There’s a saying in statistics that “If you torture the numbers long enough, they will admit to anything.” This maxim is certainly true in the call center world where many centers struggle with an after-the-fact exception adjustment process that has agents and supervisors requesting numerous adjustments in order to hit adherence performance goals.

Schedule Exception Dilemma

In one center we visited recently, the schedule adherence goal had been raised from 94% adherence over the day to 97%.  The senior management team felt that the 94% level left too much “discretionary” time (6% of 420 scheduled minutes or 25 minutes per day) which was being used by many team members to extend lunches by 15 minutes and breaks by 5 minutes each.  The expected adherence level was therefore raised to 97% to essentially cut this extra non-productive time in half.

One month after the change was made, a first glance at the numbers indicated that the center had reached its goal of better schedule adherence. However, simple observation and a look at the actual adherence numbers showed that very little had actually changed. Behaviors remained much the same, with the change in final adherence numbers being a result of after-the-fact adjustments of the schedule adherence data to override the actual exceptions. Since adherence was a major category on each agent’s performance scorecard, and overall team adherence was a performance criterion for the supervisors, the supervisors simply submitted requests on a daily basis to “explain away” enough schedule exceptions until the altered adherence numbers were in the acceptable performance range.

The new goal and the resulting adjustment process resulted in no better adherence overall. It simply meant more time was spent by each supervisor requesting exception adjustments for team members, as well as much extra work for the workforce management team to enter these adjustments and create new reports.

Schedule Exceptions Solutions

If you have a similar situation in your center, consider some of these potential solutions to the problem:

1. Re-think your schedule adherence goal. Get your agents involved and discuss how much time is reasonable around breaks, lunches, and other activities. If you have extremely long calls, there’s a greater likelihood of getting stuck on a call and needing more leeway minutes. Get agreement and buy-in on what is fair and reasonable.
2. Use positive reinforcers for better adherence behaviors. Instead of raising the adherence goal to encourage better behaviors, start rewarding

The purpose of establishing a defined process for managing schedule exceptions it to ensure that the staffing matches the requirements as nearly as possible on a half-hourly basis with the minimum amount of management time expended to achieve it.

The objective of this process is to define the list of variations to the schedules that can be planned for and those that cannot, and to define the process by which each will be managed, measured, and controlled.

Exception Definitions

Exceptions to the schedules for representatives fall into four major categories:

1. Preplanned exceptions are deviations from the schedule that are planned for and built into the short-term schedule process.  This includes such items as team meetings, training, and coaching sessions as well as absences for vacation and other time off.  In an effort to create a plan that establishes the expectations as well as possible, all planned deviations must be negotiated with the WFM scheduler at least 45 days prior to the beginning date of the schedule implementation.

1. Unplanned management exceptions pre-approved are deviations from the schedule that are not planned but are controlled by the rep’s team leader or other management.  Such exceptions often are needed to adjust to the ebb and flow of work within the planning horizon.  This also includes any changes that are made to the preplanned exceptions less than 45 days prior to implementation of the schedule.  As long as these exceptions have been pre-negotiated with the WFM team, they are counted in this category and are included in measures of management performance.

1. Unplanned management exceptions not pre-approved are deviations from the scheduled that are not planned and not negotiated with the WFM team.  Rather these are ad hoc decisions made by operations and reported after the fact.  This includes such items as a team meeting that runs longer than planned, an ad hoc coaching session, and any management decisions that result schedule changes that were not pre-negotiated with the WFM team.    These exceptions are measured for management performance.

1. Unplanned rep exceptions are deviations from the schedule that are not planned for and which are not entirely within the control of the rep or management.  This includes items that affect the number of staff available, but are not counted towards the rep’s adherence measurement or the manager’s performance.  This includes such items as sick time, technical downtime, and intermittent FMLA.  Since these items are not in the control of management or the rep, they are not included in performance measures of either management or the rep, but should be monitored for opportunities for improvement.

1. Adherence affecting exceptions are deviations from the schedule that are not planned and are entirely within the control of the rep.  These items are the ones that affect staffing and count toward the rep’s adherence measurement.  This includes early/late start on shift or breaks, and not logging into the right skills as the schedule dictates.

The following exceptions are currently utilized in the IEX system and by WFM and are sorted into the five basic categories above:

1. Preplanned exceptions

§  Break

1. • Coaching module
   • Coaching session
   • Contest time off
   • Dedicated to fulfillment
   • Dedicated Frontline
   • Dedicated Loan Svc.
   • Dedicated outbound
   • Dedicated to CC
   • Dedicated to FA
   • Dedicated to eMail
   • Edgemaster Excellence
   • Floating Holiday
   • FMLA – preplanned
   • Focus Group
   • Holiday In-office
   • Holiday out of office
   • Lunch
   • Meeting
   • Military leave
   • Mortgage ExecService
   • Mortgage Internet
   • One on one – planned
   • Open Time
   • Overtime – planned
   • Sales meeting
   • Sales rally
   • Special project
   • Survey
   • Town Hall Meeting
   • Training –  any planned
   • Vacation paid
   • Vacation unpaid
   • Vacation PT 20 hours
   • Vacation PT 25 hours
   • Vacation PT 30 hours
   • Vacation PT 35 hours
   • Vision meetings

1. Unplanned management exceptions – pre-approved

§  Admin Aux supervisor PA

§  Flex time PA

§  Make up coach PA

§  One on one –PA

§  Overtime –PA

§  Research –PA

§  Training –PA

§  Training – any PA

1. Unplanned management exceptions – Not pre-approved

§  Admin Aux supervisor – unplanned

§  Flex time – unplanned

§  Make up coach – unplanned

§  One on one – unplanned

§  Overtime – unplanned

§  Research – unplanned

§  Training – unplanned

§  Training – calm

1. Unplanned rep exceptions

§  Admin Aux technical

1. • Bereavement
   • Family illness
   • Inclement weather
   • Jury duty
   • LOA
   • Sick  paid
   • Sick unpaid
   • Unplanned FMLA
   • Unplanned WFM
   • Unscheduled
   • Voting

1. Adherence affecting exceptions

1. • Admin Aux personal
   • No call no show
   • Open time – unplanned
   • Tardy
   • Unavailable (holding code til reason is defined)
   • Unplanned off phones

Procedure for Planned Exceptions (Type 1)

Any schedule exception that can be built into the scheduling process with a reasonable degree of accuracy should be.  A new schedule plan is created each month so to give the WFM team time to create the plan, the operations managers must provide input to the WFM team on all planned exceptions by no later than 45 days prior to the planned schedule implementation.

It is also important to allow some negotiating room in the planning of the exceptions to allow the plan to make the best match of staffing to requirements.  So the plan request from operations should be stated in the broadest acceptable terms to allow for the needed flexibility.  For example, each rep needs to attend a team meeting of 30 minutes each week.  But a rep can attend a meeting with another team if needed rather than only with the team manager to whom she reports.  And it may make sense to have 3 team meetings simultaneously during overstaffed periods and none during the understaffed periods.  If operations dictates the timing of the meetings, it assumes that there is no flexibility for that meeting to be at any other time.

Requests from operations are communicated by …………

Responses from WFM in terms of the scheduling of those items that are flexible will be………..

Once both parties are in agreement on these planned exceptions (prior to the implementation of the schedule), these are considered the basis for the balance of the changes going forward.  Any changes after the implementation must be categorized as types 2-5 and may affect the performance measures of either team managers or reps.

Procedure for Unplanned Management Exceptions – Pre-approved (Type 2)

Once the planned schedule has been completed and the time has begun, any changes requested by management prior to the actual event fall into this category.  These are adjustments that are made to the schedule to accommodate the needs of the operation, or respond to unplanned fluctuations in workload or staffing.

Requests from operations are communicated by contacting the scheduling or IMG team to request the change.  Once again, the maximum flexibility in accommodating the change is desired, so the need should be expressed in the broadest terms that will meet the need.  For example, a 30-minute coaching session within the next 2 hours rather than a 30-minute coaching session that starts in the next 5 minutes is a better option if possible.

If WFM advises that the exception cannot be accommodated without affecting customers, then it is not “pre-approved”.  If operations decides that the exception must be taken regardless of customer impact, then it will be recorded in the type 3 category as not pre-approved by WFM.

Procedure for Unplanned Management Exceptions – Not Pre-approved (Type 3)

Any changes that are made with the approval of the operations management but without the prior notification and concurrence the WFM team fall into this category.  This category exists primarily to allocate the responsibility to management when a rep fails to adhere to the schedule when the rep had no control over the situation.

Any request by management that was not pre-approved as type 2 above or was reported after the actual event falls into this category.

The process for reporting these exceptions is …………….

Unplanned Rep Exceptions (Type 4)

When a rep is unable to adhere to a schedule for reasons that not within the control of either management or the rep, the exceptions fall into this category.  This includes sick time, intermittent FMLA, jury duty etc.  While it is helpful for these to be reported to the WFM team as quickly as they are known, it is not uncommon for these to be reported the day of the event.  A certain amount of “shrinkage” is built into the plan to accommodate these situations.

The procedure to notify WFM of these exceptions includes the use of the Sally line and ……..

Adherence Affecting Exceptions (Type 5)

When a rep has not adhered to the planned schedule (including any exceptions that have been made under types 1-4) for any reason that is within his control, this category tracks that time of non-adherence.  This includes early or late log in for a shift, break, or other planned exception, and failures to be logged into the appropriate skills as the schedule dictates.

In some cases, an exception will be reported and entered to account for this time (often after the fact), but in many cases no exception will be entered.  Both conditions are included in the measurement of non-adherence.

Adherence Goals and Exception Parameters

The percent of adherence to the planned schedule that is expected of reps is___________.   This is defined as the percent of time that the rep is in compliance with the exact details of the schedule, rather than measuring whether the rep worked the total number of minutes planned regardless of when they were worked.  So if a rep is 30 minutes late in the morning and makes up for it by staying 30 minutes late at the end of the shift, she is out of adherence for 1 hour even though the total time is correct.  She was absent when needed and may have been idle most of the extra time when she was not needed, thus affecting both customer service and cost.

Based on a 40-hour work week, this percentage of time that can be out of adherence equates to ____ minutes each week.   The adherence goal is based on the understanding that there are times when a rep will be in the middle of a customer contact when the break time or shift end time arrives.  It also builds in a reasonable and fair accommodation for human needs such as restroom breaks between scheduled off-phone times.

Another consideration in the establishment of the adherence goal is to minimize the need for tracking short-duration exceptions that could affect adherence.  For example, if a meeting runs over 3 minutes, it is burdensome to enter a 3-minute exception into every rep’s record.  Therefore, no exception of less than _____ minutes will be accepted and entered into the WFM system.  As a result, reps may be held in non-adherence for a few of these situations in any week even though it may have been out of their control, and the percentage goal is adjusted to accommodate these situations.

However, this non-adherence time is not to be considered an “entitlement” to be used for an extra break each day if the needs of that day have not demanded it.  When measured over a period of weeks, there will be days when everything seems to go wrong, and other days when little variation is required.  The rep adherence performance measurement is designed to be an average of the total period taking into account both the good days and bad.