Create a staffing budget

Open a budget for the scenario and period to work with.

1. Right-click on the name of a budget group
2. Select Open budget.
3. Select the period to work with. Select to open full months or weeks, depending on if you are planning to work on month or week level.
4. Select the Scenario to work with. The budget will be based on the forecast in the selected scenario.
5. Select the default scenario if you plan on using the staffing budget to create allowances for absence requests.
6. Click OK.
7. Click Save to save the changes.

Make these settings before you start working on the budget.

1. Select to work in the Month view or the Week view.

   NOTE   Choose to work in either month view or week view and stay in that view. A month can start in the middle of a week, and because of that values might be confusing if switching back and forth. Do not work in the day view, unless you are working with allowances.

2. Enter the FTE h/day for the full period.

   FTE stands for Full-Time Equivalent and FTE h/day is the average number of hours per day for a full-time contract. This value is defined in decimal form. To set it to 7 hours and 30 minutes, enter 7.50.

3. Click Save to save the changes.

Load the number of FTEs employed. This is calculated on the contract time for all agents connected to the budget group.

1. Select the Staff employed field for the first month or week and click the Staff employed button. Enter the FTE h/day and click OK. This is normally the same as in the FTE h/day field above.

   The number of FTEs loaded to the Staff employed field is the number of FTEs employed on the selected month or week.

   If the agents are not connected to the budget group, you can add the staff employed value manually.

2. Enter the yearly Attrition rate percentage for each week or month in the open period. This is the percentage of agents leaving within one year.

   The weekly or monthly attrition will be calculated based on the yearly value. The gross staff gross staff will be decreased by about 1/12 of the yearly attrition each month or with about 1/52 each week.

3. Add any planned Recruitment on the month or week that they are starting.
4. Review the Gross staff. This is the calculated value of available resources in FTEs, taking the attrition rate and the planned recruitment into consideration.
5. Click Save to save the changes.

Add information about contributions by external resources and consider the agents' days off and the percentage of their contract time that they are not at work.

NOTE   Add a separate shrinkage row for each absence type if you want to set the shrinkage percentages per absence.

1. In the Contractors (hours) field, enter the total number of hours external resources contribute with for each week or month.
2. Right-click and select Add shrinkage to add information on the percentage of agents that will not work. Examples of shrinkages are Vacation or Illness.
3. Select the Include in request allowance check box to connect the shrinkage to one or more absence types. This is useful to follow up on the usage of these absence types, automatically or manually.
4. Click OK.
5. Enter the percentage for each of the shrinkages added.

6. Enter the number of Days off per week in relation to the open days of the skill.

   EXAMPLE   If the skills in the budget group are open 7 days per week and the agents are off on average 2 days per week, enter 2. If the skills are open 5 days per week and the agents are off 2 days per week, keep it as 0.

7. Review the Net staff. This is the calculated number of FTEs available, considering all the adjustments done above.

   NOTE   If the skills are open more days per week than the agents work per week on average, the net staff value is adjusted to show the number of FTEs working for all days when the skills are open. The purpose is to align the staff numbers with the forecasted need. Closed days on the skills are automatically filled in when you import forecasted resource need.

8. Click Save to save the changes.

Provide information on overtime hours and the contribution by hourly employees and deduct time spent on activities that are not skill activities.

1. Enter the total number of Overtime hours planned for the week or month.

2. Enter the total number of Student hours planned for the week or month. This is the contribution from agents on hourly contracts.

   IMPORTANT   Do not use this row if the hourly employees are connected to the budget group.

3. Right-click and select Add efficiency shrinkage. The efficiency shrinkages is a way to consider the part of the contract time that agents spend on activities which are not skill activities, for example short breaks, meetings or training. Add one row for each type of efficiency loss to consider.

   NOTE   The budget is based on the assumption that all staff can be planned in a fully optimal way in relation to the forecast. If this is not the case, add an extra efficiency shrinkage to adjust for that.

4. Enter percentages for each efficiency shrinkage.

   EXAMPLE   Agents work on average 8h per day and are scheduled on short breaks on average 0:30h per day. To take the short breaks into consideration, add an efficiency shrinkage for short breaks and enter 6,25%.

5. Review the Net net staff. This is the calculated number of FTEs when overtime and student hours have been added and efficiency shrinkages have been deducted.

   NOTE   The Net net staff row in the month and week view corresponds to the Budgeted staff row in the day view.

6. Click Save to save the changes.

Import the forecasted resource need for the skills connected to the budget group.

NOTE   The forecasted hours imported to the budget does not include the shrinkage set on the skill. This makes it possible to compare the available staff to the forecasted resource need.

1. Select the Forecasted hours row for the whole period.

2. Click the Forecasted hours button.

   This will load all forecasted hours for the skills connected to the budget group for the selected period. The forecasted need is also shown as Forecasted agents. This is the forecasted hours divided by the FTE h/day. If there is no long-term forecast, you can add the forecasted hours manually.

   NOTE   The distribution of the available resources within the week is affected by the week distribution of the forecast. The adjusted values will never exceed the total number of available FTEs. The adjustments are done for the values in the Net staff FC adjusted row and the Budgeted staff row in the day view. As the allowance is calculated based on these adjusted values, it is distributed according to the forecast distribution. In most cases this means that on a day with a lower forecast, the allowance is also lower.

3. Close days in the budget manually if needed. Select the Closed check box for those days in the day view. This is only required if there are days when the skills will be closed but they are not yet closed in the forecast. Days which are closed in the forecast will automatically be set as closed in the budget when loading Forecasted hours.
4. Click Save to save the changes.

Analyze the difference between the available resources, that is the Net net staff, and the Forecasted agents needed and take action to balance the budget if necessary.

1. Look at the Difference and Difference (%). These two values show the difference between the Net net staff and the Forecasted agents in number of FTEs and in percentage.
2. Take action to balance the difference between forecast and available resources.
   • Add or remove planned Recruitment.
   • Use the Contractors row to increase or decrease the planned use of external resources.
   • Increase or decrease the expected number of Overtime hours.
   • Increase or decrease the number of Student hours.
3. Click Save to save the changes.

The imported staffing and forecast values will not be automatically updated with any changes. If needed, import this information again or adjust it manually. Go through the procedures above again to revise the budget.

Use the staffing budget as a basis to create allowances for automatic or manual approval of absence requests. Read more in Create allowances for absence requests.