Workforce Management 123
Workforce Management 123, from QPC and the award winning Call Center School, is a fun and intensive 2 day interactive course that covers the fundamentals of workforce management needed to match contact demand with agent numbers. Whether you are forecasting and scheduling manually, with spreadsheets or using sophisticated workforce management software tools, this course will help you understand the theory of resource planning better and give you practical knowledge that you can apply to your contact centre to get workforce management right for your organisation.
The blended learning format of the course combines taught topics with single/group working and discussion. You will have ample opportunity to apply the forecasting and scheduling principles learned, using your knowledge to plan resources in several contact centre scenarios. During the discussion sessions you will also have the opportunity to ask questions on specific issues and learn from the experiences of others about their current practices.
Who should attend?
Workforce Management 123 will be of benefit to those charged with determining how many agents are required to take calls and managing resources into position to do this. Typically this includes contact centre resource planning managers and roles such as schedulers, intraday managers and forecasters. Individuals within smaller contact centres, where roles are combined, will also find the course of significant use as will those within Finance and Operations who want to better understand how planning and management for this significant operating cost is carried out.
Please
click here to book your place.
Day 1
Introduction to WFM
- Defining workforce management.
- The implications of overstaffing/understaffing.
- Why contact centre staffing is a unique kind of problem.
- The perspectives and goals of various stakeholder groups and how WFM impacts each one.
- The basic steps of workforce management.
Data Gathering and Analysis
- The role of data gathering in the WFM process.
- Identifying potential sources for forecasting data.
- The process of validating and adjusting aberrant data.
Forecasting Call Workload
- Defining the purpose and process of forecasting.
- The four major forecasting approaches.
- Calculating trend rates and seasonal factors for monthly forecasts.
- The impact of special events on the forecast.
- Calculating daily and half-hourly workload patterns.
- Identifying forecasting short-cuts and when to use them.
Calculating Contact Centre Staff
- The components of staff workload.
- Calculating staff workload.
- Defining service in terms of speed of answer.
- The steps of calculating staff needs.
- The factors that influence staffing numbers.
- Determining the impact on service when staff are added or reduced.
- The relationship between service and cost.
- The effect of size on contact centre efficiencies.
- Defining and calculating staff productivity.
- The relationship between 'bodies in chairs' and scheduled staff.
Day 2
Creating Staff Schedules
- The process for translating 'bodies in chairs' into a schedule requirement.
- Identifying the different perspectives that must be considered in scheduling
contact centre staff and the most difficult part about scheduling.
- The basic components of a schedule.
- Some creative scheduling solutions to apply to your centre.
- Discussion - the ways contact centre schedules are generally implemented.
Managing Daily Performance
- The components used to track daily performance.
- The process for intra-day monitoring.
- Identify communications and reaction strategies when alterations are required.
Managing Attendance and Adherence
- The service, occupancy and cost implications of missing staff.
- Options for setting adherence performance goals and selling to the staff.
- The reasons for attendance and adherence problems.
- Identifying ways to communicate and educate staff on the 'power of one' in
contact centre staffing.
- Reward and consequence programmes that support adherence goals.
- Software advances in adherence tracking and reporting capabilities and how to
justify them.
- Identifying strategies for addressing the most troublesome attendance problems.
Additional Workforce Management Challenges
- The factors that complicate workforce management.
- How staffing for an outbound contact centre is different to inbound contact
centre staffing.
- The implications of blending inbound and outbound calls.
- How multi-media contacts are factored into the forecasting and scheduling
process.
Automating Workforce Management
- The limitations of a manual workforce management process.
- Identifying the qualifying criteria for WFM automation.
- The basic capabilities and some of the advanced features of a workforce
management system.
Course materials include a comprehensive printed study guide and a software
Erlang staffing and trunk calculator. Morning and afternoon refreshments and
lunch is also included for both days of the course.
Cost
The cost per delegate for the 2 day course is £760 (ex VAT)
Current dates and locations
- 9th & 10th September 2009, Birmingham, UK
- 7th & 8th October 2009, Birmingham, UK
- 11th & 12th November 2009, Birmingham, UK
Venue and accommodation
The courses in Birmingham will be held at the Aston Business School Conference Centre or Faraday Wharf on Aston Science Park, which is easily accessible by road and rail. You can also stay overnight at the conference centre but accommodation costs are not included in the course fee. Full venue details will be confirmed on receipt of your booking.
Booking and more information
To book your place please
click here
For more information on the course please contact Sarah Lloyd
t:01352 705863 e:
sarah.lloyd@qpc.com