Posted on 6-11-2012
Company: Staples
Director – Workforce Planning
Location: Framingham, MA

Apply on line to: www.staples.com/jobs

The job number for this opening in order to post on line is: 840070

Position Summary:
As the Director of Workforce Management you will be responsible for the management of all core workforce management functions, including budgeting, forecasting contact volumes, trend analysis, staff and hiring planning, employee scheduling, and real time management. This position supports over 2,000 Customer Service Representatives in 12 locations across North America.  This position reports to the Vice President of Customer Service and is a key member of the Customer Service Leadership Team, helping support the contact centers’ mission to provide customers with high quality service while operating within established budgetary requirements.

Primary Responsibilities:

  • Manages/directs workforce management (WFM) resources to achieve contact center performance objectives
  • Budgetary responsibilities which includes assisting in the preparation of the annual CSR budget for all supported business units and monitoring/reporting on expenditures in relation to the budget
  • Responsible for all contact routing including voice, email, chat and other contact types
  • All other duties as assigned and appropriate
  • Serve as the business owner for all workforce and related tools including Avaya, eWFM, Kana and others
  • Responsible for effectively using WFM technology and processes to create forecasts, calculate staffing and hiring requirements and organize schedules for the contact center operations
  • Monitor and analyze calling patterns, intra-day and inter-day activity and make adjustments as necessary to ensure optimal productivity and efficiency
  • Create schedules using contact center best practices that ensure achievement of service level, schedule adherence and other financially impacting goals using projections and/or historical data
  • Build and maintain solid relationships between the WFM Team and individuals at all levels in the business units that the group supports
  • Coordinate with Operations, Technology, Telecom and other appropriate groups to build disaster recovery and contingency plans
  • Build relationships with our outsource partners to ensure the partnership is adding value to our customer service operations
  • Build and maintain a team environment, encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and modeling behavior that fosters Staples values and culture
  • Monitor CSR behaviors, efficiency and availability for use in planning and report deficiencies and opportunities to operations and management teams
  • Develop the short/long term WFM operating strategy for our Customer Service Expert Center
  • Results-focused, with an aptitude for handling multiple and changing priorities efficiently and effectively
  • Demonstrate a well defined customer-centric approach to workforce management in a dynamic environment
  • High degree of initiative and flexibility.  Must be able to set a great example; embrace and quickly adapt to change.  Must be able to lead the WFM Team as well as internal customers through changes to the work environment, volume, business processes, systems and other changes
  • Excellent interpersonal skills. Must be able to successfully interact with senior management, operations personnel, support groups and all levels of WFM staff
  • Excellent decision making skills. Must be able to make good business decisions using factual and sometimes limited data
  • Responsible for monitoring processes and reporting to ensure staffing goals are accurate and facilitating real-time communication and adjustments with the Operations Team to optimize schedule adherence, occupancy, service level and overall efficiencies

Qualifications

Basic:

  • College degree
  • Minimum of 7-10 years experience leading a workforce management team in a multi-channel, multi-site contact center environment
  • An understanding of call center tools, i.e. ACD’s, eWFM systems, email distribution systems and scheduling tools and processes
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Must be able to communicate professionally and convincingly with internal customers, colleagues, and all levels of management
  • Ability to effectively communicate technical information to both technical and non-technical audiences; must be able to make effective presentations to a wide variety of audiences under varying circumstances
  • Demonstrate project management and organizational skills.  Must be able to effectively lead and coordinate cross-functional teams to deliver desired results in the time frame required.  Must be able to evaluate and effectively prioritize several projects independently.  Effective delegation skills, utilizing the talents of the team while maintaining an appropriate level of control and responsibility
  • Excellent analytical and problem solving skills.  Must be able to identify root causes to problems and develop solutions to eliminate recurrence.  Must be able to analyze data, perform financial analysis and develop, monitor and adhere to budget requirements
  • Demonstrate experience in the development of efficient business processes; application of advanced problem solving skills; application of quality management skills including the development of quality and productivity measurements; and solid operations management, project leadership and personnel management and development

Preferred:

  • Masters degree