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What Is Workforce Management (WFM)?
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A call center's busiest hours, quietest days, and sudden surges don't happen by accident. Behind the scenes, a set of processes and tools works to make sure the right number of people, with the right skills, are available at the right times. This is called workforce management, usually shortened to WFM.
The Definition
Workforce management is the process of forecasting demand, planning staffing, creating schedules, and managing them in real time so a call center can meet its service goals efficiently.
The term covers both the processes involved and the software used to support them.
Why WFM Matters
Getting staffing right is one of the biggest challenges in running a call center.
Too few people means long waits, abandoned calls, frustrated customers, and overworked staff.
Too many people means unnecessary costs and agents sitting idle.
The wrong timing means having plenty of people when it's quiet and too few when it's busy.
Because staffing is usually a call center's largest cost, and because waiting times strongly affect customer experience, workforce management has a major impact on both.
The Workforce Management Cycle
Workforce management usually follows a repeating cycle.
1. Forecasting
The first step is predicting how many contacts will arrive, and when. Forecasters analyze historical data to find patterns, such as:
- Time of day, such as busy mornings or quiet evenings.
- Day of week, such as Mondays often being busier.
- Seasonal patterns, such as holiday peaks.
- Special events, such as product launches, billing cycles, marketing campaigns, or service changes.
Forecasts usually predict both volume (how many contacts) and handle time (how long they'll take), typically in 15- or 30-minute intervals.
2. Capacity planning
Next, planners work out how many people are needed over weeks and months. This helps with longer-term decisions, such as recruitment, training schedules, and holiday planning. Capacity planning considers expected demand, staff turnover, time needed to train new starters, and planned changes, such as new services or automation.
3. Calculating staffing requirements
For each interval, planners calculate how many agents need to be available to meet the service level target. Formulas such as Erlang C are commonly used, along with adjustments for shrinkage, the time staff are paid but not available to take contacts, such as breaks, meetings, training, and absence.
4. Scheduling
Planners then build schedules that match staff availability to the required numbers. This involves balancing many factors:
- Matching staff numbers to demand in each interval.
- Placing breaks and lunches during quieter periods.
- Scheduling training, meetings, and coaching.
- Respecting employment rules, such as maximum hours and minimum rest periods.
- Considering agents' preferences, contracts, and skills.
Good scheduling also tries to be fair, sharing less popular shifts evenly and giving people as much predictability and flexibility as possible.
5. Intraday management
Even the best forecast won't match reality perfectly. Real-time analysts monitor activity throughout the day, comparing actual demand with the forecast and watching service level. When things change, they adjust, for example by moving breaks, rescheduling training, offering overtime, or asking agents working on other tasks to take calls.
6. Analysis and improvement
Afterward, planners compare what happened with what was forecast. Where forecasts were wrong, they look for reasons and improve future predictions. They also review schedule adherence, shrinkage, and service performance.
Key Concepts in Workforce Management
Shrinkage. The percentage of paid time when staff aren't available to handle contacts, due to breaks, training, meetings, holidays, and absence.
Schedule adherence. How closely staff follow their planned schedules.
Occupancy. How busy agents are when they're available.
Service level. The percentage of contacts answered within a target time.
Forecast accuracy. How closely forecasts match actual demand.
WFM Software
Many call centers use dedicated workforce management software, which typically helps with:
- Building forecasts from historical data.
- Calculating staffing requirements.
- Creating and optimizing schedules.
- Letting agents view schedules, request time off, and swap shifts.
- Tracking adherence in real time.
- Producing reports on forecast accuracy and performance.
Smaller operations sometimes manage with spreadsheets, but as complexity grows, specialist tools become valuable.
Who Does Workforce Management?
In larger call centers, WFM is often handled by a dedicated team, which may include:
- Forecasters, who predict demand.
- Schedulers, who build schedules.
- Real-time analysts, who manage the day as it happens.
- WFM managers, who oversee the process and work with operations leaders.
In smaller operations, these responsibilities may fall to a single planner or to team leaders.
WFM and Staff Wellbeing
Workforce management affects people's lives directly. Schedules determine when people work, when they take breaks, and how predictable their weeks are. Good WFM considers wellbeing alongside efficiency, by:
- Publishing schedules well in advance.
- Offering flexibility and shift swaps where possible.
- Avoiding consistently high occupancy that leaves no recovery time.
- Sharing unpopular shifts fairly.
- Listening to staff preferences.
WFM in the Age of AI
AI is changing workforce management in two ways. First, AI tools can improve forecasting by analyzing more data and spotting patterns humans might miss. Second, as AI handles some customer contacts directly, planners must forecast not just total demand, but how much will be handled by automation and how much will need people, along with the staff needed to supervise AI and handle escalations.
Planning for the Unpredictable
Workforce management sits at the heart of how a call center runs. It turns predictions into plans and plans into schedules, then adjusts them as reality unfolds. When it works well, customers get through quickly, costs stay under control, and staff have workloads they can sustain. When it doesn't, everyone feels it. Behind every smoothly running call center, there's careful workforce planning keeping the right people in the right place at the right time.