Fundamentals of Call Center Workforce Management
2-day training course - $1,795
RCCSP
  Professional
    Education
       Alliance

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 Call 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

In-Class Hardware / Computing Requirements

Participants will have an opportunity to practice workforce management skills in class using software and automated tools.  If you can bring a laptop computer to class, with Microsoft Excel installed, please do so.  If you cannot bring a laptop, or if you do not have MS Excel, you will not be disadvantaged.  Each course lab will be demonstrated in class by the instructor. Software to be used in the classroom will be available for downloading and installation prior to the course.  Spreadsheets, software, installation programs, and other tools will also be provided with the course materials on a USB flash drive.

You will not need to bring your laptop to class the first day.

Registration Fees

The per student registration fee for this training and certification program is $1,795 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
Dec 7-8, 2011 Las Vegas, NV The Platinum Hotel
Feb 15-16, 2012 Austin, TX Omni Austin Downtown
Apr 25-26, 2012 Salt Lake City, UT TBD
May 16-17, 2012 Atlanta, GA Georgian Terrace Hotel
June 20-21, 2012 Chicago, IL Marriott Oakbrook
July 11-12, 2012 Toronto, ON Park Hyatt
Aug 22-23, 2012 Boston, MA Sheraton Commander
Oct 3-4, 2012 Las Vegas, NV The Platinum Hotel
Nov 14-15, 2012 Philadelphia, PA Doubletree
Dec 5-6, 2012 Tampa, FL TBD

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

Fundamentals of Workforce Management immediately follows these courses in select locations:

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.


Dates, Locations and Registration

Learn From the Industry's Leading Authorities

Margaret Klenke

Widely regarded as one the contact center industry's authorities on workforce management, Margaret Klenke is a highly sought-after professional consultant, and a leading author of management books and articles on workforce management optimization techniques and methods.
more...

Michele Borboa

Michele Borboa is a highly sought-after respective workforce management consultant with over 25 years of in-the-trenches experience.  She serves on the Advisory Board to the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP).
more...

Recommended Follow-on Courses:
Call Center Management Certification

Contact Center Metrics, Data Analytics and Reporting

Call Center Engineering Certification

IVR Design Training: Streamlining the Customer Experience

Contact Center Supervisor Certification
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Terms & Conditions

Seminar provider is not responsible for losses due to cancellation. In all circumstances, seminar provider's liability shall be limited to fees received.

Seminar agenda and assigned instructors are subject to change.

Public Training Terms & Conditions

Payment is due prior to the seminar. Errors and omissions in pricing are not accepted.

Public seminar cancellation policy.  Registrants may cancel up to fourteen days in advance of the seminar start date for a full refund.  Cancellations within fourteen days of the seminar start date will be subject to an administrative fee of $400.  Registrations may be transferred to another member of your organization at no additional charge.  As seminars can be cancelled for under-enrollment from time to time, we strongly recommend that registrants traveling by air purchase only refundable tickets.

In the unlikely event that a seminar must be cancelled by seminar provider due to unavoidable circumstances, you will be notified at least two weeks prior to the seminar date, and your payment will be refunded.  Seminar provider is not responsible for losses due to cancellation including losses on advanced purchase airfares.  We strongly recommend that attendees traveling by air to attend the seminar purchase only refundable tickets.
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