Multi-skill Workforce Management

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 06/16/2010 - 09:00
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Forecasting and Scheduling Precision for Multi-skill Contact Centers

Staffing level calculation methods such as Erlang C or multi-server queuing formulas are not accurate when applied to agents with multiple skills. Workarounds, including scheduling for only one call type at a time or scheduling on a most- to least-skilled hierarchy, don’t allow managers to make the most effective use of multi-skilled agents. But with NICE’s Multi-skill Workforce Management capabilities, managers can create schedules quickly and easily, track the effectiveness of skill assignments and routing strategies, determine skill requirements, and monitor coverage by individual contact type. Trust NICE for workforce management software that ensures the right agents with the right skills are most effectively used.
Without accurate staffing level calculations and scheduling, contact centers will fail to achieve the benefits of skills-based routing, consistently missing service level goals because of understaffing or exceeding labor costs due to overstaffing. Many systems offer multi-skill functionality but unless they are capable of mirroring your specific contact routing environment, forecasts and coverage lines will be inaccurate and the contact center’s ability to achieve results efficiently in a multi-skill environment is lost.
 
With multi-skill workforce management you can make the most of your multi-skilled and cross-trained staff. By accurately simulating agent skills and contact arrivals, it provides accurate staffing requirements while producing effective schedules.
NICE IEX Workforce Management provides forecasting accuracy and enhanced scheduling precision with patented methods using discrete simulation technology. Requirements are calculated considering your call center’s site and network routing rules, individual agent skills, skill levels and availability. Then, using simulation, the system calculates both interval-level multi-skill efficiency percentages for accurate staffing levels for each contact type and individual skill-usage estimates for each agent. Thus, NICE IEX Multi-skill produces more accurate forecasts, schedules and coverage lines than other systems.
 
This simulation functionality lets managers gauge the potential impact of routing changes and future development of agent skills while still managing based upon the current environment. Managers can re-simulate on an intraday basis to assess the impact changing conditions and schedule adjustments have on projected coverage and results.

 

 
 
 Multi-skill Workforce Managment
 
 
Part of the proven NICE IEX Workforce Management system, Multi-skill is a comprehensive functionality that helps you produce accurate forecasts and schedules for your multi-skill operation.
 
  • Accurately simulate agent skills, and network and automatic call distributor (ACD) skills-based routing.
  • Automatically create effective forecasts and schedules for multiple contact types to meet goals for service level and agent occupancy.
  • Schedule multi-skilled agents using “universal queuing,” time-block or a combination of both contact-allocation methods.
  • Calculate agent availability and multi-skill efficiency to measure the impact of changes on skill assignments and contact delivery.
  • Easily evaluate the efficiency of skill assignments and the rules controlling contact routing.
  • Respond to changes in staffing or contact volumes using sophisticated analysis tools to pinpoint corrective action.
  • Successfully implement enterprise-wide call center management using skills-based ACDs from different vendors and intelligent network call routing.