Calabrio WFM: Because Your Agents Deserve the Best—Wherever They Are
Workforce Management
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Calabrio WFM: Because Your Agents Deserve the Best—Wherever They Are
A handy guide to perfecting your workforce scheduling with technology that enables agent flexibility and autonomy.
At long last, employee engagement is top of the agenda as organizations the world over recognize the importance of agent wellbeing in meeting rising customer expectations. Incredibly, the majority (84%) of contact center managers now rank agent engagement scores as the most important measurement metric of the future ahead of traditional customer-centric KPIs such as customer effort (81%) and average handle time (80%).
Where agent empowerment is concerned, making investments in the right tools and technology is the number one priority for many contact centers today (42%). In a world where the workforce and workplace are no longer fixed, it comes as no surprise that more than a third consider flexible working (34%) and greater support for a remote/hybrid work environment (32%) as pre-requisites for agent happiness.
The great thing is Calabrio’s Workforce Management (WFM) solution has the answer to all three. So much more than a simple ‘right time, right place’ scheduling tool, Calabrio WFM is the only true and complete Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) suite that is designed to help agents be their very best to drive exceptional CX and customer loyalty.
7 reasons to choose Calabrio WFM
Calabrio offers the best WFM solution on the market, but it absolutely crushes the competition even harder on employee engagement. Create a flourishing frontline team with Calabrio’s comprehensive range of pre-and-post scheduling capabilities in one integrated package:
- The Ultimate in Lifestyle Scheduling
Before Calabrio WFM, contact center agents often felt powerless when it came to their schedules. They had limited control over their work hours and struggled with achieving a healthy work-life balance. With Calabrio WFM, agents now have the power to influence their schedules and experience a new level of flexibility. Whether it’s attending a child’s school play, pursuing a hobby, or simply taking some much-needed personal time, Calabrio WFM allows agents to seamlessly update their schedules, ensuring they don’t miss out on life’s precious moments. - Frontline Voices Matter
Calabrio WFM effortlessly gathers your agents’ shift preferences and allows them to share their availability even before schedules are generated and finally published. It also offers a robust shift bidding module that helps WFM Admin teams know what schedules are desired by agents with specific skill sets. This level of control fosters a sense of ownership and engagement among agents, leading to improved job satisfaction and productivity. - Agents in the Driver’s Seat
Once your shifts are published, Calabrio WFM continues to put agents in the driver’s seat, offering a range of options to shape their schedules themselves whatever customer or domestic challenges cross their path. Agents are able to trade whole shifts with other colleagues or trade just a portion of their shifts. This provides an additional level of flexibility and of course, fosters a greater sense of engagement and empowerment. - Freedom To Move Throughout the Day
Agents can independently manage their breaks and lunches, adjusting them to align with personal needs or preferences as unexpected events occur during the day. With Calabrio WFM, agents have the freedom to take ownership of their workdays beyond simply trading shifts and modifying breaks. They are granted the power to add hours to their schedules, either when additional coverage is needed or to benefit from extra paid overtime. - Introducing Grant – Modern-day Butler for Agents
Additionally, Calabrio WFM offers the support of Grant, a bot driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Designed with employee engagement in mind, Grant assists agents in finding the best times to leave early or pick up extra hours, considering both business needs and individual preferences. This level of flexibility and intelligent automation streamlines the scheduling process and enhances the agent experience. - Wherever, No Matter
In today’s mobile-centric world, accessibility is crucial. Calabrio WFM understands this and offers a mobile app that empowers agents to manage their schedules from the convenience of their smartphones. Whether it’s submitting availability preferences, trading shifts, or adjusting breaks, agents have the flexibility to take control of their schedules on the go. The Calabrio WFM mobile app ensures that agents can actively participate in schedule management, regardless of their location, enabling them to strike a balance between work and personal life with ease. - We’ve Got Workplace Compliance Covered
Operating a global contact center is a complex task, especially when it comes to complying with local employment laws. Many of our customers rely on Calabrio to humanize their WFM platform, configuring the tech to automatically take into consideration global work regulations as well as the legal parameters of individual agent contracts. So, whether it’s EU working time directives, the French 35-hour working week, German Arbeitszeitgesetz, Swedish Arbetstidslagen or respecting the prayer needs of employees in the Middle East, your agents—and your organization —are always protected, wherever they are.
WFM in Your Pocket
Use this handy ‘at a glance’ guide to master the art of scheduling and empower your agents:
| Pre-Scheduling Goals | Calabrio solution | What is so good? |
|---|---|---|
| Some of my agents are students and can only work certain hours | Agent Availability | Availability can be set for individual dates, to match school schedules. Resource Planner only needs to schedule as many agents as needed. |
| I want to let my most senior or highest performing agents select shifts first | Shift Bidding | You can completely customize the ranking method and motivate tenure or performance to attain better schedules |
| I want to let my agents give input on how they would like to work | Preferences | Resource Planner is in full control over the balance between preference fulfilment and staffing requirements |
| Post Scheduling Goals | Calabrio solution | What is so good? |
| My agents are willing to pick up extra hours but it adds manual work to my WFM team | Add Hours | Calabrio WFM lets agents add work hours to their own schedule, but always respecting the rules for over and understaffing you decide |
| I want to provide more flexibility for my agents’ schedules because I know it will positively impact their work satisfaction | Move Breaks & Lunches | You can have agents move their breaks and lunches within the boundaries you configure |
| I want to enable my agents to interact with their schedules on the go | Calabrio WFM Mobile App | Calabrio’s WFM Mobile app lets agents do all the things they can do from their computer on their mobile device |
| Agents often reach out to me or my team to exchange their shifts. I’d love to streamline this process | Full Day / Part Day Shift Trade | Matches agents with the right skill and lets them trade without having to reach out to anyone else. It won’t impact your staffing coverage! |
| I want an easy way for agents to check if extra hours or early leave is available | Grant | Within seconds, Grant will let agents know what is available for the day and within a couple of clicks, edit your agents’ schedules |
| My agents need to work 33 hours on week one, 37 on week 2 and 35 on week 3. I also need the system to schedule them for a start time between 8am and 10am. | Contracts | Calabrio WFM lets administrator customize auto generated shifts for any labor law, local government restrictions, or company policies out there. Using contracts, availabilities, and rotations, you will be certain you are getting schedule flexibility and compliance to regulations all at once. |
| I want an easy way for my agents to report sick-leave and have that automatically update my staffing situation | Self-Scheduling: Absences | Agents can enter a sick absence from their computer or mobile device. This instantly updates their schedules and remove them from the coverage to ensure you always have the most accurate Scheduled vs Forecast data. |
| I want my agents to be able to request time-off and have that automatically approved if all criteria are met | Requests | Calabrio WFM offers the perfect balance between automation and configuration. Let your agents request be approved automatically while ensuring that absence approval will not put you below your pre-defined staffing thresholds. |
| I want my agents to request time off without having to double enter their request in our payroll system. | Benefit Time Integration | With Calabrio WFM Benefit Time Integration, agents don’t have to enter time off for their schedule and in the payroll system. WFM will communicate to the payroll system for the absence taken and communicate back to WFM the balance of time remaining. |
Want to dive deeper? Watch the Calabrio WFM recorded demo.
As the Product Marketing Manager for WFM at Calabrio, Florian matches extensive experience in the contact center space with a unique bilingual worldview that gives a distinctive take on contact center challenges and technology. A contact center veteran with years of experience helming WFM teams, Florian loves to share his knowledge with other CX professionals. He can often be found walking the beach with his family hunting shells, playing guitar, or even flying the occasional airplane, but his inspiration is found in his wife and daughter. A quick "Bonjour!" to Florian will have him reminiscing of his Mother's French cuisine.
