We are currently using several different live workplans in our workforce management system (Q-Max) each representing a different area of the call centre. I would like amalgamate them and have one comprehensive workplan (although still split by 'primary skill'). Any suggestions on the best way to do this?

Jenny, can you first of all tell me what the purpose is for combining the work plans? Ease of use? Skill overflow options? Shrinkage tracking? All or none of the above?

If the plan is to determine some economies of scale in overflowing callsamong various skills, and your WFM tool does not accommodate that, let me know and I may have a few helpful hints for you.

Brent

Jenny, can you first of all tell me what the purpose is for combining the work plans? Ease of use? Skill overflow options? Shrinkage tracking? All or none of the above?

If the plan is to determine some economies of scale in overflowing callsamong various skills, and your WFM tool does not accommodate that, let me know and I may have a few helpful hints for you.

Brent

All of the above!
Chiefly the purpose is to track overflow options. We are embarking on a cross-training program that will allow staff to be shared throughout all areas, and intend to schedule regular sessions within each area for all cross trained staff so that their skills are up to date.

With all the areas represented within one workplan, and the skills matrix/shift rotas detailing which agents are available and trained on the relevant products it will be easier to react to unexpected call volumes in realtime, and plan for known about deviations and seasonal peaks by utilising the existing staff.

Jenny, thanks - a few more questions:
1. What is the size of your operation, by skill?
2. Will your ACD support a multi-skilled environment (most will)?
3. Do you have access to call volumes, distributions and handling times per skill?
4. Are you tracking service level and occupancy currently, by skill?

If your operation is small (<75 seats), there are minimal economies of scale in combining skills (ie, occupancy won't climb much past 65-70% at that size without damaging service level). However, at that size, you probably won't want to segment your call volumes into more than two skills to begin with.

To accomplish your task (I'm not familiar with Q-Max), you'll want to build a side-by-side forecast in Excel or Lotus that takes into account weighted call handling times by skill, intra-day distribution curves and service level/occupancy trade-offs for each skill, and roll it into a combined staffing plan. The trick is to adjust the final staffing numbers for increased efficiences, if any. I've got the equations around here somewhere, be happy to share what I have.

Brent

The current headcount is just over 600, the ACD will support a multi skilled enviroment. We do track call volume, handling time and SLA’s by skill, but, just to make life simple(!), the various different skills, and the client groups within those skills(we are a 3rd party processor) have different contracted service levels…
We currently have quite a complex matrix of multi-skilling, with some agent groups being skilled in more than one call type and others being skilled in more than one client, andvarious groups have skills across multi-media.
The problem I am currently facing is that historically the Q-Max workplans (Q-Max is a workforce management system, taking call data directly from the ACD and holding agent shift rotas) have been loosely based on call type, and the aim of the cross-training program that we are embarking on is to cross train agents on all clients, call types and media types. Of course the individual agents only exist in the workplan that their current skills are related to, and to get the most out of the software they need to be included in the skill type in the other workplans – which is why I want to amalgamate the workplans.
The object is to keep the agents in their primary skill groups, but have the other skills as varying priorities. I would therefore be interested in any economy of scale equations.
Please feel free to contact me on my private e-mail address, Jandrews@firstdatcorp.co.uk.

Hi Jenny,

You do indeed have three clear options if you are to amalgamate your existing Q-Max WorkPlans.

Option 1 - Copying your large WorkPlan and amalgamating the smaller WorkPlans off-line will reduce data input and will allow you to keep everything running "as-is" in the background. You will however need to either continue to update two sets of data or cut over to your new WorkPlan and catch up in a reasonable amount of time.

Option 2 - Amalgamating data to a live WorkPlan may save you time, and eliminate duplication but could get messy if it is not meticulously planned.

Option 3 - Starting from scratch has the benefits of allowing you to plan a "green-field" WorkPlan offline and implement it within a controlled time frame. This is particularly useful if you feel that your WorkPlan data is not in a consistent format. The downside however is that you will need to key in everything again and will have a clear cut of point when searching historical records.

Your choice will depend on:

* How much time/resource you have available
* How much you feel that things will disrupt your business
* And how much of a perfectionist you are!

Hope this helps.

Damian Moore Q-Max Systems

T: 07946 739 544 E: damian@q-max.co.uk W: www.q-max.co.uk