Forecast a Staffing Plan

Forecasting is a tool you can use to create the optimal staffing plan. With this tool, you don't need to waste time figuring out how many agents you want on-call, or what skills you need at any given time or day to build your schedule.

First, you review the historical data from your contact center. Based on that, Forecasting predicts the expected volume of interactions and their average handle time. Then, you define how you want your center to perform. For example, you decide that each call is answered in less than 10 seconds compared to 30 seconds. Lowering the average speed of answerClosed The average amount of time it took an agent to answer an interaction after they chose the option to speak to an agent will require more agents scheduled. The last step is generating a staffing plan based on the staffing parameters and forecast data.

For accurate forecasting results, you need at least three months of historical data.

Quick access to the forecasting steps:

You can learn more about Forecasting with these videos:

  • Forecasting overview tutorial—Learn how to generate a staffing plan using Forecasting.

  • Forecasting algorithms—Learn about the algorithms used within WFM to generate a forecast. You'll have a deeper understanding of how WFM generates forecasting data and the algorithms behind it.

To generate a new staffing forecast:

  1. Click the app selector and select WFM.

  2. Go to Forecasting > Generate Forecast

  3. Click Generate Forecast.

  4. Define the Forecasting Parameters (step 1 of Forecasting). For example, you can create a forecast and staffing plan for the next month or the next year.

    1. Enter a Name and, optionally, a Description.

      These details will appear in the Generate Forecast list.

    2. Choose the time zone for viewing the data.

    3. Define the forecast time period.

      • Forecast time—Choose how many months you want to forecast, and define the start date. The end date is set automatically based on this.

      • Forecast time increment—The forecast and staffing plan will display data based on the increment you selected.

        If you use a forecasting profile with a defined time increment, this setting will be grayed out.

    4. Define the reference time period.

      • Historical time period—Choose how many months of historical data the forecast should use, and define the end date. The start date is set automatically based on this.

      • Interval breakdown pattern—Here you choose the number of recent weeks to put a stronger emphasis on. Those recent weeks make the forecast even more accurate. The default is 8 weeks because the last two months show your operation pattern and are typically long enough.

        Let's say you define these values:

        • Historical time period: Jan 1—Dec 31, 2020

        • Interval breakdown pattern: 8

        This means that the forecast takes historical data from all of 2020. But because you defined the breakdown pattern as 8, the data from December and most of November are prioritized.

    5. Under staffing parameters, select either:

      Here you select the skillsClosed An employee's area of expertise. A skill can be fluency in a specific language or business skills, such as sales or technical support. you want to forecast:

      • Defined in a profile—Select a forecasting profile from the drop-down list.

        The profiles contain skills and configured KPIs. Selecting this option will save time later in step 4 of the wizard (Staffing Parameters).

  5. Click Retrieve Historic Data.

    The data retrieval process may take a while. You can navigate away from the wizard while you wait. In the Generate Forecast page, the forecast job status will be listed as a Retrieving requested data. Click on it when you're ready to continue.

  6. Review the Historical Data (step 2 of Forecasting). Here you review the volumeClosed The total volume of interactions (such as calls and chats) at a specific time and average handle timeClosed The average amount of time an agent spent handling an interaction (AHT) of your center's historical interactions, and more.

    You can perform the following actions in this step:

    • Switch between the Volume and AHT graphs.

    • View the data in different time intervals.

    • Export the historical data to a CSV file. Click Options Image of actions icon and select Export to CSV.

    • Select Show graph by skill to view the data by the skills you choose in the drop-down.

    • Check for any inaccurate data. In this case, the staffing plan might be affected and not be accurate. To handle inaccurate data, see Troubleshoot Forecasting.

  7. Click Generate Forecast.

    Generating the forecast may take a while. You can exit this page and return when the Forecast Job status changes to Forecast ready in the Generate Forecast page.

  8. Review the Forecast Data (step 3 of Forecasting). Here you review and edit the forecasted volume and average handle time your center will receive, and more.

    You can perform the following actions in this step:

    • Switch between the Volume and AHT graphs.

    • View the data in different time intervals.

    • Export the historical data to a CSV file. Click Options Image of actions icon and select Export to CSV.

    • Select Show graph by skill to view the data by the skills you choose in the drop-down.

    • Review the forecasted volume and AHT as a graph or grid. To switch the view, select Graph image of graph view button in forecasting or Grid image of grid view button in forecasting .

    You can edit any inaccurate data to improve your staffing plan.

    Let's say you see that there's data for December 24. You know that the center is closed on that day, because of the holiday. You can edit the forecasted volume to 0.

    You can make changes in the Graph image of graph view button in forecasting or Grid image of grid view button in forecasting view:

    • In the Graph view, drag the graph up or down.

      You can make changes to a day when you're in the monthly view, or an hour when you're in the daily view.

    • In the Grid view, enter the data for the metric and date. Here you see both the forecasted volume and AHT for all selected skills.

    • To make bulk edits to the forecasted data, go to the Grid view and click Bulk Actions:

      1. Select the Skills you want to edit, as well as the Dates or Hours, depending on your view.

      2. In the Action line, select Increase or Decrease for either Volume or AHT.

        When editing AHT, you can edit it by a defined number of seconds, or a percentage.

        When editing volume, you can edit it by a number of interactions or a percentage.

      3. Click Submit. The changes are applied to all of the skills you selected, on the days or hours you defined.

    Keep in mind:

    • If you see areas that the AHT or volume is unusually low, see Troubleshoot Forecasting.

    • You can also create an alternate forecast in this step to compare different scenarios. To learn more, see What If Alternative Forecasting.

    • If you want to undo all of your changes, click Revert to Original.

  9. Click Generate Staffing.

  10. Define the Staffing Parameters (step 4 of Forecasting). Based on these settings, the engine determines how many people you need to handle the forecasted interactions.

    Let's say the anticipated volume for a skill is 100. How many people do you need to handle these interactions? It depends on your staffing parameters.

    Keep in mind, if you selected a forecasting profile in step one of the wizard, the staffing parameters will already be defined and grayed out based on the profile.

    • Shrinkage level—Adjust the staffing plan for the anticipated level of absences in your workforce.

      Let's say you're expecting that 10% of your staff will call in sick. You can define the shrinkage as 10%, and you'll compensate for the absences when generating a staffing plan.

      You define the shrinkage level for the different days of the week. The shrinkage level will be 0 for the days you don't select.

      Select the day you want to apply shrinkage. You can define one level for All day or different levels By time.

      Define the same level for the whole day.

      For example, you know that usually there's a high level of staff shrinkage on Monday and Friday. You can define a shrinkage level for only those two days.

      Define shrinkage levels for different times of the selected day. Click the Add button to define another time. After that, define the level for the Rest of the day.

      For example, you know that the morning shifts have a high level of staff shrinkage, and a low level for the evening. You can define a 15% level between 08:00 AM and 2:00 PM, 5% between 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM, and 10% For the Rest of the day.

    • Service Tags—Define the targets that the staffing plan should meet.

      Each target has its own section in the Staffing Parameters. The sections will be displayed only if you have skills associated with them.

      Let's say the skills your forecasting are all Real Time Interactions. In this case, you won't see sections for Deferrable Work or Dialer.

      • Real Time Interactions—Contacts that must be handled immediately.

        • Service level—Define the percentage of interactions you want answered within a defined number of seconds.

          A common SLA is 80% of interactions answered in 30 seconds.

          Let's say you want your agents to answer calls within 30 seconds. If your agents answered 60 out of 100 calls within 30 seconds, the SLA is 60.

        • Wait time (ASA)—Define the average amount of time it takes for an agent to answer a call.

        • Maximum occupancy—Define the percentage of time the agent will be occupied handling interactions out of their shift.

          A common value is 80%.

          Let's say a shift is ten hours and you set the occupancy for 50%. This means that the agents will handle the interactions for 5 out of their ten hours.

        • Simultaneous handling—Define how many of the same interactions you can schedule an agent to handle simultaneously.

          For example, you can schedule an agent to handle five chats at the same time.

          The value for voice and face-to-face interactions is always 1 because agents can't handle more than one at the same time.

      • Deferrable Work—Contacts that can be handled later on.

        Define how many business hours it should take to handle all deferred contacts, and whether or not they must be resolved within the same workday.

        Keep in mind, deferrable work has no abandons.

        Under Simultaneous handling, define how many of the same interactions you can schedule an agent to handle simultaneously.

        For example, you can schedule an agent to handle nine emails at the same time.

      • Dialer—A service that automatically calls a list of customers. The answered calls are then transferred to agents.

        • List source—Select the source of the list for the dialer: Requested Call, Existing Relationship, or Cold Call.

          • Connected—Define what percentage of the calls on the list should connect.

          • Right party—Define what percentage of the calls on the list should connect to the right party. This number must be lower than the Connected calls.

        • List size—Enter the number of contacts on the list.

        • Handle time for wrong party—Define how many seconds it should take to handle calls that connected to the wrong party.

        • Handle time for right party—Define the amount of time (seconds/minutes) it should take to handle calls that connected to the right party.

        • Contact period—Define the duration of time in which all of the calls on the list must be contacted.

        • Call time—Define the hours of the day during which these calls can be made.

  11. Click Generate Staffing Plan.

  12. Review the Staffing plan (step 5 of Forecasting)—Here you review the number of agents (vertical axis) the wizard projects you need to schedule by time (horizontal axis).

    You cannot make changes in this step.

    If you see inaccurate data in the graph, review and edit the data or parameters in the previous steps.

    You can perform the following actions in this step:

    • Switch between the Volume and AHT graphs.

    • View the data in different time intervals.

    • Export the historical data to a CSV file. Click Options Image of actions icon and select Export to CSV.

    • View specific staffing data in the graph

      You can filter what skills are displayed using the drop-down:

      drop-down option

      Details
      By skills

      Select the skills you want to view from the next drop-down list.

      By scheduling units

      Select the scheduling units you want to view from the next drop-down list.

      Scheduling unit by skills

      View skills within a scheduling unit. First, select the scheduling units you want to focus on. Then, select the skills you want to view in the last drop-down.

      All scheduling units and skills

      View the graph's staffing data for all scheduling units and skills.

  13. Click Done. The Forecast job's status changes to Completed successfully. You can now use the resulting Forecast Plan in the Schedule Generator.

What If Alternative Forecasting

When you're creating a forecast to generate a staffing plan, you might reach the Forecast Data step and wonder, what would happen if...?

With the What If option, you can create an alternate forecast. Here you can change the forecast data while using the same parameters and historical data. This way, you can run two parallel forecasts.

In the Forecast Data step, you can change details and edit data in the alternate and main forecast without affecting the other. Navigate between the forecasts by clicking the Main or Alternative tab, or click Compare to view the forecasts side-by-side.

Forecasting with What If generates two different staffing forecasts.

To use What If Forecasting, you need the following permission enabled for your role: WFM > Forecasting > What If Comparison: On

Create a What If Alternate Forecast

In the Forecast Data step of the wizard, click What If.

Three tabs are added to the page:

  • Main—this tab displays the forecasted volume/AHT for the main forecast as a graph or grid. You can still make edits to this forecast, even if you create an alternate forecast.

  • Alternative—this tab displays the forecasted volume/AHT for the alternate forecast as a graph or grid. This forecast is a duplicate of the main one, but you can make any changes to it you want, without changing the main forecast.

    You can change the name of the Alternative tab by renaming the alternate forecast.

  • Compare—this tab displays the total forecasted volume/AHT for both forecasts in the same graph (as separate lines). In the grid view, you can see a breakdown of the volume and AHT for each skill, with the values for the main and alternate side-by-side.

In the Alternative tab, you can:

  • Make the alternate forecast your main—Click Mark as Main Forecast. To undo, repeat this step.

  • Export the historical data to a CSV file— Click Options Image of actions icon and select Export to CSV.

  • Delete the alternate forecast—You can remove an alternate forecast at any point. Click Options Image of actions icon and select Delete Alternative Forecast.

  • Rename the alternate forecast—By default, the name of the alternative forecast shares the same name as the main, ending with <forecast name>_Alternate.

    For example, you called your forecast Winter Staffing. The alternate is called Winter Staffing_Alternate until you rename it.

    To rename, click Options Image of actions icon and select Rename Alternative Forecast.

    Renaming the alternate forecast also changes the name of the Alternative tab.

Keep in mind, when you generate a staffing plan with an alternate forecast, the job status you see in the Generate Forecast page is according to the status of the main forecast.

For example, the main forecast is still being generated but the alternate is finished. The status of the job will be—Staffing generation starting.

In this case, you can use only the alternate in the Schedule Generator because the main forecast hasn't been generated successfully yet.

Troubleshoot Forecasting

You can watch a video to learn more about using special days to improve forecasting accuracy.

When you're reviewing the Forecast Data step, you see both the forecasted volume and AHT for all selected skills. The data might seem inaccurate, while you're expecting to see normal values:

  • You see in some areas where the AHT or volume is unusually low or at 0.00.

  • You see volume peaks on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the Historical data shows peaks on Monday and declining trends till Friday.

In these cases, consider making changes to the historical data.

In the Historical Data step, look for days that don't quite follow the standard. For example, the volumes might be too high for a certain day due to a product promotion. This isn't a standard day. Because of this, the forecasting data will show an inaccurate volume or AHT for some skills.

To improve the accuracy of the forecasted volumes and AHT, define those days as Special Days. In the special day settings, choose to Exclude this day from future forecasts. Those days won't be taken into consideration within the Forecasting Data step.