The Workforce Management Challenge for Support Services
Workforce Management (WFM) is all about getting the right resources in the right place at the right time. WFM assists with the process of getting agents on the phones faster through sound processes for forecasting, scheduling, skills mix management, understanding your customer’s demands, and use of modern automation tools. A successful WFM practice will assist in getting the most out of your team. Workforce Management is not an easy task for most companies, specifically in global, multi-site environments. It starts with understanding the needs of your customers. Are they willing to accept missing an SLA in the morning because of call spikes? Or could that potential SLA miss cause a customer to leave? A highly disciplined process, with the right supporting technology, is required to manage human capital in the most effective and efficient manner possible.
Our Solution and Approach to Workforce Management for Support Services
RTM Consulting introduced Just-in-Time Resourcing® (JITR) solutions to help companies with the complex task of getting the right person in the right place at the right time. Just-in-Time Resourcing® is our process solution for highly efficient management of a human capital-intensive operation. We help companies build the right set of capabilities to accomplish the most efficient use of human capital for most any services operation. In contact centers, human capital costs (agents) are typically a majority of your total costs, so, a proper WFM methodology such as JITR is vital.
Consulting Services Examples
Via our proven assess and architect approach to our consulting engagements, we will rapidly assess your current operating environment for WFM, and architect a future state approach to process design and technology enablement. Once that design is completed, we can help implement needed changes using the latest in change management best practice, and help you achieve desired results at the earliest possible time.
Example #1: Workforce Efficiency and Agent Utilization
How do we do the best possible job of serving the most customer interactions effectively for the least possible cost? Building a process to effectively match supply with demand in a modern contact center is not easy, but something we at RTMC have been helping customers do for more than ten years. Our Just-in-Time Resourcing® solutions provide the building blocks you need for consistently managing and maintaining a balance of agent capacity to customer service demand, maximizing customer service at the lowest possible cost.
Example #2: Global Schedule Optimization / Follow the Sun
Are you able to use agents, sitting idle after hours in one region, to support calls during peak times in another? We can help with your staffing and WFM plan to get the most from all agents, regardless of region. Our deep knowledge of both process support and innovative contact center technology for schedule optimization will help you flatten out the peaks and valleys of agent scheduling.
Example #3: After Hours Utilization
Like most companies, do you have analysts sitting idle after hours “just in case?” Many companies struggle with very low utilization of after hours analysts. We can help put processes in place to keep these analysts utilized, helping you optimize their time.
Example #4: Channel Optimization and Scheduling
Do you struggle with the balance of scheduling agents for phone, chat, email and social support? Do your agents handle multiple channels? Do they prioritize the channels they monitor? RTMC can review your scheduling practices, recommend changes to optimize that practice and lead programs to reinvent the scheduling and optimization of your agents.
Summary
Our Workforce Management practice can review your existing WFM operation, make recommendations for improvement and drive these initiatives to completion. RTM Consulting will assess your environment versus our proven framework that will help you deliver services required to build loyalty and grow revenue at the lowest possible cost.
Contact RTM Consulting to gain access to our insights and experience with this critical aspect of running your business.
White Paper: Workforce Management 3.0 – Redefining the Discipline of Workforce Management
We have been studying best practices in both resource and workforce management for more than a decade. As discussed in this paper, there are clear distinctions in the marketplace between resource and workforce management. This paper will address some of those distinctions, and more importantly, the evolution of WFM and how it will become part of a bigger ecosystem known as resource management.
POV: Resource Management vs. Workforce Management
RTMC has been setting the industry standard for resource management. Our philosophy is that your resources are your most valuable asset, therefore, it is vital to get these processes right. COO and Managing Partner Marc Lacroix shares his views on resource management as a broader view of the workforce management function encapsulating a more holistic view of all resources.