PEC-WFM/Current/Supervisor/StffgBldWzd

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• Supervisor

Use the wizard to build forecast staffing data for a single-site or multi-site activity, based on set parameters.

Related documentation:

• How Workforce Management works

Use the Staffing Build Wizard to build staffing data for a selected single-site activity or multi-site activity, based on parameters that you provide.

Important

Before using this wizard to build a staffing forecast, take these required actions:

• Build interaction volumes and AHT for activities.
• If necessary, create templates.
• Build a volume forecast for multi-site activity for both IV and AHT.
• Be aware that even if there is IV and AHT data for all child activities, this wizard does not build a staffing forecast for the parent multi-site activity.

Building the staffing data

This is Video 3 in a 4-video series. You can watch Video 2 here or, when you are ready to publish the forecast scenario, watch Video 4.

To build staffing data:

1. On the Scenario Staffing View toolbar, click the Build button.

   The Staffing Build Wizard's first screen, Provide Target Date, opens.

2. Fill in the Provide Target Date screen and then click Next.
3. Fill in the Provide Target Options screen and then click Next.
4. The screen that appears next depends on what kind of activity you are staffing.

If you are staffing:

• An Immediate activity, and you select the Use Service Level Objectives check box, the Specify Service Level Objectives screen opens. If you do not select Use Service Level Objectives, the Staffing Requirements screen opens.
• A Deferred activity, the Multimedia Service Level Objectives screen opens.
• A Fixed-Staff activity, the Staffing Requirements screen opens.

Fill in each screen that opens, and then click Finish.

The wizard closes and the Scenario Staffing View opens.

Alternatively, if you selected Compare results with previous on the second wizard screen, the Scenario Build Results window opens.

Activity types

The types of activities mentioned in the procedure above are described as follows:

• Immediate activity—Work activities that are handled by agents immediately, such as voice calls.
• Deferred activity—Backlog activities, such as email, that use special forecasting calculations.
• Fixed-Staff activity—Non-CTI activities that do not use Workforce Management service objectives.

Specifying the target date

Use the Provide Target Date screen in the Staffing Build Wizard to specify the target date range.

1. Select a Start Date and End Date using the spinner or the calendar.
2. Click Next to continue.

Specifying the target options

Use the Provide Target Options screen in the Staffing Build Wizard to specify the options described below.

Indirectly occupied time

At a minimum, enter a value for Indirectly Occupied Time (IOT). IOT is a parameter that helps define the queuing model that WFM uses when building a staffing forecast. This is why:

There is a certain pool of agents that WFM considers in its queuing model when determining how calls would be distributed from the queue to agents. IOT affects the availability of agents to handle calls. For example, if IOT is defined as 10%, that means that 10% of the time, an agent will not be in the agent pool (because the agent is off the phone).

To use template data, select the Use Template Data check box and click the Load Templates button to load the specific templates that you want to be used.

Use service-level objectives

Select this check box to enable the Specify Service Level Objectives screen, later in the wizard.

Compare results with previous

If you want to compare the results obtained from the Staffing Build Wizard with the previous staffing scenario results, select the Compare results with previous check box.

If you do so, after you have completed the wizard, the Staffing Build Results window opens, showing a comparison of the new and previous results.

If the selected activity has the type Deferred, then the Initial Queue field is displayed and inside it you must enter an integer value that is 0 or greater. You can leave this value empty, to indicate that the build process will assume that the value is 0.

How is the Initial Queue Value Determined?

WFM Server posts a default value in Initial Queue field, based on existing information and calculations. WFM Server uses the ending queue value of the previous day as the default value. If it is the first day of the Forecast scenario, this value is taken from Master Forecast.

This same value is used in the Contact Center Performance Report's Queue > Forecasted column for the first day of the new forecasting period after you publish the Master Forecast.

For example, if you have published the Master Forecast for 02/02 - 08/02, the Contact Center Performance Report's Queue > Forecasted column for 09/02 displays the backlog value that is proposed in the Staffing Forecast Build wizard for 09/02 in the Initial Queue field.

Tip

The Initial Queue field is hidden for all activity types except Deferred.

Click Next to open the wizard's next screen.

Defining the service-level objectives

Use the Specify Service Level Objectives screen in the Staffing Build Wizard to define service level objectives when you are building staffing volumes for immediate activities.

1. Select the check box(es) for one or more of the following:
   • Use Estimated Average Time to Abandon (sec)—This is not a service objective. It is a parameter that helps define the queuing system model used internally by WFM when building staffing requirements. The value you configure here should represent the average time it takes impatient callers to abandon.
   • Use Service Level Objective—You can specify that you want a specified percentage of calls answered in a specified number of seconds. For example, when building a staffing forecast, you may specify that 80% of calls should be answered in 20 seconds.
   • Use Average Speed of Answer Objective—ASA (sec).
   • Use Occupancy Objectives—Maximum Occupancy Rate (%). The total amount of time the agent is actually doing activity work as a percentage of the total amount of time the agent is available to do activity work. For example, assume an agent has a shift from 8 am-5 pm, with a 30-minute lunch and 2x15-min breaks. Although the agent's total shift duration is 9 hours, the total amount of time the agent is actually available for work is 8 hours, after subtracting the time for the lunch and breaks.
   • Use Abandoned Interaction Objective—Maximum Percent of interactions Abandoned (%).
2. Enter values for each objective that you selected.

   When you select an objective's check box, you enable the text boxes for these target levels.

3. If you want to load an existing template to specify an objective's service levels, select Use Template Data and then click Load Template.

   You might want to use a template if the values for the objective are different for different timesteps. Otherwise, WFM uses the single value that you configure and applies it across all open hours of the activity.

4. Click Finish.

   WFM Web calculates the staffing volumes and displays them in the Staffing view. An error message appears if WFM Web cannot complete the calculation.

Tip

You can see the effect of other values by using the What-If window in the Performance module.

Defining the multimedia service-level objectives

Use the Specify Multimedia Service Level Objectives screen in the Staffing Build Wizard to define service level objectives for a Deferred staffing activity, such as responding to emails.

Use one of these two procedures:

1. Fill in the target for % of Deferred work in

1. Enter a value into each of the following fields: Hrs, Min, and Sec.
2. Select a radio button from this group:
   • Hours (default)—use these controls:
     • In the field below this choice, enter hours, minutes, and seconds.
     • Select one of these radio buttons: Non-interrupted Time (default) or Interrupted Time.
   • Business days—In the field below this choice, enter an integer greater than 0.
3. Click Finish.

— OR —

2. Use the service level template

1. Select the Use Service Level Template.
2. Click Load Template to load an existing template.
3. Click Finish.

Defining the staffing requirements

Use the Staffing Requirements screen in the Staffing Build Wizard to define how staffing requirements are built. You will use this screen for Immediate activities if you do not define any service objective, or for Fixed-Staff activities.

1. Do one of the following:
   • Select Number of Agents Each Time Step and enter the appropriate number in the text box to the right.
   • Select Average Activity Handling Time and enter the appropriate value (in seconds) in the text box to the right.
   • Select Use Staffing Template and click Load Template to load an existing template.
2. Click Finish.

   WFM Web calculates the staffing volumes and displays them in the Staffing view. An error message appears if WFM Web cannot complete the calculation.

Viewing the staffing build results

If you selected the Compare Results with Previous check box on the first screen of the Scenario Staffing Build Wizard, the Scenario Staffing Build Results view opens after you click Finish to complete the wizard.

The graph shows the new calculated staffing compared to the original calculated staffing.

• Where the new calculated staffing results in an increased number of agents, the graph shows the area in red.
• Where the new calculated staffing results in a decreased number of agents, the graph shows the area in green.

Click Save to keep the new calculated staffing in your scenario, or Discard to return to the original calculated staffing values.