Schedule Adherence = Total time worked/ Total time scheduled x 100
Schedule Adherence = Total time worked/ Total time scheduled x 100
Improve call center operations by monitoring schedule compliance
Schedule adherence is a crucial agent performance metric. Planning your call center agents' schedules can seem simpler when you use a calendar app; however, reality often plays out differently. This metric relates to the actual number of hours or minutes agents work and the total period they are supposed to work.
Learn more about schedule adherence, ways to improve it, benefits of measuring it, and related information here:
Schedule adherence is a metric that reveals whether a call center agent is complying to their assigned schedules or not. This metric can be defined by the percentage of the working day when the agent is available for calls.
Whether you’ve scheduled agent breaks to the minute or used data insights for forecasting staffing needs, even a few minutes of delay or an agent’s late arrival or break can add up. The missed work time can impact not only your team’s efficiency but also the overall performance. This is why understanding schedule adherence is essential since it can affect a call center’s success.
It plays an essential role in determining a call center's performance and overall customer satisfaction. The metric helps companies understand how they can better optimize their resources and assign tasks to agents.
Below are some of the reasons why companies report low schedule adherence. You may be experiencing issues with maintaining to roster assignments because the agents:
A few minutes out of adherence can compound if systems are slow or multiple employees arrive late. The reasons mentioned above are some of the most common causes behind a lack of schedule adherence.
When there aren’t enough agents to provide support, it leads to an unfair work balance. This is specifically true for employees who are present and sticking to the schedule. Customers also have to wait a long time to connect with a representative, which affects their experience with the company and can lead to dissatisfaction.
Agent schedule adherence can be calculated by dividing the amount of time an employee works during a shift (this can be hours or minutes) by the amount of time an employee is scheduled to work. After multiplying that number by 100, the final figure can be expressed as a percentage.
A high schedule adherence rate indicates that the agents stick to their plans and offer customer service when needed. It should be noted, however, that agents can't be expected to always stay on call during an 8-hour shift; otherwise, they might burn out and become unproductive. This is the reason why an adherence rate of 100% is unrealistic.
Most call centers aim for a schedule adherence rate of just below 100%. If the percentage is much lower than that, this indicates that the company needs to operate more efficiently. It’s essential to set a benchmark for these metrics since it allows companies to track the adherence rates.
Schedule adherence is vital because, unlike scheduling for other roles, planning for call center agents and other contact center channels is highly time-sensitive. Many factors contribute to scheduling decisions, such as call length, volume, and the number of available agents.
At a call center, the agents are scheduled strategically to optimize performance, drive results, and deliver great customer experiences. However, if even one agent strays away from the scheduling strategy, the balance can be thrown off. This causes issues for other agents, customers, and the business.
There are a variety of ways companies can encourage schedule adherence for agents:
It’s crucial to stress the importance of schedule adherence from the beginning of an agent's training. Teaching them to follow fixed schedules during onboarding is much easier than correcting bad habits later. Businesses must emphasize the importance of an agent's role and how customers need them to be available at their scheduled times.
Using call center technology, managers can observe agent status and identify how representatives spend their time. Managers can check if the employees are available when customers need them or if they are "busy" even when they are not helping a customer.
Schedule adherence can be promoted by giving incentives and rewards to agents who adhere to schedules and who are (by extension) the most productive team members. This will keep the top-performing people motivated while also encouraging less productive representatives to aim higher.
A business needs to emphasize the critical role call center agents play in customer satisfaction. When agents feel their contributions are valued, it can create a culture of mutual respect and fairness, where each team member helps another.
Training and coaching agents who aren't sticking to the provided schedule is crucial. Identify the issues keeping them from following the plan and offer them the knowledge and resources to overcome any challenge they may be facing.
Companies can improve workplace culture and increase productivity by measuring how well agents follow their assigned schedules. The following are some of the benefits of monitoring schedule adherence:
Schedule adherence can optimize call center efficiency and productivity as a whole.. Managers can evaluate their staffing needs accurately if they know the exact number of available representatives at any given time. It can help to know that each agent is working when they should be, efficiently as per schedule. Average Handle Time is a valuable metric that can help assess individual efficiency and productivity.
Schedule adherence allows employees to be more productive by giving them breaks at designated times. This can help companies utilize resources more efficiently and improve customer service experience.
Understanding how call center agents use their time can give managers the information needed to make planning changes. By knowing exactly how many agents can fulfill the demand for support at a certain time of the day, the call floor can be run much more smoothly. If any agents are not adhering to their schedule and helping out customers, managers can take action as necessary to ensure there are no long waiting queues.
Monitoring schedule adherence can help promote fairness in the workplace since each agent gets the same amount of break time. This helps increase their productivity since they are neither taking frequent breaks nor being overworked. This also promotes teamwork and eliminates any chance of unfairness that could leave an employee feeling dissatisfied.
Having a team meeting regarding the impact of employees not following schedule is important. It can help agents realize its significance and how it affects their fellow coworkers. Representatives often do not realize the impact it can have on overall KPIs.
It can mean that other members of the team have to pick up their weight and can become burnt out. This can also mean poorer quality of service and a host of customers dissatisfied with the company. This is why agents must understand the consequences when they don’t adhere to schedules.
To improve schedule adherence, a business needs to define clear goals. The right schedule adherence goals can increase productivity and efficiency across the team and are realistic, clear, and tailored to individual channels.
Conformance is the amount of time an agent is scheduled to work versus the period they worked in reality.
Similar to schedule adherence, the term refers to an agent's compliance with in-house or regulatory requirements such as PCI DSS.
The amount of time agents spend handling calls as a proportion of the total available time is called occupancy. Unlike conformance and adherence, this measure is applicable on a macro level rather than to individual agents.
The amount of time agents spend handling calls in proportion to total scheduled hours is called utilization. This is also applicable in the macro sense of the entire call center.
Monitoring schedule adherence matters because better adherence means more satisfied customers and agents. Engaged agents in a call center can make workforce management (WFM) and result in better support for customers. It also allows companies to hit their target numbers and utilize resources more effectively to save money.
Want to learn about how 8x8 contact center solutions promote schedule adherence and workforce optimization?