Workforce Optimization - Evolution at a Glance

Workforce Optimization (WFO) combines the tools that IT service managers and agents need in one intuitive product. It outlines a set of strategies and processes that aims to achieve organizational success. Here are some of the means by which it does so: – 

• Improves the quality and efficiency of service teams  
• Enhances team satisfaction 
• Enables skills growth 
• Smart scheduling 
• Real-time and historical snapshots of team performance in a single place. 

A Quick Overview of components under Workforce Optimization

Teams 

Teams in Workforce Optimization are a type of KPI group that allows the bundling of assignment groups together to measure and track the performance of those assignment groups in one place. Here’s how – 

• Reporting Groups – Define the reports that make sense for each team.
• Primary Assignment Group – Specify each user’s Primary Assignment group in their user record.
• Agent Profile – Gain a 360 degree view of each agents work, schedule, skills and training.
• Managers – Specify each Team’s Primary and Additional Managers in the Assignment Group record.

Channel Management 

Channels route work to specific groups using skill-based routing to ensure that the right work goes to the right agent.  A service channel is a means of assigning specific types of work items to agents. Existing service channels can be modified and  custom service channels can be created. 

Channel administrators can set up service channels and work item queues which then automatically route incoming work to agents. Managers can monitor their agents’ work across all channels and drill down into the KPIs to analyze team performance. Let us delve into its features –

• Omni Channel Dashboard- Track Real time progress of work done across your teams.
• Monitor Queues – Keep a real-time tab on health of queues and act when required.
• Monitor Agent Work – View presence status of agents, their workload, and activity through the day.
• Assist Team Members – Drill down on work items and provide timely help to team members through work notes or chat whisper capability.

Scheduling & Forecasting 

The schedule module enhances the calendar management capability for the management allowing them to –

• Get a snapshot of scheduled resources vs forecast for each of your teams 
• Create schedules, shifts1, assign appropriate resources to individual shifts and schedules as well as view all details in a single view 
• Publish a schedule plan for the next schedule period by assigning agents to shifts by checking against demand 
• Manage meetings, training, time-off requests and shift swap requests from one single place 
• Managers can filter the members based on location, skills and assignment groups 
• Make intraday adjustments to the planned schedules and manage approvals through mobile application.
• Agents can set shift preferences to help managers with defining work schedules  

Coaching & Skills 

Coaching in Workforce Optimization is used to assess the teams’ abilities to efficiently resolve work tasks by reviewing their work at critical service moments. Let’s have a look at its other functionalities.

• Use the Skill Matrix to maintain the skills for team members 
• Decide what work managers should review by creating coaching opportunities 
• Configure assignment surveys and coaching groups 
• Create and assign training for agents to address skill gaps 
• Use surveys to apply consistent, measurable scores across teams
• Create opportunities for improvement through integration with Continual Improvement Management. 
• Use Predictive Intelligence to recommend skills for agents and provide training to address those skill gaps 
• Managers can generate skill review requests for agents to update skills  

Skill-based Routing 

Skills management is used to associate skills with individual users or groups in order to route tasks more appropriately. Skills-based routing is the process of assigning work to agents based on their skills.  Some of its other features include –

• Uses business rules to automatically assign work items to available users based on defined conditions 
• Identify skills required for interaction with business rules 
• Skill determination rules run on all new interactions 
• When conditions are met, the required skills are added to the record to allow it to be routed to the agent with the correct skills. 
• Common IT skills and Language skills are examples of skill rule types. 

Work Force Optimization in the current Scenario 

Workforce optimization will help to accelerate the productivity, efficiency and performance of the company’s employees. Many companies have shown a big jump in customer satisfaction and long-term retention post the implementation of workforce optimization. They represent your largest investment because hiring, paying, and supporting these agents takes up the majority of your budget. If your business strategy doesn’t include a significant section on workforce optimization (WFO), you’re at best passing up a significant opportunity. 

With so many benefits, what is holding you back?

For more information, please reach us at information@alcortech.com