Zoom Workforce Management

The following sections describe features available to Zoom Contact Center and Zoom Workforce Management supervisors.

Scheduling

This section provides an overview of the supervisor scheduling experience.

While Zoom expects that forecasting will become the more commonly used scheduling method compared to manual scheduling, Forecasts can't be generated without first establishing the underlying scheduling infrastructure. For that reason, this section begins by covering scheduling fundamentals before moving on to forecasting below. Readers with questions are encouraged to refer to the Zoom Workforce Management Core Concepts section for further clarification.

For detailed, step-by-step instructions on setting up the underlying scheduling infrastructure, visit Zoom’s support center for guidance on configuring Zoom Workforce Management schedules and activities.

Creating a Schedule

Creating a Schedule within Zoom Workforce Management can be understood as a three-step process: Setup, Planning, and Refinement. Although these steps require additional sub-processes—like creating a Forecast or a Shift—as you create the underlying infrastructure (e.g., Scheduling Groups, Activities, and Shifts) the process is simplified over time as the scheduling infrastructure can be continually reused.

Setup

To initiate scheduling in Zoom Workforce Management, the first step requires establishing the core scheduling infrastructure supporting the process. This includes creating Scheduling Groups, Activities, and Shifts that will be linked to Agents. Once these infrastructure elements are in place for a specific Scheduling Group, a scheduling administrator can proceed to the planning phase.

Planning

The planning phase determines the nature of a Schedule. Scheduling administrators have two scheduling methods available:

• Manual Scheduling: Create and customize a Schedule using Activities and Shifts.

• Forecasting: A mechanized scheduling solution that uses Activities and Shift information to schedule agents according to forecasted engagement volume, but may require some manual adjustments.

After deciding the scheduling approach and doing the necessary sub-processes (if applicable), the scheduling administrator can proceed to the refinement phase.

Refinement

The refinement stage involves fine-tuning a Schedule or Forecast to ensure adequate activity and Shift coverage. For manual scheduling, this entails confirming your scheduled coverage meets your expected demand. For Forecasts, this entails ensuring that there is sufficient net staffing for the anticipated engagement volume.

Forecasting

This section provides an overview of the supervisor forecasting experience. Readers with questions about Forecasting are encouraged to refer to the Zoom Workforce Management Core Concepts section for additional information and further clarification.

For additional assistance, refer to Zoom’s support center for detailed, step-by-step instructions on creating and viewing a Forecast.

Creating a Forecast

Forecasts are used to anticipate future contact center engagement volume and maintain sufficient staffing. Although a Forecast depends on the development of additional scheduling infrastructure—like Scheduling Groups—creating a Forecast can be understood in three phases: Initialization, Preview, and Publication.

Initialization

During the initialization phase of a Forecast, the pre-existing infrastructure, particularly Scheduling Groups, is utilized. If a Scheduling Group is set up with at least one contact center Queue and its associated agents, the remaining initial steps involve defining essential aspects of the Forecast. This includes assigning a name, specifying the starting date, setting the duration (up to four weeks), and determining the targeted metrics to be considered.

Preview

Following the initialization of a Forecast, the preview stage offers a comprehensive summary of projected call volume and expected staffing requirements. This includes the anticipated volume for each 15-minute interval and the average duration of call handling (i.e., talking + hold time + after-call work). If necessary, scheduling administrators can fine tune or bulk edit the Forecast to account for any anticipated changes in volume that are not otherwise represented through historical data. After confirming the Forecasted volume, scheduling administrators can generate recommended staffing for the Forecast.

Publication

After previewing a Forecast’s call volume and staffing requirements, the final step is to finalize and publish the Forecast to the Schedule. This may involve a second pass of fine-tuning staffing levels to ensure sufficient coverage for projected engagement volume. Once staffing levels are confirmed, the forecasted-Schedule is ready for publication.

Schedule Change Requests

Within the Request Management section of Zoom Workforce Management, supervisors can review schedule change, out of office, and shift swap requests from agents, and approve or decline them with the push of a button.

Supervisors can additionally choose notification preferences for schedule change requests, including notification via email, the Activity Center, or SMS to enable quick response and turnaround times.

Refer to Zoom’s support center for more information on handling time off requests.

Intraday Management

This section provides an overview of intraday management tools as a Zoom Contact Center supervisor with a Zoom Workforce Management License.

Real-Time Adherence Dashboard

Zoom Workforce Management includes a real-time Adherence dashboard for intraday employee and team management, providing contact center supervisors with live insight into how the schedule is being followed. Data included within the Adherence Dashboard includes:

If an agent's status doesn't align with their scheduled Activity, they are marked as out of adherence, and their daily adherence score is updated in real time. Additionally, supervisors can choose to receive automatic notifications, via email or SMS, either immediately or after a specified amount of time whenever an agent falls out of adherence.

For example, if an agent is scheduled for a Phone Queue Activity between the hours of 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. but goes on an unscheduled break at 9:00 a.m., the agent is marked as out of adherence and their daily adherence percentage is dynamically updated until their status returns to their assigned Activity. If supervisor notifications are turned on with a five minute delay, the supervisors will be notified of the agent’s out-of-adherence status after five minutes have passed.

Refer to Zoom’s support center for additional information on viewing the real-time adherence dashboard.

Intraday Schedule Management and Re-Forecasting

Throughout a workday, forecasted engagement volumes and actual agent staffing may not always align, requiring call center supervisors to make ad-hoc adjustments to Schedules and Activities. To handle these changes effectively, supervisors can perform intraday management within the Schedule, allowing them to dynamically re-forecast, add, remove, or replace scheduled Activities, either in bulk or for individual agents as needed.

From the published Schedule, supervisors can perform the following actions for Intraday management:

The following image illustrates a re-optimized daily schedule, with the dotted lines indicating previous lunch and break times, and the solid time blocks reflecting a freshly optimized schedule better suited to meet the day’s requirements.