How Dynamic Availability Helps with Part-Time Agent Scheduling [Video]

Give employees the flexibility to choose when they want to work without increasing your administrative overhead. Watch this video from the Calabrio Academy to learn how to use dynamic availability to schedule seasonal staff.

Read the Transcript

You hired and trained some college students this summer. They were great and you’re hoping to keep them around to help deal with periods you’re understaffed and keep them warm for full-time work again next summer. So how do you do this?

Regardless of your scheduling process, most contact centers are dealing with these sorts of dynamic schedules in the same way as 20 years ago, manual intervention. Entering variable scheduling requests can be tedious, and before you know it you’re spending three times as much administration efforts on a part-time employee.

Calabrio has a couple different options for how to address this issue, one of which is dynamic availability. At its core, dynamic availability allows agents to use the system to say when they are available to work then lets the system schedule them as needed to fill gaps.

How It Works

Let’s use Alison as an example. At the end of the summer, I set Alison up with dynamic availability and update work condition profile. She just got her fall schedule and can enter her information based on that schedule into the system. She has class all day Monday and Wednesday but some room to work before/after classes on Tuesday and Thursday. No classes Friday so she can be available from 7 to 7. After a couple weeks on campus, Alison finds out about this great tutoring program she can be a part of on Fridays in November. So Alison goes back into her availability and blocks out Friday. A week later Alison finds out that the program only needs her in the mornings so she’d like to work some Friday afternoons.

Why It Works

As Alison’s needs change, the organization can keep up with her needs. From Alison’s perspective, she loves this flexibility and appreciates that the company allows her to put school first. The company likes it because we can keep top talent like Alison around while helping address staffing thresholds. Workers like Alison not only bring a unique energy and perceptive to the organization they also are more willing to work when your full-timers want off. While a college student might want extra hours over the holidays because they have no classes a full-time employee might want more time off to be with their family. And when you think about it dynamic availability is not just limited to college students – part-time work from home agents, seasonal staff, pretty much anyone who requires or wants a very flexible schedule can benefit from using dynamic availability. Another benefit to this process is scalability. The changes can be set to be automatically approved or if you need more control, supervisors can easily approve and manage agents’ selections. Either way, the system will use these agents’ availability to fill coverage gaps when a schedule is run.

Give Flexibility

Scheduling seasonal staff doesn’t have to be a headache. Don’t let talent get away from you just because of scheduling requirements. Dynamic availability gives agents flexibility without transferring the burden of that flexibility to your schedulers.

If you’re interested in hearing more or want help getting started using dynamic availability don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].

Tanya Juarez-Sweeney

As an Innovation Designer at Calabrio, Tanya Juarez-Sweeney utilizes video and other digital media to share industry best practices and thought leadership. With over 20 years of experience in a variety of creative roles, Tanya challenges herself, coworkers, and customers to continually innovate and grow to new levels of success. Tanya holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s degree in Technical Communication from Metropolitan State University. In her free time, Tanya volunteers as a tour guide at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and hosts TV shows for kids at Children’s Minnesota.