Creative Workforce Scheduling Flexibility

[JMMcElmurry]

We're looking for creative ways to schedule our workforce to be more flexible and elastic given the variable incoming call demands based on time of day, day of week and month of year. Any good ideas out there?

[cjw17]

We've been very successful in offering voluntary unpaid time off during slower periods. We usually have more volunteers than we need, and have to limit them.

[rdonnel]

Here's a few ideas for combatting overstaffing during slow periods. But, a lot depends on the pattern you're experiencing. If you want to talk more directly about this, please let me know.

1) If you have a training-intense environment and are always trying to figure out when to train, then train them during your slow periods. This is especially effective if you utlize CBT (Computer based training) or e-learning software. Training material/exercises are delivered right to their desk top. In the event that volume picks up they can easily switch back to production.

2) Ask for volunteers to leave early or take unpaid break.
Leave early:
We found that there was no shortage of volunteers during the summer months - especially amongst the younger workers. We also found that our more senior workforce (mainly retiree's) were more desirous of this as well.

Unpaid Break:
We found that this option was attractive to our workers that were attending college full time and working full time. They utilized this time to study, or nap. We set-up an area in our break room to suit studying but it was relatively inexpensive by comparison to the cost of non-productive time.


3) Offer non-cash incentives for leaving or taking a break. There are thousands of options but we decided to take a formal route. We created a system whereby volunteers accrued award points that could be redeemed for premium items. It's sort of a reverse frequent flyer program - If you don't fly, or in this case, don't work, you get points. We set-up a formal program where points are tracked on our intranet and the premiums are displayed in a electronic catalog. There are companies that can do this for you.

4) Offer reduced pay to take a break or leave. This gives you an automatic cost savings equal to the amount you reduce their pay. You may have to check with your HR/Payroll people on this as the rules vary by state.

5) If you have other work that can be done cross train some of your call center workforce to do it during the lulls. The work is usually computer based and not very time sensitive.

The following are more radical and may be more expensive in the sort-term.

1) Consider using home-base agents. With home-based agents you may find that there is a lot more flexibility. This is a big topic. If you want to discuss futher I would be happy to.

2) If you are in an area where there are a lot of call centers, or at least one other, you may want to consider job-sharing. What I mean is find another call center that has opposite call patterns - there volume is high when your's is low and visa-versia. This way you can take their calls when your volume is low. This can be complicated but I've heard that it can work depending on the predicatability of your peaks and valleys and the similarties of call types.

What ever you do my first step would be to share this business problem with your employees. You may be amazed by their understanding of the dilemma and the ideas you get. Of course expect that one of the suggestions will be to pay them their full rate and they'll take as much time off as you want.

Good luck.

[gholden]

I have found the following to be successful (we use workforce management software):

Breaks & Lunches - instead of 1 hour lunch and 2 15 minute breaks for full timers, try 2 x 30 lunches or 3 x 10 breaks.

Flexible weeks - Agents don't like to be flexible, so "fix" their start times to within an hour on a rotational pattern for 3 weeks out of 4 say. The fourth week they work any shift. Make sure you cover your core volume with the shifts in the fixed rotation as agents are likely to book the flexible week off.

Vary shift lengths - plan slightly longer shifts for your busy days, then give time back as full days off either as additional holidays or rota days off

Part timers - If you can, get agents who can work a minimum hours per week and increase if they are needed (students perhaps). You can then bring them in to cover just your peaks.

Outsource - move the costs of flexibility to an outsource call centre, look for one with capacity to suit your peak times for the best results.