Workforce Engagement Management

Hi! I'm not usually part of the workforce planning team, but during WFM implementations these are the main capabilities I typically present to the teams that will be responsible for Capacity Planning.

I usually focus on features such as long-term workforce planning (up to two years with ABM), Business Unit and Planning Group visibility to identify staffing gaps, multi-skill planning, and especially the ability to build multiple "what-if" scenarios to evaluate different staffing strategies before making decisions.

I'm not sure if you've already configured these features or explored these use cases in your environment, but hopefully this gives you a few ideas on where the tool can provide more value.

I'd also be interested in hearing from people who use Capacity Planning on a daily basis, as I'm sure they can share practical experiences and best practices from an operational perspective.

Hi Raphael,

In your case, as a general rule, is the long-term forecast accurate or is there a need for manual adjustments for volumes/AHT? 

Would you be able to help us with some more details like: 

• is there any seasonality present in the forecast?
• what type of support you offer? 24/7? 
• the PGs have low/very low or high/very high volumes?

Also, if it is not too much trouble, it would help to know what type of "what if'" scenarios you have been able to build so far in Genesys Cloud.

Thank you,

Daniela Iordache

Hi! I'm not usually part of the workforce planning team, but during WFM implementations these are the main capabilities I typically present to the teams that will be responsible for Capacity Planning.

I usually focus on features such as long-term workforce planning (up to two years with ABM), Business Unit and Planning Group visibility to identify staffing gaps, multi-skill planning, and especially the ability to build multiple "what-if" scenarios to evaluate different staffing strategies before making decisions.

I'm not sure if you've already configured these features or explored these use cases in your environment, but hopefully this gives you a few ideas on where the tool can provide more value.

I'd also be interested in hearing from people who use Capacity Planning on a daily basis, as I'm sure they can share practical experiences and best practices from an operational perspective.

Daniela,

We also need help with adjusting for season peak volume.  We can adjust the forecast to increase call Volume% but what I see it increase the entire forecast period.  We only want to increase it for the first week of the month.  So for long forecasting is there a way to just increase volume just for the first week of the month and not the entire forecast?

Hi Raphael,

In your case, as a general rule, is the long-term forecast accurate or is there a need for manual adjustments for volumes/AHT? 

Would you be able to help us with some more details like: 

• is there any seasonality present in the forecast?
• what type of support you offer? 24/7? 
• the PGs have low/very low or high/very high volumes?

Also, if it is not too much trouble, it would help to know what type of "what if'" scenarios you have been able to build so far in Genesys Cloud.

Thank you,

Daniela Iordache

Hi! I'm not usually part of the workforce planning team, but during WFM implementations these are the main capabilities I typically present to the teams that will be responsible for Capacity Planning.

I usually focus on features such as long-term workforce planning (up to two years with ABM), Business Unit and Planning Group visibility to identify staffing gaps, multi-skill planning, and especially the ability to build multiple "what-if" scenarios to evaluate different staffing strategies before making decisions.

I'm not sure if you've already configured these features or explored these use cases in your environment, but hopefully this gives you a few ideas on where the tool can provide more value.

I'd also be interested in hearing from people who use Capacity Planning on a daily basis, as I'm sure they can share practical experiences and best practices from an operational perspective.

Hi Dave,

Genesys Cloud Capacity Planning is most helpful for long-term workforce planning, where the objective is to understand whether the organization will have sufficient capacity over the coming months and when action must be taken.

I normally separate WFM planning into three levels:

• Operational planning: Intraday management, including monitoring service levels, managing adherence, and responding to unexpected changes in demand or staffing.
• Tactical planning: Forecasting and scheduling for the coming weeks or months, determining shift requirements, and producing employee schedules.
• Long-term planning: Evaluating workforce requirements over a longer horizon and deciding when to recruit, train, cross-skill, transfer, or reduce staffing.

Short-term scheduling answers: "Which employees should work at each interval?"

Capacity Planning answers: "Will we have enough appropriately skilled employees in the future, and when do we need to act?"

The main benefits of Capacity Planning include:

• Identifying future understaffing and overstaffing
• Comparing required staffing with available staffing
• Modelling changes in contact volume, AHT, shrinkage, and workload
• Accounting for attrition, recruitment, training, and employee availability
• Evaluating alternative hiring and cross-skilling scenarios
• Understanding when recruitment or training activities must begin
• Supporting budget and headcount discussions with operations, HR, and finance
• Providing a consistent planning process across planning and staffing groups
• Highlighting potential capacity risks before they affect service levels
• Comparing multiple scenarios before committing to a workforce strategy

The feature provides the most value when the planning groups, staffing groups, and assumptions accurately represent the operation. It should be used as a decision-support tool for future workforce strategy rather than as a replacement for forecasting, scheduling, or intraday management.

Thanks,

------------------------------
Robert Tonyka
Sr. Principal PS Consultant
------------------------------

Thanks for the responses. I understand the reason and the use for the Capacity Planning tool. I am just not getting any useful output. We are a 24/7 contact center with about 150 agents across 4 MUs (2 queues). I would love to run the tool and be able to have the system tell me the long-term outlook for headcount, as well as provide opportunities for what-if analysis (+/- volume, AHT, Headcount) so I can get out of Excel. Thanks

Hi Dave,

Genesys Cloud Capacity Planning is most helpful for long-term workforce planning, where the objective is to understand whether the organization will have sufficient capacity over the coming months and when action must be taken.

I normally separate WFM planning into three levels:

• Operational planning: Intraday management, including monitoring service levels, managing adherence, and responding to unexpected changes in demand or staffing.
• Tactical planning: Forecasting and scheduling for the coming weeks or months, determining shift requirements, and producing employee schedules.
• Long-term planning: Evaluating workforce requirements over a longer horizon and deciding when to recruit, train, cross-skill, transfer, or reduce staffing.

Short-term scheduling answers: "Which employees should work at each interval?"

Capacity Planning answers: "Will we have enough appropriately skilled employees in the future, and when do we need to act?"

The main benefits of Capacity Planning include:

• Identifying future understaffing and overstaffing
• Comparing required staffing with available staffing
• Modelling changes in contact volume, AHT, shrinkage, and workload
• Accounting for attrition, recruitment, training, and employee availability
• Evaluating alternative hiring and cross-skilling scenarios
• Understanding when recruitment or training activities must begin
• Supporting budget and headcount discussions with operations, HR, and finance
• Providing a consistent planning process across planning and staffing groups
• Highlighting potential capacity risks before they affect service levels
• Comparing multiple scenarios before committing to a workforce strategy

The feature provides the most value when the planning groups, staffing groups, and assumptions accurately represent the operation. It should be used as a decision-support tool for future workforce strategy rather than as a replacement for forecasting, scheduling, or intraday management.

Thanks,

------------------------------
Robert Tonyka
Sr. Principal PS Consultant
------------------------------

Hi Dave,

Can you elaborate a little on what you mean by not getting any useful outputs?  What you described wanting to get out of the tool is exactly what it's meant to provide.  What specifically are seeing for your outputs that you feel are not useful?

Thanks,

Thanks for the responses. I understand the reason and the use for the Capacity Planning tool. I am just not getting any useful output. We are a 24/7 contact center with about 150 agents across 4 MUs (2 queues). I would love to run the tool and be able to have the system tell me the long-term outlook for headcount, as well as provide opportunities for what-if analysis (+/- volume, AHT, Headcount) so I can get out of Excel. Thanks

Hi Dave,

Genesys Cloud Capacity Planning is most helpful for long-term workforce planning, where the objective is to understand whether the organization will have sufficient capacity over the coming months and when action must be taken.

I normally separate WFM planning into three levels:

• Operational planning: Intraday management, including monitoring service levels, managing adherence, and responding to unexpected changes in demand or staffing.
• Tactical planning: Forecasting and scheduling for the coming weeks or months, determining shift requirements, and producing employee schedules.
• Long-term planning: Evaluating workforce requirements over a longer horizon and deciding when to recruit, train, cross-skill, transfer, or reduce staffing.

Short-term scheduling answers: "Which employees should work at each interval?"

Capacity Planning answers: "Will we have enough appropriately skilled employees in the future, and when do we need to act?"

The main benefits of Capacity Planning include:

• Identifying future understaffing and overstaffing
• Comparing required staffing with available staffing
• Modelling changes in contact volume, AHT, shrinkage, and workload
• Accounting for attrition, recruitment, training, and employee availability
• Evaluating alternative hiring and cross-skilling scenarios
• Understanding when recruitment or training activities must begin
• Supporting budget and headcount discussions with operations, HR, and finance
• Providing a consistent planning process across planning and staffing groups
• Highlighting potential capacity risks before they affect service levels
• Comparing multiple scenarios before committing to a workforce strategy

The feature provides the most value when the planning groups, staffing groups, and assumptions accurately represent the operation. It should be used as a decision-support tool for future workforce strategy rather than as a replacement for forecasting, scheduling, or intraday management.

Thanks,

------------------------------
Robert Tonyka
Sr. Principal PS Consultant
------------------------------