through the software and can finish the calls faster. It is
illustrated further, clearly the increasing experience is showing declining trend on AHT.

AHT By Agent Experience

600
500
400
AHT

300 Seconds
200
100
0
2 4 6 8 10 12 >12
Weeks of Experience

4. Give training to the reps to use the ACD (Automated Call Distributor) modes
consistently because reps are not approaching to every call in a consistent way and tend
to give different call times, for the same type of calls
Forecasting Lock-in Process:
While some processes have dedicated forecasting teams which provide the forecast for
capacity planning and staffing and scheduling, the others in the organization depend on
the forecast sent by their respective clients. Its is imperative that we have a well-
documented forecast lock-in process to ensure that the staffing levels are met well in
time to avoid huge shortfalls or surplus. The shortfall or surplus if occurs can directly
impact the centers revenue and cost lines

Most of the contact centers have a 4 week lock-in period. What this means is that the
forecast for the week 20 will be locked 4 weeks in advance i.e. Week 16 (mostly Friday).
The locked forecast is used by the staffing and scheduling team to derive the staffing
plan for the week 20. Some programs though may follow a longer lock-in period where
the forecast are locked 6-8 weeks in advance. This gives the workforce management
Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

team adequate time to plan the required resources in an even where there is an
increase in volume expected in the future

Calculating Forecasting Accuracy?

Forecasting accuracy is defined as the variance between the forecast and actual
workload.
Forecasting accuracy = ABS (actual calls – forecasted calls) / forecasted calls

This is calculated on half-hourly basis and is tracked by the planning team on a daily
basis.
The forecasting accuracy for AHT & Shrinkage is calculated using the same method.
The forecasting accuracy is reviewed on a weekly basis so that the planning team can
make changes in their methodology to improve the accuracy with which they are
forecasting.

Important Points to Remember:

1. Forecasting incorporates both quantitative and judgmental approaches.

2. Forecast should accurately predict both the component of the workload, i.e. Volume
and Average Handle Time.

3. Forecasts should be aptly adjusted for the existence of Holidays, Marketing Campaigns,
and Special Events.

4. AHT should be given due importance and AHT for all call types should be determined
also by the tenure of the employees in various shifts.

5. Patterns may exist at Hour of Day, Day of Week, Week of Month, and Month of Year
level, they should be known by plotting the data
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STAFFING PROCEDURES

Overview:

The key to achieving service level and response time objectives ultimately boils down to
have the right people in the right place at right times with the right resources. With a
reasonably accurate forecast, base staff calculations are straight forward. It needs
accurate methodologies which are explained in the module. We will also look at popular
myths about staffing and dispel wrong calculations. The module includes description
about capacity planning and Erlang C.

Introduction:
Running a successful contact center means managing by the numbers. Since over two-
thirds of contact center’s operating costs are related to personnel, getting the “just right”
number of staff in place is critical in terms of both service and cost.

Optimal contact center functioning requires accurate calculations of its two most
important resources. The first one is the number of staff, since that’s where the contact
center spends most of its finances and the other resource is the number of telephone
trunks needed to bring the calls into the contact center.

The challenge of staffing is the same, which is to get the right skilled people at the right
place at the right time. The first step in calculating network resources is to define
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workload. Workload can be broadly defined as the man-hours spent in completing batch
of work.

Understanding Contact center Workload

Staff Workload is simply the number of forecast calls for an hour multiplied by the
average handle time of a call. This handle time will likely vary by time of day as well as by
day of the week.
Inaccurate numbers can contribute to the understaffing or overstaffing, so it’s best to use
numbers that actually reflect time-of-day or day-of-week patterns. The workload number
is then used to determine how many base staff is needed to handle the calls.

Now it’s time to staff for the contact center. These employees are getting 400 calls and
each one takes an average of three minutes to handle – 3 minutes of conversation and
another minute of after-call work. Hence, have 1200 minutes or 20 hours of workload.
How many people are needed? Unfortunately, we can’t handle the calls with only 20
people. At 8:05, there may be 22 calls arriving, meaning all 20 associates are busy, with
another 2 calls in queue. Then at 8:15, there may only be 16 calls in progress, meaning 4
of our staff are idle. Those 4 people won’t be able to accomplish a full hour’s work, simply
because of the way the calls have arrived. In an incoming contact center, the work doesn’t
arrive in a back-to-back fashion. Rather, the work arrives whenever our customers decide
to place calls. So we have random workload instead of sequential work.
This brings us to the first math rule of contact center Staffing:
!!You must never have less staff hours in place than the actual hours of work to do.
So how many associates do we need? For 20 hours of workload, do we need 21 associates
or 24 associates or 30 associates? The number of associates required is dictated by the
level of service we wish to deliver. Obviously, for higher service levels we would require
more staff as this would shorter the delay and for lower service level we would require
fewer staff resulting in longer delays.
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Collaborative Capacity Planner:

Once a number has been determined by half-hourly intervals by forecasting techniques
(illustrated in the previous chapter, the next step is to translate the forecasted Full time
equivalent (FTE) in to a staff requirement number using a capacity planner.
Too many advisors at one time of the day when they are not required results in revenue
leakage. Then at peak times, when there aren’t nearly enough people to go around,
number of customers waiting in queue to get an advisor increases, also pressure on the
advisors taking calls increases as they get back-to-back calls.

• Accurate call volume forecast, AHT forecast

Identify & forecast
1 resource planning • Forecast of Staff-related variables (e.g.
Shrinkage, Absenteeism, Attrition)
drivers
• Out-of-seat activity budget and plan
Schedule inflexibility

Improving
• Syndication of planning output
Collaborate & sign-
capacity 2 off plan with all • Discuss capacity plan numbers with operations
planning
efficiency stakeholders • Sign off on final plan

• Analysis of forecast vs. actuals

Post mortem analysis • Analyze reasons for deviation
3 of plan vs. actuals
• Decide planning input values for for next cycle

The answer to these questions is Improving efficiency of capacity planning. There are
various factors involved in building an effective and robust capacity planner mentioned
below:
Factors in Capacity Planner:
1. Shrinkage: is the deviation from planned production and it is any time that you’re
paying staff to be there but they aren’t available for production. Shrinkage is a macro
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term used to describe the reduction is core staffing level at any point in a day / week due
to planned overheads, planned breaks, training or any planned activity. This includes paid
breaks, paid vacation or sick days, un-billable training time, team meetings, etc.Lets say
the shrinkage for a particular process is 30%, as per forecasts the process needs 20
advisors for a one hour period; the actual schedule requirement should be calculated by
building in 30% of the shrinkage factor into the requirement of 20 (20+30%=26 advisors).
This calculation denotes the 100% number needed to schedule so that when the
workforce shrinks by 30% we end up with 20 advisors. Overheads can be defined as a
buffer for planned and unplanned leaves. Planned and unplanned leaves as a percentage
are built in the capacity plan to inflate the staffing levels and enable people to go on
leave. Planned leave % can be calculated by dividing the total leaves allocated to the rep
by the total work days in the year.
2. Attrition: Regression of advisor base on a continuous basis can have detrimental effect
on the Planner. While the precise number of advisors discontinuing employment cannot
be determined/forecasted and built-in the schedule, based on historic data and other
factors, a projection can be made. Attrition needs to be built in the Capacity plan to give
an indicative view of how the staffing would look like some weeks down the line. The
attrition buffer depends on various factors line tenure of business, Complexity of business
and various other factors which impacts this metric directly. Ideally a contact centre builds
an attrition buffer of 6% ~ 12% per month.

3. Training Period: The training period for the new hires needs to be taken into account
and incorporated in the capacity plan so that the new hires go live at the right time
when the advisor base reduces to a minimum level of staffing which is required to
handle the projected workload.

4. Grade of Service: This characteristic is also used as a Performance Indicator/SLA in

various contact centers. It sets target thresholds for specific percentage of calls to be
answered within specific timeframe. For example, a target grade of service may be for
Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

80% of the calls to be answered within 20 seconds, and for the remaining 20% that will
end up waiting, the delay will be no longer than 2 minutes.

5. Occupancy: Occupancy is the percentage of time, advisors spends talking on calls and
after call work compared with the total amount of time they are logged in ready waiting
for calls to arrive. For example, in a half hour period, an advisor may spend 27 minutes
doing work (total of call talk time and after call work time). If this were the case then
occupancy would be 27 divided by 30 (as there are 30 minutes in the half hour), this
would equate to an occupancy level of 90%. Industry-wide benchmarks a healthy
occupancy level to be at 85-88% - if advisors are working at a higher level than this on a
routine basis, the contact centre is likely to encounter problems such as staff sickness or
turnover.

6. Seats / Seat Utilization: After the FTE or Headcount requirement is derived it is

important to derive the number of seats required to run the operations. Seats are
nothing but the workstation which comprises of the desk, PC with all applications
loaded and network connectivity and turret (to receive, dial calls). A very high
proportion of contact center costs are seat related cost and therefore this is extremely
important from gross margin perspective. Number of production Seats required can be
derived from the capacity planner based on peak staffing numbers in other words it is
the number of staff required at peak hours.

Outputs of Capacity Planner

1. Headcount Requirement
2. Hiring / Ramp Plan
3. Deviation – Actual vs. Planned for Headcount, Volumes, AHT, Service Levels,
Shrinkage, Attrition and Training yield.

Correct Staffing Methodologies

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Once the forecasting workload has been calculated and the average speed of answer is
established, staffing numbers can be calculated. Since the workload is random in most
contact centers the process of matching the forecast with exact number of associates
per half hour intervals is very difficult. Elaborate mathematical models that reflect the
randomness of call arrivals are used to calculate staffing requirements. The most
common one is Erlang C or its variations.

Erlang C:
Most of these use the Erlang C traffic model as a base; it was developed by A K Erlang in
1917. This Erlang C can be used in any situation to calculate the number of resources
required where people have to wait in a queue. The assumptions behind Erlang C model
are that the events happen randomly in a fixed period of time. Erlang C calculates the
predicted wait time for any situation based on three factors; the number of
servers\representatives, the number of people waiting for the service and the average
time required to serve each person. Now the actual formulae

Where:
• A is the total traffic offered in units of Erlang
• N is the number of servers
• PW is the probability that a customer has to wait for service

As with any mathematical formulae the Erlang C is also based on assumptions which do
not match the real world scenario. It assumes that if a call attempt is made and no
associates are available to handle this call, it will stay in queue till it reaches an associate.
Which means there won’t be any abandoned calls? In reality there will be abandoned calls
and resulting workload and wait times would be lower than the ones calculated by Erlang
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C. Linear Equation:
This is the simplest and most popular way of calculating staffing requirement. The inputs
required here is the Weekly Call volume, AHT, Weekly hours per advisor, Occupancy and
shrinkage.
The formulae is illustrated below
Staff Required = CV x AHT (Seconds) / 60 / 60 / WH / OC + SH
Where CV = Weekly Call Volume, WH = Weekly hrs per advisor (Net excluding breaks)
OC = Occupancy %, SH = Shrinkage %

To Recapitulate:
Before we start with our scheduling steps, let’s revisit the planning process.
Step 1: Choose the appropriate Service level and Response time objectives.
Step 2: Acquire and analyze the necessary planning data.
Step 3: Forecast the workload based on the types of work you must handle.
Finally Step 4: You calculate the base staff and trunk required.
NOTES

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SCHEDULING EFFICIENTLY
& SUFFICIENTLY

Overview:

Once the final staff requirement has been calculated, the next step in the process is to
create workforce schedule. Scheduling is more of challenge in today’s world as a number
of new trends have contributed to this complexity. In the following chapter we will outline
the steps of effectively scheduling and discuss the most common problems faced. The
chapter explains the delicate balance between service and efficiency and offers some tips
on getting that elusive “just right” set of schedules in place

Scheduling Overview:
• First step is to ascertain the current FTEs.
• Identify where flexibility may exist (e.g., hours may be changed)
• Check different shift patterns for example, use four-hour x five day, eight-hour x five
day, and 10-hour x four day templates
• Account for Service level goals especially if goals differ by week, capture this in the
analysis.
• Can simulate outcomes using software such as IEX.
• Identify gaps by examining results for over- and under-staffed periods and to make
manual adjustments as needed to improve outcome.
• Identify schedule outcome weakness areas for business (severely understaffed periods)
and associates (schedules with start time variability greater than four hours)
• Make adjustments and reiterate the entire process

Count Identify Identify Enter Model Identify Analyze

current hours of shift service- outcome FTE gaps/ efficiency,
FTE operation templates level goals with surpluses friendliness
Software
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Calculating Schedule Requirement

Let’s say we are staffing for a 450 calls between 10:30 – 11:00 and average handle time
(AHT) is 270 seconds (or 67.5 Erlang of workload) for a service objective of 70% of calls
answered in 30 seconds, we would need 72 staff to meet our goals (see the table below)

Number of Staff Service Level Average Speed of Answer

71 61 44
72 71 29
73 78 20

So, if 72 people are needed for the peak calling time between 10:30 – 11:00, does that
mean you schedule 72 people to work during 8:00 – 5:00 shift?
But if you have a group of associates that started at 8:00 it is obvious that they would
take a break around 10:30 and then a few will be calling in for a sick leave. So what has
just happened to the workforce? It has suddenly shrunk, hasn’t it? Hence you have to
take in to account the “shrinkage” or “overheads” factor when you calculate how many
people to schedule on certain shifts. You have to schedule enough staff so that when
the workforce shrinks; there will be enough bodies in chairs to handle the calls.

Creating Staff Schedules:

Once staff requirements are translated into schedule requirements and after approval
from management, the need is to create annual schedules. The process is very
challenging in the workforce management cycle and it requires authentic and accurate
historical data and judgment which will be better with experience. Let’s understand
coverage objectives such as peaked scheduling and balanced scheduling.
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Peak Scheduling Method:

The Peak Scheduling method tends to create schedules to cover the periods with peak
requirements, which may lead to overstaffing in periods adjacent to the peak period(s).
The amount and location of overstaffing is a function of work rules and staffing factors
(Overstaffing coverage factor and understaffing coverage factor). NOTE: If there are not
enough advisors to cover all the requirements, overstaffing may not exist; instead there
may be periods of significant understaffing.

Forecasted
Peak Scheduling
Scheduled Staff

100
90
80
Number of staff

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0

0
30
:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3
9:
10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

Intervals

Balance Scheduling Method:

The Balanced Scheduling method tends to "sacrifice" periods with peak requirements so
that over the schedule range for the period, a more balanced over/under staffing result
occurs (periods of overstaffing offset periods of understaffing). This method is also referred
to as "sum of squares" scheduling.
Subsequent to determining the number of advisors required for each slot and the staffing
method, defining the actual schedules is the next process; this includes formation of the
length of shifts, deciding the patterns of days to be planned work-offs etc. The call flow
arrival and seating requirement has to be assessed and analyzed to arrive at the most
practical and workable rostering pattern.
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Forecasted
Balanced Scheduling
Scheduled Staff

100
90
80
Number of staff
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0

0
30

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3
9:
10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19
Intervals

Apart from this, other factors like length of shift, days off, break schedules and other work
rules are to be considered while building the roster. What will suit the process better? 8
hours-5 days schedule or 3 days-10 hours and 2 days-5 hours? There are multiple possible
rostering patterns that a process can adopt.

Schedule and Shift Classification:

Once the schedule objective has been determined, the workforce scheduler must begin to
define the myriad of schedule possibilities to match the workforce to the workload. These
schedule definitions include the following components:
- Length of the Shift
- Days Off
- Break Definitions
- Start & Stop times
- Other Work rules
- Schedule horizons
Schedule Efficiency
Let us evaluate a three step process to improve scheduling efficiency.
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1. Structural Solutions -
• Schedule associates on shifts with flexible start time (+/- 90 min) to work around
variations in demand within a week (potential 3 % reduction in scheduling)
• Blocked staffing at a location with stable demand pattern and variable staffing at
locations with volatile demand pattern
• Target specific demographics for part-time recruitment

2. Process Solutions -
Create pool of skilled schedulers to create simulations on schedules and compare the
schedules on different KPI’s
• Leverage tools to generate schedules and roster all out-of-seat activities (e.g. training,
coaching, quality programs)
• Pooling teams by identifying opportunities to cross-skill associates
• Limit the number of teams that can avail common-offs to create flexibility in the
scheduling. Scores on shrinkage and floor losses can be used to provide preference to
better performing teams

3. Tactical Solutions -
• Monitor shortfalls in login hours of associates and use the compensatory login hours to
create flexibility in scheduling (e.g. Associates with shortfall can be used as part-timers for
peak periods)
NOTES
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MANAGING DAILY STAFFING &

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
Overview:

The chapter outlines the steps of tracking contact center performance within the day to
ensure that the plan is actually working based on realities of the day. It also provides
introduction to the role that Management of information systems plays in business
analysis and defines fundamental basics of MIS and Reporting.

Parameters to be considered for Real time Management:

Impact of each individual:
Everybody needs to be aware about how much impact each associate has on the queue.
When the queue is backed up every person makes a huge difference. The associates are
made aware of the queue information by providing details on telephone displays, wall or
ceiling mounted reader boards and graphical display on computer monitors. This
information along with adequate training for reps will help them understand the
importance of being plugged in and available to take calls when they are needed most.
Adherence factor, which is the measure of the amount of time reps spend, plugged in and
available to take calls, is used as a key indicator by managers to track associate’s
performance. Other systems used to save time are auto available and auto wrap up.
These can be programmed in the ACD systems to save precious seconds and avoid the
need for associates to switch between modes.
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Consistency:
It is important to ensure that associates maintain a consistent approach to handling
regardless to the queue conditions. Each rep has an effect on call load and subsequently
on the following forecasting and planning for future call loads. A practical way is to
postpone some of the after call work when the queue is building, this if defined ahead of
time can help in meeting your service targets without affecting quality

Accurate resource planning

To reiterate the importance of planning, no real-time management can ever make up for
inadequate planning. The planning process needs to be as accurate as possible. To
establish service level and response time objectives that everybody understands.
Accurately forecasting Call load including talk time, after-call work, call volume and
calculating base staff requirements. Planning for and managing non-phone activities.
Building schedules that match staff with the workload as closely as possible.
After considering all the above options real-time monitoring can bridge the gap between
planned or forecasted resources and the resources needed in reality.
The Real-Time Monitoring Process:

The most obvious way to monitor how well a contact center is doing is to evaluate service
statistics within the day. There are a number of service indicators that provide a picture of
how well the performance goals are met.
Some of these real-time indicators are number of calls in queue, age of the oldest call and
number of associates available. These indicators do not have an industry standard as
different size of contact centers will have variable threshold values for each of these
indicators. For example a small 20-seater contact center will consider 20 calls in queue as
a problem whereas a large 200-seater contact center will not even consider it as
significant. Similarly longest delay of the call represents a given period of time and
shouldn’t trigger a reaction in staffing but can be used to look at an over all service
Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

picture. The image conscious call-centers who pride on excellent customer service like to
know that one associate is always available to take the next call. These centers will not
have any problems with service level but cannot guarantee quality and will have higher
costs.
Let’s take a look at the following example with half hour staffing numbers
TIME ACTUAL STAFF NET STAFF
8:00 76 -4
8:05 81 +1
8:10 82 +2
8:15 78 -2
8:20 80 0
8:25 83 +3

The example is based on 450 calls arrivals and an AHT of 300 seconds between 8:00 to
8:30. 80 staff should be logged in and available during half-hour to meet an ASA goal of 30
seconds or less. Seems like the manger realizes that 4 staff are missing and pulls in
additional reinforcements to meet service level and results in overstaffing for the next 10
minutes. Hence it is important to set a target at half hourly intervals rather than 6 sprints
of 5 minutes each. It is therefore important to use caution and carefully evaluate service
picture before using these real time measures to drive changes and adjustments

Let’s take a look at how a variation in any one of these components might affect net
staffing and service

1. Average Handle Time: what if staff adhered to schedule and the call volume forecast
was right on target, but calls took 30 seconds longer to handle than planned?
Time Call Forecast Forecast Actual Actual AHT Required Net Staff
Volume AHT Staff Calls Staff
6:00 280 320 56 280 350 61 -5
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6:30 310 320 62 310 350 68 -6

7:00 350 320 69 350 350 76 -7
7:30 380 320 75 380 350 82 -7
8:00 420 320 82 420 350 90 -8
8:30 450 320 88 450 350 96 -8

It's easy to imagine a scenario where calls simply take longer to handle than planned.
Perhaps the computer system is slow today, or a different format for the billing statement
causes an extra question per call. Or perhaps this is the week a new hire class comes on
the phones and their longer handle times drive up the average from 320 seconds to 350
seconds. With this longer handle time as the only variation, staff requirements are
affected significantly. In the above example, staffing at 8:00 would need to be adjusted
from 82 to 90 staff in order to meet an 80% in 20 seconds service goal. If staffing is not
adjusted, the service level will drop to only 6% of calls answered in 20 seconds

2. Call Volume: Of course, things might go the opposite direction and workload could be
less than forecast. Consider the effect on staffing requirements and service level if the
marketing campaign doesn't go as well as expected and call volume is 10% lower than
planned.

Time Call Forecast Forecast Actual Actual Required Net Staff

Volume AHT Staff Calls AHT Staff
6:00 280 320 56 252 320 51 +5
6:30 310 320 62 279 320 56 +6
7:00 350 320 69 315 320 63 +6
7:30 380 320 75 342 320 68 +7
8:00 420 320 82 378 320 75 +7
8:30 450 320 88 405 320 80 +8
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This time at 8:00, only 75 staff will be needed instead of the 82 that are scheduled to
work. With everyone on the phones, service level will be 98% in 20 seconds. And while
that's great from a service perspective, the overstaffing represents an unnecessary
expense.

2. Absenteeism: An Associate is considered absent if he/she does not show up for work
as per his/her work schedule i.e. Let us say an associate is schedule to work from 8am
to 5pm. If the associate arrives anytime before the shift end time he should be marked
as present for attendance records and the loss of production time will be recorded as
‘lateness’ in the associate tardiness report. However if the associate comes to work
after 5pm or doesn’t show up is marked as absent. If the absence is informed and
approved by the supervisor, the associate is marked as informed leave. If the associate
has informed the supervisor about the absence however it is not approved the same
shall be considered as un-informed absenteeism and will be marked as informed LOP
(Loss of Pay). If there is no information about the associate’s absence on a scheduled
day of work, then this is considered as un-informed Loss of Pay or a “no show”.
Attendance Tracker:
Attendance details need to be captured and stored in the ‘Attendance Tracker’. Following
details must be captured.
1. Date
2. Associate Name
3. Team Leader Name
4. Scheduled Shift time
5. Absence type: ILOP, LOP (no show), ECL (Emergency Casual Leave), Sick Leave etc.

The Attendance tracker provides valuable trends on Absenteeism which should be used
while planning capacity, workload or schedules. Following trends should be provided by
the MI team to track and monitor attendance.
• Shift wise absenteeism
• Team wise absenteeism
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• Day wise Absenteeism

Tracking Schedule Adherence:
Since one of the three factors to track by half-hour is staffing, a critical piece of the daily
management plan is tracking and managing schedule adherence. You'll want to match up
real-time status and work state information from the ACD against planned schedules and
daily schedule exceptions to effectively track whether staff members are doing what
they're supposed to be doing.
Historical information about adherence and compliance is useful, but what's really needed
in an intra-day environment is real-time adherence information. These real-time
adherence systems can take real-time status messages from the ACD and compare to an
associate's work schedule for the day. Any variations that exceed user-set thresholds are
reported immediately.
For example, suppose Sarah’s supervisor has set a five-minute "grace period" for getting
back from breaks and lunches. Sarah is scheduled for a break from 10:30 - 10:45. As long
as Sarah is back by 10:50, nothing is reported. But at 10:51, if Sarah isn't logged back in
and available, her name pops up on screen as out of adherence
Reaction Options
Once everyone that needs to know has been contacted about a service situation, the
final step is to implement a reaction strategy. Like the communications plan the reaction
strategies need to be in place for different service situations – both understaffing and
overstaffing, so contact center has time to react in time to make a meaningful
difference in service delivery.
Selecting a strategy depends upon answers to the following questions:
• How severe is the problem?
It is important to know how significant the problem is in terms of staffing and impact on
service and occupancy.
• What is the impact of service level to customers?
A quick “what if” analysis should show the impact on service of any understaffing or
overstaffing contact center
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• Can you fix the cause rather than react?

Staffing changes – Understaffing problems

Common staffing reaction strategies for understaffing include:
• Have supervisors or other staff take calls
Sometime having more bodies in chairs can make a big difference in clearing the queue
and if the only available extras are supervisors or team leaders then be so. The
advantage is expert call handling which helps in clearing the queue but this leads to non
availability of supervisors to tackle problems or handle escalations.
• Delay meetings or training
As long as the problem is temporary one, then delaying team meeting or training is
feasible option as these can be rescheduled at a later time.
• Delay after call work
Another option is to delay the after call work for a later time which helps in easing the
queue and maintain a healthy service level.

Technology Changes – Understaffing Problems

In addition to staffing changes, alternative technology solutions can be deployed to
assist in periods of understaffing.
• Re-routing calls to other sites or groups
This is possible where contact centers have multiple sites handling similar calls, so if one
center is understaffed the calls can be routed to another well staffed center.
• Adjusting delay announcements
This is to inform callers about the delay in answering and the waiting times or even
reasons for the delay. This helps callers to know about how long they are expected to
wait till they reach an advisor.
• Changing ring delay settings
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This is to change the caller’s perception of the wait time by extending the number of
rings before a caller is placed in the ACD. However it doesn’t affect the overall wait
time.
• Invoking other technologies such as IVR or callback messaging

Staffing Changes – Overstaffing Problems

As seen in an earlier example, sometimes the adjustments need to go the other way. In
cases where overstaffing is apparent, the following reaction strategies might be used:
• Do spontaneous training or Schedule team meetings
There never enough time to coach or train this is the ideal time to get some training done
or conduct team meeting rather than at a peak hours.
• Catch up on paperwork
Abundance of staff means several can be pulled to do other work like correspondence or
reply to emails.
• Make proactive outbound calls
Associates may be asked to call existing customers to promote new products and
generate revenue rather than waiting for calls.
• Offer time off without pay
Some contact centers do offer time off without pay for temporary or hourly paid
associates. This can save personnel costs and it can be a welcome time off even for the
staff.
Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

Management Information System & Business Reporting:

A management information system (MIS) is a system or process that provides the
information necessary to manage an organization effectively. MIS and the information it
generates are generally considered essential components of rational and reasonable
business decisions. Management Information Systems (MIS) is the term given to the
discipline focused on the integration of computer systems for providing information to
support operations, management and decision making functions in an organization. The
development and management of information technology tools assists executives and the
general workforce in performing any tasks related to the processing of information.

Applications of MIS:
With computers being as omnipresent as they are today, there's hardly any large business
that does not rely extensively on their IT systems. However, there are several specific
fields in which MIS has become precious and irreplaceable.
• Strategy Support
While computers cannot create business strategies by themselves they can assist
management in understanding the effects of their strategies, and help enable effective
decision-making. MIS systems can be used to transform data into information useful for
decision making.
• Data Processing
Not only do MIS systems allow for the collation of vast amounts of business data, but they
also provide a valuable time saving benefit to the workforce. Where in the past business
information had to be manually processed for filing and analysis it can now be entered
quickly and easily onto a computer by a data processor, allowing for faster decision
making and quicker reflexes for the enterprise as a whole.
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Assessing Vulnerability to MIS Risk

The usefulness of MIS is hindered whenever one or more of these elements are
compromised.
Timelines:
To simplify prompt decision making, an institution's MIS should be capable of providing
and distributing current information to appropriate users. Information systems should be
designed to expedite reporting of information. The system should be able to quickly
collect and edit data, summarize results, and be able to adjust and correct errors
promptly.
Accuracy
A sound system of automated and manual internal controls must exist throughout all
information systems processing activities. Information should receive appropriate editing,
balancing, and internal control checks. A comprehensive internal and external audit
program should be employed to ensure the adequacy of internal controls
Consistency
To be reliable, data should be processed and compiled consistently and uniformly.
Variations in how data is collected and reported can distort information and trend
analysis. These procedures should be well defined and documented, clearly
communicated to appropriate employees, and should include an effective monitoring
system.
Completeness
Decision makers need complete and relevant information in a summarized form. Reports
should be designed to eliminate clutter and colossal details, thereby avoiding
"information overload."

Relevance
Information provided to management must be relevant. Information that is inappropriate,
unnecessary, or too detailed for effective decision making is worthless. MIS must be
appropriate to support the management level.
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Benefits of MIS
The field of MIS can deliver a great many benefits to enterprises such as

• Core Competencies
MIS systems provide the tools necessary to gain a better understanding of the market as
well as a better understanding of the enterprise itself giving corporation as added
advantage.

• Enhance Supply Chain Management

Improved reporting of business processes leads inevitably to a more streamlined
production process

• Quick Reflexes
Better MIS systems enable an enterprise to react more quickly to their environment,
enabling them to push out ahead of the competition and produce a better service

Types of Reports:
• Operations/ Associate Activity Reporting
The most common of all reporting includes half hour or an hour reports for each associate
based on the log on, extension identification or the advisors name.

• Senior Management Reports

KPI’s are measures that indicate the success for the business. These KPI’s will often be the
assumptions contained in the business, such as staff occupancy and contact rates. When a
business case is presented its is useful to present these metrics that the senior
management has to understand what will drive the performance in future

• Dashboards:
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It presents a range of different indicators on one page. They are usually pre-defined
reports with static elements and fixed structure.

• Balance Scorecards:
NOTES
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Important Definitions and Business levers:

Average Handling time (AHT)
Formula: - Average talk time + Average Hold Time + Average after Call Work or Wrap time

Associates Available for Production

Associates on BAU rolls - Associates on weekly offs.

Average Hold Time

It is the time when caller is put on hold by the associate, either for transferring a call or for
clarification of any query from some TL of Quality Associate.
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Workload / Call Load

Volume of Transactions x Average Handle Time

Schedule Adherence
Actual time spent vs. planned activities within the shift window.
Associate Yield
Number of hours an associate delivered as compared to the target hours.
Formulae: - Productive Time / Staffed time
Productive time includes Talk, Wrap, Hold / Transfer time, billable idle (Available), billable
training and any other billable time.

Occupancy
Measured as the time an associate has been productive talking to the customer / making a
contact out of the total production time and idle time.
Occupancy %:- (Production time) / (Production time + Idle time)
*COPC Definition:- An efficiency metric typically calculated by dividing the total amount of
time an associate spends performing productive work (Talk, Hold, ACW) divided by the total
number of hours the associate is logged into the system (Talk, Hold, ACW, plus available for
a call)

Login hour / Associate / Day

Productive Hours delivered by an associate during his/her shift in a day logged onto the
system

Login days per associate per month

Number of days an associate has logged in for service delivery in a calendar month.
This is arrived after deducting all the week offs, entitled leaves, public holidays, planned
training (10 days)

Leakage
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Percentage of associates who are present as per attendance but have not logged in for
service delivery

Attrition
Percentage of people who have left the company
*COPC Definition: - Voluntary or involuntary staff separations.
Span of Control Ratio
The number of employees who are reporting directly to one supervisor

FTE to HC Ratio
Derived number of associates required for service delivery after banking in Shrinkage on
head count.

Training Yield
Difference between number of associates on second day of training and the number of
associates hitting production

Scheduling Index
Absolute sum of overs and unders between the required and scheduled FTE

Forecasting Index
Difference between the forecast and actual volumes
(*COPC: Customer Operations Performance Center Inc)
Firstsource Workforce Management Training Series

ANNEXURE B – BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brad Cleveland & Julia Mayben (2002) Call Center Management on Fast Forward:
Succeeding in today’s dynamic inbound environment

Gordon B Davis & Margrethe H Olson (2000) Management Information System: Conceptual
foundation structure and development

Penny Reynolds (2006) Call Center Staffing: A complete, practical guide to workforce
management

Natalie Calvert (2004) Grower Handbook of Call Center and Contact Center Management

Sandeep Gulati, Scott A Malcolm (2001) Call Center Scheduling Technology Evaluation Using
Simulation - In Proceedings of the 2001 Winter Simulation Conference

Alex Fukunaga et al (2002) Staff Scheduling for Inbound Call Center and Customer Contact
Center, Blue Pumpkin Software

Forecasting Fundamentals: The art and science of predicting call center workload – An
Article by Penny Reynolds, the call center school

The Math of Call Center Staffing: Calculating resource requirement and understanding staff
and service tradeoffs – An article by Penny Reynolds, the call center school

The Power of One in Call Center Staffing – An Article by Penny Reynolds, SWPP

Understanding Associate Occupancy – An Article by Penny Reynolds, the call center school