I second Chuck's comments.
You don't want to have a mechanism that agents can blatantly abuse. Let's say you could configure one presence to be ignored for adherence...what prevents an agent from simply hanging out in that presence whenever they want? Worst case you'd have 100% schedule adherence with 0 actual on queue time given.
A much more practical solution is to set more reasonable adherence goals for agents. Many times the business sets unreasonably high adherence expectations (e.g., >=95%) when they know there are business reasons, like your example, that occur. So, instead of 97% schedule adherence goal maybe determine how much time budget you want to account for that time and set it lower - something like 92% or something.
We have also seen cases where there is a drive by the agent and supervisor to 'change history' to artificially get agents to near 100% schedule adherence. This type of exception management, as Chuck mentions, is laborious and, worse, it doesn't reflect what actually happened.
Some folks might think my example of 92% schedule adherence goal is too low, but in practice in other systems they 'pencil whipped' the numbers to get higher adherence by editing the schedule in arrears, approving exceptions, configuring the system to ignore certain agent statuses, etc.
------------------------------
Jay Langsford
Senior Director, Workforce Optimization Engineering
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 06-26-2020 07:53
From: Chuck Swain
Subject: Exempting Statuses from Adherence
Cedric,
There is a way to ignore an Activity from Adherence, but that process will likely eliminate from your adherence reporting more than expected to accomplish your goal. I'm currently not recommending this.
Adherence is not an exact science, but it's always best to make your best attempt to plan in advance your agent's scheduled activities in a given day. As you say "specific situations" I'm thinking these are random and cannot be planned. If there is an organizational awareness around these events and they are considered required as part of agent's daily responsibilities, they would be considered discretionary activities and therefore be made part of the agent adherence "formula" for your organization.
I typically address adherence by discussing the essential elements of the agent role like 1. Agent Expectations 2. AHT, 3. # Scheduled Events. Agent Expectations include the things like "specific situations", if those can be quantified that information can be applied to your Adherence Target.
Exception entry is busy-work! Having a goal that is set in accordance with your quantifiable expectations of agents will go far in eliminating the compulsion to manage adherence by exception entry and free up more time for planners work.
------------------------------
Chuck Swain
Genesys
WEM Leadership
Original Message:
Sent: 06-25-2020 09:46
From: Cedric Harris
Subject: Exempting Statuses from Adherence
Good Morning,
We are running into an issue where we need agents to go Off Queue temporarily in specific situations and want them to use a specific status for tracking. Is there a way to except a status from affecting Schedule Adherence?
Thanks in advance,
#Unsure/Other
------------------------------
Cedric Harris
Tresta, Inc. dba PATLive
------------------------------