WFO Exchange

Workforce Planning in Back Office and Branches

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:00:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Workforce Planning in Back Office and branches and mentioned that I would be interviewing a number of people who have moved to Workforce Planning roles outside the contact centre. I have since been talking to a number of people from insurance, banking and government organisations and the below information is a summary of our discussions.

Operational efficiency has become increasingly important particularly in today’s unstable economic climate and so it is that Workforce Management and the drive to improve efficiency and performance has become an enterprise wide initiative.

One of the key differences however, for the Workforce Planners who have moved to these areas is the availability of data. In the majority of contact centres the technology to record and report on the number of contacts, average handle time and performance from individual to aggregate levels is readily available and in most cases has already been deployed. Elsewhere in the organisation this is rarely the case and many organisations are still getting this information through time in motion studies. A significant investment in technology is thus required in order to automate data collection however the ROI is significant and may be worth it.

In contact centres, forecasting is typically done at a 15 or 30 minute interval basis however outside the contact centre this level of granularity does not appear to be as necessary at the moment and many areas are beginning their forecasting on an hourly basis. This may also be due to the longer service delays and backlog that typically apply to back office processes.

Culture is another area that is significantly different. The ability to forecast workload, measure and monitor staff in contact centres has been available for many years however this capability is still met with resistance in other areas of the business so a shift in culture is also a necessity.

Speech Analytics

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 06:16:00 GMT

Recently I was in Thailand and Singapore and one of the topics of conversation that came up several times in both countries was around Speech Analytics. Speech Analytics is a term used to describe automatic methods of analysing speech to extract useful information about the content. There are many ways that it can be used including identifying why customers are calling, what their reasons for dissatisfaction are and what training opportunities there are to improve agent performance. This can all be done real time.

The focus on Speech Analytics has increased over the last couple of years however there is still a long way to go. In Australia only 7% of Contact Centres have implemented this technology and it ranks 28th in terms of top technologies that have been implemented. We are however expecting more focus on this in the next few years.

Of those who have implemented Speech Analytics the focus currently seems to be more around agents underperforming and identifying training and coaching needs rather than on customer preferences.

In our recent Workforce Optimisation survey when asked why Speech Analytics had not been implemented it came down to cost and other technology having a higher priority.

The key focus areas for Speech Analytics in 2012 are:

Use analytics to get a more realistic and better view of performance and your customers' expectations
Use the results to improve processes, staff development and training

On another note it’s raining... a lot! Not only that but tomorrow I will be attempting to walk 100km from Palm Beach to Coogee to raise money for the Fred Hollows Foundation. 3 out of 4 people who are blind in the developing world don't need to be and for $25 their sight and hope can be restored. My rain coat is packed and the challenge is set... I'll let you know if I make it next blog.

Workforce Planning for Back Office and Branches

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:43:00 GMT

Over the last couple of weeks I have received a number of emails from Workforce Planners who have moved from positions within the contact centre to back office and branch roles. These positions are becoming more widely available as companies move to leverage the benefits that have been achieved by workforce planning processes in contact centres. By automating many of the processes that were previously done manually in back office and branches, companies are able to save on FTE, improve their forecasting and reporting capabilities as well as leverage improved efficiencies and visibility of what is actually being done.

Over the next couple of weeks I am hoping to interview some of these Workforce Planners so that you can find out what they have to say about moving from Workforce Planning in contact centres to Workforce Planning elsewhere in the enterprise.

Don’t forget, if you are an Openwave customer, the Openwave conference will be held next week (22-23rd February) in the Four Points Sheraton Hotel. Details can be found here. Ronene will be speaking at the conference and we look forward to meeting you there.

New Years Networking Groups

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:58:00 GMT

Happy 2012!

This week Fifth Quadrant held Workforce Management and Quality Management Network Groups in Sydney and Melbourne. Thank you to IAG in Sydney and Suncorp in Melbourne for hosting the events for us. In Sydney, Matt McPherson, Senior Manager Workforce Planning & Optimisation at IAG spoke about the transformation of their Workforce Management team and the investment IAG has made in restructuring and training their team in best practice Workforce Management.

One of the things that was very evident in the Networking groups is that Workforce Planning has evolved over the years and planners are no longer involved in just inbound contact centre Workforce Planning but also multichannel (inbound, outbound, email, webchat), branches, back office and even retail. Although traditional Workforce Management skills are still required, other skills such as the ability to communicate and present well are equally important as Workforce Planners need to influence a larger group of stakeholders than ever before. The profile of Workforce Planners within organisations has risen and there is a lot more buy in from the top down about the importance of their contribution.

In 2012 Workforce Management and Quality should be working more closely together as these teams can each provide a wealth of knowledge for the other on what trends they are seeing and why. If Workforce Planners notice an increase in AHT, the Quality Analysts can give the insight into why this is happening and the teams can work together to look at options to reduce it.
Workforce Management is the key to providing an efficient service and Quality Assurance is the key to being effective.

Merry Christmas

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous New Year. I hope the sun comes out for the holidays and that you all have at least a few, fun days off with family and friends.

I am attaching a copy of our training and network group calendar for 2012 so you can make sure you put the events in your diary and come along. We will be running both Workforce Management and Quality Assurance network groups in 2012 and we hope to see you and your colleagues there. Watch out for more event details closer to their launch.

See you next year

Work with your HR team to help reduce attrition

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:50:00 GMT

In my last blog I wrote about attrition and different ways to analyse this in order to get a better understanding of why people are leaving. It's also important to work with your HR team to get some overall feedback on what people have been saying their reasons for leaving are in their exit interviews. This can help you understand if attrition is related to scheduling in any way. Communication between Workforce Planning and HR is therefore essential.

As a Workforce Planner part of your role should be to advise HR on the type of shift required so that new hires are recruited when and where the business actually needs them. It's also a good idea to provide HR with information around the benefits of different shift options so they can provide this information to candidates. When candidates go through the interview phase it is important that they understand the type of shift they will be working, the annual leave policies (they may need to work on public holidays) and what breaks, training, coaching etc they will typically have in their schedule before accepting the position.

During the induction training, someone from Workforce Planning should conduct a session on Workforce Planning explaining what it is and the processes for applying for leave, swapping shifts, adhering to schedules etc. They should also conduct a Power of One activity to help make this easier for new hires to understand. Make sure you provide your agents with some documentation around your scheduling guidelines and frequently asked questions so that they can also refer to this later if necessary.

Approximately one month after being on the phones it's a good idea to schedule a feedback session with the new hires and key members of the leadership team, including HR. In this meeting, feedback can be gathered on their experience to date, including the recruitment process, training, and integration to the phones. Any further scheduling related questions or concerns can also be answered at this time and you can use the information gathered in this session to improve many of your processes and hopefully help to reduce attrition in the future.

Attrition

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:37:00 GMT

When taking into account the actual number of agents that have left the contact centre in the last 12 months, the raw turnover rate of full-time agents in Australia has decreased slightly from 40% in 2010 to 37% in 2011. For Australian part-time agents, the raw turnover rate is currently 25%. In New Zealand, the raw turnover rate for full-time agents is 44% whilst for part-time agents the raw turnover rate is 53%. This has a large impact on Workforce Planning and was reflected as being the number one challenge for Workforce Planners in our Workforce Management Market report. Not only do Workforce Planners need to plan for attrition and build it into their forecasts but they also need to incorporate enough time for the recruitment and training phases to ensure that the correct amount of agents are available when required.

As a Workforce Planner it is important to understand attrition and to be able to analyse the results in different ways.

Annual Attrition Rate

The formula to calculate annual attrition rate is the number of staff that have left the centre over the year divided by the average number of staff employed. For the numbers in Table A, the attrition rate would be calculated by dividing 64 (the number of departing staff) by the average number of staff (181.5), resulting in an annual attrition rate of 35%.

Annual Attrition % = Number of staff who have left over the period/ average number of staff employed over the period x 100

Annual attrition is useful to know however there are other ways of looking at this information which may help to provide more information about why staff are leaving.

Internal versus External

When your staff leave where do they go? Typically this is categorised into either internal or external attrition.

Internal Attrition: staff move to other positions within the organisation.
External Attrition: staff leave the organisation completely.

If you have a significant number of staff moving to other areas within the organisation is it possible to create a business case for getting an increased staffing and training budget?

Voluntary versus Involuntary attrition

Why are your staff leaving? Is it because HR are recruiting the wrong type of people? By looking at the results of the exit interviews and comparing voluntary versus involuntary turnover you may see some trends that could be avoided.

Team Attrition

Do some teams have higher turnover rates than others? If there are teams with really low attrition in comparison to others, there may be motivation or team leading tips that could be passed on to other leaders.

Contact Type Attrition

Are some contact types more stressful than others and as a result is the attrition higher in those areas? If you find that certain contact types have very high attrition, you’ll want to know why. Is it because the type of call is more stressful or is it because of understaffing in this area?

Performance based Attrition

What type of staff are leaving, is it your high performers or low performers.

Demographic Attrition

Does it tend to be more male or female based attrition or within a certain age bracket? This again may lead you to look more closely at the agents who are being recruited.

By keeping track of your attrition rates and looking at the numbers in different ways you may start to see trends that can be avoided.

And they're off...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:20:00 GMT

It's nearly that time of year again, "the race that stops the nation" is next Tuesday and we hope you’ve got your plans in place.

Melbourne Cup is an unusual event:

It's a local public holiday in the Melbourne Metropolitan area and some Victorian regional areas however the race has an impact on many contact centres across Australia as people take time off to attend Melbourne cup events or watch the race

The actual event only takes between 3 and 4 minutes from start to finish which for most is the time of an average call

There is a public holiday factor (increase or decrease in calls) to be considered as well as a unique distribution pattern for volumes and AHT

The impact on the business depends on the organisation for example at a betting centre such as Tabcorp, you'd expect a huge spike in calls as people want to place bets while many other companies experience a drop in calls while the race is being run as people stop what they are doing to watch it

With all unusual events, it is important to ensure that you record the impact each year in terms of distribution of contacts across the day and the total number of contacts received. Some holidays fall on different days each year however Melbourne Cup is always the first Tuesday in November. You also need to consider any business changes that may have taken place over the past 12 months as this may also change the impact. Looking at previous years data, did Melbourne Cup have an impact on any of the days leading up to it or after it?

Take a close look at your staffing from last year. Did you have higher annual leave for people wanting to attend Melbourne Cup events? Was sick leave higher or lower than usual? Was there a drop in agent adherence to schedule that day?

The important thing is to be prepared and review last year's performance as much as possible to eliminate any surprises.

As a Real Time Analyst ensure you have plans in place for what to do if the day turns out to be different to what was expected. What should you do if you have more contacts than planned, less contacts than planned or less staff than planned?

Actions for the next day:

It is a good idea to complete a comprehensive post Melbourne Cup review so all information is captured to assist with next year’s planning.

If there was an impact on your centre, make sure you don’t include this day into your normal volume or distribution data as this will distort your normal pattern and day of week distribution. Either normalise the data or remove it.

A few stats for those interested:

The first race was help in 1861

The race was originally over 2 miles or 3218 metres

It changed to 3200 metres in 1972 as a result of Australia moving to the metric system

The quickest race time was in 1990 by Kingston Rule in a time of 3 minutes 16.3 seconds

The horse must be over 3 years old

The minimum handicap weight is 49kg - someone give those Jockeys some food please!

The total prize money for 2010 was AUS$6 million plus the trophy value of $125,000

Makybe Diva is the only horse to ever win 3 Melbourne Cup races in a row in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Ronene won money on all those races too.

Bart Cummings is the most successful trainer with 12 wins

So ladies and gents get ready to place your bets. In all the excitement don’t forget to ensure you have reviewed your forecast for changes in calls, AHT and staffing and be prepared for whatever the day may hold. Good luck and I hope your horse wins.

Noble Systems Acquires Openwave & ANZ Conference

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:46:00 GMT

I wanted to make sure that all Nice Customers are aware of their ANZ Customer Conference next week, 25th October at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney. This is a free event for all users of Nice products (including IEX and QM) and is a great way for you to find out about all the latest enhancements to their product range as well as ask questions about how you could improve the way you use some of the tools you have already implemented. It’s also a great way to network and meet other Nice users . For more information download the flyer here.

And now to the latest news off the press in terms of Workforce Management acquisitions is that Noble Systems Corporation, have announced the acquisition of locally owned Open Wave. The transaction includes all assets and intellectual property.

"Acquiring Open Wave's talent and technologies will enable us to offer the most dynamic and responsive WFM product in the global marketplace," said James K. Noble, Jr, President and CEO of Noble Systems. "We welcome Open Wave clients and partners from Australia and around the world and look forward to continued growth and success under the Noble Systems brand."

Noble Systems will offer Open Wave's ShiftTrack WFM platform to deliver enhanced scheduling, forecasting, resource management capabilities and more. The move also bolsters Noble Systems' presence in Australia, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. With an existing location in Sydney already in place, Noble Systems' employee and infrastructure footprint in Australia will more than double in size due to the transaction. Noble Systems will also take over Open Wave's EMEA headquarters in London and significant UK client roster with brands including National Express, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, TD Waterhouse and more.

With Open Wave, Noble Systems will add significant depth to its global WFM team, gaining more than 100 active client sites and a robust suite of offerings refined over the company's 20-year history of world-class service and industry-leading innovation. Over the coming months, Noble WFM and Open Wave clients will be notified of Noble Systems' global WFM roadmap, product upgrades and new features available as a result of the transaction.

"Noble Systems is the innovative, fast-growing, financially secure partner we needed to take Open Wave's groundbreaking WFM technologies to a broader global marketplace," said Nick Wagner, former Chief Technology Officer of Open Wave. "We look forward to joining a winning team and providing a seamless transition for our valuable staff and clientele."

Moving forward, Noble Systems' global WFM development will be led by Wagner. Noble Systems will maintain existing Open Wave office locations in Melbourne, London and Singapore and seeks to retain all current personnel. In addition to intellectual property and assets, Noble Systems will assume stewardship of Open Wave’s global client base of firms including Unisys, Qantas Holidays, Avon and many more.

Noble Systems Corporation is a contact center technology solutions provider based in Atlanta, GA. Noble solutions include advanced ACD and predictive dialing; unified contact processing for voice, email, and web; and integrated IVR, digital recording, messaging, quality control/monitoring systems, scripting, and real-time reporting and management tools.

I wonder who will be next…..

Breaking News: Verint buys GMT

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:05:00 GMT

Some interesting news on the Workforce Management front has just reached the Fifth Quadrant offices; Verint have purchased GMT. Both of these companies are global providers of Workforce Management solutions however GMT has particular strength in retail banking environments. The company said the purchase would offer customers an even more compelling enterprise productivity solution set that comprises innovative, enterprise-class software and services, a collective set of rich functionality, and domain expertise to help customers in financial services and other vertical markets excel in today's ever-changing business climate.

WFM is core to Verint's enterprise workforce optimization (WFO) strategy and solution set. With this combination, the company is continuing to accelerate its focus on and investment in solutions designed to help organisations increase productivity, reduce operating costs, and improve customer service and sales. Verint and GMT customers are likely to benefit from a comprehensive WFM capability across the range of interaction touch points, from branch banking, to contact center and back-office operations. Very interesting news indeed!

Fifth Quadrant 2011 Service Industry Minervium & The World Cup

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:49:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago we held our Fifth Quadrant 2011 Service Industry Minervium - Australia and New Zealand in Sydney and Melbourne and we were delighted to have so many of you attend. We also launched our Quality Network Groups that will (like our WFM Network Groups) be held once a quarter.

In spite of the fact that Quality call recording is done in 94% of organisations in Australia and New Zealand only 50% have fully implemented a Quality Assurance programme. As with WFM, a large proportion of the people doing the Quality Assurance have had little or no training on the software they use (28%) so I am sure there is a lot of room for improvement in this area. An average of 7 calls per agent are typically evaluated per month which is a little less than what we would consider best practice (approx. 10 calls per agent per month). At Fifth Quadrant we recommend that the same number of calls are not recorded for all agents but that it varies depending on their experience and skill. Those who are more experienced and know what they are doing need to have slightly less calls evaluated while those who are newer or are less sure of the processes should have more calls evaluated.

Another exciting event was my recent trip over to Auckland to catch a bit of the Rugby World Cup action. Now I know this may not mean a lot to many of you, but coming from a town and school in Ireland where rugby is indeed significant, this was extremely exciting for me especially as I was there to watch the Ireland v Australia match. And what a match it turned out to be! I personally think it was the fact that a shamrock, leprechaun and St.Patrick were there cheering them to victory. I have only just got my voice back! Well done Ireland.

Workforce Planners and their Training

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:57:00 GMT

Over the last two weeks I’ve been presenting at G-Force in Melbourne and the Government Contact Centre Summit in Sydney. It’s been great to meet lots of new Workforce Planners and to help answer many of your questions as well as share best practice Workforce Management techniques with you. From the feedback I’ve received, it seems that most Workforce Planners are self taught and have received little or no skills training in this area. This is consistent with our findings in the Fifth Quadrant 2011 WFO Benchmark Study which will be launched next week in Sydney and Melbourne. It seems that only 50% of Workforce Planners have actually received skills training in Forecasting, Scheduling or their Workforce Management software. It’s also interesting to note that only approximately 1/3 of the Workforce Planners in Australia and New Zealand attend User Groups or Workforce Management events. So how are people learning what they should do in this important role? It seems a lot of people have been following the processes put in place by their predecessors regardless of whether these seem to be working or not. Many of the reports used are being run because “that’s the way it’s always been done.” Google and the internet are other ways that people have been searching for information in the hope of finding out more. The most popular books seem to be Call Centre Staffing: The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management by Penny Reynolds and Call Center Management on Fast Forward by Brad Cleveland. These tools are great, however without networking with other Resource Planners and attending courses it’s difficult to ask questions and make sure that you thoroughly understand the different Workforce Planning concepts and are putting them in place correctly. Fifth Quadrant have recently partnered with the world’s leading contact centre training provider, The Call Center School, so that we can combine our local knowledge and stats on best practice Workforce Management and Quality Assurance to provide customised training to meet your needs. If you’d like more information, please give me a call.

On another note, we’d love to hear from you if you have successfully utilised a productivity measure other than a set AHT target. What are you using and how has this implementation gone?

I look forward to catching up with you on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Birthdays & Quality Assurance

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:12:00 GMT

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me! Here at Fifth Quadrant it's birthdays galore at the moment with Catriona, Will and I all celebrating our birthdays within a week of each other. I am the youngest…(wishful thinking).

It's been a busy few weeks for us with the launch of our Quality Assurance Survey. If you are not responsible for Quality Assurance please pass it on to the people in your organisation who are as we’d love to hear from you

click here to take part in our survey

From the completed surveys we've received so far, we are seeing that the large majority (8 out 10) have Quality Assurance fully or partially implemented and the rest have plans to do so in the next 12 months.

Approximately 1/3 of respondents perform calibration once a quarter and 25% don't do it all. Interesting.

Other news this week is that we met up with some of team from Nice who were over from Singapore. Nice will be holding an Insight seminar on 18th October in Australia so if you are an IEX User or use their Quality Monitoring Solution make sure to put it in your diary. More details will follow soon.

Have a great week. I’m off to celebrate my birthday.

Workforce Planning Team Spirit

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:07:00 GMT

This week I was in Brisbane for the WFO Network Group where we spent the afternoon sharing different Workforce Planning ideas. We were about half way through the session when I suddenly spotted Marko Sekulic's T-shirt. Marko works for Suncorp where, a few years ago, they created a Workforce Planning T-shirt (in Black or Blue) for members of the Team. Brilliant! Check out Marko modeling the T-shirt below. Apparently there's a new version coming out soon so I've asked the team to send me a picture through when it's ready.

The Suncorp team also have a team calendar. If you'd like to create one for your organisation the Suncorp team recommend this website www.vistaprint.com.au.

Love it. Thanks for the photos!

Survey: Workforce Management Market Report 2011

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:12:00 GMT

Deadline Friday 5th August 2011

Don't miss your chance to contribute to the Workforce Management Market Report for the region - Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Philippines. Following the demand for the results of last year's Asia-Pacific Workforce Management study, we are pleased to offer Workforce Managers/Planners and Contact Centre, Back Office or Branch Managers the opportunity to participate in the 2011 survey.

The 2011 Workforce Management Market Report will provide detailed information to enable you to better manage your contact centre, back office or branch by comparing your workforce management performance against the industry as a whole, and where possible the results will be compared to results from the 2010.

The report will include key information about the following:

Current market size and projected growth
Current and projected use of technology
Anticipated technology purchases and spend
Key Performance Indicators used for Resource Planners
Key Human Resource statistics
Forecasting trends
Scheduling trends
Day to day Management trends
Key Challenges for Resource Planners

Begin Survey Here