Category: FAQ
Excerpt: Numbers say a lot – but not everything. How empathetic personnel planning leads to greater satisfaction, lower staff turnover and better capacity utilization in service and dialogue centers.
Why workforce management needs more than KPIs
Duty scheduling is a demanding management discipline. Planners have to forecast staffing requirements, fill shifts, comply with legal requirements and at the same time take individual needs into account. The requirements are increasing, but many decisions are still based on experience or “intuitive judgment”.
The fault lies not in intuition per se – but in the lack of balance between data-based control and emotional intelligence.
Current studies show: Those who make planning decisions based purely on numbers run the risk of losing motivation and loyalty. But those who rely solely on their gut feeling risk inefficiency, unequal treatment or incorrect appointments.
Why data-driven decisions alone are not enough
“76% of managers feel obliged to justify decisions based on data – but only 46% trust the accuracy and relevance of their available data” (Source: Salesforce (2025), “Insight vs. instinct? Under Increased Pressure Leaders Grapple with Data Skepticism in Decision-Making”).
This clearly shows that data alone is not enough. Without context, communication and empathy, the benefits remain limited. This is particularly true in workforce scheduling: KPIs such as forecast accuracy, productivity or staffing levels provide important directions – but they say little about sensitivities, stress levels or team dynamics.
Examples from practice:
- A duty roster in the service center is formally correct, but does not take into account childcare obligations or employees' medical restrictions.
- A call center agent has been working regularly in off-peak hours for months, although she has reported this as stressful on several occasions - the team lead nevertheless plans rigidly according to availability.
- A young father wishes to have predictable free time to settle his child into daycare - this wish is not taken into account because the system does not allow for individual prioritization.
- A part-time employee with fixed afternoon availability is regularly scheduled for late and weekend shifts, which leads to dissatisfaction and short-term sick leave.
- Particularly high-performing service staff are systematically deployed in peaks - without compensation or rotation, which contributes to overload in the long term.
- A highly qualified employee resigns after her repeated requests for development meetings and temporary relief were ignored.
The result? Staff turnover, silent dissatisfaction and a creeping loss of productivity. The solution lies in combining data competence and empathy. Emotionally intelligent planning means recognizing the “why” behind the data. This requires not only tools, but also an attitude: employees are not seen as blocks of availability, but as people with context.
Planning skills: targeted use of data
- Interpreting forecasts correctly
- Simulate scenarios
- Proactively identify load peaks
Empathy competence: Really understanding people
- Knowing communication habits in the team
- Interpret behavior patterns in reactions
- Recognize mood, resistance or exhaustion at an early stage
Practical example: The emotional KPI
A large customer service provider analyzes the planning data of several teams over 12 months. One team with consistently high staffing levels had a sickness rate twice as high as the average. The cause? A lack of co-determination in shift planning and low appreciation from management.
Following the introduction of a self-service portal and regular feedback from the team leads, the sickness rate fell by 38% – without any loss of productivity. The decisive factor was the change in perspective: not just asking, “Who is deployable?”but also: “Who feels treated how?”
Recent studies also show that this connection is not an isolated case:
“Employees who feel that their opinion counts show 43% less absenteeism and are up to 4.6x more engaged” (source: Gallup (2023), “State of the Global Workplace”).
“Companies with an appreciative and psychologically safe planning culture report 30-50% lower sickness rate” (source: Great Place to Work (2024), “Employee Well-Being Report”).
Where data-based empathy can help
In the duty roster:
- Recognize and take into account employees with individual availabilities (e.g. care responsibilities)
- Derive patterns for desired times or exchange behavior
- Avoid overbooking during peak times that regularly affect the same employees
- Recognize service requests at an early stage and moderate conflicts automatically
In capacity control:
- Analyze recurring overload for certain roles
- Visualize load phases and simulate alternative distributions
- Recognize and plan training needs (per skill) at an early stage
In change management:
- Transferring feedback from pilot teams directly into planning
- Introducing new functions gradually and in a dialog-oriented manner
- Evaluate self-service usage and derive optimization requirements
- Recognize early indicators of resistance (e.g. decline in desired plan participation)
In employee retention:
- Recognize patterns for early fluctuation (e.g. "Who has particularly inflexible plans in the first 3 months?")
- Systemically mapping mentoring times
- Analyze load distribution for weekend services
- Increase transparency about development opportunities and planning autonomy
What employees really want
“Trust and self-determination are key drivers of employee satisfaction. In dynamic working environments, employees are particularly committed when they feel that they are seen – including in planning” (source: Deloitte (2023), “Global Human Capital Trends on the role of trust and self-determination”).
“65% of employees in shift systems would like to have more influence over their working hours. And: 4 out of 10 would prefer a lower-paid job if there was more planning fairness” (source: Bitkom (2023), “Survey on planning fairness and flexibility in shift systems”).
How opcycWFM makes data-based empathy possible
opcycWFM offers not only powerful forecasting and planning tools, but also modules that make the human dimension in planning visible and controllable:
- Preferred planning and self-service: Employees can use myOPCYC to express availability and requirements themselves. Planning automatically takes these into account within the framework of defined rules.
- Competence and workload management: Stored role and skill levels allow shifts to be assigned according to complexity and level of experience.
- Feedback loops for planning managers: Team leads can provide feedback on mood, planning acceptance and integration directly in the system - valuable information for continuous optimization.
- Transparent KPI dashboards: These allow performance, availability and satisfaction to be viewed in parallel. This results in planning solutions that not only work - but are well received.
Conclusion: WFM as relationship management, not just resource allocation
The biggest mistake in duty scheduling? Either only looking at data – or ignoring it altogether. Truly sustainable workforce management is created where system intelligence meets knowledge of human nature.
opcycWFM helps organizations to find precisely this balance: through networked data, flexible planning logic and genuine employee participation. This turns a duty roster into a dialog tool – and planning into a contribution to employee retention.
Would you like to find out more? Our on-demand demo and the free WFM checklist give you an initial idea of how you can use opcycWFM to make your personnel planning not only more efficient but also more human – data-based, empathetic and future-proof.
