Workforce Management Calculator

Hello,

Wondering if anyone out there does a manual calculation for workforce management (i.e., determining productivity levels and calculating the number of bellybuttons - or FTEs - needed)?

We are not a true call centre - our customer service representatives are handling calls (typically from sources external to the organization), processing electronically-submitted offers of work from our funders, processing electronically-submitted updates from our funders providing updates on client care/information, emailing internal staff such as schedulers and front line staff (e.g., nurses).

As we are a community healthcare organization, we will never have call time as a metric. This is simply a variable in the calculator. We fully recognize that for some of our clients, speaking with one of our agents may be the one interaction they have all day, so our agents are not penalized if a call goes long. We do, however, aim for a 80% of calls answered within 20 seconds, which can impact our staffing levels.

For now, my manual calculator can track volume of work (in the above paragraph) along with the average time for each activity. In some cases, I am also able to show "unfinished" work - work left on the table, so to speak - which allows me to show how many staff we would need for 100% completion of all work (e.g., answering all calls, processing all updates, etc.) I've also factored a buffer that includes meetings, breaks, work not directly related to the activities above, training, etc.

I'm able to show historical productivity for each activity by site and employee, as well as overall productivity. At first glance, it looks like I need to purchase the add-in to obtain the WFM forecasting formulas. The trend line is not an adequate option.

If anyone out there is using a manual approach to this, does it sound like I'm on the correct path? Is there a way to forecast resource needs by day and time without purchasing the add-ins?

Trying to help our local leadership teams understand if they have the right people doing the right things at the right time, and this seems like a complicated, but data-driven approach to take.

Thanks!

 

Hey Roxane!!

I'm not sure what the site's attachment restrictions are... but I couldn't attach anything to this post. I tried like five different extensions.

Anyway... what would you think about approaching this with queuing theory? Below is kind of an example:

I would imagine the rate would need to be a guess... maybe average them or something?

 

What is the size/type of file you are trying to attach?
Current Max Size limit: 5MB
Permitted file types: zip txt pdf png jpg jpeg jpe gif xls xlsx xlsm doc docx ppt pptx mpj

 

Atul... not sure what it is... I can't attach files or even a screenshot. I get the same error "A server error occurred. Please try again later."

I attempted to attach a gif file, bmp, jpg, png, and a pdf. The BMP was 1.8 meg, the largest size.
I tried on Chrome, Edge and Firefox.

Same screenshot and files are copy/ pasted just fine on two other discussion boards.

 

OK, there's something else going on that I need to investigate.

 

That's similar to the approach I've taken thus far.

Was hoping someone had an Excel spreadsheet with the WFM formulas built-in so that I could plug-and-play data. Thus far, not looking too good and I'm stuck building something from scratch.

Thank you for looking into it.

 

My question is about quantity versus quality. My major concern with most customer service metrics is their quantifying How Often versus How Well. And How Well can be wholly unpredictable, due to the infinite differences in customer calls and customer need complexity.

Capturing service success is very difficult, as people are well known to be more vocal inn their complaints than their compliments. Possibly the best way to capture service satisfaction is with in-person follow up calls.

I wish you well, as this is a very tricky subject.