CUSTOMER PROFILE
THE CHALLENGE
It’s no secret that the traditional call center employee mold is changing. The integration of different generations poses a unique challenge. On the one hand, the traditional approach to workforce management was familiar and effective for a large segment of the frontline contact center agents; however, more of the employees expected a different relationship with their work and their employer. The younger employees, as well as many of those who are more experienced, express a desire to make a difference, a need to understand and shape how their job is accomplished, and an expectation of flexibility in their work schedules. Importantly, for human resources and hiring, Farmers Insurance recognized that these employees generally possess the technical expertise that allows them to reject employment that does not deliver on those aspects. In 2016, the Farmers Claims WFM team focused on creating a work environment where employees felt valued, heard, and where every employee has a voice.
With the evolving employee culture and the large staff involved, the corporate approach to workforce management needed to evolve with its Customer Service Associate (CSA) base.
THE SOLUTION
In 2016, Farmers Insurance Claims workforce management focused on providing its contact center employees the flexibility and autonomy they are looking for, along with the automation that makes it cost-effective. The team assigned to undertake this task sought to create a work environment in which every employee has a voice and feels valued.
The transformation started with the workforce management team itself, with all employees participating in the planning stages. In order to reinvigorate the corporate culture of partnership and attentiveness, workforce management and contact center representatives held weekly meetings on how to move forward. The brainstorming netted ideas for greater efficiency, for more employee control over scheduling, and more.
Improving Workforce Management by Managing Less
The NICE WFM solution automated a host of scheduling processes that previously had to be accomplished manually through workforce management personnel. According to Ghazala Nair, Scheduling Manager with Farmers Insurance, “We challenged ourselves to let go of control and hand the reins over to our contact center employees.”
Farmers Insurance Claims CSAs are now able to trade shifts among themselves and to ghost trade (that is, block out a future shift to facilitate a current swap). Trades and schedule adjustment requests are automated through the NICE Webstation Schedule Trades feature. This means that CSAs are shaping much more of their own scheduling, with trade parameters wide open for maximum control and greater camaraderie.
To provide their CSAs with even more options, Farmers Insurance Claims WFM introduced flexible schedules with variable compensation. This was accomplished with enhanced work rule customizability and configuration.
The Flexible Schedule Team of CSAs agrees to variable start times and dates in exchange for tiered compensation. For example, a 2% increase in pay accompanies schedules with static days off and a two-hour flexibility in the start window, while a 10% bonus is awarded for schedules with variable days off and more flexible start windows. The initiative has thus far been a success, with 99% of the original members still on board.
Contact center supervisors and quality assurance coaches have also been given greater authority and autonomy. They now have complete control over intraday scheduling, with the ability to directly add or change activities such as a-hoc meetings, training sessions, shortnotice time off, and other interactions.
The maximum automation approach integrated into NICE WFM streamlines daily activities, while immediately alerting supervisors to potential conflicts. There is no longer a need to bring routine scheduling requests to the workforce management team for approval.
Features that Make Management Easier
With Claims contact center supervisors and CSAs more empowered, the workforce management team was able to focus their attention on strategic tasks
Schedule adherence is monitored for all agents from a single screen, with many processes running concurrently. In this configuration, outliers are highlighted for additional attention. To see the data and analytics in any other way they need, when they need it, workforce managers can customize the NICE WFM reporting displays.
Measuring Employee Satisfaction
Increased employee involvement in their schedules has been highly appreciated by agents and external employees, as noted in Farmers’ annual “Voice of the Employee” survey. The internal employee net promoter score for the Workforce Management team in 2016 was over 10 percentage points higher than the previous year, the second highest NPS score in the organization.
Greater autonomy and automation has created ongoing benefit for Farmers Insurance, proving that, sometimes, less is indeed more.
