Agent Lifestyle Self-Management

One of the challenges contact centers are facing today is agent satisfaction and morale. Increased agent job satisfaction and morale affect agent performance, adherence, and customer service positively. Schedules meeting agent lifestyle needs are found to be a morale booster listed at the top in many employee surveys. Scheduling agents consistent with their lifestyle needs while meeting the centers’ performance targets is becoming increasingly important to improve agent morale and job satisfaction and to minimize costs.

The AWO Portal provides comprehensive agent lifestyle support capabilities for agents to manage their time both at work and off work. Agents can provide their preferences and availabilities for work. WFM managers can generate optimal schedules to meet most or all of the agent preferences. Moreover, agents with special needs can customize their schedules. After schedules are concurrently optimized, agents manage their time and incorporate specific needs through shift trade and full-day/part-day time off requests.

Lifestyle Scheduling

The AWO Portal allows agents to enter their preferred hours for work. However, agents may also enter their available work times separate from their preferences. An agent’s availability includes his/her preferred work hour preferences to allow flexibility in developing efficient schedules. Schedules are concurrently optimized to conform to agents’ availabilities.

Schedule and Vacation Bidding

Allow agents to rank their schedule and vacation preferences in the order of desirability. Agents may also select schedules that are to be avoided. The AWO Multi-criteria Schedule Manager and Vacation Planner optimizes fairness using one or more criteria selected. Agents traveling together may also form a buddy group to rank their preferences and bid together.

Daily Time Management

The AWO Agent Workstation provides convenient on-line access to agents for managing their work and off time during a work week. Agents can request full-day or hours for auto-approved activities to meet their needs such as to see a doctor or attend a teacher’s conference for their children. They can also wait-list their request for time off. Moreover, agents can swap their schedules for one day or repeated swaps over a period of time with other agents without supervisor approval.