In today’s contact centers, scheduling is no longer just about filling shifts, it’s about building flexibility, empowering agents, and creating an environment where people feel engaged and supported. Happier agents deliver better customer experiences, and that’s exactly what leading organizations like Lego, The AA, and Macmillan Cancer Support are proving in practice.
Recently, these three Calabrio customers came together in a webinar with The Forum, to share how they’re rethinking workforce management (WFM) – from forecasting and scheduling to self-service and AI innovation. The result? Smarter strategies that balance organizational goals with agent wellbeing.
Shaping Flexible Scheduling for Real People
The AA supports over 2,300 frontline staff across six channels, operating 24/7. For them, flexibility isn’t optional – it’s essential. Scheduler Manager, Simone James explained how features like shift swaps, overtime multipliers, and new absence attributes give employees more choice while giving the business better workforce insight.
Macmillan Cancer Support, whose frontline staff are primarily remote, takes a similar approach. Mhairi Drummond Smith highlighted how balancing flexible requests with fixed shifts ensures nurses and advisors can manage their home life while delivering critical support to service users.
Meanwhile, Lego, with nearly 700 advisors across six global sites, has embraced self-scheduling. Joe Gilbert-Button explained that letting advisors move breaks and lunches has been “a huge fan favorite,” offering autonomy while protecting coverage.
Empowering Agents with AI and Self-Service
Flexibility doesn’t stop at scheduling. Organizations are now exploring AI and self-service to give agents even more control:
- Self-Scheduling: Already live at Lego, this feature allows agents to move breaks and lunches within defined business rules.
- Activity Requests: Soon, agents will be able to request schedule changes for things like training, admin time, or coaching, without manual intervention.
- Agent Assist: A generative AI-powered chatbot that supports 55+ languages, helping agents find absence opportunities, swap shifts, or request time off in natural conversation.
- Supervisor Assist: Designed to reduce admin strain, this new tool allows team leads to ask real-time questions (“How many agents have called out sick today?”) and receive instant insights.
For many, these innovations represent a step-change in WFM: giving agents autonomy, reducing attrition, and creating space for supervisors to focus on coaching and wellbeing.
Measuring Success Beyond the Metrics
When asked how they measure success, all three organizations agreed: it’s not merely about service levels.
- Employee feedback through surveys, pulse checks, and direct conversations is critical.
- Wellbeing measures, like how adherence and schedule design support rather than police agents are gaining traction.
- External benchmarking helps organizations validate they’re doing the right things compared to industry peers.
As Simone from The AA put it, “Communication is key, weekly feedback loops and benchmarking keep us aligned to both employee needs and business goals.”
Takeaways for Contact Center Leaders
This conversation showed that while Lego, The AA, and Macmillan Cancer Support operate in very different industries, they share a people-first approach to scheduling. By combining flexible scheduling, self-service, and AI-driven support, they’re proving that better planning leads to happier agents, and happier agents mean stronger business results.
Whether you’re a WFM leader or a contact center manager, it’s time to move beyond filling shifts and start designing schedules that empower people.
Watch the full webinar to hear the stories first-hand and discover how you can rethink scheduling for your organization.
