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From Cost to Catalyst: A Consultant’s View on Transforming Organizations Through Workforce Management

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Over my 20+ year career, I’ve gained extensive insights into the critical role of Workforce Management (WFM) in enhancing organizational efficiency and driving customer retention and loyalty. Transitioning from the corporate sphere to consulting in recent years has further reinforced my beliefs. I’ve observed numerous clients struggle with several key issues: 

  • Identifying Cost Inefficiencies: Many organizations fail to pinpoint where their staffing models and processes are lacking, which can lead to unnecessary expenditures. 
  • Understanding WFM’s Impact: There’s often a lack of awareness about how effective WFM methodologies and processes are crucial for both employee and customer retention. 
  • Recognizing WFM as a Strategic Advantage: Instead of viewing WFM as merely a cost center, it’s essential for businesses to see it as a strategic benefit that deserves a significant place at the decision-making table, or even a dedicated department. 

 

To offer some real-world insight, here is a case study that shows examples of issues I’ve referenced above. The work we performed showcases the benefit of what WFM brings to the table and how it can drive value to your business, reduce costs and improve the experiences of both your internal employees and customers. 

Executive Summary

A healthcare BPO struggled to meet stringent and aggressive SLA targets related to benefits call handling due to gaps in WFM, leading to hefty financial penalties and eroded trust in the company’s ability to service.  Through a thorough deep dive of the company’s WFM processes and platforms – it was found that inaccurate coding of offline time on both front-line and back-office agents led to a staffing shortage of ~30 FTEThrough this root cause analysis – we were able to quickly align short term staffing needs to forecast, develop contingency plans for peak-period staffing support, create better data sources for offline tracking and source for new hire classes to improve staffing over the longer term. 

The Challenge

Persistent misses in all areas of contractual performance led to high payout rates, distrust from both customer and vendor in their ability to meet SLAs and decreased confidence in an upcoming contract renewalAll indicators pointed to insufficient WFM oversight, process controls and staffing alignment to current and forecasted demand.  A lackluster WFM platform and reporting repository as well as offline request tracking proved additionally difficult to achieve the necessary contractual results. 

Solution

Through a comprehensive analysis of all things WFM, data validation and engagement with various stakeholders, it was found that a majority of staff from the back-office group were coded in the WFM platform as being available for resource support.  This incorrect coding and code alignment meant that the business was showing more staff for phone support than was actually aligned, creating an illusion that the business had adequate staff to meet the current and forecasted demand.  Additionally – the current WFM platform did not offer complete insight, including reporting, as to staff whereabouts in a timely manner that was also impacting the ability to right size and deliver consistent value to both partners and customers. 

Outcome

Once the deficiencies were brought to light, quick action was taken to:

1) realign all platform codes to correctly show on or offline

2) identified new hire class sourcing timelines

3) created robust and insightful reporting tools through excel with dissemination to all management for visibility and

4) action planned for daily support to meet the demand forecasts while new hires were being sourced and trained. 

Several excel-based reports were created to better track agent whereabouts (ie – late arrivals, PTO) that increased staff visibility and allowed for a more defined approach to call support from the back office and other teams. 

What I learned helped to continue to shape my understanding of how important WFM is to any business

Whether you are operating in an environment where strict SLAs are present or operating in an environment where your measures are more internal – the construct of a solid WFM team can help to drive efficiencies, reduce costs and provide for a more stable operating environment

WFM does not need to operate in a bubble but must have a seat at the table to help identify opportunities to create efficiencies, spearhead creative ways to reduce costs such as AHT reduction, headcount alignment and many other ways. 

It is time that we stopped looking at WFM as a cost to the business and see the many values and benefits a well-run WFM team can bring to any organization. 

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