Workforce Management Systems

What It Is

A Workforce Management System for contact center applications is a computerized system that automates and simplifies the following tasks:

• Workload forecasting and staffing requirements
• Scheduling agents with the right skills for the right job at the right time
• Tracking the agents’ adherence to their assigned schedules
• Providing management reports and analysis on agents performance in adhering to their assigned schedules.

Why It's Important

Payroll costs represent the biggest single expense for a contact center operation. That being the case, effective workforce management is a must for contact center managers to control payroll costs. The manual tasks of forecasting, scheduling, and tracking adherence to schedule are arduous and prone to errors, resulting in over or under staffing. A Workforce Management System automates and simplifies the process of forecasting workload and staffing requirements. It also schedules the right people at the optimum staffing level at the right time, tracks adherence to the assigned schedules, and provides management reports and analysis to ensure that the contact center is operating at maximum efficiency.

Resources

• Workforce Management: From Forecasting to Optimization
• Best Practices in Workforce Management
• Automating Workforce Management – A Guide to Acquisition and Implementation (PDF, 36 KB, 4 pages, October 2009)
• Managing the ACD Interface (PDF, 35 KB, 4 pages, October 2009)

Content Lead: Tonya Beres
Page Reviewed/Updated: July 30, 2012