Roster

The Roster page lets you setup and directly manipulate the roster one team at a time.

The Roster provides a number of tools that help you rapidly manage your teams shifts.

Team

Select the Team's roster that you want to manage.

From/To

Set the date range that you are going to work with. We generally recommend that you work with about 7 days at a time.

Forecast

For Inbound teams WFM allows you to Forecast agent requirements based on prior history. Select 'Actions | Forecast...' to start the Forecasting process.

The Forecast dialog then prompts you for the historical 'Forecast Source' that you want to use as the basis for the forecast. You should try to pick a Forecast Source period that had call volumes similar to the period you are forecasting for.

Alter the 'Desired Answer Wait Time' to meet your organsiations service levels. The forecasting module attempts to laid down requirements such that all calls are answered within the Desired Wait time. Lowering the value will increase the no. of agents requirement to meet your service level, increasing the value will decrease the agents required.

Note: it make take several minutes for the forecast to complete, so its probably time to go get that coffee.

Once you have completed the forecast you may want to manually adjust the requirements. Click the 'Edit Requirements' checkbox and then follow the procedure under 'Edit Requirements' below.

Auto Fill

After you have doen a forecast or manually set the requirements you will want to Auto Fill the agent shifts.

Select 'Actions | Auto fill' to start the Auto Fill process.

The Auto Fill process is dependant on Agent Roster Templates existing. So if you haven't set up your templates now is the time to go an do it.

The Auto Fill process will automatically give agents Shifts based on the Agent Roster Templates that you have created.

Once the Auto Fill process has completed you may still need to manually add additional agents to the roster where the existing Templates don't meet the current requirements.

Edit Requirements

When checked you can directly edit the requirements (no. of agents required to service calls) in fifteen minute blocks.

The requirements appear as a set of vertical bars where the hieght of the bar represents the no. of agents required to meet expected demand. You can change the requirements by clicking at the top of the requirement bar and draging it up or down.

Manually allocate Shifts

Once the Auto Fill process has completed or if you are not using the Auto Fill process you will need to manually allocate

some agents to meet all of your requirements.

Start by identifying any shortfalls in shifts as compared to requirements by looking for requirements that are 'peeking' over the top of a column of allocated shifts.

At the top of the screen is the hour-interval timeline. Click on the time interval above the shit allocations that has a short fall in requirements. In the adjacent image you can see the 9-12 interval is selected as this is the interval we need to find an available agent for.

Once you select the hour-interval the list of available Agents under the schedules tab will update to show you the list of agents available to be rosted in the selected interval.

Add one of the available agent to the roster by clicking the '+' symbol next to the agents name.

The select agent will appear as a coloured block on the Roster which you can now click to drag

the agent to the exact location.

You can also change the duration of the shift by clicking the shift block at either end to resize the block.

Allocating Breaks

Once you have manually added shifts, you may need need to assign breaks (lunch, tea...) to each shift.

To add a break to a shift, right click on the shift and click 'Add...'. You will be then given a selection of breaks that can be added to the shift. Click the desired break type.

Once you have added a break to the shift it will appear as a coloured bar within the existing

shift block. You an move or resize the break using the same techniques that you use

for resizing and moving shift blocks.

Deleting Shifts

Right click on a shift and click the 'Delete' menu option to delete a shift from the Roster.

Deleting Breaks

Right click on a break and click the 'Delete' menu option to delete a break from the Roster.

Create Template

Once you have manually added a shift and any required breaks you may want to use the shift as a Template. In fact laying out a Roster manually for the first time and then using the Create Template option is the fastest way to set up Roster Agent Templates.

Swap With...

You will often have circumstances where two agents want to swap shifts. To swap the shifts of two agents first find the shift of one of the agents. Right click the agents' shift block and select 'Swap with...' then search for and select the agent to swap with. Then click swap.

Problems

Once you have set up a shift there may be one or more problems that have been detected by the built in rule engine. If you see any agent's shift block turn red then you know that you have a problem that needs to be resolved.

The 'Problems' tab shows a list of problems that need to be resolved before you can publish your Roster. Click on an individual problem to see the details of the issue.

Most problems are solved by moving shifts or adding breaks. As you solve a problem it will be automatically removed from the Problems list.

Publishing

Once you have created you roster the last act is to Publish it to your team.

When you publish a roster each Agent that has been rostered will be sent an email with their rostered attached as a PDF.

Re-publishing

Often once you have compeleted a Roster and publshed it changes will still occur. In this case go ahead and modify the Roster. Whilst you are working on the modifications any changes you make won't be visible to your team (either in the Roster report or the Wallboard). Once you have completed the changes you can Publish your Roster once more. When you re-publish a roster in this manner only Agents that have been affected by the Roster change will be notified.

Erase...

Occasionally when you are experimenting with a Roster you may want to start the process from scratch. The Erase... option on the Actions menu allows you to erase the current roster for the currently selected period.

You will be asked to confirm your intent before the erase actually happens :)