Consecutive Days Off - Is This Impossible? Workforce please Explain!!!

[mutts]

Talaga bang ganun kahirap ang mag schedule ng 2 consecutive days off?

Sino ba dito sa PEXers ang tiga Workforce? Can you please explain to us (hindi ako nag hahanap ng away!) kung bakit sinasabi nila na hindi raw ganun kadali, at wala raw silang magawa dahil yung software (Blue Pumpkin) daw ang nag didikta nito

Dito kasi sa call center namin ay bumababa na ang morale naming mga agents, unang una, meron mga ibang team na 6 months straight, pang gabi, meron naman 6 months straight, pang umaga, dapat diba pa palit palit yan?

Tapos yung naman pag schedule ng off, meron mga agents dito na swerte, 2 days straight ang off, meron naman malas, split off sila, minsan thursdays and sundays, ang sagwa nun diba?

Eto yung pinaka kicker, pwedeng mag sked swap among agents sa isang team eh, na medyo mabusisi, pero pag nag agree lahat, lahat sila ay nakapag rest day ng consecutive days!! So ibig sabihin nun KAYA PALA PAG MANO MANO!!! Eh hindi ba kaya ng Blue Pumpkin yun? The way I see it, mathematical equation lang yan eh...

Isa pang problema dito ay hindi nila magawang sabay sabay ang consecutive off ng isang boung team, para naman makapag GA sila, kahit once every 3 months lang ang hinihingi namin!!! Meron nga daw ibang callcenter na every month may GA ang isang team eh

So please, kindly explain to me like I'm a 10 year old kung bakit sa dinami dami kong napuntahan na call centers, yun lang lagi ang problema ng mga agents, tapos ang laging sinasabi ng workforce ay "Blue Pumpkin kasi eh, sorry...."

[LaGUNaMAN]

^Let me gues where you work. Siemens Libis?

[ambertookme]

I'm not a Workforce planner but I'm working closely to them. Yes, it is difficult to schedule consecutive offs but our queue permits us to do so. the hell with Blue Pumpkin, pampagulo lang talaga. Luckily on my process, we don't rely too much on BP.You're right. Minsan, pag mano mano, Ok naman.

[purplecharmed1]

well... depende siguro sa workforce manager nyo...

[enid_warren]

i think mas malaking problema yang kinahaharap nyo...kasi usually ang dahilan ng split time offs ay kung malaki ang call volume on certain days o kaya naman number of agents avail on certain days...well at least with PS that's how it's done ( although we do have our fair share of angst against our WFM team....who doesn't???:glee: ) kung dinadahilan nila ang isang program....hay good luck sa inyo...talo pa kayo ng mga maids na sat/sun ang off

[mikedv]

dito rin sa amin ganyan din ang problema, pero may tanong ako para kay enid_warren, you said ang dahilan ng split time offs ay kung malaki ang call volume on certain days, pero sa amin naman, basta meron ka lang makitang willing agent para makipag palit ng rest day mo ay ok lang, regardless kung high call volume or not, so may question is pwede ba talagang ma justify ang split off dahil lang sa call volume?

bakit nga ba may split off kung pwede naman iba ibahin nalang ang consecutive off ng mga agents, gets ba ang tanong ko? si Juan off sa mon-tue, si pedro naman sa wed-thur, si maria naman fri-sat, so forth and so on....assuming over a thousand ang agents ha.....

[lh3n]

i'll try to answer your questions ha, para naman mabawasan ang galit sa workforce team.
Talaga bang ganun kahirap ang mag schedule ng 2 consecutive days off?

depends on your call volume, aht pattern and service metrics. workload per interval is computed vol x aht. then depending on your metrics (SLA, ABA rate yada yada), your wfm analyst computes for the required staff per interval. then once meron na required staff per interval, required staff per day of week. Mondays will usually be your peak. so, dapat lahat papasok ng monday, e so pano naman yung isang rest day? nde naman pede sun/mon and mon/tue lahat di ba? dahil magkaiba ang volume ng sun sa tue.

Sino ba dito sa PEXers ang tiga Workforce? Can you please explain to us (hindi ako nag hahanap ng away!) kung bakit sinasabi nila na hindi raw ganun kadali, at wala raw silang magawa dahil yung software (Blue Pumpkin) daw ang nag didikta nito

ako po, taga workforce (3 callcenters in 4 years). Ah dito ako naiinis na lusot, kse kahit anong software yan, BP, eWFM o IEX, the analyst can tell the tool how to create shift (pano ang rest days mo) and work (pano ang break and lunch mo) patterns. Siguro, walang access analyst nyo sa mga gantong features (dati kse kami wala din). Usually kse the servers of these kind of softwares are not available locally. Sa mga HQ ng mga cc ang administration ng WFM software.

Dito kasi sa call center namin ay bumababa na ang morale naming mga agents, unang una, meron mga ibang team na 6 months straight, pang gabi, meron naman 6 months straight, pang umaga, dapat diba pa palit palit yan?

ideally dapat papalit palit. depende sa ratio ng agents to wfm analyst. kung 1 lang sya, parang ang hirap naman itransition yun on short periods of time (i.e. 2 weeks - 1 month). kailangan kse i-ensure that given the current schedule the agent will not be scheduled to come to work 6 (depends on the company policy) - 7 days straight come transition.

Tapos yung naman pag schedule ng off, meron mga agents dito na swerte, 2 days straight ang off, meron naman malas, split off sila, minsan thursdays and sundays, ang sagwa nun diba?

depends really on how you assign agents to schedules. pede kseng random (you let the tool do the assigning) or pede ding manual (which is kinda inefficient and depends on the number of members in your WFM team).

Eto yung pinaka kicker, pwedeng mag sked swap among agents sa isang team eh, na medyo mabusisi, pero pag nag agree lahat, lahat sila ay nakapag rest day ng consecutive days!! So ibig sabihin nun KAYA PALA PAG MANO MANO!!! Eh hindi ba kaya ng Blue Pumpkin yun? The way I see it, mathematical equation lang yan eh...

May rules kse ang mga WFM software, dapat 13 hours rest period between stop (1st day) and start (2nd day), may transition from night to day, no 6 straight worked days, the works...kse pag mano-mano, we tend to overlook those rules so long as makuha natin ang gusto natin, WFM is not an exact science, there is no mathematical equation that can strike a balance between morale, effectiveness and cost efficiency of your account. hindi masusulat yun. An effective WFM analyst knows when to be technical and analytical and he knows when to trust his gut-feel and instincts.

Isa pang problema dito ay hindi nila magawang sabay sabay ang consecutive off ng isang boung team, para naman makapag GA sila, kahit once every 3 months lang ang hinihingi namin!!! Meron nga daw ibang callcenter na every month may GA ang isang team eh

baka naman nde nila alam na hinihingi nyo to :) but if they do, i think i provided you the answers above -- it all boils down to the WFM team's process and staff utilization.

So please, kindly explain to me like I'm a 10 year old kung bakit sa dinami dami kong napuntahan na call centers, yun lang lagi ang problema ng mga agents, tapos ang laging sinasabi ng workforce ay "Blue Pumpkin kasi eh, sorry...."

baka nga naman, baka kulang access nila. kse nung gamit ko naman BP, minsan ko lang sinabi yan. ;)

fiscalizer kse ang workforce. we see the big picture. workforce people are your macro managers. they do their jobs so you can keep yours.

[lh3n]

dito rin sa amin ganyan din ang problema, pero may tanong ako para kay enid_warren, you said ang dahilan ng split time offs ay kung malaki ang call volume on certain days, pero sa amin naman, basta meron ka lang makitang willing agent para makipag palit ng rest day mo ay ok lang, regardless kung high call volume or not, so may question is pwede ba talagang ma justify ang split off dahil lang sa call volume?

bakit nga ba may split off kung pwede naman iba ibahin nalang ang consecutive off ng mga agents, gets ba ang tanong ko? si Juan off sa mon-tue, si pedro naman sa wed-thur, si maria naman fri-sat, so forth and so on....assuming over a thousand ang agents ha.....

yes, we can justify it. kse nga, iba ang volume ng peak day vs sa other days of week. say you are operating 7 days a week, and based on weekly trend below is your weekly volume distro

Sun - 10%
Mon - 21%
Tue - 15%
Wed - 15%
Thu - 14%
Fri - 13%
Sat - 12%

so dapat talaga on a monday, everyone is present, kse yun ang peak day nyo. So pano gagana yung mon-tue, tue-wed, wed-thu etc na combi?

And one thing more, it just doesn't depend on your call volume and number of agents, it also depends on AHT on any given day, occupancy, and of course your SLAs.

keep your questions coming. It's easier for us to have angst against something we don't understand completely.

Cheers!