Administration

Scheduling

Creating a Schedule within Workforce Management is a three-step process: Setup, Planning, and Refinement.

Setup

To initiate scheduling in Workforce Management, establish 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. At product launch, 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, confirm that there is sufficient net staffing for the anticipated engagement volume.

Forecasting

Creating a Forecast

Use Forecasts 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

The initialization phase utilizes the pre-existing infrastructure, especially Scheduling Groups. If a Scheduling Group is set up with at least one contact center queue and its associated agents, the remaining steps involve defining essential aspects of the Forecast. This includes:

• assigning a name

• specifying the starting date

• setting the duration (up to four weeks)

• determining the targeted metrics to be considered

Preview

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 (for example talk + hold time + after-call work). 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, generate recommended staffing for the Forecast.

Publication

After previewing a Forecast’s call volume and staffing requirements, finalize and publish the Forecast to the Schedule. You may need to complete a second pass of fine-tuning staffing levels to ensure sufficient coverage for projected engagement volume. Once staffing levels are confirmed, publish the forecasted Schedule.

Intraday Management

The following section outlines intraday agent and schedule management.

Schedule and Activity Management

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 add, remove, or replace scheduled activities, either in bulk or for individual agents.

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

Edit Assigned Activity Edit Activity Duration or Start/End Time Review Net Staffing	Add Activities to an Individual Add Activities in Bulk

Reports

The following sections outline different reports and data available within Workforce Management.

Real-Time Adherence Report

Workforce Management includes a real-time Adherence Dashboard for intraday staff management, providing insight to how the schedule is being followed. The Adherence Dashboard includes:

• Agent Adherence

• Overall Adherence (Team Level)

• Agent Name

• In/Out Status

• Scheduled Activity

• Ready Status

• Sub-Status

• Time In Status

• Time Out of Adherence

• Daily Agent Adherence Percentage

Historical Adherence Report

The Historical Adherence Report provides a summary of agent adherence performance for a specific timeframe, with up to 30 days per report.

If the report has multiple days, it will initially display the user’s average adherence for the specified timeframe. Supervisors can extend the user’s average report and review their adherence for each day.

Schedule Activity Report

The Schedule Activity Report provides a detailed summary of scheduled agent Activities for both past and future dates, showing how much time each Activity is allotted each day. Supervisors can filter the report by individual(s), specific Activities, and Scheduling Groups to help ensure proper staffing and maintain service levels. This report can also be exported into a CSV, facilitating collaboration and thorough examination of work schedules, and enabling better resource management and planning.

Intraday Report

Administrators and supervisors can view an intraday report to compare a Schedule’s Forecast accuracy against a previous or current day’s engagement volume. This empowers supervisors to identify Forecast variances and make dynamic staffing decisions if a day’s engagement volume notably deviates from the Forecast.

Audit Logs

Workforce Management administrators and supervisors with sufficient permissions can access the Audit Log Report. This report contains a robust list of actions taken by administrators, supervisors, and users within the product. Users with access to the audit logs can filter by date or by specific actions taken. Logs included within the report include:

Cancel Agent Schedule Change Request Cancel Time Off Request Create Activity Create Agent Schedule Change Request Create Forecast Create Queue Create Scheduling Group Create Shift Create Time Off Request Delete Activity Delete Forecast Delete Queue Delete Scheduling Group Delete Shift Delete Unpublished Schedule Duplicate Schedule	Change First Day of Week Generate Scheduling Inactive Schedule Publish Schedule Republish Schedule Update Activity Update Agent Schedule Change Request Status Update Queue Update Scheduling Group Update Scheduling Group Agents Update Scheduling Group Queues Update Shift Update Shift Agents Update Status Mapping Update Time Off Request Status

Managing Agent Schedule Request Changes

If authorized, Workforce Management agents can use the web portal to submit time off and schedule change requests, simplifying schedule management. Workforce Management administrators and supervisors can approve and manage these requests from the web portal.

Automation Rules

Schedule Change Approvals

Workforce Management administrators can set rules to automatically approve agent schedule changes. They can limit the number of changes per week or month based on activity codes, which can differ by security group. Administrators can also disable auto-approvals for specific agents or activity codes. The system verifies that agents belong to schedule groups where schedule changes are permitted, simplifying the process and reducing manual reviews.

Automatic Approval of Agent Out-of-Office Requests

Workforce Management administrators can set rules to automatically approve agent out-of-office requests. They can define thresholds by service group, either as a percentage or a set number of requests. Administrators can also limit agent requests per week or month and restrict certain agents from using specific activity codes. This automation simplifies approvals and reduces administrative workload for contact centers.

PTO/Sick Time Accrual and Balances

Time Off Balance Tracking

Supervisors can view a comprehensive ledger that displays all changes to employee time off balances. The ledger includes entries for accruals, vacation requests, and manual balance adjustments. Each entry shows the date, reason for the change, amount modified, and the resulting balance. Users can filter the ledger by activity type to focus on specific balance modifications.

Access and Use Workforce Management

This section discusses aspects of Workforce Management, including licenses, permissions, preferences, and more.

Licenses and Permissions

Workforce Management utilizes a per-seat license model

Zoom Workforce Management utilizes a per-set license model. Each user that requires access to any features must be assigned a license for the product. For example, one supervisor and nine agents would require a total of 10 Workforce Management licenses.

Users must be granted a role-based permission to access and use Workforce Management

In addition to a Workforce Management license, users must have an appropriate user role with their intended role-based permissions to access the application. For example, agents must belong to a user role with the WFM Agent permission. If necessary, an account admin or authorized user can create or edit user roles to grant users access.

Zoom Recommendation

Due to the varying levels of access within Workforce Management, custom roles are recommended. Caution and attention to detail are recommended when making custom user roles to ensure a continuity of experience and access across the Zoom platform.

Role-based permissions

Workforce Management provides three role-based permissions for different access levels within the product. They can be applied to a user role in any combination. The three permissions are:

• Administrator: Enables users to administer your Zoom Workforce Management account.

• Supervisor: Enables users to administer forecasting and scheduling.

• Agent: Enables users to be scheduled in Zoom Workforce Management and view assigned schedules.

To update a role with the applicable permissions, do the following:

You must be a Zoom account owner or admin authorized to edit roles.

1. Navigate to the Role Management page on the web portal. Click the pencil icon to the right of the role you are editing.

2. Navigate to the Workforce Management subsection and define the role access as desired.

3. Repeat for any additional roles.

Preferences

You can customize Workforce Management settings to fit your business’s unique needs. Keep reading for more information about General and Agent Status Mapping settings.

General Settings

System Configuration

• Date Format

• Time Format

• Time Zone

• First Day of the Week: The starting day of your scheduling week determines the arrangement of days in a Schedule. For instance, if you set it to Monday, then Saturday and Sunday will be grouped at the end of the week. Setting it to Sunday will position Sunday at the beginning and Saturday at the end of the week.

Scheduling Configuration

• Schedule Time Threshold: The minimum percentage of time within a specific time interval that an agent must be scheduled for their presence to be counted. Example: If the threshold is set to 60%, an agent must be scheduled for 9 out of 15 minutes within a 15-minute interval to be accounted for.

• Upcoming Schedule Activity Notification Time: When the Schedule activity upcoming notification is enabled, this setting determines how far in advance an agent should be notified of an upcoming activity in their schedule.

• Ability to set shift to a time zone: If enabled, an optional time zone field will be available when creating or editing a shift. If a time zone is selected, it will force the assigned agents to receive the shift based on that time zone.

• Organizational groups: Allows administrators to organize scheduling groups into organizational units.

Adherence

• Target Adherence Percentage: The default target adherence percentage ranges used in adherence reporting. Example: If Good adherence ranges from 90-100%, Could be better may range from 80-89%, and Insufficient is anything below 80%.

• Daily Target Percentage Goal: The daily adherence target used in the Adherence dashboard. Example: If a call center aspires to an overall 90% schedule adherence across all agents for each day, this value should be set to 90%.

Agent Adherence Report

• Agent Adherence Reports: Enables agents to view their own adherence reports.

• Agent Adherence Reports Scheduling Groups: Choose scheduling groups that can view agent adherence reports. Important: If none are selected, all groups are allowed.

Rotational Scheduling

• Rotational Scheduling: Add templates for selected shifts that agents automatically rotate through.

External Calendar Settings

• Automatically sync schedules information unidirectionally between Zoom Workforce Management and integrated calendars: Published Schedules will automatically sync to 'in use' calendar integrations.

• Display WFM schedule as available on agents calendar: When enabled, an agent’s calendar is marked available even when they have a schedule. When disabled, schedules are marked busy and will block the agent's calendar.

Seat Limit

• Seat Limit: Set up minimum and maximum seat limits for different times of the day across each day of the week.

Out of Office Requests

• Default daily duration: The default daily duration quantity for when an agent requests time off. This number is used to calculate the total amount of time they’re taking off.

• Partial day request: Allow agents to request partial days off (less than what is set as the default daily duration).

• Automatic out of office approvals: Enable automatic approvals for out of office requests and allow rule configurations in Requests Management. Important: Until rules are configured, all changes will be approved.

Agent Schedule Visibility

• View Agent Schedules: Allow agents to view other agents’ schedules.

Agent Schedule Swaps

• Schedule swaps: Allow agents to swap schedules.

• Automatic swap approvals: Enable automatic approvals for swaps and allow rule configurations in Requests management. Important: Until rules are configured, all swaps are approved on agent acceptance.

Shift Bidding

• Shift bids: Allow agents to bid on shifts to generate schedules.

Shift Preferences

• Preferred start time: Allow agents to set preferred start times for shifts.

Agent Board

• Agent board: Allow agents to view and claim schedule offers from supervisors.

Schedule Change Requests

• Schedule change requests: Allow agents to request changes on their schedule.

Manage Scheduling Groups

• Assign supervisors to scheduling groups: Allow supervisors to self-assign to scheduling groups and enable administrators to assign supervisors to scheduling groups. Supervisors will receive notifications based on their assigned scheduling groups and supervisor notifications preference. Supervisors will only be able to view and edit resources within their assigned scheduling groups, but will have access to forecasting for all scheduling groups.

Secondary Scheduling Group

• Assign a scheduling group as Secondary SG to one or more agents

Projected Service Level

• Enable Projected SLA in schedules page

Out of office balances & policies

• Set accrual policies and view balances for out of office activities

Scheduling restrictions

• Prevent simultaneous editing on the scheduling page: Only allow one user to edit a schedule at a time.

Agent Status Mapping

Agent Status Mapping settings allow contact center administrators and supervisors to customize Activities with multiple statuses and/or sub-statuses for Adherence reporting. Although Activities are the various tasks or responsibilities an agent performs throughout their Shift, Activities require statuses to reflect an agent’s general availability for adherence and reporting purposes. Within Workforce Management, an account admin can customize Activities with multiple statuses and/or sub-statuses through the Agent Status Mapping menu to accurately reflect an agent’s availability.

For example, an agent scheduled for a Phone Queue activity may demonstrate the statuses Ready and Occupied, signifying that they are ready for work or are engaged in their work.

An agent with the Break Activity may demonstrate the status Not Ready. This can be further refined with sub-statuses that reflect additional information, such as Meal, Forced, Coffee, or After call to provide additional details about their status.

Notifications

Within the Notifications tab, Workforce Management admins and supervisors can set up notification delivery method preferences, such as delivering notifications directly to a user’s Activity Center or through email. Within this menu, the following settings are editable:

Notification Type	Recipient
Adherence report generation	Admin, Supervisor
Adherence report generation failed	Admin Supervisor
AI schedule shifts auto assigned	Admin, Supervisor
AI schedule shifts generated	Admin, Supervisor
Automatically adding tardy or left early activities process failure	Admin, Supervisor
Clear schedules request completed	Admin, Supervisor
Dynamic schedule generated	Admin, Supervisor
Forecast generated	Admin, Supervisor
Intraday alert	Admin, Supervisor
Out of adherence agent alert	Agent
Out of adherence supervisor alert	Supervisor
Out of office request submitted	Supervisor
Out of office request updated	Agent
Reoptimization request completed	Admin, Supervisor
Review shift bids	Admin, Supervisor
Schedule activity upcoming	Agent
Schedule activity updated	Agent
Schedule change request submitted	Supervisor
Schedule change request udpated	Agent
Schedule lock release	Admin, Supervisor
Schedule offer claim status change	Agent
Schedule offer claimed	Admin, Supervisor
Schedule offer posted	Agent
Schedule published	Agent
Schedule swap request status change	Agent, Supervisor
Schedule swap request submitted	Agent
Shift bid cancelled	Agent
Shift bid closed	Agent
Shift bid opened	Agent
Shift bid ranking modified	Agent
Shift bid ranking submitted	Agent
Shift bid reminder	Agent