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9bx user guide

Team performance

Workforce management (WFM)

Forecast call and chat volume, plan the shifts to cover it, follow the day live and measure how well the plan held.

Contents

What it is for

WFM answers three questions: how many contacts will arrive, how many agents do we need at each time, and are people where the schedule wants them. It plans queues and chat teams and works with the shifts HR already has.

Who can use it

Needs the PBX & Call Center module. Four permissions:

Permission Lets you
Manage Change rules, forecast and setup.
Schedule Build schedules, see Live staffing, Requests and reports.
Publish Write the proposed schedule into HR shifts.
View own See My schedule, request time off, swap shifts.

Where to find it

PBX & Call Center → Team performance → Scheduling with the pages Live staffing (called Intraday before), Schedules, Forecast, Time-off & swap requests, Scheduling reports. My schedule is under Home → My work. Setup: PBX & Call Center settings → WFM setup.

The pages explained

Live staffing

Today as it happens. The top shows Need N more agents now or Staffing covers the next interval, Contacts today against forecast, Adherence and who is Out of adherence now. A chart compares Forecast, Re-forecast and Actual per interval with Service level and Abandoned. Agents against schedule lists each agent with Scheduled, Doing now, Adherence and Conformance; status is In adherence, Out of adherence, Starts later or Shift over. Adherence is measured for people with a published schedule and a planning profile. Live states are Available, On a call, Ringing, Wrap-up, On break, Logged out.

Forecast

Volume and handle time by interval, against what happened. Pick a Queue or team and a Day. Shows Accuracy, Peak agents needed, the Forecast and Actual lines and Agents needed. Re-forecast replaces the model's numbers for the coming days (pinned intervals are kept). Campaigns and events adds known peaks: Add campaign with From, To, a Multiplier (1.5 = half as much again) and Extra per interval.

Schedules

Propose a schedule builds a draft from the forecast, the planning list, availability, leave and the labour rules, for a From/To period.

Item Meaning
Draft Review coverage: Covered, Short, Over. Drag a bar to move a shift, drag its ends to resize, drop it on another row to hand it over, double-click an empty row to add a shift.
Rule issues Violations such as overlaps, not enough rest, shift too long or short, too many hours or days in a row, outside availability, on leave. Applying a rule-breaking change asks you to confirm.
Create shifts / Publish Writes the shifts into HR and tells agents. Days an HR administrator set by hand are left alone. Nothing changes in HR until you publish.
Take back Removes the shifts WFM wrote; the draft stays.

Requests

Time off (Vacation, Sick, Personal, Unpaid) and Swaps waiting for a decision; Approve or Reject.

WFM reports

Adherence, Shrinkage (planned against actual), Schedule efficiency (coverage, overstaffing, understaffing) and Forecast accuracy (with bias). Export CSV.

My schedule

Your published shifts, time off and swaps. Request time off (kind, dates, reason). Swap: offer a shift to a colleague or to anyone, or ask for their shift in return; a supervisor approves. Offers sent to you appear with Accept or Decline. You can cancel a pending request.

WFM setup

Tab Settings
Rules Interval (minutes), Service level target, Answer time, Shrinkage, Occupancy cap, Longest shift, Shortest shift, Most per week, Rest between shifts, Most days in a row, Break length, Lunch length, Adherence grace, Alert after, Forecast horizon.
Queues and teams Which call queues and chat teams are forecast and staffed. Add new queues and teams imports any not yet listed.
People Who WFM plans. Add queue members or Add person; each has Contracted hours per week, Days per week and skills.

Tasks

Plan next week

  1. Open WFM setup, Queues and teams, press Add new queues and teams; on People press Add queue members.
  2. Open Forecast and press Re-forecast; check the days.
  3. Add a Campaign for any promotion that will raise volume.
  4. Open Schedules, press Propose a schedule, set the dates.
  5. Fix red bars by dragging shifts.
  6. Press Create shifts / Publish.

Approve a swap

  1. Open Requests, tab Swaps.
  2. Read who gives and who gets the shift; press Approve.

Example scenario

Padma Net Support expects 30% more calls on the Eid offer week. Nusrat adds a campaign with multiplier 1.3, re-forecasts, proposes the week, drags two agents into the evening gap and publishes. On the day, Live staffing says "Need 2 more agents now" at 11:00, so she asks two back-office agents to log in to the queue.

Tips

  • Re-forecast weekly, and after any campaign.
  • Set a realistic Shrinkage (breaks, training); 25 to 35% is common.
  • Watch Adherence trends, not single minutes; use the Adherence grace setting.

Troubleshooting

Problem Fix
"No queues or chat teams are planned yet" Add them in WFM setup first.
"Nobody is on the planning list" Add people in WFM setup.
"No forecast for these days" Run Re-forecast.
Adherence is empty It needs published shifts that have started, and agents on the planning list.
Publish disabled You need the Publish permission.
Efficiency report empty It needs a forecast and shifts in HR's roster.