Key Trends in Workforce Optimisation and Technology

Colin Whelan, Head of Workforce Optimisation, Hoist Finance

The biggest challenge to all of us in the Workforce Management space over the last 18 months has been the impact of COVID, and the very specific challenge of working from home (WFH).

Not to be confused with Home Working, which has a very different set of legal requirements, WFH is fundamentally a temporary state of affairs, brought about by the need to protect individuals and indeed whole nations from the impact of the pandemic. Its legacy will be far reaching, however, not least in the way it has prompted many employees to rethink their work/life balance, and similarly prompted employers to consider whether greater flexibility in Workforce Management can ultimately deliver even better levels of customer service.

"When it comes to WFH, the genie is out of the bottle and can never be put back."

Technology is, of course, a great enabler. Functionality within Workplace Management Software that was originally designed to support the largest contact centres in managing people is now finding a new purpose in supporting social distancing. Employees can be told not just when they are due into the office, but also through which door they should enter, and at which desk they should sit. What was once a hot-desking tool for many thousands, has been repurposed for much smaller numbers with health and safety at its heart.

Technology alone, however, is not enough. Whereas it gives the busy Resource Management team the science and the data they need to make informed decisions, interpreting that data is the art to delivering an effective Workforce Management strategy. To that end, COVID has shone a spotlight on many trends that were already evolving, including flexible working.

As a team, we understand the resource required to deliver the targets our business has set. Technology will provide the insight as to the optimum times for inbound/outbound calls, for example, and therefore ensuring we have the right people on the right seats at the right time to cope with demand – right down to 15-minute segments. It also helps identify the training they need, and ensures the support is in place, not just to meet our business need, but also ensure their own individual needs and incentives are being realised.

But however detailed your plan, and however accurate the science, a plan can easily and very quickly fall apart if even just one member of the team is not at their desk at the time you expect or want them to be. If ten people are scheduled to take inbound calls at a particular time, and one team member is missing, albeit because a previous call has over-ran or they have simply gone to wash their hands, then every other member of that team has to work 11 per cent harder to achieve the same original target.

Understanding the ‘Power of One’, as we call it, and embedding an ‘Adherence to Schedule’ strategy is a trend that has become more important than ever and is an important part of resource planning. So too is another trendis more flexible ways of working including ‘Shift Bidding’. Accelerated by the experience of Working from Home, ‘Shift Bidding’ is a way of using technology to present shifts and work patterns to employees that they can ‘bid’ for, and which best suit their personal needs. Experience shows us that in up to 90 per cent of cases, employees are able to secure their top-three ranked choices. ‘Shift Bidding’ can also be complemented by an additional ‘Bulletin Board’ that enables individuals to ‘swap’shiftsin the event that their circumstances change, to plan around a school holiday or the need to be home for an essential repair.

Empowering employees in this way was happening pre-COVID but has undoubtedly been a trend that has accelerated in recent months and is gaining in popularity. Giving employees greater choice also suits the needs of a new generation of Millennials, as well as pleasing our colleagues in HR.

What will be interesting going forward is how this trend evolves through a post-COVID, WFH lens, to the advantage of employee and employer alike. Might it be possible, for example, to have two seats for every three members of staff? Will employees be able to ‘bid’ for shifts to work in the office, at home or both? Technology can help us with managing our resource and it’s not simply for the larger contact centre and employers. Even smaller contact centres with 50 or so staff could benefit from the advantages that such platforms can bring. Indeed, without technology, it is difficult to see how they can maintain an efficient and effective workforce in the future.

The future is notoriously difficult to predict. Few except for the most enthusiastic pessimist predicted that the pandemic would last as long as it has. When it comes to WFH, the genie is out of the bottle and can never be put back. Workforce Management teams, working collaboratively with their HR colleagues, will be finding new ways of accommodating different ways of working, where choice and flexibility will be the watchwords to an even better engaged and productive workforce.

 

 

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