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.

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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.

  
  
• 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.

• 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.