Creating a Call Center Staffing Roster

Creating a call center roster is the last of three staffing decisions that impact workforce optimization. It’s a process that begins with the forecast and scheduling, an estimate of the number of calls that will be received, and the number of agents necessary to handle these calls in an efficient manner. Staffing follows the forecast, as management decides how many agents are needed for a given day or shift, and which skill sets should be represented in that shift. Scheduling is the process of matching shift profiles with forecasts to achieve service goals. Once this data has been obtained it is time to focus on the roster, which matches employee availability to existing schedules or forecast data. Rosters will be determined by input data measuring:

• workload
• work handling units (skill teams)
• arrival patterns
• allowable shifts (shift profiles), and
• employee availability.

Find a workforce management software solution that includes contact center rostering capabilities and templates. A roster management software will expedite data entry, analysis, roster creation, roster distribution and last-minute updates. Rosters should not only track available agents, but those who are unavailable due to vacations or other factors. To learn more about this, please watch this short video about call center staffing roster creation and updating. Another important consideration is managing resources as they relate to non-call activities, such as emails. A non-call roster can help with scheduling available agents with the right skills at non-peak hours to handle these important tasks. Finally, rosters, like schedules, are not set in stone. Unexpected changes necessitate swapping agents, and increasing or decreasing the size of a shift based on outside circumstances. Workforce management software should allow for unlimited roster changes, so managers always have the flexibility they need to correctly allocate resources.