Empower the workforce with a smarter approach to WEM

The pandemic has shifted the world of work and elevated the importance of agility in contact centers to meet the moment – whatever that moment may be. Right now, it’s working from home (WFH) which presents significant challenges for many, and addressing these challenges successfully is critical at a time when customer expectations are also changing.

Cloud-based communications systems offer far more flexibility than traditional on-premises solutions. Agility is the name of the game and the ability to implement remote working and scale up and down with a highly available platform means it is the perfect time to transition to the cloud.

Customer service starts with people, and the recent changes in the world of work present a great opportunity for contact centers to engage with their frontline staff. In order to achieve this a truly integrated cloud-based platform is required. Avoiding siloed products by choosing an all-in-one solution that includes quality management (QM), workforce management (WFM), analytics and business intelligence, means agents and contact center leaders can see all critical data on a single unified dashboard.

If agents are given the right data, framework and tools to do their job, they grow in confidence – and working from home quickly turns into work from anywhere. They become free agents with the power to transform the customer experience (CX).

3 ways to empower employees with a little help from the cloud

Success begins with a smarter approach to Workforce Engagement Management (WEM). Using integrated cloud-based technology promotes agent autonomy, facilitates flexible scheduling and forecasting, and boosts business agility, all in one go. Here are three ways to get started:

• Enable your teams, wherever and whenever – encourage employee autonomy by giving frontline staff the right tools to do their job. This puts them in control of a tricky WFH environment where customer and domestic commitments often vie for attention. Empower home-based agents with comprehensive self-service capabilities, including the ability to trade shifts, book time off and obtain overtime slots via a mobile app or secure staff portal. The cloud allows the use of intelligent automation to create a self-regulating contact center. Virtual assistants can help to connect and enable remote teams by continuously seeking and offering new schedule opportunities, therefore freeing up time for busy planners.
• Boost business agility – with valuable intelligence. Giving supervisors predictive analytics and powerful reporting enables improved planning, performance and wider workforce engagement. The latest analytics tools help contact center leaders understand the “why” behind the “what” of operations to improve agent and customer experience. Beyond that, combining WEM, quality management and analytics helps further analyze operational issues, identify root causes and drive meaningful changes to the business.

  Indeed, contact center operations need to be more connected than ever before. Team leaders can rely on the sophisticated data collection capabilities of today’s WEM solutions to create a single view of customer interaction data from inside and outside of the contact center. When linked to critical cloud-based solutions such as ACD, CRM, HR Management and ERP systems, WEM helps to effortlessly track performance, facilitate employee gamification and support faster decision-making.

• Understand the power of forecasts and robust scheduling – to plan for any eventuality in a world where there is greater demand for flexi-shifts. Today’s WEM solutions are optimized for effective employee engagement and staff planning. New cloud-based WEM solutions offer agile scheduling and forecasting functionality that serves the complexities of today’s multi-skill, omni-channel contact center environment. Use the latest cloud solutions to accommodate change and create schedules and forecasts that show you listen to and care for your employees. Aim to take into account staff preferences while meeting important customer SLAs. WEM technology is equally effective for short and longer-term planning while allowing real-time changes to be made, on-the-day, as business evolves.

A smarter approach to WEM starts with smart technology

The best technology offers one integrated platform that helps individuals reach their full potential, delivers exceptional CX and adapts quickly to business demands. Just 18 months ago, Calabrio acquired Workforce Management (WFM) vendor Teleopti, combining the best of both Teleopti WFM and Calabrio WFM into a single, industry-leading WFM solution with robust flexibility, extensive employee-engagement capabilities and powerful reporting, fully integrated within the Calabrio ONE suite. By bringing together the best of both companies, we have opened up a new cloud-based world of Workforce Engagement Management.

Watch this on-demand expert panel on how to empower your workforce with a smarter approach. In this webinar, we are joined by DMG industry analyst Donna Fluss, HR Tech expert Meghan M. Biro and a Calabrio customer, Workforce Manager at TrialCard, Takisha Harper. Gain greater insights into how to understand and support the agent journey in the new era, from recruitment to onboarding to ongoing management and discover how a cloud-based smarter approach to WEM could help transform your organization into a modern, agile contact center.

Magnus Geverts

Magnus Geverts is the Vice President of Product Marketing at Calabrio. He has over two decades of experience in the workforce engagement management and customer service space, working in a mix of roles and departments across the world: from R&D to consultancy to his role as Chief Business Development Officer at Teleopti. Today, he oversees Calabrio’s product go-to-market efforts. Magnus works closely with product line managers who shape the roadmap and strategies for the full Calabrio suite and oversees the product marketing team to offer software that enables users, engages frontline employees and elevates the end-customer experience.