The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a wave of office departures. At one point, it was estimated that nine out of 10 knowledge workers were working from home. And even now, as we return to a new kind of normal, many employees remain work-from-home (WFH), prompting businesses to look at hybrid work solutions in their search for the best combination of flexibility, security, and productivity.
While the success of
WFH initiatives was an unexpected silver lining of the pandemic, it also made it more challenging for businesses to mobilize and optimize their workforce. Before COVID, workforce optimization (WFO) was a high priority, particularly for customer-facing businesses that depend on live agents to drive sales and service. But how do you optimize a workforce working outside the traditional boundaries of your information technology systems?
8 features that make a stellar WFO experience
WFO relies on data and analytic insights to improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase worker productivity. Beyond that, WFO solutions have the potential to improve customer experiences and increase accurate mobile phone number list employee satisfaction and retention. Not surprisingly, WFO solutions focus on business areas that “touch” the customer, like contact centers. WFO business solutions should encompass a broad range of tools and applications:
Quality Management
to monitor the quality of conversations, evaluate while resilience is a trait many of us are born with employee performance and identify and close employee knowledge gaps with coaching and eLearning tools.Coaching and Learning for agents to hone their skills using the right tools and tailored training.
Speech and Desktop Analytics to identify keywords, spot trends, highlight critical issues, and detect positive and negative emotions in recorded conversations.
Workforce Management to lower attrition rates and aub directory raise schedule adherence by giving agents the power to check their work schedules, trade shifts, request vacation, and add overtime availability.
Performance Management
To measure and manage operations with real-time dashboards, key performance indicators, and historical reporting.
Business Analytics with a holistic view of customer journeys to help determine whether you’re meeting service levels and exceeding customer expectations.
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How do you optimize a hybrid workplace?
As organizations navigate the new world of the remote and hybrid
office workplace, they must adapt how they approach WFO. Questions that
organizations should consider include: Do we need to re-evaluate which WFO tools
and solutions will benefit us the most right now? Should we deploy our WFO solution in our data
center, private cloud, public cloud, or a combination of these? Do we want to manage the WFO solution
ourselves or outsource management to a trusted third party? Should we buy traditional software licenses or take advantage of a subscription-based pricing model?