Create schedules

A schedule lists the times when agents are in service for a service queue. For each agent, a schedule includes the start and end times for work shifts, breaks, lunches, exceptions, overtime, and projects.

NOTE   There are two ways to run a schedule: the standard way (described in this topic) and the ad-hoc way. See Add an agent to an existing schedule for more information.

Schedules are based on the agents’ work shifts. When WFM generates a schedule, it takes into account the agents’ work shifts and the forecast associated with the agents’ service queue. WFM looks at the requirements and the agents’ availabilities to create the most optimal schedules for the contact center and its agents.

NOTE   Schedules are generated midnight-to-midnight for the week in the agents’ scheduling time zones.

WFM can also use shrinkage metrics when creating schedules. Shrinkage is applied against a full 24-hour period and increases the number of actual FTE (full-time equivalent) scheduled.

When creating a schedule, WFM sorts the service queues (both those individually selected and those assigned to the selected multiskill groups) by the service queue priority. Then, for each service queue, it sorts the agents by skill mapping priority and multiskill group priority, followed by the service queue scheduling order.

Agents assigned to fixed and dynamically scheduled work shifts are scheduled before agents assigned to variable work shifts. Agents assigned to assignment work shifts are scheduled last. After sorting agents, WFM schedules the first agent based on the agent’s work shift preferences and optimizes the agents’ breaks, lunches, and projects based on the minimum and maximum delays entered. The work shifts, breaks, lunches, and projects are influenced by coverage requirements. After scheduling the first agent, WFM schedules the next agent, and so on.

Closed dates and fixed work shifts

When WFM schedules an agent with a fixed or dynamically scheduled work shift, it schedules the agent for days, hours, and arrival times exactly as specified in the work shift configuration. It does not take into account a closed date for a service queue. As a result, an agent with a fixed work shift can be scheduled to work on a day when the contact center is closed (for example, a mid-week holiday).

To prevent this situation, create an exception and assign it to agents with fixed work shifts who would ordinarily be working on the closed day.

Scheduling order

WFM allows contact centers to define the scheduling order for each service queue by these criteria:

• Maximum hours available
• Minimum hours available
• Maximum hours per week
• Minimum hours per week
• Rank
• Company start date
• Department start date

This allows you to manage customer contact operations while maximizing the available agents for the most important activities.

NOTE   Scheduling order is configured on the Service Queues page (see Manage service queues).

Depending on your contact center’s policies, you can schedule agents based on their availability for a work shift, their seniority, or their ranking in the contact center.

Service queue priority

Assigning a priority number to a service queue allows WFM to resolve scheduling conflicts when agents are assigned to multiple service queues. Zero (0) is the highest priority.

To generate a schedule for a service queue, WFM finds the agents who are assigned to a skill mapping that is associated with the desired service queue. To generate a schedule for a multiskill group, WFM finds the agents who are assigned to the multiskill group. WFM then determines which agents have a work shift with available hours on the specified day. If the agent supports multiple service queues, WFM uses service queue priority to determine which service queue will be assigned to the agent for this schedule.

EXAMPLE   You designate some of your agents to support two service queues and assign a priority to each service queue. If WFM generates the schedules for the two service queues and discovers there are not enough agents to support all forecast requirements across both service queues, it compares the priority value for the two service queues and schedules agents for the service queue with the highest priority first.