Workforce Engagement Management

What are some basic features of Genesys Cloud that seem to be missing that you find essential? The idea behind this is to potentially find alternative ways of getting a similar result if possible, or find ideas in the portal that can be voted on to achieve the desired result.

So, here are few from me to start:

1.    A centralized schedule view.
Coming from an older Engage On-Premises solution, the lack of a centralized schedule database is surprising. I often have to run reports going back months, often a full year, and doing that with the existing schedule view is an arduous task – especially because we publish schedules weekly across 3 business units due to the management unit limitations.

2.    Scheduled activity reporting
Similar to the above, there are also no reports that can be run from the schedule view. While it would still be annoying, being able to export a specific category would make other day-to-day reporting much easier. We manually run a callout report by doing a schedule export, and then filtering the relevant activity codes in Excel to send out – 3 times per report because of the business unit issue.

3.    Time off auto-approval ignores existing requests
If we chose to implement the auto-approval for PTO requests, any existing requests are ignored. This seems like an absolutely gross oversight that should be rectified immediately. Our work-around is to manually go through and turn off the auto-approvals for any days that already have PTO requests entered, whether approved or pending…about 20 times because it's per management unit. We are a relatively small group, so I imagine larger groups would find it virtually impossible to implement this system after go-live without wasting hours that should be addressed automatically.

#Genesys Cloud CX
#Workforce Engagement Management
#Workforce Management
#ScheduleManagement

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Gene Gutierrez
Presbyterian Healthcare Services
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Hi Gene, 

thanks for your feedback as we transition more users from Engage to Genesys Cloud it is good to understand possible gaps.

I'd encourage you to sign up to the ideas lab, via the Genesys Knowledge Network, if you have not already done so. There are many ideas around scheduling and it would be great to hear your comments on them, and possible votes to help us prioritise the next set of features.

To answer the points that you have raised:

1. As we have discussed the move to a more continuous forecasting, requirements and scheduling methodology, being able to forecast and schedule on nightly bases for the next 2 years. A more fluid scheduling view has been thought about, at the moment we have not thought about cross-BU visibility. 
   
   
2. This is something that has been raised a few times in the Ideas lab. Please take a look at "Export or report for activities of agents over a year or more"
3. On reading this I think that this would apply to all of the WFM auto-approval processes.  I have created the idea "Ability to retospectively apply auto-approval rules"

Paul

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Paul Wood
Product Manager for Genesys Cloud Workforce Management
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1. It would be great to be able to export out a simple roster of agents with info like: Name, Supervisor, Shift, Management Unit, Queues Assigned etc.
2. Be able to schedule recurring events
3. Be able to schedule events in the future.  For example, we schedule weekly but sometimes get requests for a meeting or event 3 weeks into the future.  So we have to hold the email request for 3 weeks and then remember to go back and schedule it.
4. Forecasting to include transfers from other queues not just calls directly routed into the queue.  We have a high transfer queue that always requires us to make an educated guess on how much to tweak the compute generated forecast. 

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Tom Magness
Johnson & Johnson
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1. I completely agree that the basic export list should be a basic thing that was released with at a minimum that info. Work Plans and Work Teams should be included as well.
2. There might be a work-around to the recurring events, depending on how frequently they happen. One of our groups has a weekly meeting on Monday and Friday, so we built the meeting into their Work Plans. For things like a monthly meeting every 3rd Thursday, though, this would be a neat feature. I remember Engage On-Prem had the option to future-schedule exceptions that worked well-enough for us and one of our group's variable after-hours meetings.
3. If they gave us the Exceptions option that mirrors the way Time-Off works, this would be very helpful. We also schedule weekly.
4. I'm not involved in the forecasting on our team, so I don't have any insights here I'm afraid.

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Gene Gutierrez
Presbyterian Healthcare Services
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-26-2023 10:00
From: Tom Magness
Subject: Genesys Cloud | Basic features that seem to be missing

1. It would be great to be able to export out a simple roster of agents with info like: Name, Supervisor, Shift, Management Unit, Queues Assigned etc.
2. Be able to schedule recurring events
3. Be able to schedule events in the future.  For example, we schedule weekly but sometimes get requests for a meeting or event 3 weeks into the future.  So we have to hold the email request for 3 weeks and then remember to go back and schedule it.
4. Forecasting to include transfers from other queues not just calls directly routed into the queue.  We have a high transfer queue that always requires us to make an educated guess on how much to tweak the compute generated forecast. 

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Tom Magness
Johnson & Johnson
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Hi Tom, 

for #2 and #3 we are working on Activity Plan which will enable recurring events and the ability to built 1 off events ahead of time that are ran during schedule generation.
the ideas lab link for this is:

Shared Activity Scheduling (Meeting Planner)

for #1 and #4 please add your thoughts to any existing ideas or create new ideas if you feel that it has not yet been raised.

Paul

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Paul Wood
Product Manager for Genesys Cloud Workforce Management
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-26-2023 10:00
From: Tom Magness
Subject: Genesys Cloud | Basic features that seem to be missing

1. It would be great to be able to export out a simple roster of agents with info like: Name, Supervisor, Shift, Management Unit, Queues Assigned etc.
2. Be able to schedule recurring events
3. Be able to schedule events in the future.  For example, we schedule weekly but sometimes get requests for a meeting or event 3 weeks into the future.  So we have to hold the email request for 3 weeks and then remember to go back and schedule it.
4. Forecasting to include transfers from other queues not just calls directly routed into the queue.  We have a high transfer queue that always requires us to make an educated guess on how much to tweak the compute generated forecast. 

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Tom Magness
Johnson & Johnson
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I agree with all of these 100%.  How about:

• HIstorical tracking of user information, such as:
  • When did an agent move from supervisor A to Supervisor B.  That would also let us future date changes so I didn't have to wait to update the reporting structure
  • When did the agent move from one MU or BU to another
  • When did they move from one workplan to another
• The ability to alphabatize by LAST NAME
• The ability to add activities via a right-click and pop-up box, rather than have to drag things down
• The ability to manually place someone on the Time Off Waitlist, since we can't currently use the auto approval processing due to the lack of time off groups
• The ability to manually create agent time banks
• The ability to make the time off range ACTUAL DATES and not just some many days from now (a window that perpetually moves)
• The ability to set Black Out dates for Time Off
• When the waitlist expires, the request should be able to become DENIED and not just "Pending - Expired Waitlist".  Is it Pending or is it Denied?  It is very confusing for agents
• The ability for WFM to change someones Time Off request from Full to Partial.  We have had to come up with many workarounds to be able to use Genesys for any time off requests and WFM should be able to edit any time off request any on puts in, including being able to cancel it
• The ability to trade parts of a shift.  Currently, it is full shift or nothing
• The ability for supervisors to submit exceptions and WFM can approve of deny
• The ability to update a forecast and apply it to schedule runs already out there
• The ability to double-click on an out of adherence timeframe, and add that activity to the agents schedule, as opposed to having to do that activity drag thing and then do the minutes math
• The ability to exclude entire blocks of time from adherence.  For example, if we have a system issue and it caused adherence issues from 1230 - 1400, I want to be able to exclude adherence data for everyone within that time frame 

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Gina Palmer
Papa, Inc.
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Loving those points made! Those are the kinds of things that would make using the system so much easier for my team. 

A big pain point is we have to "deny" a request, but code it under a Cancelled Activity code if the Agent calls out on an already approved partial day - we can't edit what's there and chance to a full day. We can't cancel it and then add a full day. We have to "deny" it and then re-submit it for them. 

I would still love to get headcount reports so we know how many people worked on each day in a week and set the interval

Ex: instead of getting that view in the Schedule by half hour, my leadership team wants to know how many people per hour worked this past Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday (without having to play with filters or doing extra steps).

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Jacqueline Turner
Workflow Coordinator
NYCM Insurance
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-27-2023 09:13
From: Gina Palmer
Subject: Genesys Cloud | Basic features that seem to be missing

I agree with all of these 100%.  How about:

• HIstorical tracking of user information, such as:
  • When did an agent move from supervisor A to Supervisor B.  That would also let us future date changes so I didn't have to wait to update the reporting structure
  • When did the agent move from one MU or BU to another
  • When did they move from one workplan to another
• The ability to alphabatize by LAST NAME
• The ability to add activities via a right-click and pop-up box, rather than have to drag things down
• The ability to manually place someone on the Time Off Waitlist, since we can't currently use the auto approval processing due to the lack of time off groups
• The ability to manually create agent time banks
• The ability to make the time off range ACTUAL DATES and not just some many days from now (a window that perpetually moves)
• The ability to set Black Out dates for Time Off
• When the waitlist expires, the request should be able to become DENIED and not just "Pending - Expired Waitlist".  Is it Pending or is it Denied?  It is very confusing for agents
• The ability for WFM to change someones Time Off request from Full to Partial.  We have had to come up with many workarounds to be able to use Genesys for any time off requests and WFM should be able to edit any time off request any on puts in, including being able to cancel it
• The ability to trade parts of a shift.  Currently, it is full shift or nothing
• The ability for supervisors to submit exceptions and WFM can approve of deny
• The ability to update a forecast and apply it to schedule runs already out there
• The ability to double-click on an out of adherence timeframe, and add that activity to the agents schedule, as opposed to having to do that activity drag thing and then do the minutes math
• The ability to exclude entire blocks of time from adherence.  For example, if we have a system issue and it caused adherence issues from 1230 - 1400, I want to be able to exclude adherence data for everyone within that time frame 

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Gina Palmer
Papa, Inc.
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Thank you for adding all of these points!

We've experienced a number of these, and our Exceptions process now is such a hassle! Gina, how do you have your supervisors/agents handle exceptions now? We're using a SharePoint form that we have to manually transfer into their schedules, and I'd like to hear any other ideas that make this process much less tedious and painful. We're probably losing a collective 8ish hours a week just entering exceptions alone!

Jacqueline, I also really like your question too. It's not something we have to work with often, but I can definitely see that being something basic!

Edit: Replies didn't work as expected, so adding some more context.
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Gene Gutierrez | Workforce Coordinator
Presbyterian Customer Service Center
Albuquerque, NM
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-27-2023 09:13
From: Gina Palmer
Subject: Genesys Cloud | Basic features that seem to be missing

I agree with all of these 100%.  How about:

• HIstorical tracking of user information, such as:
  • When did an agent move from supervisor A to Supervisor B.  That would also let us future date changes so I didn't have to wait to update the reporting structure
  • When did the agent move from one MU or BU to another
  • When did they move from one workplan to another
• The ability to alphabatize by LAST NAME
• The ability to add activities via a right-click and pop-up box, rather than have to drag things down
• The ability to manually place someone on the Time Off Waitlist, since we can't currently use the auto approval processing due to the lack of time off groups
• The ability to manually create agent time banks
• The ability to make the time off range ACTUAL DATES and not just some many days from now (a window that perpetually moves)
• The ability to set Black Out dates for Time Off
• When the waitlist expires, the request should be able to become DENIED and not just "Pending - Expired Waitlist".  Is it Pending or is it Denied?  It is very confusing for agents
• The ability for WFM to change someones Time Off request from Full to Partial.  We have had to come up with many workarounds to be able to use Genesys for any time off requests and WFM should be able to edit any time off request any on puts in, including being able to cancel it
• The ability to trade parts of a shift.  Currently, it is full shift or nothing
• The ability for supervisors to submit exceptions and WFM can approve of deny
• The ability to update a forecast and apply it to schedule runs already out there
• The ability to double-click on an out of adherence timeframe, and add that activity to the agents schedule, as opposed to having to do that activity drag thing and then do the minutes math
• The ability to exclude entire blocks of time from adherence.  For example, if we have a system issue and it caused adherence issues from 1230 - 1400, I want to be able to exclude adherence data for everyone within that time frame 

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Gina Palmer
Papa, Inc.
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Gene Gutierrez We have had to do the same thing; create a Google from for exceptions and work the spreadsheet. 

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Gina Palmer
Papa, Inc.
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-27-2023 17:13
From: Gene Gutierrez
Subject: Genesys Cloud | Basic features that seem to be missing

Thank you for adding all of these points!

We've experienced a number of these, and our Exceptions process now is such a hassle! Gina, how do you have your supervisors/agents handle exceptions now? We're using a SharePoint form that we have to manually transfer into their schedules, and I'd like to hear any other ideas that make this process much less tedious and painful. We're probably losing a collective 8ish hours a week just entering exceptions alone!

Jacqueline, I also really like your question too. It's not something we have to work with often, but I can definitely see that being something basic!

Edit: Replies didn't work as expected, so adding some more context.
------------------------------
Gene Gutierrez | Workforce Coordinator
Presbyterian Customer Service Center
Albuquerque, NM
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 07-27-2023 09:13
From: Gina Palmer
Subject: Genesys Cloud | Basic features that seem to be missing

I agree with all of these 100%.  How about:

• HIstorical tracking of user information, such as:
  • When did an agent move from supervisor A to Supervisor B.  That would also let us future date changes so I didn't have to wait to update the reporting structure
  • When did the agent move from one MU or BU to another
  • When did they move from one workplan to another
• The ability to alphabatize by LAST NAME
• The ability to add activities via a right-click and pop-up box, rather than have to drag things down
• The ability to manually place someone on the Time Off Waitlist, since we can't currently use the auto approval processing due to the lack of time off groups
• The ability to manually create agent time banks
• The ability to make the time off range ACTUAL DATES and not just some many days from now (a window that perpetually moves)
• The ability to set Black Out dates for Time Off
• When the waitlist expires, the request should be able to become DENIED and not just "Pending - Expired Waitlist".  Is it Pending or is it Denied?  It is very confusing for agents
• The ability for WFM to change someones Time Off request from Full to Partial.  We have had to come up with many workarounds to be able to use Genesys for any time off requests and WFM should be able to edit any time off request any on puts in, including being able to cancel it
• The ability to trade parts of a shift.  Currently, it is full shift or nothing
• The ability for supervisors to submit exceptions and WFM can approve of deny
• The ability to update a forecast and apply it to schedule runs already out there
• The ability to double-click on an out of adherence timeframe, and add that activity to the agents schedule, as opposed to having to do that activity drag thing and then do the minutes math
• The ability to exclude entire blocks of time from adherence.  For example, if we have a system issue and it caused adherence issues from 1230 - 1400, I want to be able to exclude adherence data for everyone within that time frame 

------------------------------
Gina Palmer
Papa, Inc.