Hi everyone.

I'm new to Workforce Management and I have some questions related to it.

How can I schedule agents by queue? For instance, create a schedule as:

Agent A: 8 a.m. on-queue on "Queue A"/ 10 a.m. on-queue on "Queue B"/ 1 p.m. Meal / 2 p.m. on-queue "Queue C" until 4 p.m.
Agent B: 8 a.m. on-queue on "Queue C"/ 10 a.m. on-queue on "Queue B"/ 2 p.m. Meal / 2 p m. on-queue "Queue A" until 4 p.m.

Also, when I generate a load-based schedule it will be based on only on queues that are used on "Service Goal Groups" as well as the system will try to achieve the "Service Goals" defined?

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Ana Laia
#PlatformAdministration

------------------------------
Ana Laia
ACCENTURE CONSULTORES DE GESTAO SA
------------------------------

There is no facility to constrain scheduling by queue by time period. The scheduling engine is capable of scheduling resources in a multi-contact type and multi-staff type environment (multi- meaning multiple queues, multiple languages, multiple skills, and multiple media types). Agents only working certain queues certain periods of the day would actually be overly constraining and the further segmentation of staff types to overall load would limit flexibility and optimization of scheduling the right resources at the right times. It would also make handling of unexpected items (e.g., spike in volume, spike in average handle time) less efficient, because of the further staff type segmentation (e.g., at 8:15am you have a big spike in queue A, but agent B can't help).

Is there a business need for wanting to constrain periods when an agent works a particular queue? E.g., agents really don't like working queue A

The scheduling engine uses the short-term forecast and simultaneously considers many (10s of thousands to millions) potential schedules to find ones with predicted service performance goals, configured via service goal groups, that matches requirements as closely as possible and uses as few paid hours as possible all while honoring configured work constraints.

------------------------------
Jay Langsford
Senior Director, Workforce Optimization Engineering
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-07-2019 06:12
From: Ana Laia
Subject: Workforce Management - Schedule Agents by Queue

Hi everyone.

I'm new to Workforce Management and I have some questions related to it.

How can I schedule agents by queue? For instance, create a schedule as:

Agent A: 8 a.m. on-queue on "Queue A"/ 10 a.m. on-queue on "Queue B"/ 1 p.m. Meal / 2 p.m. on-queue "Queue C" until 4 p.m.
Agent B: 8 a.m. on-queue on "Queue C"/ 10 a.m. on-queue on "Queue B"/ 2 p.m. Meal / 2 p m. on-queue "Queue A" until 4 p.m.

Also, when I generate a load-based schedule it will be based on only on queues that are used on "Service Goal Groups" as well as the system will try to achieve the "Service Goals" defined?

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Ana Laia
#PlatformAdministration

------------------------------
Ana Laia
ACCENTURE CONSULTORES DE GESTAO SA
------------------------------

Hi Jay,

Thank you for your answer.

The constrain here is to try allocate more agents on queues that are predicted to have more interactions than the others queues. For instance:

If I configure a Service Goal for SLA as 80% interaction answered within 20 seconds for "Queue A" Voice and "Queue B" Voice and then create a short-term forecast that predicts a pick of voice interactions on Monday morning for Queue A but not on Queue B, could the scheduling engine allocate more agents for Queue A than on Queue B on Monday morning in order to achieve the defined Service Goal?

Sorry if this sounds confuse.

Best regards,
Ana Laia

------------------------------
Ana Laia
ACCENTURE CONSULTORES DE GESTAO SA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-08-2019 07:23
From: Jay Langsford
Subject: Workforce Management - Schedule Agents by Queue

There is no facility to constrain scheduling by queue by time period. The scheduling engine is capable of scheduling resources in a multi-contact type and multi-staff type environment (multi- meaning multiple queues, multiple languages, multiple skills, and multiple media types). Agents only working certain queues certain periods of the day would actually be overly constraining and the further segmentation of staff types to overall load would limit flexibility and optimization of scheduling the right resources at the right times. It would also make handling of unexpected items (e.g., spike in volume, spike in average handle time) less efficient, because of the further staff type segmentation (e.g., at 8:15am you have a big spike in queue A, but agent B can't help).

Is there a business need for wanting to constrain periods when an agent works a particular queue? E.g., agents really don't like working queue A

The scheduling engine uses the short-term forecast and simultaneously considers many (10s of thousands to millions) potential schedules to find ones with predicted service performance goals, configured via service goal groups, that matches requirements as closely as possible and uses as few paid hours as possible all while honoring configured work constraints.

------------------------------
Jay Langsford
Senior Director, Workforce Optimization Engineering

Original Message:
Sent: 02-07-2019 06:12
From: Ana Laia
Subject: Workforce Management - Schedule Agents by Queue

Hi everyone.

I'm new to Workforce Management and I have some questions related to it.

How can I schedule agents by queue? For instance, create a schedule as:

Agent A: 8 a.m. on-queue on "Queue A"/ 10 a.m. on-queue on "Queue B"/ 1 p.m. Meal / 2 p.m. on-queue "Queue C" until 4 p.m.
Agent B: 8 a.m. on-queue on "Queue C"/ 10 a.m. on-queue on "Queue B"/ 2 p.m. Meal / 2 p m. on-queue "Queue A" until 4 p.m.

Also, when I generate a load-based schedule it will be based on only on queues that are used on "Service Goal Groups" as well as the system will try to achieve the "Service Goals" defined?

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Ana Laia
#PlatformAdministration

------------------------------
Ana Laia
ACCENTURE CONSULTORES DE GESTAO SA
------------------------------

The scheduling engine attempts to meet service performance as defined via service goal groups for the given short-term forecast and agent constraints. If a particular queue+media type was forecast to have more volume and longer AHT, then the expectation would be for a higher staff prediction, and assuming availability, more staff scheduled capable of handling that queue+media type.

It's the job of the scheduling engine to allocate more agents where there is more predicted need (specific to or across different queues and media types) - not a job of configuration changes or real-time queue association/dissociations.

Human-intervention is hard to model and usually does a poorer job. A few years ago, we spent some time evaluating actual service performance for a few large customers that heavily used queue association/dissociations, changing frequently throughout the day, and determined they would have had significantly higher service level and lower ASA and abandonment rates had they not made any queue association changes.

------------------------------
Jay Langsford
Senior Director, Workforce Optimization Engineering
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-11-2019 11:07
From: Ana Laia
Subject: Workforce Management - Schedule Agents by Queue

Hi Jay,

Thank you for your answer.

The constrain here is to try allocate more agents on queues that are predicted to have more interactions than the others queues. For instance:

If I configure a Service Goal for SLA as 80% interaction answered within 20 seconds for "Queue A" Voice and "Queue B" Voice and then create a short-term forecast that predicts a pick of voice interactions on Monday morning for Queue A but not on Queue B, could the scheduling engine allocate more agents for Queue A than on Queue B on Monday morning in order to achieve the defined Service Goal?

Sorry if this sounds confuse.

Best regards,
Ana Laia

------------------------------
Ana Laia
ACCENTURE CONSULTORES DE GESTAO SA

Original Message:
Sent: 02-08-2019 07:23
From: Jay Langsford
Subject: Workforce Management - Schedule Agents by Queue

There is no facility to constrain scheduling by queue by time period. The scheduling engine is capable of scheduling resources in a multi-contact type and multi-staff type environment (multi- meaning multiple queues, multiple languages, multiple skills, and multiple media types). Agents only working certain queues certain periods of the day would actually be overly constraining and the further segmentation of staff types to overall load would limit flexibility and optimization of scheduling the right resources at the right times. It would also make handling of unexpected items (e.g., spike in volume, spike in average handle time) less efficient, because of the further staff type segmentation (e.g., at 8:15am you have a big spike in queue A, but agent B can't help).

Is there a business need for wanting to constrain periods when an agent works a particular queue? E.g., agents really don't like working queue A

The scheduling engine uses the short-term forecast and simultaneously considers many (10s of thousands to millions) potential schedules to find ones with predicted service performance goals, configured via service goal groups, that matches requirements as closely as possible and uses as few paid hours as possible all while honoring configured work constraints.

------------------------------
Jay Langsford
Senior Director, Workforce Optimization Engineering

Original Message:
Sent: 02-07-2019 06:12
From: Ana Laia
Subject: Workforce Management - Schedule Agents by Queue

Hi everyone.

I'm new to Workforce Management and I have some questions related to it.

How can I schedule agents by queue? For instance, create a schedule as:

Agent A: 8 a.m. on-queue on "Queue A"/ 10 a.m. on-queue on "Queue B"/ 1 p.m. Meal / 2 p.m. on-queue "Queue C" until 4 p.m.
Agent B: 8 a.m. on-queue on "Queue C"/ 10 a.m. on-queue on "Queue B"/ 2 p.m. Meal / 2 p m. on-queue "Queue A" until 4 p.m.

Also, when I generate a load-based schedule it will be based on only on queues that are used on "Service Goal Groups" as well as the system will try to achieve the "Service Goals" defined?

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Ana Laia
#PlatformAdministration

------------------------------
Ana Laia
ACCENTURE CONSULTORES DE GESTAO SA
------------------------------