Meeting the Workforce Management Challenges of the 21 st Century:

1. Northwest Call Center Group Meeting the Workforce Management Challenges of the 21st Century: Presented by:

2. Your Seminar Leaders Penny Reynoldsis a Founding Partner of The Call Center School where she heads up curriculum development. She develops and teaches courses on a wide variety of call center topics, including workforce management, performance measurement, and call center technologies. Penny is a popular speaker at industry conferences and association meetings and a frequent contributor to industry trade publications. Her articles have appeared in print publications such as Customer Interface, Customer Interaction Solutions, and Customer Support Management, and on-line sources such as ICCM Weekly, New Frontiers, SourceCRM, and Workforce Weekly. She has recently published a book entitled Call Center Staffing: The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management and has also co-authored the five textbooks for University of Phoenix’s call center certification program. An honors graduate of Vanderbilt University, Penny was one of the first recipients of Call Center Magazine’s prestigious Call Center Pioneer award. penny.reynolds@thecallcenterschool.com 615-812-8410

3. Session Overview • Identify the eight main workforce management challenges associated with today’s call center. • Describe the primary issues that complicate the workforce management process. • Outline potential solutions and alternatives for addressing some of these challenges and problems. In this session, you will :

4. Audience Poll • What are your biggest workforce management challenges? Let’s Take a Vote!

5. WFM Challenges Hiring Freeze Increasing Accessibility Cutting Costs Managing Attendance & Adherence Designing Effective Schedules Attracting and Retaining Staff Managing Daily Service Staff Turnover

6. WFM Challenges Challenge: Staff Turnover

7. Turnover Challenges • First day no-shows • Loss during training • Competition in local area • Internal transfers • Other: • _______________________ • _______________________

8. Number of people that leave Turnover Rate = Total number of positions 80 Turnover Rate = = 40% 200 Calculating Turnover Rate Calculation: Example:

9. Calculating Turnover Costs

10. Reasons They Leave and Stay Why They Leave Motivation/Job fit Compensation Lack of career path Work environment Lack of recognition Why They Stay Motivation/Job fit Empowerment Training Career Path Recognition/Rewards

11. Turnover Solutions • Screen for better motivational fit. • Paint a clear picture of job before hiring. • Implement a buddy system. • “If you can’t fix it, feature it!” • Train supervisors and hold them accountable. • Rethink rewards and recognition. • Other: • ___________________ • ______________________

12. WFM Challenges Challenge: Hiring Freeze

13. Hiring Freeze Challenges Frequently heard statements: “The whole company is holding the line and the call center is no exception.” “Business is not growing so contacts won’t either.” Beware the dangers of inadequate staffing! Does it really save money?

14. Staffing Freeze? Staffing for a 10% Increase in Calling This Year Calls per hour 350 Number of staff 33 Resulting delay 30 sec Telephone sec/call 310 sec Telephone cost/hour $109 Next Year (Needed) 385 36 30 sec 310 sec $119

15. The Cost of Understanding A “Hiring Freeze” Example This Year Calls per hour 350 Number of staff 33 Resulting delay 30 sec Telephone sec/call 310 sec Telephone cost/hour $109 Next Year (Needed) 385 36 30 sec 310 sec $119 Next Year (No Hiring) 385 33 268 sec 548 sec $211

16. Staffing Tradeoffs • The Costs of Understaffing • Increased Telecom Costs • ________________________ • ________________________ • ________________________ • ________________________ • ________________________

17. Hiring Freeze Solutions • Track all costs, not just personnel. • Educate senior management. • Implement more self-service options. • Perform root cause analysis to reduce calls. • Other: _______________________ _______________________

18. WFM Challenges Challenge: Cutting Costs

19. Cost Reduction Challenges • The need for belt-tightening • Places to look • Dangers of reducing staffing numbers • Where else to look

20. Cost Cutting Measures Audience Poll How many of you been asked to cut costs in your center in the past 12 months?

21. Cost Cutting Measures Traditional Cost-Cutting Strategy: Reduce staff.

22. 175 calls per half-hour, 5 minute AHT (280 talk/20 acw) (29.2 erlangs) Staffing Example

23. 175 calls per half-hour, 5 minute AHT (280 talk/20 acw) (29.2 erlangs) Call Center Staffing Example

24. Cost Cutting Measures • Traditional Cost-Cutting Strategy: • Reduce staff. Better Cost-Cutting Strategies: • Alter workload. • Utilize technology. • Re-engineer processes.

25. What are some ways to affect or alter the amount of workload so not as many staff are needed? Workload Alterations Workload = # Contacts x Average Handle Time

26. Technology Cost Cutting Measures • Making the Most of Contact Center Technologies • ACD • IVR • CTI • Contact Management

27. Process Reengineering • Re-think some of your support center processes and look for savings opportunities. • Shrinkage • Scheduling options • Hours of operation • Workload blending

28. Cost Cutting Solutions • Re-engineer processes. • Educate senior management on trade-offs. • Make better use of existing technology. • Other: • _______________________ • _______________________

29. WFM Challenges Challenge: Managing Attendance and Adherence

30. Attendance and Adherence Challenges • Mondays! • Time off (FMLA, Workers Comp) • Earned vacation days • Family friendly policies • Management enforcement • Other: _______________________ _______________________

31. 175 calls per half-hour, 5 minute AHT (280 talk/20 acw) (29.2 erlangs) What Is the Impact of One Agent?

32. Attendance and Adherence Solutions • Attendance recognition and rewards • Magnificent Mondays • Staggering earned days off • Formal adherence standards and programs • HR and staff education • Other: • _______________________ • _______________________

33. WFM Challenges Challenge: Attracting and Retaining Staff

34. Attracting and Retaining Staff Challenges • Labor saturation rates • Wage competition • Aptitudes and attitudes • Skilled support staff • Generalists versus specialists • Other: _______________________ • _______________________

35. Attracting and Retaining Solutions • Systematic site selection • Compensation benchmarking • Systematic recruiting and screening • Creative labor sources • Mandatory retention programs by team • Supervisor education • Other: • _______________________ • _______________________

36. WFM Challenges Challenge: Increasing Accessibility

37. Accessibility Challenges • Multiple channels • Hours of operation • Self-service expansion/staff impact • Growing expectations • Other: • _______________________ • _______________________

38. What Happens? • When self-service handles more calls, what happens to the calls agents handle? • ______________________ • ______________________ • When multi-media requirements increase, what happens to agent skill requirements? • _______________________ • _______________________

39. Accessibility Solutions • Outsourcing • Multi-channel forecasting and staffing plan • Remote workers • Revised performance expectations and rewards • Other: • ______________________ • ______________________

40. WFM Challenges Challenge: Designing Effective Schedules

41. Scheduling Challenges • Balancing business/human needs • Efficiency versus acceptability • Long versus short horizon • Skill-based scheduling complexities • Multi-channel complexities • Other: • _______________________ • _______________________

42. Full vs part-time mix Different shift lengths Days on/off mix Staggered start times Scheduling Strategies As you build schedules, try and expand your mix: Flexibility is the key.

43. Schedule Inflexibility People 10 pm 6 am Think of your shifts as LEGO building blocks. The more sizes and types of blocks, the better you can build your model.

44. Optimized Schedule People 10 pm 6 am The Result: A better fit with less understaffing and overstaffing

45. Catalog Case Study Example Staggered Start Times Staggering (!) Results: 8% Headcount Savings over Traditional 30-Minute Start Times

46. Scheduling Solutions • Implement schedule mix to: • Utilize sufficient part-time staff. • Expand shift definitions. • Stagger start times. • Consider performance-based versus seniority-based schedules. • Use simulation for complex scenarios. • Other: • ______________________ • ______________________

47. WFM Challenges Challenge: Managing Daily Service and Performance

48. Daily Management Challenges • Managing schedule exceptions • Schedule adherence • Real-time statistics • Service level variations • Other: • _______________________ • _______________________

49. Tracking Daily Performance • Three Components: • AHT • Call Volume • Staff

50. Forecast versus Actual What if calls take 30 seconds longer to handle?