07 Sep Time & Labor Case Study: Call Center
Call centers that optimize their human capital can significantly increase efficiency and productivity. This was the objective of our example company, a customer service center which had launched eight years previously with one healthcare client. Last year, when they adopted Workforce Management Suite (WFM), they provided inbound and outbound support for six health insurers, three nationwide financial clients, and two auto insurance firms.
In optimizing human capital, the business had four specific goals:
- Increase precision of scheduling to improve employee productivity
- Decrease overtime and better regulate employee breaks
- Keep labor costs in check while still providing a high level of service
- Accommodate employees’ scheduling preferences to elevate employee morale and reduce turnover
Our case study had invested in a software-based, onsite WFM system five years before switching to Workforce Management Suite. It was fairly sophisticated when installed, but the manufacturer had not kept up with the latest technology and its value decreased as the company evolved. Furthermore, the software updates were costly and the system was down for days when something went wrong.
Solution – Workforce Management Suite
The forward-thinking owners were eager to upgrade to a call center Workforce Management system that made it easy to implement the latest Workforce Management best practices to get a leg up in a crowded call center market. Though they had spent thousands on their onsite software, they knew their needs would be better met with an SaaS solution. Workforce Management Suite, which contains TimeWorksPlus, TimeSimplicity, and TimeWorksTouch, capably met each of their objectives, as described below.
Scheduling Precision
With TimeSimplicity, the scheduling solution in Workforce Management Suite, department managers can create standard schedule templates for busy and slow sales periods, which vary per department. With the standard schedule in place, managers can drag and drop to customize for each client, employee group, or other department-specific criteria. The system has practically eliminated coverage gaps, over-staffing, and departmental imbalances.
Strategic Forecasting
TimeSimplicity gives managers innovative tools to analyze attendance history, discover trends, and forecast future needs. As the weeks go by, managers have an ever-increasing amount of key data to help elevate the accuracy of scheduling.
Overtime and Break Management
Companies that mismanage overtime can really take a financial hit. Workforce Management Suite customizable overtime warnings have reduced labor expenses while proving to be a huge timesaver for managers.
Reduced Labor Costs
Time card estimation was common at the organization prior to Workforce Management Suite. The call center staff members would estimate start and end times after the fact if they forgot to punch in. TimeWorksPlus has a schedule adherence function which doesn’t clock employee time outside of prescribed hours and enforces authorized break and meal duration. Tardies and absences are monitored and controlled and buddy-punching has become impossible. The firm is now only paying staff members for time actually worked.
Accurate Time Cards and Hassle-free Payroll
TimeWorksTouch has PunchLogic, a feature that makes it ’employee-aware.’ For example, it doesn’t allow team members to unwittingly clock into the wrong activity. It gives the employees only the options that apply to their current work status (shift beginning, break, meal, or shift ending). Time card accuracy has improved dramatically, saving managers countless admin hours previously spent fixing inaccurate time cards.
Accommodate Scheduling Preferences While Retaining Quality of Service
Call centers typically have a high attrition rate because customer service is an entry-level job for many young workers and a common short-term stint for students and individuals who are temporarily unemployed in their chosen field. Call centers that succeed are able to attract competent staff members, quickly train them to be excellent service reps, pay a competitive wage, and minimize attrition.
Meeting Scheduling Preferences
The management at our example agency had discovered that accommodating employee scheduling preferences enabled them to pay slightly less than the median rate in their metro area. The benefits were two-fold:
a savings in labor costs and improved worker retention. These savings increase exponentially as they continue to expand their staff. TimeSimplicity allows supervisors to set minimum/maximum hour preferences per worker. Automated time-off requests simplify life for employees.
Mobile Employee Self Service (ESS) empowers employees to monitor their schedule, shift opportunities, and accruals from anywhere. The management team also experimented with allowing fully trained employees within the same skill set group (phone, email, or live chat certified) to handle their own shift trades. When presented with this display of confidence, the agents rose to the occasion and the policy has since become permanent. The practice has not been abused, and turnover has decreased.
Improved Employee Work/Life Balance
The management team believes that prior to the change in policy, most staff members were afraid of requesting too many shift trades per week. Now that they are trusted to cover their own shifts when they make a trade, they have more schedule flexibility than ever before. The devoted crew does not want to give up this valuable perk, even to sling a slightly higher wage at a competitor’s business.
Improved morale has improved the quality of service provided by the employees. Reps who are respected and trusted by management can focus on doing quality work and meeting production goals.
Workforce Management Suite: Essential For Continued Growth
Now that the agency has optimized human capital, the owners plan to expand their services to include order processing and lead response. They are confident that Workforce Management Suite will help them successfully accommodate this growth.
UPGRADE TODAY
Payroll Partners offers Workforce Management Suite, the unified Human Resources portal that makes it easy to optimize the performance of your supervisors, employees, and business.
Workforce Management Suite includes TimeWorksPlus, TimeSimplicity, TimeWorks Mobile, and ApplicantStack. We’ve just added recruitment, onboarding, benefits enrollment, performance reviews, and employee engagement! Workforce Management Suite is created for busy employers like you who need to reduce cost-per-hire, streamline scheduling, automate time tracking, maintain regulatory compliance, and decrease labor costs.
We can get you up and running with Workforce Management Suite in minutes. Contact us today at (817) 226-8111 and/or at info@payrollpartners.com to book a demo.