Overview

This call center training course focuses on applying necessary principles of workforce management to overcome daily challenges of forecasting calls, scheduling staff, and managing service levels in your call center.

Workforce management is the process of utilizing accurate staffing figures every hour to maximize service and minimize cost. It is one of the most important planning and management functions of a call center manager or a supervisor. During this training course, attendees will learn step-by-step process of effectively forecasting and calculating staff requirements, creating staff schedules, and tracking daily service and performance. You will also learn about the impact that each and every person can make in terms of achieving service goals for the day.

The training is designed around case study problems that cover typical forecasting and scheduling scenarios, as well as complications in today's environment such as skill-based routing, handling of other media contacts such as email and text chats, and staffing for a mixture of inbound/outbound calling.

By participating in this training seminar you will learn:

• How to Forecast, including a look at data collection and interpretation, as well as the recommended forecasting techniques used by support centers.
• How to Calculate Staffing required in a call center to meet service goals, and the many service and cost tradeoffs involved in staffing decisions.
• How to Schedule Staff, including the difficulties faced by call centers today in matching the workforce to the workload, and best practice options on scheduling the workforce and managing service on a real-time basis.

Who Should Participate

Fundamentals of Contact Center Workforce Management training course is designed for professionals involved in staffing the call center, balancing workers and workload, or meeting call center service level targets.  Whether you have a few agents or many, workforce management software or none, you will benefit from this introductory workforce management course.

Prerequisites

Attendees should possess a basic understanding of what a call center is, how calls flow into a center, and basic call center terminology. Course materials are in English, and attendees must possess a high level of English fluency.

Agenda

Introduction and Overview

• What is workforce management (WFM)
• Impact of poor WFM
• Contact center cost components
• What makes call center staffing unique
• Making the most of staffing resources
• Basic steps of workforce management

Forecasting

• The data collection process
  • Data validation
  • Dealing with aberrations
• Sources of call data
• Business drivers and factors
• Simple, moving, and weighted averages
• Time series analysis
• Calculating trend
• Identifying seasonal patterns
• Calculating day-of-week factors
• Identifying time-of-day patterns
• The impact of special events
• Shortcut forecasting approaches
• Calculation and formula review

Planning Resource Requirements

• Defining service goals: Service level, ASA
• Calculating average handle time
• The relationship between workload and staff
• Calculating staff workload
• Techniques for determining staff requirements
• Understanding the Erlang models
• Case problem: Step-by-step staffing design

Staffing Tradeoffs

• Factors that influence staffing numbers
• Service versus staff relationship
• Economies of scale
• Agent occupancy
• Consolidation case problem
• Calculating staff for outbound calling
• Calculating staff for email demands

Scheduling Call Center Staff

• Balancing contact center and agent needs
• Basic scheduling principles
• Calculating schedule requirements
• The impact of workforce shrinkage
• Coverage objectives
• Components of scheduling
  • Shift span
  • Days on/off
  • Start/stop options
• Schedule creation case problem
• Implementation challenges and tips

Managing Daily Schedules and Service

• Tracking schedule adherence
• Monitoring intra-day variations
• Tracking and reporting service
• Daily reaction strategies
  • Staffing plans
  • Call flow strategies

Managing Attendance and Adherence

• Impact of adherence
• Quantifying the impact
• Diagnosing reasons for non-adherence
• Adherence solutions

Workforce Management Complexities

• Outbound calling
• E-mail and other non-phone tasks

Automating Workforce Management Tasks

• Limitations of manual approach
• Qualifying characteristics
• Basic system capabilities
• Advanced system capabilities
• Cost justification components

Solving Workforce Management Problems: Most Common Problems

• Activities:
  • Basic staffing and scheduling
  • Telephone cost tradeoffs
  • Expanding hours of operation
  • Consolidation and skill-based routing
• Adding multimedia contacts problem

Course Review and Assessment

Accelerated Learning Option for Professionals New to the Contact Center Industry

Attendees with no exposure to a contact center environment may attend Understanding Contact Center Fundamentals, a 2-day course that precedes Fundamentals of Contact Center Workforce Management in most locations. Understanding Contact Center Fundamentals provides foundation information to prepare industry newcomers for higher level contact center training courses. To sign-up for the 5-day accelerated learning option, register for both Understanding Contact Center Fundamentals and Fundamentals of Contact Center Workforce Management back-to-back.

Registration Fees

The per student registration fee for this training and certification program is $1,695 and includes:

• 2-day instructor-led training
• All training materials
• Certificate of completion
• Refreshments each day

Class begins at 9:00 AM and ends at 5:00 PM each day.  Business casual attire is appropriate.

Register securely online with confidence or please call (708) 246-0320.

Seminar Schedule

May 5-6	Las Vegas, NV	The Platinum Hotel
June 9-10	Boston, MA	Sheraton Commander
June 30-July 1	Santo Domingo, DR	Hotel Santo Domingo
Aug 25-26	Chicago, IL	Hyatt Lodge
Sept 8-9	Atlanta, GA	Grand Hyatt Buckhead
Oct 6-7	Philadelphia, PA	Location to be Assigned
Dec 8-9	Ft. Lauderdale, FL	Location to be Assigned

Maximize Your Training Investment - Attend Courses Back-to-Back

The Art and Science of Call Center Workforce Management immediately follows these courses in select locations:

• Contact Center Strategy: How Leaders Drive Results
• Contact Center Technology: Topics, Trends and Truths
• Contact Center Metrics: Tactical Uses That Drive Performance
• Call Center Supervisor Training and Certification
• Understanding Contact Center Fundamentals

More Training and Certification Courses

See the complete calendar of RCCSP Professional Education Alliance Contact Center Training dates and locations.

For more IT, technical and field support training course options, see the RCCSP Help Desk, ITIL, and Support Center Calendar.