How can we help?

Talkdesk Workforce Management™ (WFM) is configured in the "Configurations" section.

Clicking on this section reveals a set of tabs, allowing the configuration of multiple features on WFM.

 

Queues

Minimum Staffing

DCE Live Metrics

Event Types

Shift Templates

Break Rules

Teams

Agents

Ring Group Scoping

WFM Role Permissions 

Requests

Timelines

Special Days

 

Queues

This page allows the configuration of the queues that are managed on WFM. Queues that don’t have queue goals configured cannot be activated and  will not be managed by WFM, i.e., no forecasting or scheduling will be performed, and they will only be visible on the queue configuration page. Queues that have queue goals defined but are inactive will be visible across WFM, but the related processes will not be performed: auto-import from history, forecasting, scheduling, and staffing.

The configuration page allows you to edit the following settings.

Setting	Description
Activation Status	Queues will only be used to auto-import from history, forecasting, scheduling, and staffing requirements when active.
Service Level Goal	Define the % of interactions to be answered within Service Level Time period. Queues that have no defined Service Level goal are not managed by WFM.
Service Level Time	Define the % of interactions to be answered within Service Level Time period. Queues that have no defined Service Level goal are not managed by WFM.
Patience	Period of time customers will wait for an answer before abandoning the interaction.
Shrinkage	Percentage of scheduled staffing that will be lost to unplanned activities.
Minimum Staffing	If enabled, agents will be scheduled to work when there is no contact volume on the queue.
Concurrent Interaction Handling	Specifies whether, for a particular queue, agents can handle multiple interactions simultaneously, e.g., email or chat interactions. This setting is complemented by the definition of each agent’s capacity on the Agent configuration page.
Collect Live Metrics from Talkdesk Contact Center	If enabled and Service Level Goal and Service Level time are defined, WFM will collect live metrics from Talkdesk Contact Center every 15m. For external queues, this setting should be disabled.
Business Hours	If enabled, Contact Volume Offered will be 0 outside of business hours for an immediate queue. For a deferred queue, Staffing Requirements will not be placed outside business hours. If disabled, the queue is available 24/7.

The adjustment of these settings is restricted to users with access to the WFM Configurations.

Admins can edit these configurations on Configurations [1] > Queues [2] and then clicking the “Edit” icon [3] at the far right of the list.

It is also possible to change the status of a queue directly in the queues list, using the "Activation Status" toggle [4].

 

Additional Resources

 

 

 

Minimum Staffing

Minimum Staffing sets coverage for a Queue, even if there is no forecasted volume for it. This option is often utilized for overnight queues or customers that need to always have Agents available. 

Admins can set any queue to have a minimum number of Agents on the Queue  Configurations, in the “Queue options” section

 

Tick the “Minimum staffing” box [1]. The number of Agents set in the “Min staffing” [2] field must be higher than “0”.

 

DCE Live Metrics

You can add Talkdesk Digital Customer Engagement (DCE) data to WFM. The configured Channels are automatically added to WFM as new queues if they have any volume during the 7 prior days. Each queue’s name is comprised of the name of its ring group and channel. When configured for the first time, WFM will import all historical data and then will update it with live metrics, every 15 minutes.

 

Configuring DCE queues on WFM

The configuration for DCE queues on WFM is similar to a voice queue, only a new field is added: 

• The “Default average handle time”. 

This field represents the duration default average of the duration of an entire customer contact that is to be used when real values aren’t available. 

 

Event Types

Allows WFM resource planners and administrators to define the type of events to be managed on WFM.

Setting	Description
Label	Name of the event.
Description	Description of the event.
Pay Status	Indicator for whether an employee is paid for an event. Paid events are paid and, therefore, account for total shift length. Unpaid events are not paid and hence are not accounted for total shift length.
Agent Status  (mapping event type with agent statuses to track schedule adherence)	For each event type that should be considered for the adherence calculation, please select the corresponding agent status(es).
Color	Define the color the events will have on the Agent and Team schedule.

To configure schedule adherence, go to Configurations. On the “Event Types” page, event types can be mapped to the corresponding agent status. This allows WFM to:

• Compare the expected agent status with the actual agent status. 
• Calculate schedule adherence for each agent.

Note: The “Agent status” option lists all the configured custom statuses defined on the Agent Workflow (Admin > Preferences). For each event type that should be considered for the adherence calculation, please select the corresponding agent status(es).

 

 

Shift Templates

Allows WFM resource planners and administrators to define the type of shifts available for Agents.

Setting	Description
Name	Name of the shift template shown on Agents’ configuration page, to select the shift templates applicable to each agent.
Description	Shift template description.
Team	The team that the shift is applicable to.
Event Type	Type of event related to the shift template. Only events with usage Shift are available for selection.
Start Times	List of times the shifts can start. At least one start time must be configured.
Duration	Duration of shift.

 

Additional Resources

 

Break Rules

Break rules define how agents’ breaks are scheduled within a shift. Each break rule can contain one or more break options, corresponding to a specific shift duration interval to where the break(s) should be applied to.

Each break option can, in turn, have one or more break templates.

Break templates contain the set of breaks for the shifts defined on that interval (configured at the break option level). The same interval of shifts can define more than one break template. WFM and its algorithm will then choose the best break template to apply to a specific shift, on a case-by-case basis (considering queues and agents configuration, as well as the queue forecast).

 

Default Break Rules

To get you started, WFM already brings examples of pre-configured break rules, which you can use or edit according to your specific needs. Existing break rules can also be cloned to this effect. 

If none of the cases represents the reality of your contact center, you can delete them.

These actions are valid for these pre-configured break rules, as well as to any break rule you create.

 

Creating a New Break Rule

On the ”Break rules” page, click on the “Add break” option. Fill in the following fields.

Setting	Description
Break Name	Name of the break rule. It is shown on the Agents’ configuration page, to select the breaks applicable to each agent.
Description	Break rule description.
Team	The team that the break rule applies to.

 

Make sure to give the break rule a name that represents the type of break templates you create. Example: 7.5-9.5 hour - 15-30-15 or 1 Hour Lunch.

Next, add a break option to your break rule by filling in the fields shown below. 

 

Setting	Description
Break Option	Define the range of shift templates that will be associated with the break templates being created.
	Setting	Description
	Shift duration - Minimum (h)	Specifies the shortest/smallest shift duration that the created breaks template(s) applies to.
	Shift duration - Maximum (h)	Specifies the highest/longest shift duration that the created breaks template(s) applies to.

The break options shown in the table will be applied to all shift templates that have a duration between 7:30 and 9:30 hours. Therefore, this break option is going to be applied to all the shift templates highlighted in the image above. The exceptions will be the first, second and eighth since their duration is lower than 7:30 hours.

The final step to configure a break rule is adding the break templates.

Setting	Description
Break Templates	Define the break templates for each break option. At least one template must be defined.
	Setting	Description
	Event type	Event type, selectable from the list of available event types of the usage “break”.
	Break length	Break duration in minutes.
	Break start relative to: Shift start/end	Indicates whether break start time is calculated from shift start or from the shift end.
	Start times	Start time of the breaks. Multiple start times allow agent breaks to be distributed across time.

 

The following steps describe what is needed to define a break schedule of 15-30-15 minutes, which should apply to shifts with a minimum duration of 7:30 hours and a maximum duration of 9:30 hours:

1. Add Break Option:
1. Select the corresponding event type: ”Break”.
2. Define a break length of 15 minutes.
3. Break start relative to: Shift start.
4. Selecting 2 hours, would be assigning this break 2 hours into the shift start time that this break rule is applied to.
2. Add Another Break Option:
1. Select the corresponding event type: ”Break”.
2. Break length of 30 minutes.
3. Relative to: Shift start.
4. Select 4 hours.
3. Add Another Break Option:
1. Select the corresponding event type: ”Break”.
2. Break length of 15 minutes.
3. Relative to: Shift end.
4. Select 1:30 hour. Selecting this value would be assigning this break 1:30 hours from the shift end time that this break rule applies to.

Please confirm that all mandatory fields have been filled out and that all the validations are respected. Next, press Save, at the right bottom corner of the page, and the new break rule will be saved and created.

In conclusion, a set of break templates is part of a break option. This break option applies to the shift templates defined here, in the interval between the defined shift’s interval minimum and maximum duration.

 

 

Teams

Teams’ configuration allows defining if teams have business hours enabled. If enabled, no agents will be scheduled outside account business hours. If disabled, agents will be considered as part of a 24-hour available team and scheduled accordingly.

 

Agents

Agents’ configuration allows for defining each agents’ restrictions and characteristics. The configured settings will determine the agents’ schedules.

 

Ring Group Scoping

The roles of Resource Planners and Supervisors can be configured so that users with these roles can only access information relevant to the Workforce Management queues/ring groups that they manage. When this scope is activated:

• Users with these roles will see only the "Forecast" for the queues they are assigned to.
• The "Team Schedule" page will display only users from queues assigned to them.
• The "Insights" page will only show data from the assigned queues. 
• Requests from Agents will be scoped.

To enable this feature, Admins must go to Admin [1] > Roles and Permissions [2], select the “Supervisor” or “Resource Planner” role and click the “More Actions”(...) button, followed by Edit permissions.

 

Go to the "Reporting: Explore" tab and, under "Select scope", choose Ring Group [3] in the dropdown menu.

 

WFM Role Permissions 

WFM provides specific permissions to enhance usability with better security for users. As such, it’s possible to make sure that each role only has the permissions they need to perform their job.

WFM Default Roles

By default, Talkdesk has three roles: Agent, Administrator, and Supervisor. It’s also possible to add additional roles. To know more about how to add roles, see Roles and Permissions.

WFM Permissions

There are 4 different permissions with different levels of access.

 

Permissions	Level of access	WFM feature
Configurations	Update	Unlocks the WFM “Configurations” page.
Forecast	View	Unlocks the WFM “Forecast” page and the “Insights” page.
	Update	Same features as the “Forecast” page, plus “Forecast Editing” and “History Upload”.
Your  Schedule	View	Unlocks the “Your Forecast” page.
Team Schedule	View	Unlocks “Team Schedule” (view only). Adherence data is visible. Event details are shown.
	Update	Same features as the “Team Schedule” View, plus:  Editing events. Managing Agent requests.

It is also possible to restrict some permissions to a ring group. By doing so, only data from the Agent’s queues will be displayed (such as forecast, team schedule, or requests).

 

Default Permissions by Role

 

Administrator:

By default, Administrators have all levels of access enabled. 

 

Supervisor:

By default, Supervisors have:

• Configurations: No access.
• Forecast: View.
• Your Schedule: View.
• Team Schedule: View.

 

Agent:

By default, Agents have:

• Your Schedule: View.

Changing Permissions

It’s possible to change permissions for each role, including additional roles. Please refer to Defining and Editing Permissions for details.

 

Requests

Here, administrators can manage the requests’ preferences.

 

Call-out sick

It is possible to enable/disable the use of call-out sick requests as well as configure its parameters:

• “Event Type” is the time off event type to use for the requests by default, whenever an agent places a call-out sick request. Supervisors or Resource Planners can later change the event type of a request before approval.
• “Maximum days per request” is the maximum number of days an agent can ask per call-out request. After this period, the agent needs to call out sick again or request time off.

 

 

Timelines

Administrators can also change settings to determine various behaviors related to scheduling and presentation. All the changes in the “Timelines settings” section will only take effect after the nightly run.

• “Week Start Day” defines the start day of the business week.
• “Forecast Offset” determines the start of the forecast window from the current date (in weeks).
• “Forecast Duration” sets the length of the forecast window (in weeks).
• “Schedule Offset” marks the start of the schedule window from the current date (in weeks).
• “Schedule Duration” defines the length of the schedule window (in weeks). 
• “Release Offset” sets the start of the release window from the current date (in weeks).
• “Release Duration” marks the length of the release window (in weeks).

The default, minimum and maximum values of Timelines (all values are defined in weeks):

• Forecast Offset: 6.
• Forecast Duration: 47 (minimum 1, maximum 53).
• Schedule Offset: 6.
• Schedule Duration: 6 (minimum 1, maximum 6).

• Release Offset: 0 (This setting is now disabled as an option to configure as this value should be set to 0 so that agents can see calendar changes as soon as they are made).

• Release Duration: 6 (minimum 1, maximum 16).

Today is week X (start day of the week), my Forecast offset is 1 week and my Forecast Duration is 4. In this example, WFM will generate a forecast for the next week and the following 3. (x+1, x+2, x+3 and x+4).

At the same time, my Schedule Offset is 1, and my Schedule Duration is 3. WFM will create schedules for the next and for the following 2 weeks. (x+1, x+2, x+3).

We also need to consider the Schedule Offset, as well as the Release Offset. Considering the case above and an Offset of 2 weeks and the Release Duration of 2 weeks as well: WFM will release schedules in two weeks for the total duration of two weeks. (x+2 and x+3).

 

Additional Resources

 

Special days 

Holidays configured within Talkdesk will automatically appear in WFM. 

Within WFM, you can associate the Talkdesk vacations with public holidays and events, so forecasting can find past instances for more accurate predictions. Administrators can define what queues can be associated with specific special days.

On the Special days tab, you will find all the Talkdesk vacations listed. You will need to add extra information, so that vacations can be counted for the forecast.  

• Edit the holiday you wish the forecast to have in consideration. 
• Select the country where a holiday is applicable. 

WFM will then automatically search for the corresponding holiday in the selected country. If the holiday was found, it will also automatically display this event’s next occurrence.

Finally, select the queues that are impacted by this date and save your configurations.