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What’s Eating Your
ROI?
The Business Case for Workforce
Management Optimization
This edition features the second of a three part article
from WFMG Sr. Business Consultant, Joe Mathews.
PART TWO - REACHING THE SUMMIT
We hope you enjoyed part one of this
article - The Uphill Struggle. In it, we covered the topics
Vendor-Provided Value Propositions, Traditional WFM Deployment
Models, The Downward Spiral of the Upsell Cycle, and lastly
but most importantly, Filters to ROI Achievement.
In part two, Reaching the Summit,
we'll expand on some of the critical factors that Inhibit
ROI realization, and then address the subject of The Psychology
of Active and Passive Technologies. This section is thought-provoking,
and can open the eyes of management to the correct application
of WFM applications.
CRITICAL FILTERS TO ROI ACHIEVEMENT
Let's review a few of the business,
operational, and technology-related filters, and discuss how
they can "filter out" the potential operational,
business, and economic ROI gains that are typically associated
with WFM technology.
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Unique Business
Culture - If you are service bureau and you are paid
per call, your staffing model and objectives will differ
from a center that is paid to meet service level objectives
by the day/week/month. If your agents are licensed - say
RN's or stock brokers - are you really going to apply real
time adherence the same way the phone company does? Your
unique business model drives realistic ROI expectations
and also is part of the unique culture that has flowed through
your organization from its inception from the top down.
How you adopt to change is unique to your company and you
need to plan and manage that change the same way you manage
any other project. WFM represents a lot of opportunities
for change, so you need to pick your spots and manage accordingly.
There is lots of risk, but lot of reward, if managed effectively.
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Existing Technology
Platforms - How are you routing calls? What about complementary
technology integrations? Are you a multi-media center? Is
there outbound calling? How is that handled? All of these
questions, if left unanswered, chip away at your business
case. You need to develop a plan for synchronizing all of
these technologies and making sure, for example, that what
one platform calls AHT is the same as the other.
-
Agent Constraints
- How much flexibility is there in your agent population?
Are you unionized? Can breaks flex but not lunches, or can
they flex within a certain limited window? At what point
does change drive up turnover? What is the cost of training
a new agent and what is the balance between optimization
and training? This is an easy one to understand, if your
agents are up in arms, resent being monitored, etc., you
have not managed the WFM deployment process effectively.
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WFM Support Infrastructure
- Who can you go to in your organization when you a have
a problem related to or impacting your WFM technology? Who
can you call when the interface to the ACD goes down, or
the e-mail server? Is your call to the WFM provider; they
are not responsible for the phone system? Your support infrastructure
is key to your ongoing success with WFM. Creating plans
for different scenarios will better prepare you for problems
when they occur. Who in your organization owns this support
interface to your WFM practice?
-
Skills of your
WFM Resources - After your designated WFM users have
been through a WFM training class, it is pretty unrealistic
for you to assume that they graduated with an operational
plan that optimizes your contact center. Heck, they just
learned how to setup and navigate through the application.
They did not get WFM process and practices training, and
the training class did not include a real analysis of your
business and operations culture. So, how do you get these
people up to speed so they can create an effective plan?
Did you say plan?
-
Business Migration
and Change Management (BM/CM) Planning - That last question
was really just a segue to what is probably the most critical
filter of all - business operations migration and culture
change management planning. From a fundamental management
perspective, you need to develop a business migration plan,
evaluate and plan for the impact of culture change, develop
an ROI for adopting that change, and create a formal BM/CM
plan that effectively manages that change into your unique
culture. That plan should be the foundation for the guiding
principles for the WFM deployment project, which should
be project-managed as thoroughly as any other business-related
project. Questions like: What is the Functional Responsibility
Distribution plan (e.g. who does what where and when)? What
are the goals and objectives of the project (business, operational,
and economic)? What are the business requirements? What
are the milestones and dependencies? All are critical project
management-related questions, which have to be answered
before the deployment can begin.
Again, if managed correctly and effectively,
WFM pre-deployment BM/CM planning can set the stage for a
successful WFM technology roll-out, and create the foundation
for faster realization of expected ROI returns. It should
be fairly easy to see that the filters we outlined here can
seriously degrade the success of your workforce management
deployment project if not addressed early in the deployment
planning cycle. Getting the software installed is the easy
part; it's the effective pre- and post-deployment planning
and optimization that ensures your realization of the expected
ROI business, operations, and economic benefits.
The Psychology of Active and Passive
Technologies
Workforce management simply is not
like other contact center technologies. Other performance-enhancing
solutions like IVR's and CTI are what we call "passive
technologies". They are installed, tweaked, and then
they do their automated magic. The common disconnect however
is that contact center technologies managers have a mindset
that once a system is installed and integrated, that they
are good to go. Nothing, in the case of workforce management
technology, could be further from the truth.
The Workforce Management team (managers,
analysts, schedulers, etc.) must assert the point that workforce
management is a full-time function, which demands highly sophisticated
disciplines related to business analysis, quantitative mechanics,
regression analysis, and sometimes crystal ball reading. In
a sense, the more active approach is taken to workforce management,
the more business, operational, and economic benefits will
be received.
In Part 3 of the series, "What's
Eating Your ROI - A Business Case for Workforce Management
Optimization", we'll transition to "On the Mountaintop".
In this final segment we'll explore how a better understanding
of best-practice WFM processes and practices can help you
plan for your pre- and post-deployment WFM optimization needs.
Stay tuned.
The WorkForce Manager is a publication
of
the WorkForce Management Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Please send comments and questions
to info@wfmg.com
or contact WFMG at (877) 575-wfmg
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