Draft Agenda
SWPP Annual Conference
March 7-9, 2012
Wednesday, March 7
7:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. - Registration
9:00-10:30 a.m. - Welcome & Keynote Address
Sponsored by Knowlagent
10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m. - Workshops
Data Collection & Analysis. The most critical step in the workforce management process is the first one: data collection and analysis. The best predictor of future call workload is past data, so gathering the right data is critical to the workforce management process. Attendees will learn where to look for data and how to scrutinize the data to make sure it’s appropriate to feed into the forecasting process. The class will review mathematical techniques for analyzing data and making needed adjustments. The role of business drivers and how to incorporate them into the planning process will also be discussed. - Speaker: Maggie Klenke, The Call Center School
Building a Roadmap for your WFM Team. Are you so caught up in developing long term plans for other departments that you have been overlooking your own department's strategic vision and development? In this session, we will be discussing a framework that can be used to insure that you are managing and evolving your WFM team's functions and capabilities to address the increased demands and complexity of the modern contact center. Whether you attribute the quote "Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail" to Ben Franklin or John Wooden, this can at first glance appear to be a daunting task. This "how to" session will break the process down into manageable steps and show you how to create the roadmap to evolve your team from basic capabilities to strategic asset. - Speaker: Andy Wainwright, Toyota Financial Services
Taking WFM to the Streets with AAA. Come to this session to hear how AAA has implemented workforce management principles and technology in a non-contact center area to better utilize and schedule the company’s tow truck fleet. The session will outline the Road service process from beginning to end and how workforce management has been implemented throughout. - Speaker: Alexander Wareham, AAA of Western and Central NY
The Marriage of Sales & Service: Bluegreen’s Story of Transitioning from Cost to Profit Center.
Witness the fairytale story of matrimony as this small contact center successfully united superior customer service and sales initiatives! While most will say it wasn’t “love at first sight,” eventual marital bliss led to driving results while improving associate satisfaction! - Speaker: Kim Henderson, Bluegreen Corp.
Flexibility in the Workplace: How to Improve Schedule Efficiency without Shift Bids. Today's workforce is changing -- people are looking for more flexibility and work/life balance than ever before. For years, contact centers have operated on the premise that we can shoe-horn people into schedules that meet business needs, only considering their personal preferences after that. Come hear how two organizations have worked with agents to find mutually beneficial solutions to staffing issues that helped to achieve higher agent morale and lower turnover. Share your own "wins" as we all work to make life better for our agents and our bottom line. - Speakers: Mark Rhodes & Mark D’Astolfo, Progressive Insurance & Louise Andrew, Fairmont Raffles Hotels
Workforce Optimization: The Beautiful, Productive Relationship between Quality Assurance, Analytics and Workforce Management. A key trend we've all heard in workforce planning is the emergence of linked workforce optimization suites. More than a buzzword, Workforce Optimization (WFO) represents an opportunity to use new tools to address common workforce issues. This session investigates use cases that demonstrate real-life scenarios you address every day. For example: how does quality assurance reveal root causes for schedule adherence issues? How can speech analytics identify those agents at the highest risk for turnover? More importantly, how will Workforce Optimization help you quickly uncover these issues and, better yet, act on them before they become significant problems? We'll discuss how to creatively use tools already at your disposal to improve the planning process. Additionally, we introduce some innovative new thoughts and tools businesses like yours are considering when improving workforce management strategies. - Speaker: David Palmieri, Avaya
Managing Your Front and Back Office Workforce with Quality in Mind. This session will show you a practical approach to integrating quality management outcomes with workforce management principles. It will help all those struggling with today's workforce management challenges discover new insights that will help generate productivity and increase efficiency in your contact center with new approaches to assessing and using quality. For example: reward best practices proactively; automatically address opportunities for improvement; improve first contact resolution with a better match between agent ability and customer need; and enhance the total customer experience by applying quality and workforce management to your back office resources. - Speakers: Jane Hendricks & Eric Hagaman, Aspect Software
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - Lunch and Presentation of Workforce Management Professional of the Year Award
Sponsored by Avaya
1:15-2:30 p.m. - Workshops
Forecasting Fundamentals. Review the most popular techniques used for forecasting and the advantages and risks of each. You will learn about the step-by-step approach used by most call centers called time-series analysis, including a case study and an exercise to complete after the class. Tips will also be provided on forecasting shortcuts and when to use them. - Speaker: Maggie Klenke, The Call Center School
Flying High with Multi-Skill Environments. Ever try to describe a multi-skill contact center to a non-workforce management associate or a new workforce management analyst? Come to this interactive session to see different basic call center skill models and the impacts they can have to staffing and servicing. Attendees will participate in an exercise to help demonstrate the pros and cons of different models and discuss the considerations of a multi-skill contact center. For seasoned workforce management analysts, this is a fun, simple way to help demonstrate to new hires (and maybe even management) the impact to your business. - Speaker: Matt Pitts, Bluegreen Corporation
QMonitor: The Marriage of Process & Technology. In this session, we will guide the user through an in depth treatise on proven concepts in contact center management and planning. Concepts covered will include: a review of process design theories in contact center management that link Long Term Planning activities through Real Time Management, and everything that happens in between; an overview of some key contact center planning metrics and indicators, and a demonstration of their link to financial business modelling, including a Shareholder Value Calculator; a treatment of some of the most commonly held myths and pitfalls in contact center planning and management; and a review of the QMonitor application, an award-winning tool developed at Bell Canada that essentially innovated management practices by mobilizing the WFM Command Center on the smart phone. Speaker: Marco Sciarro, Bell Canada
Teleworking Roundtable. This session is an interactive forum for those companies who have already put a remote agent program in place. If you are currently using remote agents, come to this session to network with others who are dealing with the same issues. Share your challenges and best practices for teleworking success. - Speakers: Kim Henderson, Bluegreen Corporation, Louise Andrew, Fairmont Raffles Hotels, & Rick Seeley, Convergys
Using Virtual Interviewing to Improve Contact Center Hiring Performance. Hiring the right people with the right communication, language, and technical skills is essential to effective contact center operations. The telephone interview is normally used as the first step in the candidate evaluation process and in some cases like work-at-home agents, the only step. Recruiter-led telephone interviewing can be a tedious, time consuming, and costly process and may miss some well-qualified candidates. Virtual interviewing technologies can significantly streamline the process, reduce recruiting costs, and improve the quality of candidate hire. This session will introduce delegates to the characteristics of virtual interviewing, how it can improve the hiring process, and the measurable benefits that can be realized from virtual interviewing. - Speaker: Kevin Hegebarth, HireIQ
The Hidden Opportunities that are within your Back Office. In the quest to keep up with savvy consumer demands, the Enterprise is looking towards their contact center and self-service portals to provide the consumer more flexibility, control and transparency. But the real hidden gem is the back office. A recent survey showcased that 43% of consumers are choosing email as a first point of contact and frustratingly 53% of those communications need to be escalated to the contact center for second and third contact resolution. When 53% of your customers are not getting first contact resolution, this has a strong negative effect on customer retention and loyalty. This is just one scenario where optimizing the back office can have a direct response to higher consumer ratings of your Enterprise. This session will bring to light ways to capture, understand, analyze and optimize back office operations which in turn will drive operational efficiencies while simultaneously increasing customer service and directly effecting future revenue opportunities. - Speaker: Paul Leamon, NICE Systems
2:30 - 3:00 p.m. - Break
3:00 - 4:15 p.m. - Workshops
Calculating Call Center Staff. Learn how to fine-tune staffing requirements to get the “just right” number of resources in place. This session will discuss cost vs. service concerns, the impact of large groups and economies of scale, call arrival rate, and staff occupancy. You’ll also learn about calculating staff for emails and outbound calling campaigns. - Speaker: Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School
Boomers, Xer’s, Y’s, & WFM. The same attitudes about work are not the same across generational lines. This does not mean less of a work ethic, just a differing view of where work fits into life. Beyond staffing, scheduling, and performance management there are challenges to be faced for workforce management related to morale, teamwork, system acceptance, and attrition due to a more age diversified workforce Join us as we explore the unique challenges of WFM in a cross-generational contact center. - Speakers: Marshall Lee, SHPS, & Louise Andrew, Fairmont Raffles Hotels
Finding the Best Structure for Your Workforce Management Team. There are many ways to set up your workforce management team, and it is definitely not a “one-size-fits-all” proposition. This session will help you think about the size, location, roles, responsibilities, daily tasks, and overall structure of your WFM team. Hear how other teams are set up, and how they found the right structure for their organization. - Speakers: Allison Naumann, Brighthouse Networks, & Chris Watchorn, Canada Post
WFM Certification Workshop. What is CWPP Certification all about? What will it do for you in the workforce management field? What are the requirements for certification? How do you prepare? These and other questions are answered by a panel of workforce management professionals who have already achieved the CWPP designation. This workshop gives information on the certification preparation and process to attain the title of Certified Workforce Planning Professional (CWPP). Panelists: Todd Gladden, ProCore Solutions, Michele Borboa, Contact Center Resources, & Steve Gordon, Hyatt Hotels
Leading Operations Through WFM Insights. Running and operating call centers effectively and efficiently is at the core of what workforce management is all about for many organizations. Bridging the gap between workforce management and operational teams is a challenge that everyone faces on a daily basis. In many of our organizations operational teams look to workforce management to provide actionable insights into how their operation is performing and opportunities to improve while maintaining budgets. This case study will help you understand how InterContinental Hotels Group has taken a Call Center Management 101 approach and identified opportunities to help bridge the gap between workforce management and operations. Speaker: Robert Dobson, IHG
Empower your Employees - Workforce Management with a Human Touch. This workshop aims to give you insight into the latest trends and best practice in employee empowerment. Many call centers use employee empowerment as a way to both decrease agent attrition and to increase their motivation. Teleopti will give you insight into two customer cases where employee empowerment has saved costs and increased customer satisfaction while at the same time giving happier and better performing agents. Learn how to make agents responsible for their own performance, empower agents to plan their work around their life and still improve your customer service, and optimize your operation to be more profitable and provide better customer service. - Speaker: Magnus Geverts, Teleopti
Contact Center Capacity Planning, Step by Step (or Ways to Improve Your Scary Spreadsheet Plans). Over the last year or so, there has been a fair amount of press about the shortfalls of the traditional long term planning process, and the need for more dynamic corporate planning. These numerous articles reflect the reality that when the business environment changes, the resource plan must change too. In the contact center operation, forecast change is particularly difficult to manage. When contact volumes are at variance to plan, when do we trigger a new forecast and a new resource plan? How do we determine, accurately, the service we can expect as volumes change and our budgets remain fixed? How do we quickly produce accurate and optimal capacity planning scenarios? In this session, we will discuss the steps taken by the best planning analysts, from forecasting, to accurate requirements generation, to optimally generating hiring/overtime/undertime/controllable shrinkage plans for your multi-channel, multi-skill contact center network. - Speaker: Ric Kosiba, Bay Bridge Decision Technologies
4:30 - 5:30 p.m. - Workshops
Speed Networking. Everyone has heard of Speed Dating. Attend this session for a variation that will help you start off the conference with a bunch of new friends! In our Speed Networking session, you will spend just a few minutes getting to know some of your fellow attendees, and exchange business cards so that you can talk more over the next few days and keep in touch after the conference is over. - Facilitators: Louise Andrew & Natalie Robertson, Fairmont Raffles
SWPP Meet. Join the SWPP Board of Advisors for a SWPP Meet, as they facilitate this session starring your issues and solutions in today’s call center. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to network with your workforce management peers and discuss your toughest workforce management problems. It’s also a great time to meet the Board members and find out more about this group of industry leaders that directs SWPP’s activities and programs. - Facilitator: Michele Borboa, Contact Center Resources
Workforce Management Certification Practice “Bee.” Play this fun, interactive game to test your knowledge and get a flavor for the questions included in the Certified Workforce Planning Professional (CWPP) exams. Attend this session to see what you need to know in order to be successful in the pursuit of CWPP certification. - Facilitator: Maggie Klenke, The Call Center School
“The Power of One” Activity Session. What other session utilizes a wading pool, tennis balls, and a bucket from your favorite fried chicken joint? Probably none, because this one is unique! Come to this session to find some proven techniques and activities to show agents how important they are - that one person really does make a difference! - Speakers: Todd Gladden, ProCore Solutions, & David Birch, USAA
The Scheduling Swap - Countdown of Scheduling Best Practices. If you’re struggling with what else to try in order to match up your schedules to the forecast workload, this is the session for you. You’ll hear about scheduling best practices from your workforce planning peers in a format that’s organized and practical, yet fun and entertaining. Bring one great scheduling idea with you to the session. You’ll have the opportunity to share ideas one-on-one with other participants and hear what’s working best in their centers. - Facilitator: Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School
Excel for WFM Professionals - Intermediate Level. Bring your laptop to this hands on session, which is designed to provide basic and intermediate level Excel users with tips, tricks, and ideas to enhance their Excel skill level. Excel is used in Erlang models for budgeting purposes, reporting call center metrics, forecasting validation, financial planning, shrinkage reporting, and many other efforts. Additionally, this session will demonstrate how Excel can be used for a variety of reporting efforts. - Speaker: Michael Andrews, Intuit, & Kristi Holcombe, FedEx
6:30 p.m. - Buses depart for Evening Event
7:00-10:00 p.m. - Party at BB King’s Blues Club
Thursday, March 8
8:30 - 9:30 a.m. - Breakfast & Presentation of SWPP Techniques & Turnarounds Contest
Sponsored by CallCopy
9:30 - 10:45 a.m. - Workshops
Scheduling Principles & Problems. Learn the basics of scheduling your personnel to meet call center cost and service goals. This session outlines the most common scheduling problems call centers face and will provide some traditional solutions as well as some creative new ones to help with your scheduling dilemma. Be ready to share your own scheduling challenges and solutions. Speaker: Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School
Measuring Workforce Management Success: Results-Oriented Metrics. For many organizations, there are gaps or at least doubts as to the effectiveness of the workforce management operation. This session is designed to provide the step-by-step processes needed to analyze the current operation, processes, and most importantly, the results. These include the accuracy of the forecasting, the efficient utilization of the resources, effectiveness of adjustment of the plan to meet reality, and the satisfaction of the WFM department’s customers. In looking at the details of the performance, WFM can identify the areas of excellence and specific areas that may be in need of attention and where better coordination between WFM and Operations could improve the results. In this session, you will learn to: analyze forecasting accuracy using percent variance, standard deviation and correlation coefficients; analyze the scheduling efficiency in matching up to the forecast; compare the actual staffing to the actual required staffing when the true workload is known; and review the requirements for a satisfaction survey of agents, supervisors and management regarding the WFM processes. Speaker: Maggie Klenke, The Call Center School
Six Sigma Tools for Everyday Application. Voted one of last year's most valuable sessions! Do you find yourself doing the same thing again and again, and expecting a different outcome? As call center experts, it is all too easy to assume we know the root cause of an issue, (it can only be volume, AHT, or shrinkage, right?), frequently blaming poor performance on teams or individuals rather than the process. "The operational team is not doing what we said," "Average Handle Time (AHT) is through the roof because the Team Leaders aren't coaching to it," "The forecast was off because..." are all common cries when things start to go wrong. If we have addressed these issues in the past, then why are we still experiencing degraded performance? To try and help you from falling into the "insanity" trap, this session will provide insight into some powerful lean Six Sigma and Kaizen tools (this is not a DMAIC session) that can be used every day to provide a different view of perhaps reoccurring issues, and even fundamentally change the way you think about problem solving. - Speakers: Andy Wainwright & Sam Hanna, Toyota Financial Services
Intraday Performance Reports - Is Your Data Accurate? Have you ever wondered if the call volume reflected on your IDP reports is accurate? This tool plays a very important role in making staffing decisions on a daily basis. Come find out a method of determining if your data is accurate. We will be utilizing Aspect and Avaya tools in this presentation, however any member will benefit from the concept of the information. Speaker: Debbie Davis-Greene & Mike Millsaps, Trase Miller
The Benefits of Implementing Automated Long-Term Planning Software. Learn how the Magic Kingdom transformed their contact center planning process from one based on spreadsheets to one built on simulation. Hear how implementing an automated system has changed the overall planning process and culture at Walt Disney. Speaker: Andrea DelValle, Disney Destinations
Process-Driven Workforce Management. Attend this session and learn how to make the workforce management environment proactive rather than reactive and how to turn around service issues and costs in contact centers by implementing and executing WFM processes. Attendees will get a complete picture of the WFM life-cycle from a process perspective. - Speakers: Chad Andree, Centerpoint Energy, & Chris Watchorn, Canada Post
WFM Outside the Contact Center: The Lessons Learned. There is a lot of discussion about workforce management moving out of the contact center into the rest of the enterprise. But talk is cheap. What have we learned about the reality of workforce management outside the contact center? This session discusses what Verint has learned about applying workforce management to back office and branch office employees. - Speaker: Bill Durr, Verint Systems
10:45 - 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. - Workshops
Excel, Access, & VBA for Workforce Planners. Excel continues to be the most used application in workforce planning whether you use workforce management software or not, and Access and Visual Basic are also popular programs used by workforce planners. This session is designed to demonstrate tips in all three programs that will help automate some workforce management tasks. - Speakers: Eric Klein, MGM Resorts, & Kristi Holcombe, FedEx - Moderator: David Birch, USAA
Plan It & Prove It: Building an Effective Workforce Management Strategy. Everyone understands that workforce management is about getting the right people in the right place at the right time. But building an organization and strategy to get there can be a daunting challenge. Using the strategy of "Plan It & Prove It," this session will demonstrate an action plan of how to staff and build an effective workforce management process. Get tips on hiring, building a team when the cash isn’t there, and what to do next to start your workforce management process or move it to greater effectiveness. - Speaker: Dan Rickwalder, Proactive Planning
Partnership Between Operations & Support to Take Accountability for Schedule Adherence to Balance Service Levels. Come to this session to hear how LoyaltyOne built a strong partnership between Customer Care's Support and Operation teams to drive efficiency through Schedule Adherence, to balance Service Levels, and drive our Customer Satisfaction goal. There were 2 key reasons for the partnership: schedule adherence was non-existent in our environment, so we reintroduced it as an accountability; and the Operations Team did not feel a strong sense of ownership for the achievement of Service Levels. Learn how they brought the two teams together and worked collaboratively to reintroduce Schedule Adherence, and the Change Management Plans. - Speakers: Fawzia Drakes & Debbie Awde, LoyaltyOne
The Perils & Pitfalls of Performance-Based Scheduling. This session will address the benefits of moving from seniority-based schedule bids to a performance-based system. We'll address the perils and pitfalls to avoid along the way based on our experience of migrating four different call centers to performance-based scheduling. Topics will include: what statistics to base performance on; transitioning smoothly to performance-based bids; communicating effectively to agents to maximize performance; using new hire schedules between bids to “entice” agents to perform; and lessons learned by experience (do's and don'ts). - Speakers: Richard Brooks, Brighthouse Networks, & Rick Seeley, Convergys
Extending WFM to the Back Office. Implementing workforce management in the back office can be extremely challenging. This session provides an overview of the workforce management process and how it has been applied to both inbound and back office groups. It all starts with data collection and forecasting, then scheduling and implementation as you go through each step of the process. You will see how each step differs for inbound areas and back office areas. You will also learn potential pitfalls to avoid and helpful strategies to use when implementing workforce management in the back office. - Speaker: Tony Stephens, Express Scripts
A Crash Course in Labor Strategy for 2012. Review the four most critical labor issues you will likely be addressing in 2012. You’ll hear common labor misconceptions to remedy, scheduling mistakes to avoid, and potential solutions to implement that will make both your pocketbook and your staff happier. Key workshop topics will include overtime optimization, HR policy alignment, and benchmarking to identify the most important employee issues. You will learn some important math about how to calculate true labor costs for your own work environment - so bring a calculator! You will also see actual employee benchmark data from the Core Practice database of over 100,000 shift workers and review the most critical factors impacting employee satisfaction. Learn what strategies have proven beneficial for organizations of all types and sizes and how you can apply some of these same principles to make the most of your own workforce. Speaker: John Frehse, Core Practice
12:15 - 1:30 p.m. - Lunch and Workforce Management Jeopardy
Sponsored by injixo
1:30 - 2:45 p.m. - Workshops
The Importance of Shrinkage. After call volume, average handle time, and Erlang formulas, the most critical element to forecasting staffing requirements accurately is shrinkage. This session focuses on identifying and tracking all types of shrinkage that impact call center operations. It addresses the importance of shrinkage reporting and communicating that data to all levels of management, including the executive level. - Speaker: Jonathan Hall, Brighthouse Networks
Improving Communications for WFM Professionals: Closing the Information Gap Between Workforce Management and Call Center Supervisors. Do you ever feel like your WFM group speaks an entirely different language from others in the call center? Do you struggle to get cooperation from supervisors and agents when you need their help to schedule or adhere to existing schedules? This session is all about ways to improve your communications, build stronger relationships and educate others about the value of WFM. In this session you will learn: four types of communication styles, how to identify your style and ways to adjust your communication to those who tend toward a different style; conflict management strategies to help you more effectively interact with supervisors and frontline staff; methods to develop interdepartmental relationships that will position WFM as a proactive unit that serves the needs of its internal customers; and ways to educate other areas of the enterprise about workforce management. - Speaker: Deelee Freeman, The Call Center School
Social Media’s Impact on Call Volume. As technology continues to play an ever-increasing role in the lives of our customers, their experiences and interactions with the call center have changed - sometimes not for the best. In this session, learn about social media’s impact on call centers with a specific case study involving one particular group effecting multiple hotels in one city over a two-week time period. - Speaker: Steve Gordon, Hyatt Hotels
What’s the Difference? Outbound vs. Inbound Workforce Management. Do your responsibilities include outbound activities using a predictive dialer? Workforce management in an inbound environment can be difficult in itself, but add outbound activities and the complexity increases exponentially. The role of the WFM team remains to have the right staff at the right time, however the objectives between inbound, outbound, and blended operations can lead to very different management decisions. In this session, we will discuss the contrast between inbound WFM (which establishes supply and demand using service level or average speed of answer as the guide), share some examples of how resource requirements can be calculated based on the specialized nature of outbound demand drivers, and review how the value of managing outbound staff is realized in ways that are very different from inbound contact centers. - Speaker: Andy Wainwright, Toyota Financial Services
Hiring for Workforce Management: Part 1. The specialty nature of the workforce management function, its alternating need for both quantitative and qualitative skills, and the decision-making responsibilities often placed on even our entry-level staff make hiring the right people a challenge. These speakers have all spent years designing jobs and recruitment processes in order to build high-caliber teams. In this session, they will share sample job descriptions, their views on internal hiring versus going to the street, how much support Human Resources can/does provide, and other critical success factors to the hiring process. - Speakers: Chris Watchorn, Canada Post, Kim Henderson, Bluegreen Corporation, & Todd Gladden, ProCore Solutions
The Top 10 Best Workforce Management Practices from 20 Years of WFM Consulting. This session will highlight the top 10 behaviors of successful workforce management cultures. Based on decades of experience across all workforce management product lines, this session will hone in on specific tactics that result in superior customer service, positive employee morale, and controlled costs. Walk away with at least three great ideas that you can implement in your contact center once you leave this session. - Speakers: Tim Montgomery, Culture Service Growth (CSG), & Daryl Gonos, Workforce Management Software Group, Inc.
Leveraging the Home Agent Model in Work Force Planning. Sixty percent of organizations utilize home workers in some capacity today and the forecast is 80% by the end of 2013. Material gains in customer and employee satisfaction have been logged, 35-50% improvement in retention, and 20% efficiency improvements. In 2011, organizations reported that efficiency improvements are as important as facilities footprint reductions. But there are still many questions. What does “flexible scheduling” look like? How can we forecast a solid ROI for various business segments and sizes? How can we effectively pilot and scale a flexible scheduling model? During this session, Michele Rowan, President of At Home Customer Contacts and former VP of Performance Management for Hilton Hotels, takes you through the following: top three flexible scheduling models and efficiency improvements in use today; how to choose and customize a model to meet your business objectives; how to gauge the return in occupancy and productivity improvements; best in class WFM technology options that support flexible scheduling; and pros and cons of increasing the FT/PT mix by industry segment. - Speaker: Michele Rowan for Pipkins
2:45 - 3:45 p.m. - Ice Cream Social with the Sponsors
Sponsored by The Workforce Management Software Group
3:45 - 5:00 p.m. - Workshops
Bridging the Gap Between Workforce Management & Support Groups. In this session we will review and discuss successful and unsuccessful workforce management change management methods in a contact center. Attendees will walk away with an action plan to improve current relationships in the centers, increase level of trust and most important feel confident implementing new ideas from the conference. - Speakers: Kelli Butler, Suntrust, & Natalie Robertson, Fairmont Raffles Hotels
Turning the Ship Around - Using Metrics to Improve Process. Come to this session to hear a case study about how to use contact center metrics to identify, analyze, and remediate processes. This will be a chronicle of the 10 month process that resulted in great results, including reducing average call handle time, reducing abandonment for the busiest day of the year, improving average quality scores, increasing schedule compliance, and implementing a work-at-home infrastructure. - Speaker: Chris Vitek, Enterprise Telemetry
Overcoming WFM Challenges in a Union Environment. In this session, you will hear about how one telecommunications company migrated from a home-grown scheduling system to an off-the-shelf software system. Follow as they learned to demonstrate a "what's is in it for me” approach for Union employees, demonstrate a consistent process of fairness in a tool, and worked with the vendor to resolve/change any gaps. Hear the challenges in meeting Union contact rules and site precedents to increase workforce optimization and improve customer satisfaction. - Speaker: Debra Phillips, Ciber
Virtual WFM Teams. Not all workforce teams sit in the same place, work in the same office, or even the same time zone, but they do still have to work together. In times when workforce teams have to do less with more, a team can be leaner and multi-site just like the teams answering the calls. Come share in a discussion about how others have successfully managed workforce teams that support multi-site operations. - Speakers: Marshall Lee, SHPS, Drex Fitzwater, Vangent, & Rick Seeley, Convergys
Hiring for Workforce Management: Part 2. A continuation of the Hiring for WFM morning session, the presenters address the process starting from the point of hire. They will compare and contrast the onboarding processes they have used, including technical training, skills training, business orientation, etc… Hear what has worked well and perhaps some lessons learned along the way. - Speakers: Chris Watchorn, Canada Post, Kim Henderson, Bluegreen, Corporation, & Todd Gladden, ProCore Solutions
Leveraging Business Analytics to Improve Agent Retention and Performance. Learn how West Corporation WFM partnered with a Business Analytics team to identify key indicators of agent performance and retention. Discussion items will focus on data sources, leading indicators, pilot results and operational plans to drive improved retention and KPIs. - Speaker: Joe Cox, West Corporation
Multimedia Blending: Dispelling the Myths - Contact center vendors are constantly bombarding you with new and advanced ways they can make sure that every spare moment of your agents’ days are spent doing all kinds of different things! How do you need to adjust your workforce management methodology to best accommodate these new ways of distributing “work?” - Speaker: Tom Tritten, Genesys
5:00 - 7:00 p.m. - Networking Reception
Sponsored by Verint Systems
Friday, March 9
8:00 - 8:45 a.m. - Breakfast
8:45 - 10:00 a.m. - Workshops
Attendance & Adherence. One of the toughest jobs related to workforce management may not be the intricate calculations of forecasting nor the numerous iterations of coming up with the best schedule mix. The hardest part may come after the schedules are in place – simply ensuring there are frontline staff available when and where you need them to be. Some call centers are much more successful than others at this attendance and adherence dilemma. So how do you get staff to show up for work on Mondays and stick to their planned break times? This session will share proven practices on attendance and adherence that have resulted in increased availability. Speaker: Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School
What Happens in Vegas: Getting Mega Resorts to Get Along. MGM Resorts International’s contact center is the heart of the company, and the hub of change. Transforming room, show, and restaurant reservations processes into a world class contact center, while making all their internal and external customers happy, has been a challenge. Hear what has worked -- and what has not worked - as this transformation has taken place. Speakers: Eric Klein, Justin Lewis, & Kendra Hanes, MGM Resorts
Exploring WFM in the Cloud. As call center technology has evolved, companies struggle with the requirements for an IT department to maintain proficiency in and manage all the necessary call center applications. To fill this need, technology companies now offer hosted solutions that require little or no assistance from the IT department. This session will explore several case studies of WFM as a hosted application. You will hear about the risks, challenges, and benefits of using a hosted solution. Speakers: Anne Burns, EyeMed, Marc Bernica, Bright Horizons, & Chad Andree, Centerpoint Energy - Moderator: Steve Gordon
Adult Learning & Training Your WFM Team. Do you know how adults learn? If you have to train your staff, this is the session for you. Workforce management training, like agent training, needs to be tailored to the audience. Adults have a different way of learning and applying knowledge. Furthermore as adults age, the learning style changes but the aptitudes remain. This session will cover the strategies to effectively and efficiently train your workforce management team. - Speaker: Marshall Lee, SHPS
60 Ideas in 60 Minutes - WFM Tips & Techniques from Real-Life Experiences. This fast-paced session with a panel of your WFM peers will have you writing furiously as you try to capture an idea a minute on paper! This format will give you some last minute tips to take home and implement immediately - if you can catch them all!
10:00 - 10:15 a.m. - Break
10:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. - Workshops
Building a Successful Award/Incentive Plan. Are you puzzled about how to motivate agent performance? See how Bluegreen is holding true to their motto "a colorful place to live, work and play" by re-inventing their associate recognition plan. Learn how the pieces came together after dedicating a full-time resource whose goal was simple...drive net operating profit (NOP) results while having fun! The result was an overall increase in center profitability of 344%! - Speaker: Kim Henderson, Bluegreen Corporation
Outsourcing Options. The target audiences for this presentation are WFM leaders and decision-makers inside client companies. By engaging in any type of outsourcing relationship, the business of WFM will be significantly impacted. It is critical that WFM leaders are prepared to take an active leadership role in the vendor selection, contract development, and implementation phases of any potential outsourcing arrangement. We will also discuss a variety of critical issues involved in the day-to-day management of outsourcing arrangements, and how a thoughtful, inclusive, collaborative workforce management process can ensure success for both client and vendor! Some of the issues to present/discuss are: WFM’s role in the RFP and contract process, clarifying partner vs. client roles, collaborative capacity planning, and aligning goals and establishing SLAs. - Speakers: Chris Roche, Choice Hotels, & Chris Watchorn, Canada Post
60 Ideas in 60 Minutes - Tips & Techniques for Making the Most of Your WFM Software. This fast-paced session with a panel of vendor experts will have you writing furiously as you try to capture an idea a minute on paper! This format will give you some last minute tips to take home and implement immediately - if you can catch them all!
Workforce Insights - Taking a Look at Employee Satisfaction Surveying. Call centers spend much effort doing customer satisfaction surveys - and they should! However, there's an often overlooked group whose satisfaction has a huge impact on how happy customers are and how effectively the center operates, and that's the frontline employees. Many centers don't survey agents regularly and some that do simply rely on HR designed surveys that are way too general in nature and don't take into account the unique factors that impact job satisfaction and morale in a call center environment. Employee satisfaction is critical to your call center's success and it's important to do this often and to do it right. In this session you will learn about the ten components to ask about on a call center employee survey, including the questions to ask about the scheduling process, performance metrics, supervisory relationships, and many other areas. Hear some interesting results from real-life employee surveys and how organizations have acted on information to create a happier, more effective workplace. - Speaker: Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School
I-Time (Innovation Time). Sometimes we get caught in the routine of doing the same thing the same way because that’s the way we’ve always don’t it. Come to this session to learn about “I-Time (Innovation Time), which can help us get out of this rut. Innovation time gives you the framework to self-improve and get feedback from others. It is empowering to managers, analysts, and even the entry level front-line agent if done correctly. Come and share as we explore how to empower your team to improve and innovate, so you can do what you do better within the context of your organization. Speaker: Marshall Lee, SHPS
Getting the Most out of Your Workforce Management Investments. This session will explore the benefits realized by implementing Aspect's Workforce Management solution as well as exploring configuration best practices that can improve flexibility and reduce maintenance overhead from a user perspective. Specifics will include optimal schedule segment definitions, the value of reporting super-state setup, how to improve efficiencies by automating important forecasting tasks, and more. Kelly Verdeck, an experienced call center supervisor and workforce management expert, will share how to navigate the powerful platform, implement best practices in system configuration, and how to modify the environment for optimal performance. This session will present ideas that attendees using or considering Aspect’s Workforce Management can take home and implement immediately and practical insight into Workforce Management technologies for those who are seeking new ideas and approaches to common workforce management challenges. - Speaker: Kelly Verdeck, Bright House Networks
11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Conference Wrap-up General Session
2012 SWPP Annual Conference Ends
