Overview
Within Talkdesk Workforce Management™ (WFM), the shift trade automation allows users to set up auto-denied rules, and then shift trade requests are auto-denied or pending by Automation. With shift trade automation, customers can automate some or all of the process of processing shift trade requests, thus reducing the time to deal with repeated requests and focusing on areas that can bring more business value. Agents will also benefit from increased transparency and faster feedback on their requests.
Enabling Automation
Log into your WFM as an Admin (or the other roles who have Configuration access). Go to Configurations > "Requests" tab > "Shift trade" > Edit [1].
Turn on Automation [2], click + Add rules [3] to select the auto-denied rules you would like to use. The two default rules are: “Shift will overlap after trading” and “Either traded day has time off”.
You can set up shift trade request lead time [4] from 1 day up to 112 days when you want to use the rule “Request does not meet the minimum shift trade request lead time”.
Click Save [5].
Running Automation
First Agent Submits a Shift Trade Request
When an agent submits a shift trade request, automation will validate against the activated deny rules immediately. If passed, the second agent will receive a notification alerting that someone wishes to trade a shift with him. Otherwise, the request will be denied, and the second agent will not receive the request.
The first agent, the second agent and the resource planner can see what rules have been validated and the respective validation results.
[First agent] Request details
[Second agent] Request details
[Resource planner] Request details
Second Agent Accepts the Shift Trade Request
After the second agent accepts the shift trade request, Automation will be re-triggered to validate again. Note: It can still fail or pass the request. The rules validated by automation [6] will always display the validated rules in the latest run.
However, if the second agent rejects the request, the request will be rejected and won’t trigger re-validation.
[First agent] Request details
[Second agent] Request details
[Resource planner] Request details
Resource Planner Proceeds with the Shift Trade Request
After the request passes re-validation, the resource planner is expected to either approve or deny the request.
Notes:
- Every Automation runs against the latest version of automation rules and agent schedules;
- The resource planner can still jump in the middle way to manually approve or deny a request.
Troubleshooting
- Currently, there is no capability to auto-approve a request;
- Currently, the user needs to manually refresh or re-enter the request details page to see the newest status. Auto-refreshing is not available;
- Turning on / off Automation will only impact the newly created requests.