Category: FAQ
Excerpt: Manual planning, dissatisfied employees and constant stress in day-to-day business? This article shows you five clear signs that your workforce scheduling needs an upgrade – and how a modern WFM system like opcyc can make all the difference.
When shift planning becomes a weekly task
In many companies with their own customer service, staff scheduling is still organized using Excel or in self-built stand-alone solutions. What may have been sufficient in the beginning quickly becomes a problem as complexity increases – for productivity, employee satisfaction and the quality of customer service.
The challenge: The requirements in the contact center are growing rapidly. Fluctuating service volumes, individual employee needs, complex qualification profiles and legal requirements can hardly be managed with manual tools. A modern workforce management solution (WFM) such as opcycWFM provides a remedy here – through automation, transparency and flexibility.
1. your planning eats up more time than it saves
Creating rosters manually in Excel may still work for small teams – but from around 30 employees, the effort involved becomes disproportionately high (compare this article). Managing availabilities, shift models, absences and skills quickly becomes a time-consuming Sisyphean task.
WFM solutions drastically reduce the planning effort: forecasts, demand analyses and shift plans are created automatically. Planners receive intelligent suggestions, can implement changes in just a few clicks and benefit from sophisticated checking mechanisms that prevent errors.
According to a study by Forrester, the use of a WFM system reduces manual planning effort by up to 60% on average (source: Forrester TEI Study, 2022).
2. employees regularly express dissatisfaction with their shifts
Changes to plans at short notice, unclear processes or a lack of consideration of requests quickly lead to frustration in the team. Particularly in the service sector, where employees work under high pressure, this has a negative impact on motivation, loyalty and service quality (for more information on the effects, see here).
opcycWFM actively involves employees in the planning process: The “my opcyc” employee portal can be used to enter preferred shifts, swap shifts or submit vacation requests – with full transparency regarding shifts and time accounts. This creates fairness in planning, which builds trust.
The Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) confirms this: A lack of opportunities to help shape working time planning increases the risk of mental stress and has a negative impact on employee loyalty.
3. absenteeism and overtime are increasing noticeably
Inadequately planned shifts often lead to overloads in individual time slots or to idle time in others – with expensive consequences. Overtime accumulates, statutory break regulations are overlooked and employees are absent due to illness more frequently.
With a WFM system such as opcycWFM, you can keep an eye on all time accounts: The integrated time management system automatically takes legal regulations into account, compares plan and reality and visualizes overtime, underfunding or violations in real time.
According to the BAuA, regulated and plannable working hours reduce the risk of sickness-related absences by up to 25 %.
4. you lose track of availabilities and qualifications
Who can do what – and when? These questions become increasingly difficult to answer as the team size grows. In Excel, it is almost impossible to take skills, availability and location regulations into account at the same time (read this article on the topic of Skill Management).
opcycWFM manages all these parameters centrally and based on rules: skills and qualifications are automatically integrated into the planning, as are individual working time models, public holiday regulations and team affiliations. The result: precise plans with optimum resource utilization.
Studies show: Multi-skill management increases productivity in customer service by up to 23% if it is system-supported (source: Deloitte Global Contact Center Survey, 2023).
5. they cannot react flexibly to new requirements
Spontaneous changes such as sick leave or a sudden increase in the volume of inquiries can quickly throw classic planning processes into disarray. If you have to click through several Excel sheets, you lose valuable time – and risk service level violations (see also Intraday forecasting).
WFM systems react in real time: monitoring tools and monitoring dashboards show deviations from target/actual figures immediately. opcycWFM suggests suitable replacement staff, checks legal framework conditions and enables the shift plan to be adjusted quickly – without Excel chaos.
According to Zendesk (CX Trends 2024), companies with reactive planning tools record up to 30% higher escalation rates in customer service.
Conclusion: Your workforce scheduling deserves an upgrade
Anyone who is aware of even one of the above points should critically scrutinize their current planning system. This is because outdated tools and processes not only have a negative impact on efficiency – they also negatively affect employee satisfaction, increase absenteeism and jeopardize service quality in the long term.
With opcycWFM, you can take your workforce scheduling to the next level – automated, legally compliant and employee-oriented. Our solution offers all the functions that modern service centers need today: from intelligent forecasting logic and rule-based shift planning to flexible time management and self-service functions for your employees.
Would you like to find out whether your current WFM system still meets your requirements? Then start with our free checklist for a well-founded inventory.
Or experience opcycWFM directly in action – either in a non-binding on-demand demo or in a personal consultation with our experts.
