April 2007
As workforce management professionals, we work hard to make sure that our call volume forecasts are accurate and that the schedules we create fit the needs of the agents and the center. So after all the work is done, we sit back and wait and watch the day unfold. And all our best laid plans begin to fall apart — agents call in sick, come in late, take their breaks at the wrong time, get stuck on long calls over breaks, and come back from lunch late. And the agent says, “I was only a few minutes late. What’s the big deal?” Well, we know what the big deal is, but how do we get agents to understand that adherence to schedule is vitally important?
Listed below are topics covered in this debate:
• How do you communicate and educate staff on the “Power of One” in the call center?
• Where do you find concrete numbers to show agents and management the implications of this problem on service, occupancy, and the bottom line?
• How can you utilize technology to monitor adherence and pinpoint problems?
• How do you change the “Big Brother” image that comes with automated real-time monitoring?
• How do you create reward and consequence programs that support adherence to schedule?
The Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) is pleased to co-sponsor this debate, which gives workforce planners the opportunity to network with workforce management software vendors and the users of their systems to share best practices, and hopefully get answers to some of today’s burning issues.
SWPP is an organization devoted to facilitating education and networking opportunities among workforce planners across all industries with over 700 members around the world. SWPP provides its membership with many benefits, including: member-only access to SWPP website; e-mail Tip of the Week; quarterly newsletters; regional networking meetings; online forums; educational offerings; a professional certification for workforce managers, and an annual conference.
Call Center Demo and Conference, an industry standard for nearly a decade, continues to add fresh content and new opportunities year after year to keep their audience returning.
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