Carlson Hospitality Worldwide spans 82 countries encompassing more than 1,695 hotels, resorts and restaurants as well as cruise ship operations.

Carlson Hospitality Worldwide credits TotalView® with:

• Eliminating 1,000 hours of shrinkage monthly
• Saving $250,000 in annual labor costs
• Improving adherence by ten percentage points
• Decreasing abandonment to less than five percent

“TotalView is a flexible product that allows us to change the way we manage our business on demand.”

Rhonda Haddock, Carlson Hospitality Worldwide

Being in the travel industry, Carlson Hospitality Worldwide (CHW) is severely impacted by external factors such as the economy, politics and weather. To quickly adapt to these shifting market dynamics, CHW uses the IEX TotalView® Workforce Management system.  "TotalView is a flexible product that allows us to change the way we manage our business on demand," said CHW Forecasting and Staffing Supervisor Rhonda Haddock.

Over the years, CHW has undergone several transitions. The organization went from two contact center sites in North America to a single site, consolidated dedicated specialty desks into larger agent groups, created other dedicated groups and introduced new scheduling models.

Improved Performance
TotalView puts powerful workforce management capabilities right at the supervisors' fingertips. "Labor expenses have been significantly lower since we implemented TotalView in 1997," Haddock said.  In the first year, CHW said it eliminated 1,000 hours of shrinkage per month and reduced labor costs by eight percent. Manual processes were automated and cycle time was reduced.

Flexible Scheduling
CHW's transition toward flexible scheduling has further enhanced the organization's operational efficiency.  In 2002, a flexible scheduling model was designed. By moving just ten percent of the variable workforce into flexible schedules, CHW realized annual labor savings of $250,000.

"Everyone is being asked to do more with less these days. And we all know that the contact center's biggest expense is its labor costs," Haddock said. "After seeing the phenomenal results we realized by adding flexible schedules into the mix, we wanted to expand the program."

In 2003, CHW began hiring all new agents into flexible scheduling. As part of CHW's selection process, candidate's available work times are matched with staffing requirements. Once hired, agents' availability and assignment preferences are considered when schedules are released every two weeks. This new model has been a win for the employees as they are not scheduled outside of their availability and a win for the business as staffing is quickly adjusted to meet changing business requirements.

The flexible scheduling methodology and employee engagement initiatives have contributed to a 19 percent reduction in turnover from 2002 to 2003.  Haddock said, "As business changes, we can easily adapt our forecasting and scheduling methodologies using TotalView."

Resource Planning
To optimize performance across the entire contact center, CHW expanded the role of the Resource Planning department. In addition to providing workforce management for the inbound reservations group, Resource Planning began to provide workforce management for the Customer Service department, the IT Support Desk and the Global Distribution Services department.

Before integrating TotalView into additional operating groups within the organization, Resource Planning conducted an efficiency analysis. By using TotalView to automate manual processes and utilizing the core competencies within the Resource Planning team, CHW reallocated $90,000 of labor into areas of proficiency.

"Not only were we able to reallocate non-proficient labor into proficient labor, we also realized increased efficiencies across the board," Haddock said. Without adding staff, abandonment and average speed of answer were decreased while service levels and the average delay to abandon improved. 

Historical Adherence 
Since implementing TotalView, CHW has measured and coached schedule conformance. In 2003, CHW took schedule measurement to the next level by utilizing the Historical Adherence feature.  "We immediately began seeing phenomenal results," Haddock said. Both Inbound Voice Reservations and the Customer Service department improved adherence by ten percent.

Vacation and Holiday Planner
Before implementing TotalView's Vacation and Holiday Planning tool, CHW's manual scheduling process was time consuming.  "With Vacation Planner, employees don't have to wait for Resource Planning's approval and there's not a big paper shuffle between departments," Haddock said.

"This has saved us about two hours in administration a day and countless reams of paper." Additionally, Haddock said employees really appreciate the self-service aspect of this feature.  "Employees can see their vacation balance at a glance and receive an immediate response to their request. They perceive the process as more equitable," she said.

A Technology Partnership
"Utilizing TotalView, our employees and our coaching efforts have worked together to achieve higher productivity," Haddock said.  "Even after using TotalView for over six years, we continually find ways to improve scheduling methods, educate ourselves on product features and improve customer satisfaction," she added.

IEX facilitates opportunities to continue learning and networking such as monthly user conference calls, webinars, and the annual user conference.  "With every upgrade or special request, the IEX team has been attentive to our needs, many times going above and beyond the 'typical' customer/vendor relationship," Haddock said. "IEX continues to seek out the voice of the customer when looking for ways to improve the value of their solution."