The modern contact center is at a crossroads. Expectations from both customers and employees are rising fast, and traditional tools and practices too often struggle to keep up. Leaders today face a tough balancing act: they must meet growing service demands and control costs, without burning out teams or compromising quality.
The task of juggling cost and quality is nothing new, but today’s environment has created a perfect storm for contact centers—and it’s clear that achieving brighter days ahead will require more than just incremental improvements. Instead, contact center teams need innovation.
But when we say “innovation,” we don’t mean simply adding features—we mean crafting solutions that address the real problems that contact center leaders, managers, and agents all face.
That’s why, in early 2025, we’ve driven a surge in new tools, developed based on the needs and insights of our customers. Together, these enhanced capabilities help make our leading workforce management software even more agile, intelligent, and empowering.
Rethinking Workforce Management: Innovation That Delivers Against Today’s Biggest Challenges
To see where contact center workforce management needs to go, it’s critical to have a clear understanding of where things currently stand.
Today’s contact centers face key challenges within and beyond their organizations directly related to workforce management.
- Rising customer demands and frustration: Customers increasingly expect faster, more consistent service and 24/7 availability across an array of channels. 58% have said long wait times are their biggest frustration.
- Limited, inaccurate insights: Nearly 7 in 10 leaders say that accurately forecasting demand is a significant challenge. Meanwhile, nearly half of contact centers recently said they don’t plan for digital channels within their WFM solution—and another 20% said they use manual forecasting methods in these channels.
- Poor agent engagement and high attrition risk: Overburdening employees drives up disengagement. The number of “highly engaged” agents at leading contact centers is just 30%, on average, which helps fuel the industry’s consistently high turnover rates.
- Sub-par productivity and efficiency: Facing increased volume and complexity, contact centers often struggle to deliver quality service. Average handle times have continued to climb, while abandonment rates nearly doubled post-pandemic.
If we want different results, we need a different approach. That’s one reason why, in the face of these headwinds, contact centers are looking to innovative technology to provide a breakthrough.
It’s also why, at Calabrio, we’ve made a deliberate choice to invest where it matters most: in capabilities that drive meaningful outcomes for our customers. In fact, our R&D capacity grew by 92% year-over-year, allowing us to move faster than ever before. But this isn’t about us—it’s about what that acceleration unlocks for you.
To help point the way forward, I wanted to highlight six of the most impactful WFM features that have gone live in just the first three months of 2025.
Explore Calabrio’s Latest Workforce Management Innovations
Each of these features is built to give contact center leaders more control, flexibility, and insight, while creating better experiences for agents—and ultimately customers, too. See how they’re making a difference at leading contact centers and explore each of them further in the interactive demos linked below.
Activity Request
Taking Agent Empowerment to the next level
What is it?
Activity Requests enable agents to self-schedule activities like training or admin tasks directly in MyTime, without complex approvals. Automation handles approval processes, either automatically or through managers.
Why does it matter?
Giving agents the ability to request time for activities was one of the most in-demand capabilities on Calabrio’s Ideas portal. It empowers agents to manage their schedules more flexibly, reduces manual workload for managers, and helps businesses reduce attrition significantly.
📊 46% of agents report having little or no control over their schedules, which can lead to stress and dissatisfaction.
Check it out: Activity Request interactive demo
Sessions
The easiest way to schedule activities for hundreds of agents in a couple of clicks
What is it?
Sessions empowers WFM teams to seamlessly schedule any activity for hundreds of agents at once for a specific period. You can reuse the template to add recurrences or additional agents to future sessions.
Why does it matter?
Greater ease of use and increased speed of scheduling save hours of manual effort—especially critical for navigating last-minute changes.
Check it out: Sessions interactive demo
Notifications
Get the information you need, when you need it
What is it?
Notifications are now live for Shift Bidding End Period and Absence Requests going to Pending Status. These real-time alerts will expand to more use cases soon.
Why does it matter?
This was one of the most requested features in WFM, ranking in the top 2 in Calabrio’s Ideas portal. It helps managers act quickly, keeps agents informed, and improves staffing precision.
📊 Contact centers practicing real-time staff management drove a 15% increase in CSAT scores.
Check it out: Notifications interactive demo
Vacation Planner Pro
Streamline one of the most complex processes in your contact center: Vacation Bidding
What is it?
Vacation Planner Pro automates and streamlines vacation requests, replacing manual processes with a fair, unbiased system. Agents can submit vacation bids via a seamless interface or mobile app.
Why does it matter?
With automation-driven vacation planning, teams reduce admin time, ensure fairness, and improve compliance. More importantly, it gives agents the transparency and control they want and helps boost satisfaction.
📊 Organizations that excel at engaging employees report 22% higher productivity.
Check it out: Vacation Planner Pro interactive demo
Real-Time Desktop Analytics
Adherence tracking for agents not connected to your contact center technology
What is it?
Enhanced Desktop Analytics tracks agent activity beyond the contact center platform—including tasks like email—to give a complete view of real-time adherence and productivity.
Why does it matter?
It removes the blind spots in back-office work and supports better coaching, scheduling, and workforce alignment across all channels.
Check it out: Real-Time Desktop Analytics interactive demo
Periodization
Adds to the already extensive set of scheduling automation rules in Calabrio WFM
What is it?
Periodization enables comparison of worked hours against a targeted range, helping managers adjust the delta to hit scheduling targets.
Why does it matter?
It ensures resources are aligned to business needs, improving cost efficiency, long-term planning, and compliance.
Check it out: Periodization interactive demo
The Bottom Line: It’s About Outcomes
In 2025, the difference between falling behind and staying ahead is the ability to adapt—and act—fast.
Our investment in WFM innovation isn’t about chasing shiny new features. It’s about strategically solving real, persistent challenges in our industry. It’s about reducing wait times, eliminating manual work, fighting burnout, and maximizing productivity.
These solutions are designed for every contact center leader looking to do more with less, empower their teams, and deliver consistently excellent service.
If that sounds like the future you’re building toward, we’re here to help.
👉 For more information on these new features and how they can transform how you manage your contact center workforce, reach out to your Calabrio representative or visit us at calabrio.com.
