Do You Measure Your Agent Schedule Adherence? Is it 70, 80 or 90%?

Schedules only work if employees stick to them. Most will but as call center managers have discovered, even a small drop in adherence can severely impact both productivity and costs. Many call centers are now pro-actively focusing on improving schedule adherence for increased service levels and reduced costs. Raising the adherence from 80 to 85%, or from 90% to 95% can result in huge cost differences. For example, in this Adherence whitepaper there is the case of a 300 employee call center and the assumption that each employee is 10 minutes our of adherence every day, resulting in $250,000 per year.

Fixing adherence issues is one of the quickest ways to avoid angry customers and rising costs. But first, you must determine your current adherence level. Yes, there will be math involved – but these are numbers that are vital to know.

Here’s the formula:
[phone time + other work related activity time] / ([shift time] - [lunch/dinner] -
[break] + [exception time] + [overtime]) = schedule adherence

Once you’ve got the results, you can add up the money now being wasted and put a stop to it.

What Causes Adherence Issues?
Are some agents taking too many breaks or absences? Is the schedule too rigid? Are employees showing up late and leaving early? Address these issues with agents, and make sure they realize how important schedule adherence is to the call center – and to their job.

This need not be a confrontational situation – one method that has worked at call centers is the setting of adherence goals, with rewards offered to agents that aid in their achievement. Monitor progress whether the goals are achieved or not, and keep the lines of communication open.

The Role of Workforce Management
A workforce management solution can play a key role in agent adherence. First, you don't have to calculate adherence, the system does that for you. Second, real-time tracking and monitoring makes it easier to adjust forecasts and schedules right when there is an adherence problem. Third, adherence reporting helps you analyze data from the past, identify potential issues that impact adherence and the opportunity to discuss with your team.

For more information, please download the Monet white paper Strategies for Improving Schedule Adherence.

Agent Schedule Adherence Visualized

Agent schedule adherence dashboard

Monitoring call center agent adherence to a rotation schedule is yet another task that used to be handled manually, and now can be achieved in less time and with greater accuracy through a workforce management solution.

With workforce management, a call center can monitor and record the schedule adherence status of all agents in real-time. The system tracks data on every status related to this issue, from lunches to daily breaks to when agents log out.

By having this information easily accessible on a workforce management dashboard, managers can quickly compare the agent’s actual daily activity to the objective intended by the company. One can even create custom states and guidelines to address atypical needs for a specific call center, such as after-hours work.

Once guidelines are customized and set as to which states (or statuses) should be included or not included in a schedule adherence measurement, the system does the rest. The different states are color-coded and can easily be monitored from a dashboard. It is now simple to review each agent’s efforts and classify their work time as within schedule adherence, or find out where he or she is coming up short. Too much time spent away from assigned functions can impact the call center’s productivity.

Accurate time management can be a challenge, as minor exceptions and changes happen each day. Perhaps an agent is scheduled to go on an approved break, but cuts into that time to complete a call that takes another 10 minutes. An effective workforce management solution can be configured in such a way as to record this time extension, and not count the lost break time against that agent. For more detailed information about how to implement effective strategies for schedule adherence, please click the link to download our whitepaper.

Schedule adherence alerts - do you get status alerts in real-time?

Schedule adherence tracking and monitoring is important, tracking in real-time is even more important. But, do you get alerts if agents or teams are our of adherence or have a different status than what they should be in? Getting notification in real-time allows you to make changes that have an immediate impact on the call center performance. The faster you can react, the easier it is to achieve and maintain your targeted service level.

Wouldn't it be great to get status alerts based on the various activities and exceptions you have set up? Wouldn't it be nice to define custom states and exceptions that are aligned with your unique call center requirements? Wouldn't it be nice to get either pop-ups, email or text message alerts based on thresholds you set up?

There are many scenarios and use cases for an adherence status alert system as you can images, here are just a few examples:

Agents not adhering to schedule: There could be various reasons for out-of-adherence and an alert can help call center managers and supervisors to find out how to improve the situation.


Agents return late from break or lunch: If this happens often, it might have a big impact on your service level. An alert will help solve that problem and establish more discipline. 

Call duration is too long: If a supervisor or subject matter expert is needed when calls exceed a certain threshold, Monet can alert that person to assist on the call.

Agents forgot to log out: A frequent issue that can occur if agents must manually log out at the end of their shift.  This alert will tell the supervisor that an agent has forgotten to log out of the ACD so they can take action. 

If you are interested in learning more about adherence status alerts, please contact us and we are happy to provide you more information and show you a demonstration.

What is call center shrinkage and how to minimize it

What is call center shrinkage?
One of the most important concepts in schedule adherence is shrinkage. Shrinkage can be defined as the time for which people are paid during which they are not available to handle calls.
There are many reasons that can cause shrinkage - and it has to be taken into account when scheduling the required number of agents to meet call volumes. But the truth is that most companies badly under-estimate the sheer volume of shrinkage that besets their call centers. This comes about due to a host of potentially hidden areas of shrinkage. Many managers keep their eye on several of these, but few are able to stay on top of all of them: lateness, talking to associates, personal calls and emergencies, leaving early and taking longer breaks. The bottom line on shrinkage is the amount of minutes per day that agents are being paid to be on the phone when they are not actually working or available to receive calls or work on customer related issues.

How to track and manage shrinkage?
Shrinkage can be a major factor in failing to meet service level targets. Call centers that take shrinkage parameters into account in their forecasting and scheduling typically achieve higher service levels at lower operating costs. They often do that by including all call related activities into the forecast and schedule planning process. Here is an example of how to track and manage shrinkage as part of the workforce scheduling process:

For more information about shrinkage, please also read the following two blog posts:

• Why does it get more difficult to manage call center shrinkage
• How to keep track of shrinkage by including all activities into forecasting and scheduling

In addition, you can download our whitepaper about tracking and improving schedule adherence - it should provide some valuable insights into the relationship between shrinkage and agent adherence.

Call center performance management metrics in real-time

Performance management is a critical part of managing call centers and is essential to help you align your people, processes and systems to your goals and objectives, such as customer satisfaction, cost control and revenue goals. However, many call centers lack the means to measure and track their key performance indicators (KPI) necessary to improve forecasting, staffing, scheduling and adherence in real-time. Only if you get alerts and can monitor performance in real-time, you can transform call center performance management from a reactive to a proactive approach. Tools such as scorecards, key performance indicators, real-time alerts, agent analytics, dashboards, and customizable reports deliver a constant stream of intelligence helping you take the right action to better meet your business goals now and in the future.

With real-time performance management, you can get easy access to a unified view of key performance metrics at any time that allow you to quickly adjust parameters such as forecast, schedules and staffing, or automatically trigger other events. Metrics such as:
•    Adherence
•    Service levels
•    Answer and abandon metrics
•    Average handle time (AHT)
•    Average speed of answer (ASA)
•    Average talk time (ATT)
•    Forecast accuracy
•    Labor costs and staffing
•    Shrinkage and absenteeism

Systems automatically collect and present real-time and historical performance data at agent, group and center level. Key performance indicators, scheduling information and service level indicators can be distributed to call center employees through web-based consolidated reporting, giving them the information to do a better job. This will also rree up time for supervisors and managers to focus on working with agents, coaching, training and planning, instead of collecting data – all resulting in better service to your customers.

If you are interested in learning more about this, please watch our call center performance metrics demo video on our website.

How to improve schedule adherence and get it to the next level

Even with schedule adherence tracking in place, one remaining challenge is often the fact that agents can have so many different non-call tasks, exceptions and states that standard WFM solution are not able to plan for and monitor. That's where Advanced Schedule Adherence comes in. It enables supervisors and call center managers to create custom states and rules to match their unique center needs. Here are a few examples:

1. Create custom states for call wrap-up, special after call work, outbound preparation and other activities
2. Establish thresholds for each state that indicate how much time is considered “in adherence”.
3. Define which states are included or not included in the agent adherence calculation

Exceptions and non-call activities can be considered “scheduled activities,” along with available, break, lunch, and logged out states. Call center managers can customize which statuses are allowed and not allowed for each scheduled activity. Since every call center has unique agent activity types, this flexible approach to agent adherence monitoring gives centers a new level of accuracy in managing call center performance, while also providing more transparency and clarity to both, agents and supervisors. To learn more about this, please also download the Strategies for Improved Agent Adherence whitepaper from our resources library.

Call center schedule adherence definition, impact and tips for improvement

This blog has published many articles and advice on call center schedule adherence and this topic seems to be on top of the list for many call center managers because we see a lot of interest. So, here is another summary of the top articles about schedule adherence for you:

• The advantages of real-time schedule adherence in your call center
• What is schedule adherence and why is it important in the call center?
• What does lack of schedule adherence cost a call center?
• 5 Strategies to improve call center schedule adherence 
• What is advanced real-time schedule adherence?
• Call center shrinkage - why does it get more difficult to manage?
• Important call center metrics: schedule adherence 

There is also a whitepaper about schedule adherence you can download if you are looking for more information.

The advantages of real-time schedule adherence in your call center

Real-time schedule adherence functionality continuously monitors and records the real-time status of your staff to show which agents are on the phone and which ones are not, so you can quickly take corrective action to streamline workflow processes. Call center schedule adherence screens display when agents are available for calls and when they take their lunches and breaks based on predetermined schedules.
A manager can easily compare planned agent activity to actual activities throughout the day, and can see the real-time status of each agent against the planned activity. Intra-day management features provide real-time views of forecasted, actual, and predicted call volumes, handling times, and other key performance indicators. You get alerts when agents are out of adherence, enabling you to adjust schedules accordingly, begin live monitoring, or record calls for future training sessions. Here are some key capabilities:

• Monitor agent status in real-time
• Receive instant alerts for out-of-adherence states
• View agent exceptions in real-time and approve or deny them in one-minute increments
• Monitor and analyze key performance indicators and trends to reforecast, reschedule, and adjust staffing
• Track and compare forecasted and actual center statistics schedule overtime or time off during high and low call volume situations
• Evaluate adherence and take action to improve performance

A key component to managing adherence is to reduce shrinkage, which is the time for which agents are paid during times when they are not available to handle calls. Shrinkage can dramatically affect your center's ability to meet service levels. To learn more about this topic, please read the whitepaper about agent and schedule adherence.

5 Strategies to improve call center schedule adherence

Download whitepaper

One of the biggest challenges of running a call center is making sure that employees adhere to their schedules. Applying a strategic approach to improving adherence is crucial for contact centers struggling with rising costs, low service levels, and low customer satisfaction. This whitepaper summarizes five strategies to help boost agent adherence in your call center.

1. How to quantify the cost and service implications of missing staff
2. Learn about options for setting adherence performance goals
3. How to identify the reasons why staff don't adhere to the schedule plan
4. How to develop reward and consequence programs that support adherence goals
5. How to effectively track, monitor and measure adherence

The whitepaper also explains how Workforce Management software helps call centers implement those adherence strategies more effectively. If you want to learn more about real-time schedule adherence, please visit also our main website.

Call center schedule adherence best practices summary

One of the most challenging jobs related to managing any call center, is ensuring there is the right number of staff with the right skills available at the right times of the day. Over the last 12 months we haven written a few articles about schedule adherence and received a lot of interest about this topic. Therefore, we thought it would be a good idea to create a summary of the top articles about schedule adherence:

• What is schedule adherence and why is it important for your call center?
• What is advanced real-time schedule adherence?
• Schedule adherence for call centers - a strategy whitepaper
• What does lack of schedule adherence cost a call center?
• Important call center metric: schedule adherence
• What is real-time schedule adherence and why it is important
• 7 Tips for improved schedule adherence in your call center

We hope you find these articles useful, and please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about call center scheduling, forecasting or adherence.

What is schedule adherence and why is it important in the call center?

Schedule adherence is the degree to which agents stick to their schedules, measured as a percentage. Considering that staffing is the single biggest cost facing any call center – and that every minute counts when it comes to meeting customer service levels – it’s easy to see why call center managers are putting an increasing emphasis on improving it.
 
If you run a small call center with 5 to 20 agents, you might think schedule adherence isn’t all that important. But if you take a closer look at all the different junctures throughout the day where agent time is “lost,” you’ll realize that it can add up to a serious loss of revenue over the course of a year.

Download whitepaper

Schedule adherence is particularly important for ensuring smooth transitions between shifts. Call center schedules tend to be very complex – which means there can be a lot of junctures during a shift where an agent will go out of adherence. For example, an agent might show up for his shift five minutes late; log on to the ACD seven minutes late; show up for a training session eight minutes late; and go over their break time by 10 minutes - resulting in the agent being a total of 30 minutes out of adherence for that one shift. Multiply these “out of adherence” events across a center with dozens if not hundreds of agents - and then multiply that by the total number of shifts - and its easy to see how schedule adherence can quickly become a serious problem.

Keeping track of schedule adherence using manual systems such as spreadsheets can be incredibly time-consuming and challenging. This is where today’s web-based call center scheduling solutions are playing an increasingly crucial role. They track schedule adherence in real-time and and automatically send you alerts.

When implementing a new program for improving schedule adherence in your call center - perhaps through the deployment of a workforce management system - it’s a good idea to discuss those changes with your employees first. The one thing you don’t want is a negative backlash from your valued employees, who might not be all that thrilled to be working under the watchful eye of “Big Brother.”

In order to reduce any negative backlash from your agents when implementing a new program to improve schedule adherence, you must first “inform and educate.” Agents need to understand the relevance of schedule adherence, how a mere 10 minutes here and there impacts other agents and the entire call center performance.

Then you should “measure and manage:” Measure and track adherence using workforce management tools and solutions, tracking adherence in real-time and running reports. Share these adherence reports with your agents and discuss how they are doing. It is important to give regular feedback regarding adherence statistics.

Finally, you can provide “incentives.” Reward agents that adhere to their schedule (95 percent within adherence scores) through recognition within the team and tie bonuses to good scores. It is also critical that all agents are aware of the consequences for out-of-adherence behavior, as this establishes their responsibility towards the success of the call center.

For more information, please read our 5 Strategies for improved Schedule Adherence whitepaper.

What is advanced real-time schedule adherence?

One challenge in tracking and monitoring schedule adherence is that agents can have so many different non-call tasks, exceptions and states that it is difficult to plan for and then monitor those states. That's where Advanced Agent Adherence comes into action. It allows the creation of custom states and rules to match the unique needs of your the call center, such as:

• Create custom states for any number of activities, such as call wrap-up, special after call work, or outbound preparation
• Set thresholds for each state, indicating how much time is considered “in adherence” so that time in a particular state can automatically be broken down into acceptable and unacceptable time
• Define which states are included or not included in the agent adherence calculation

Exceptions and non-call activities will be added by default and will be considered “scheduled activities,” along with available, break, lunch, and logged out states. Call center managers can customize which statuses are allowed and not allowed for each scheduled activity.

Since every call center has unique agent activity types, this flexible approach to agent adherence monitoring gives centers a new level of accuracy in managing call center performance and the potential to dramatically reduce non-productive agent time.

Adherence to schedule - a big challenge for your call center?

Managing adherence to call center schedule is one of the most challenging jobs related to running a call center - making sure there is the right number of staff with the right skills available at the right times of the day. Here are some helpful tips and considerations:

• What does lack of schedule adherence cost a call center? A quick overview of the cost drivers and the potential impact on your center operation.
  
  
• Why is schedule adherence an important call center metric? This article helps identify potential causes for out-of-adherence and ways for improvement.
  
  
• Are you monitoring schedule adherence in your call center? 3 simple tips on schedule adherence: Inform - measure - manage.
  
  
• What is real-time schedule adherence? Learn how real-time adherence can help you finally overcome your adherence challenge.
  
  
• Strategies for Improving Schedule Adherence: A more in depth whitepaper about schedule adherence and how Workforce Management software is a crucial tool to improve adherence.
  

How to Improve Agent Schedule Adherence in a Call Center

Adherence: Are You In or Out of It?

One of the biggest challenges of running a call center is making sure that employees stick to their schedules. A strategic approach to improving agent adherence is crucial for call centers struggling with the challenges of rising costs, lower revenues, and frustrated customers. The following whitepaper summarizes five strategies to help boost agent adherence in your call center.

In addition to the five strategies, the whitepaper also explains how WFM software helps call centers implement those adherence strategies more effectively.

Important call center metrics: Shrinkage

What's shrinkage?
Shrinkage is the time (or percentage of time) agents are not productive due to breaks, meetings, training, vacation, illness, absenteeism, etc. Most of these events can be build into the schedule, however there is one aspect of shrinkage that cannot be really planned for and it is related to adherence. Adherence is a measurement of the time agents are scheduled to work compared to the time they actually work. If agents leave early, start later or take longer breaks than specified in their schedule, it causes shrinkage that has an immediate impact on service levels and other call center metrics due to under-staffing.

How to reduce shrinkage?
Well, it's not realistic to totally eliminate "unplanned" shrinkage, however, in most cases in can be reduced to an acceptable level. One major reason for "unplanned" shrinkage is out-of-adherence. Often, call centers don’t have the necessary visibility into what happens at any moment in time and what is supposed to happen based on the published schedule. If you are still struggling with adherence issues, please read this educational whitepaper “Strategies for improving call center schedule adherence", and you will learn about proven practices on schedule adherence that have resulted in increased availability and reduced shrinkage.

Call center management tips - part 2

This is part two of our series "call center management tips" with strategies, practical tips, and best practices on how to manage your call center more effectively and efficiently. This post focuses on how to improve call center schedule adherence and agent motivation:

Schedule Adherence

• Strategies for Improving Schedule Adherence - whitepaper
  
• What does lack of schedule adherence cost a call center?
• 7 Tips for improved schedule adherence in your call center
• Important call center metrics: schedule adherence
• Best Practices Video: How to improve call center schedule adherence
• Are you monitoring schedule adherence in your call center?
• What is real-time schedule adherence, and why is it important?
  

Agent motivation

• Motivation of call center agents, employees and workforce
• Important call center metrics: Agent turnover
• How to make a call center schedule work for your staff
• Keep top talent on your team

In the following weeks we will write more about call center metrics, intra-day forecasting/scheduling and real-time adherence - stay tuned.

7 Tips for improved schedule adherence in your call center

How do you get your staff to show up for work on time and stick to their planned schedule and break times? This is one of the most challenging jobs related to managing any call center - making sure there is the right number of staff with the right skills available at the right times of the day. Here are seven tips that might be helpful to improve schedule adherence in your call center:

1. Quantify the implications of missing staff

First, you need to understand the effects of schedule adherence in your call center. This starts with measuring adherence and quantifying the implications on service level, costs and other metrics that are critical for your business. Typically, a lack of adherence results in understaffing and decreased service levels. In order to compensate for this, call centers might increase staffing, which results in higher costs. Here is an example of the cost implications of out-of-adherence.

2. Set reasonable adherence goals

Identify adherence goals and objectives based on the unique characteristics of your call center environment and also take a look at benchmarks of other call centers. When defining your goals, please consider the following:

• Include your staff into this process from the beginning
• Define minimum expectations
• Average handle time of calls
• Identify potential barriers that might prevent adherence

3. Identify the reasons for attendance and adherence problems

Basically, there are three different reasons for adherence problems:

• Don’t know: the agent may either be unclear about what the expectations are, or they may be unaware of how their behavior is not meeting the expectation. Giving the agent timely feedback can help resolve the problem.
• Can’t: the agent may require more training, although adherence problems are rarely lack of training. More likely there could be a barrier that prevents adherence.
• Won’t: the agent may lack motivation or may be receiving improper consequences. The most effective consequences are: Positive, Immediate, and Certain.

For more details please read this post about schedule adherence challenges.

4. Identify rewards and consequences that support adherence goals

Reward agents that adhere to their schedule (e.g. 95% within adherence scores) through recognition within the team and tie bonuses to good scores. It is also critical that all agents are aware of the consequences for out-of-adherence behavior; this establishes their responsibility towards the success of the call center.

5. Communicate the “power of one” to all staff

Emphasize the “power of one” to highlight the importance of every agent’s adherence. Using tables or charts available to make “adherence” visually quantifiable can be helpful. So can activities like "Ball Toss" in which six agents are paired off and given a ball which they must toss back and forth. Replace one person in the pair and keep the toss moving. Then take one person away without providing a replacement to show how quickly understaffing can create stress and dropped balls – which, of course, represent "calls".

6. Review your tools to manage and track adherence

Workforce management software helps automate schedule adherence tracking and reporting capabilities. Review the tools you have available in your call center and evaluate if you have the need for more sophisticated adherence tracking tools:

• Real-time dashboards
• Alerts and notification
• Adherence reporting by agent, group and center
• Exception management
• Adherence tracking for all activities
• Accurate forecasting of call center volumes
• Automated scheduling

7. Measure and monitor

You can only manage what you measure. Make adherence monitoring & reporting and the regular review with your team part of your staff meetings. Over time, the whole team will more and more appreciate the importance of adherence and it will get "internalized" into your service culture.
For more detailed information, please read this whitepaper "Strategies for improving Schedule Adherence".

How to improve call center schedule adherence

Watch this recorded webinar by The Call Center School and learn how to improve schedule adherence in your call center. During the session, call center experts share proven practices such as:

1. How to quantify the cost and service implications of missing staff
2. Learn about options for setting adherence performance goals
3. How to identify the reasons why staff don't adhere to the schedule plan
4. How to develop reward and consequence programs that support adherence goals
5. How to effectively track, monitor and measure adherence

Here is the link to the recorded event.

Great online event about Call Center Schedule Adherence

Yesterday, we hosted an extremely well attended webast with the topic: "Six simple strategies for improved call center schedule adherence." People asked a lot of great questions and we had lots of interactions during this online event about the following topics:

1. How to quantify the cost and service implications of missing staff
2. Learn about options for setting adherence performance goals
3. How to identify the reasons why staff don't adhere to the schedule plan
4. How to develop reward and consequence programs that support adherence goals
5. How to effectively track, monitor and measure adherence

In case you missed it, here is the link to the recorded session - enjoy!

Six strategies for improved call center schedule adherence

One of the toughest jobs related to managing any call center may not be the calculations of proper forecasting nor the numerous iterations of coming up with the best schedule mix. The hardest part is often ensuring there is the right number of staff with the right skills in their seats at the right times of the day. So how do you get staff to show up for work on time and stick to their planned break times as well as generally acceptable time on various work tasks?

We are very excited that our special guest speaker and industry expert, Penny Reynolds from the The Call Center School, will share with you proven practices on schedule adherence.


















What attendees will learn?

• Quantify the cost and service implications of missing staff
• Identify ways to communicate and educate staff on the “power of one” in call center staffing.
• Describe options for setting adherence performance goals and selling to the staff
• Identify the reasons why staff don't adhere to the schedule plan
• Identify reward and consequence programs that support adherence goals
  

We are looking forward to having you join us for this free webinar.