File: workforce management (WFM)

This is Ziptone's dossier on workforce management (WFM). On this page, you will find an overview of all relevant articles on WFM. This dossier is closed and is no longer being updated.

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News
Everything you need to know about workforce management
Positioning of WFM and professionalisation
Practical tips
Cases

News

The time that a call center employee must be present before working hours should be regarded as paid working time. That is the advice of the Advocate General to the Supreme Court, which has yet to make a ruling in the cassation case against Teleperformance and a former employee.

Login time is work time, and what else is at stake – analysis – The ruling of the court in The Hague on the question of whether login time is also paid working time, potentially has a major impact on the industry.

Virdens WFM congress: code red for the labor market – If the WFM employee wants to have something to plan later, it is time to get started with strategic capacity planning. Report of Vlirdens WFM Congress 2023

New rules for flexible working affect WFM process – The last amendment to the law was effected on 1 August, a next one is on its way. HR service provider Randstad explains the consequences for the customer contact sector. “WFM employees and managers must from now on record agreements about working hours in writing.”

WFM: Forecasting in turbulent times. Due to corona, historical data and patterns are often no longer usable for the forecast. How do you deal with uncertainty as a WFM employee?

WFM employees take extreme measures in corona time. To remain accessible in times of corona, contact centers have taken drastic measures in response to large call volumes.

Everything you need to know about workforce management

What is a WFM-er? – One of the best-read articles on Customercontact.nl in which it is made clear that WFM is not the same as producing a roster.

What is the service level? What is the relationship with planning and occupancy rate, what expectations do customers have about the waiting time? How can you calculate the service level?

What is abandonment rate? All about the abandonment rate, an interesting metric for contact centers. You can also read about the relationship with the service level and repeat traffic.

What is Workforce Management? – If you want to read briefly and concisely what the WFM process entails, you can turn to PlanMen's model 'the disc of six'.

Workforce Intelligence: planning through smart data use – In principle, every organization with a planning history can plan a year ahead: you know the patterns you can stick to. Combine Workforce Management with data analytics and enormous improvement potential arises. In other words: PlanMen unleashes Business Intelligence on WFM. Ziptone spoke with Oliver Talens, Business Development Manager at PlanMen, about Workforce Intelligence.

How productive is one FTE in the contact center? – How productive is the average contact center agent? In general, forecasters have an idea of this, says Willem van den Brink, director of PlanMen. This question therefore sounds like a one-two punch, especially for the professionals who manage a contact center organization. But what the real relationship is between 'purchased labor hours' and 'delivered productivity' is actually a mystery to many. Van den Brink takes us along in PlanMen's FTE breakdown analysis. Now everyone in a contact center can calculate the average productivity of an FTE themselves.

Positioning of WFM and professionalisation

Frank van Bergen announces WFM Forum – Last December, Frank van Bergen announced that he is launching a new initiative: a forum focused on the WFM field.

“In Sweden, WFM practice is more based on dialogue” – There are many more options to take the differences between employees into account in your scheduling methodology.

Vlirdens Campus wants to train WFM students in a different way – Mark Elschot not only wants to offer WFM training with the Vlirdens Campus, but also wants to work on innovation in form and content.

Workforce Managers Association (WFMA) founded – The WFMA (Workforce Managers Association) announces that on July 25, 2019 the first “independent professional association for WFM professionals” has been established. The WFMA is an initiative of Coniche and PlanMen, both active in the WFM market. The association aims to inspire, teach and connect its members by organizing meetings, seminars and knowledge sessions for and by members. In addition, the association manages a professional register with a quality mark.

Contact center DPG Media takes control again: WFM is essential – For Marloes de Boer, KCC manager at DPG Media, the impact of the penultimate merger has not yet passed or a new integration is already imminent. Workforce management (WFM) is a separate chapter in the integration of various departments within DPG Media. WFM affects almost all facets of the contact center: from systems to reports and from hiring employees to working from home.

“Capacity planner and traffic manager are becoming more important” – Will new professions emerge in 15 years and will we go to work in self-driving cars, or will we no longer have a job because our workforce mainly consists of AI? Ziptone spoke at PlanMen's recent WFM conference with director Willem van den Brink and senior consultant Patrick Hubers. Will technology prevent workforce managers from having a job in the future?

There will be a major shortage of personnel planners in the coming years – The Covid pandemic revealed a major shortage of skilled workforce planners and workforce management professionals. Consulting firm PlanMen predicts that this shortage will increase further after the Covid pandemic. The findings and prediction are diametrically opposed to the research report published last week by the UWV on least promising professions.

Practical tips

Ten tips for self-rostering – Self-organization is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve another goal. Organizations can use it to increase their attractiveness as an employer by tapping into the work preferences of younger generations. You can also work on better employee satisfaction along the way of self-organization. Self-rostering is one of the ways to give employees more influence on the organization of their work.

Scenario planning in contact centers – The corona crisis has shown what the impact of disruption on contact centers can be. Scenario planning is one of the most underrated tools for mitigating risk and preventing damage. And not just in times of crisis.

Ten reasons to trade Excel for a WFM solution – Excel is a great planning tool for smaller contact centers, it is often claimed. But if you want to get started with multichannel, skill-based routing or self-scheduling, Excel is not enough. Even small contact centers that are growing quickly run into limitations with Excel. Anyone who still uses Excel and wants to move forward should make the switch in good time.

Cases

With 55 WFM employees, two thousand agents work from home. How do you organize the WFM process if you want to be available 24×7, your employees are spread over multiple time zones and all work from home?

Optimization in the back office at Nationale-Nederlanden – In administrative processes, we accept that we will not be helped within a few minutes, but we take several days or sometimes even weeks into account. Organize your back office like a front office and employees will look at 'work stocks' differently. After all, work stocks are just customers waiting – just like you have people waiting on the phone. Nationale-Nederlanden started working with WFM in the back office.

Consumers Association experiences planning as a service – The Consumers' Association offers inquiring consumers certainty and rock-solid confidence in a world full of truths, but also of cunning and deceit. Founded in 1953, the organization is also an association formed by its members. These members are increasingly active online and do not necessarily seek contact with the Consumers' Association. Naturally, this has an effect on the total contact volume. And that in turn has consequences for the planning activities. Reason why workforce management is outsourced.

New WFM software and improved processes at Unigarant – Unigarant wanted to professionalize the planning process and employees wanted more influence on their work schedules. How do you approach such a change process? Unigarant opted for the implementation of a new WFM application that meets the changing needs of the organization. With some guidance, this led to a radical improvement in forecasting and planning, higher employee satisfaction and a future-proof WFM process.

Any suggestions for additions to this file? Email the editor.