WFM - Planning & Scheduling Analyst

Provide operational forecasts, schedules, effective training plans and best fit planning activity to agreed company standards and timescales, ensuring cost effective use of resources against planned volumes whilst considering the work/ life balance of our agents. This role is intended to produce staffing plans that are agreed internally and externally with our clients. The planning & scheduling analyst will be immediately responsible for the 16 week planning window with a longer term lens on the 12 month rolling year.

Requirements

Monitor the delivery of operational targets according to agreements

• Review half hourly/ daily/ weekly/ monthly service levels, handle times, adherence to schedules, productivity, and deviations to forecasted volumes or scheduled staff. Planning analysts must be able to account for every minute of every agent activity of every day.
  
• Compile daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports and discuss/ address areas of improvement with their Workforce manager.
  
• Utilize planning methodology to support outcomes positive to the organization from multiple data sources using new and emerging technology.
  
• Support an environment of continuous improvement utilizing all technology available to automate and enhance the planning processes.
  
• Enable self-serve for operational reporting and daily insight in to plan build detail.
  
• Understand data and trends to inform effective outputs and decisions with challenge, review and implement in mind.
  
• Deep understanding of seasonality within different lines of business to plan effectively and mitigate exposure to risk.
  
• Identify and highlight to Workforce manager any opportunities for service and process improvements.
  
• Engage with Workforce Manager & Operations teams on improvement opportunities with regards to workforce configuration and the continuous improvement of our forecasting and scheduling processes across the 16-week window.
  
• A forward-looking view up to 12 months out, planning, reviewing, and mitigating impacts of requirements across the business.
  
• Maximize WFM to ensure the correct racking and procedures are aligned and in place to support effective delivery of campaign service levels.
  
• Utilize all effective tools within WFM to simplify operational interactions with the planning team.
  

Client Relationship Management

• Support the real-time analysts by providing a steady stream of information to the teams - service delivery, business planning, account management, and to operational teams.
  
• Work directly with the client as needed to plan in Adhoc or contractual requirements to ensure service levels are maintained.
  
• Provide insight, scheduling outputs and commercial detail as required for all reporting internally and externally.
  

Financial Management

• Provide both accurate demand forecasts and efficient schedules against those forecasts to the business to maximize the revenue generation whilst minimizing absence and attrition through maintaining an effective work/life balance for the advisors.
  
• Using best in class methodology to create efficient, optimized schedules with a constant review and challenge on best fit.
  
• Support recommendations on data driven insight obtained to maximize revenue.
  
• Understand and detail the 12-month rolling window to identify and mitigate risk or opportunity.
  

Effective Generation of Schedules

• Prepare timely and effective agent schedules optimized to meet business needs for quality and efficiency, and to accommodate Contact Centre drivers.
  
• Schedules are required for current and new employees for normal operations and “special days” such as public holidays.
  
• Schedules must incorporate the availability, shrinkage and workload assumptions agreed within the business.
  
• Schedules to be mutually agreed internally and externally with minutes to be produced by the Planning Analyst for all meetings with stakeholders.
  
• Ensure appropriate governance is given to management of agent data (POPIA) and an effective JML process is defined.
  
• Maintain accurate records in the appropriate planning systems and that the data is utilized in the correct capacity.
  

Accurate Forecasting

• Produce timely and accurate forecasts, including workload, resource requirements and resource planning in support of financial and operational targets.
  
• Review the accuracy of forecasts on an on-going basis, reporting to the Planning Manager on exceptions and recommended actions for improvement.
  
• Review the quality of all forecasts and impact assessments before submission to the Planning Manager for sign-off and wider communication.
  

Use historic trends to ensure the required performance criteria are met.

• Provide accurate and timely pre and post impact assessments of proposed business or operational changes affecting the Contact Centre workload or service.
  
• Identify overtime requirements in accordance with forecasts and communicate in a timely and effective manner to the Contact Centers and highlight recruitment needs when required.
  
• Ensure customer insight and all data sources are bench marked, utilized to inform thinking and the forward planning process.
  
• Utilizing all available MI to trend and review historical performance, in the now performance and future state (covering up to a 24-month period).
  

Level of Authority

• Subject Matter expert for their area.
  
• Planning time frame ranges from quarter hourly up to 16 weeks.
  
• Decision maker on revenue impacts from scheduling, headcount and planning of offline activity.
  
• Responsibility to ensure operational costs are controlled through effective planning processes and governance.
  
• Supporter of all change activity into the business producing impact assessments where needed.
  
• Maintain change control governance to contractual impacts, operational service levels and planning risks.
  

Skills and Competencies

Skills and Competencies required for adaptability in the role

• Planning and Organizational Skills; defining required performance standards and meeting service levels; manage resources in the short to medium term.
  
• Strong and adaptable communication skills, particularly the communication of often complex scenarios to myriad audiences of widely varying technical knowledge.
  
• Business Analysis: ability to analyze and interpret the metrics. The ability to analyze large data sets quickly, identify anomalies and highlight issues and areas for improvement to deliver accurate forecasts and schedules to the operation within agreed levels of service.
  
• Financial management: ability to create and develop accurate forecasts;
  
• Logical thinking with the ability to define and deliver against strategic priorities.
  
• Stakeholder relations; managing the expectations of senior internal and external customers.
  
• Relationship Management: ability to balance internal vs external customer requirements.
  
• Adaptability / Resilience with the ability to work under intense pressure from clients and CCI teams.
  
• Initiative / Proactive –Constantly seeks opportunities to best utilize resources.
  
• Effective decision-making skills.
  
• Initiative / creative thinker with a flexible approach to change.
  
• Innovative with the confidence to constructively challenge existing processes.
  

Originally posted on Himalayas