7 Not-So-Best Practices of Adherence

Overview

Many workforce management professionals spend their days putting out fires because people are not where they are supposed to be. When the day is done, they face stacks of after-the-fact exceptions that must be entered into the system in order for adherence scores to look good. But a good adherence score cannot hide missed service levels and customer dissatisfaction.

Workforce management systems alone are not the answer. Although designed to help contact centers improve productivity, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, a workforce management system is only as effective as the contact center's workforce management processes.

Schedule adherence measures how closely agents follow, or adhere to, their scheduled activities. When an agent's scheduled activities match their actual activities as reported by the ACD, an agent is considered to be 100% in adherence. Any deviation from the agent's scheduled activities, which includes entered exceptions, results in a lower adherence score.

But is it that simple? This white paper explores seven practices that are not such best practices.