Arlene was scheduled to work a late shift but took her breaks later than scheduled, resulting in her being 24 minutes out of adherence. The author monitors real-time performance and made changes like moving breaks to accommodate increasing call volumes and improve service levels. They perform reviews of agents applying for promotions by compiling performance metrics over time.

1. Non adherence – Out of line example
I deal with out of line (non-adherence) situations daily. In the above screen print, we can see that Arlene was scheduled to work
the late shift. The working hours for the late shift is 09:30am to 19:30pm. Arlene’s first tea break was scheduled from 10:45am –
11:00am, her lunch was scheduled from 14:15pm – 14:45pm and her second tea was scheduled from 16:15pm – 16:30pm.
The above report shows that Arlene is out of adherence and she only achieved 92.67% for the day. By looking at this report, we
are able to establish exactly why Arlene was out of adherence. Lets have a look at Arlene’s real time activity.
In the above screen print, we can see Arlene’s actual activity for Friday. Arlene took her first tea 3 minutes late, she took her lunch
15 minutes late and she took her second tea 4 minutes late. In total, this caused Arlene to be 24 minutes out of adherence on her
breaks only. In cases like these, I will schedule coaching sessions with the agents to explain to them the importance of adhering to
their schedule. I will also find out why the agent has trouble adhering and provide advice or feedback where applicable.

2. Impact on service levels and recommended changes in real time
The above is an example of Friday, 26 June 2015, between 09:15am and 10:30am. I noticed that our service levels
decreased and our call volumes increased while I was watching the real time viewer. When I took a closer look, I picked up
that the calls coming through our Accounts queue has increased significantly. I informed our head of department and I
immediately made changes to our scheduling by moving the tea’s and lunch breaks to a later time to accommodate for the
call volumes. By doing this our service levels started increasing again as we had enough staff to handle the call volumes.
In the screen print above, you can see the improvement in the service levels after the necessary changes were made to the tea
and lunch breaks.

3. Performance review across skill sets
We have two teams in the contact centre, inbound and outbound.
When an inbound agent applies for a position in our outbound section they are assessed based on skills and performance.
I had to do a performance review on 6 different agents who have applied for a position in our technical outbound group (this
would be seen as a promotion). I gathered all of the reports and information required to complete this task for example, I
calculated all their adherence to schedule averages, quality assurance averages, their absenteeism percentages over the last two
years, their incoming call averages and the averages of their ratings on after call service. I also pulled 2 technical calls per agent in
order to establish if the agents are competent and well trained. Once I compiled all of the information I then presented my findings
to the technical outbound supervisor who then used that information together with their interview transcripts to recruit the right
candidate with the necessary skill set for the position.

4. Accurately captured exceptions
Because our call centre works staggered shifts, weekends and public holidays, I have to capture exceptions on our
telephone communication system regularly and accurately, to ensure that the calls are routed through to the call centre
at the correct times and days. I will program our weekdays from 07:30am to 19:30pm, our Saturdays from 08:00am to
15:00pm, Sundays and public holidays from 09:00am to 13:00pm. Our business is open right through the year therefore
we do not exclude any days from our calendar.

5. Accurately captured real time reporting
Our work force management system records all of the information reflecting on our telecommunications system, as they are
integrated. Although I watch our real time viewer most of my day, I can immediately provide answers on real time activities such as
fluctuating service levels, call volumes and agent activity. I capture all this information on a report daily. By doing this, it allows me to
establish increases in call volumes and variations on service levels to better plan my forecasting for the next day.

6. Produced accurate daily Workforce Management performance reports
I’ve created an excel spreadsheet and I use this to capture all of the previous day’s figures, for example, absenteeism,
contacts forecasted and actual received contacts, the variance, the forecasted and actual service level totals as well as the
adherence to schedule pre and post adjusted, average handling time, occupancy and the average utilisation. I pull most of
this information from our workforce management program and the information on our absenteeism, I get from my daily
absenteeism report. I e-mail this report to all our supervisors and managers daily.

7. Daily and weekly absenteeism reports
At the moment I am in charge of managing all absenteeism records and I also sign off on all leave. I have created two absenteeism
reports, one which I update on a daily basis and the other one that I report on, is a monthly report for the absenteeism by team. I
capture all absenteeism daily as this helps me with my workforce management planning and scheduling. It also helps me to pick up
absenteeism trends. I would create graphs based on the information inserted in my reports to show trends by team; this way we would
also be able to address the team with the highest absenteeism percentage for the month, both of these reports are sent to the
managers at the end of every month.

8. Adjusted real time to accommodate extra time
On certain days of the week our agents have to have coaching sessions and training sessions with their respective supervisors. I
will schedule coaching and training sessions on that day as it happens in real time. I take all things into consideration when I do
these changes, for example, absenteeism, pre-approved leave, shifts, service levels and call volumes.

9. CALCULATIONS
Service Level Calculation

10. ACD – Automatic Call Distribution
SLA – Service Level Agreement
AHT – Average Handling Time
IVR – Interactive Voice Response
ASA – Average Speed of Answer
AWT – Average Wait time
UIA – User Involvement Average
DEFINITIONS