There are a couple of ways you can get your first Roster setup. This guide looks at the fastest method for most users.
Teams
WFM allows you to set up a roster for each team. If you have only a single Team then you will still need to create a create with all of you staff as team members.
Create a new team by navigating to Users | Team Management.
Team Type
For an Inbound team select ROSTERED_INBOUND.
For an outbound team selected ROSTERED_OUTBOUND.
For a blended team select ROSTERED_INBOUND.
Now add each staff member to the 'Selected' list to add them as team members.
Inbound Teams
For inbound teams you also need to define the Queue Filter (you can ignore the Skill Filter for the moment).
Queue Filter
The Queue filter describes the set of queues that the team takes calls from. This is important as the Roster Forecasting tool needs to know the set of queues that are being manged by the team. As such you need to ensure that you keep the queue filter up to date.
Add the set of queues that this team managers to the 'Selected' list on the Queue Filter tab.
Business Hours
For each Team you now need to create the set of business hours that the team operates during.
To create a set of business hours navigate to Provision | Business Hours.
You must have a least one set of business hours for each Team.
In some cases you will need to have multiple business hours for a team if your set of operating hours cannot be described by a single business hours entry.
Default Shift length
You may need to edit the default shift length. The stand is 8 hours.
To edit the default shift length navigate to 'Roster | Schedule Type'.
For the 'Rostered' schedule type.
Modify the 'Default Duration' to the desired no. of hours and minutes.
Save the change.
Creating your first Roster
At a minimum ensure that you have defined and Team, added staff to that team and defined that teams business hours. If you haven't done the above then you won't be able to roster staff.
Forecasting for Inbound Teams
If you are rostering an Inbound Team then you can use the Forecasting tool. The forecasting tool isn't magic it uses maths (OK, that's a bit like magic) and to work it needs some history to look at previous work loads.
- Start by selecting the correct team.
2. Next set the date range that you want to roster.
3. Now click the 'Forecast Requirements' button.
4. Set the forecast source period
The forecasting system needs a prior week to use as a 'model week' to base the forecast off.
Select a week that reasonably represents the volume of calls you expect for the week you are forecasting.
This might normally be just last week, but for periods like xmas it might be better to select xmas week last year.
Remember if this is a brand new system and you haven't taken any queued calls as yet then the forecasting system won't work! Wait a week and then you should have sufficient data to start forecasting.
5. Select the Desired answer wait time.
The desired wait time should normally reflect your SLA or a shorter period of time. The desired wait time helps the forecasting system to tune the no. of staff to put on.
Be careful here. If you make the time too short the forecast will roster a lot more staff on.
Its important that you enter a realistic value here. This value will directly affect your labor costs and customer satisfaction. The lower the wait time the higher your labour costs but the greater the customer satisfaction.
6. set the Scale by factor.
The scale factor allows you to make an adjustment if you think you will be busier or quiter in the forecast period than you were in the source period.
e.g.
You set the forecast source period to last xmas.
You have grown you business by 10% since last year so you should set the 'Scale by' factor to +10%.
7. Run the forecast and the system will estimate your staff requirements.
Forecasting can take a number of minutes to run, so now might be a good time to get that cup of coffee.
Once the forecasting is complete you should see a bar chart. Each bar represents a 15 min block of time. The height of each bar represents the no. of staff you need for that period.
Editing Staff Requirements
If you are rostering an inbound team then you should have run the forecast.
For an outbound team you can decided with your want to setup Staff Requirements as they are purely optional.
Staff requirements provide you with a guide for how many staff you need at each time of the day.
One feature that is useful even for outbound teams is that the requirements understand 'breaks'. Read more below to see why this is useful.
In either case you may need to alter the staff requirements.
To edit Staff Requirements click the 'Edit Requirements' checkbox.
You can now edit the Requirements by click at the top of any bar and dragging it up or down.
Zooming
You may need to zoom the roster screen so you can see individual Requirements.
Scrolling your mouse will zoom in and out so you can see and edit
Remove the Edit Requirements check box when you have finished editing.
Roster Staff
Now it gets exciting (well I'm excited), you are now ready to roster staff.
The top of the Roster screen is broken up into 3 hour time ranges e.g. 9-12 using 24 hour time.
Click the heading that best represents the time period you want to roster for.
The left hand list of Available Agents is updated to show what agents are available in that time window.
The list is sorted to help you select the best agent.
The order is:
- Agents with a Preference in the selected time slot
- Agents with an Availability in the selected time slot
- All other agents
Agents which have been already rostered in the selected interval won't show up.
Click the green '+' button to add an agent to the roster.
The agent is added to the roster (yellow bar).
The orange blocks represent breaks. Breaks are automatically allocated based on the length of the shift but can be modified as needed.
Change a shift duration
To change the duration of the shift click either end of the shift and drag it to the desired start or end time.
Change a break duration
You can modify a break duration using the same technique as for a shift.
Adding Breaks
You can add a break by right clicking on the Shift and selecting Add... then the break type you wish to add.
