BACK OFFICE WFM
Forecast accuracy for the back office also needs to be measured with a little more finesse than in a contact center. I recommend extending it to four components:
1. Noise( unrepeated things). 2. Short-lived events that were purposely ignored.
MICROSHIFTING AND THE BACK OFFICE / CONTACT CENTER
3. Differences due to external business decisions other people made. There are now discussions taking place about microshifting. This scheduling method breaks up workplace shifts into short segments when the work is being performed.
Microshifting accounts for personal tasks like picking up a child at school, a medical appointment, or a five to 10-minute fitness break in a workday, while ensuring adherence to the total number of hours the employee is committed to working.
So, we asked Tiffany about microshifting, and whether it applies to the back office and / or the contact center? If so, what are its benefits and the challenges, and what are her recommendations for using it?
“ Microshifting in the workplace is very similar to microshifting in personal development: tiny, flexible, incremental changes that make positive, gradual adjustments,” says Tiffany.
“ But sometimes the front office employees, like contact center agents, are hourly, which means they are eligible for overtime, and the back office employees are salaried( no overtime). The motivation for flexible shift coverage can be different between those groups.
“ Salaried workers can compensate for time taken for non-work activities by working longer to make up for it. But rigidly scheduled hourly workers do not have that freedom; if they go off-line, like for errands outside of scheduled breaks and previously agreed-to PTO, they could lose their hours and wages.
“ My recommendation is, if you are considering microshifting( or any other change), be prepared to protect employee satisfaction( pay, hours, benefits, tools). Also protect employee engagement( purpose, belonging, impact) when touching anyone’ s schedule.
“ There’ s a great leadership book about this and more by Justin Robbins titled More Than a Motto.
“ Regardless of your back office or front office( contact center) scheduling approach, it’ s always a good idea to include the staff in the scheduling process itself; forming a schedule task force and including them from start to finish will create allies along the way.”
4. Incorrect trend / growth rate assumptions which will naturally be absorbed into the forecasting methodology going forward.
It’ s a little more complicated, but unless your forecast is incredibly unstable, I find that it’ s not necessary for all four criteria to exist with every single weekly forecast; it only needs to happen when one of those criteria actually exists during the forecasting range.
" FORECAST ACCURACY FOR THE BACK OFFICE ALSO NEEDS TO BE MEA- SURED WITH A LITTLE MORE FINESSE THAN IN A CONTACT CENTER."
AS A WORKFORCE MANAGER YOURSELF, WHICH DO YOU LIKE DOING MOST? BACK OFFICE OR CONTACT CENTER?
A: Since we have other WFMers here at Human Numbers that are better skilled at scheduling and training than I am, I choose to only work on forecasts and long-term staffing models.
From that perspective, a back office forecast is equally as fun as a front line forecast, and I am happiest when it’ s just me and my Excel file, pounding away.
Brendan Read is Editor of Contact Center Pipeline. He has been covering and working in customer service and sales and for contact center companies for most of his career. Brendan has edited and written for leading industry publications and has been an industry analyst. He also has authored and co-authored books on contact center design, customer support, and working from home. Brendan can be reached at brendan @ contactcenterpipeline. com.
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