Starting a workforce management process from nothing looks like a project and does not have to be. This is a four-week order in which stopping after any week leaves the team better off than before, which matters because most teams doing this are doing it alongside the job it is meant to improve.
Week one: measure shrinkage
Paid hours against hours available for contacts, from data you already have. It is one number, it is the most argued input in the whole process, and having it measured rather than asserted changes every conversation that follows. Nothing else in this list is as cheap.
Week two: compute the requirement
Take last month's volume and handle time and work out what the requirement was, using the shrinkage you just measured. Compare it against what you actually rostered. That comparison is usually the moment the process gets funded, whichever direction the gap goes.
Week three: write the forecast down
Not a model, a number per interval with a note on how you got it. The point is that next month somebody can see whether it was right and by how much, which is the only route to a forecast that improves.
Week four: close the loop
Put actual volume beside forecast volume and actual paid hours beside planned. Nobody has to do anything with it yet. The habit of the comparison existing is what turns four weeks of work into a process rather than an exercise.
Questions people ask about workforce management process
Do we need software for this?
Not for the four weeks. A worksheet and a saved record cover it, which is what this site provides for free and for $6.50 per user per month respectively.
What if the first requirement calculation is embarrassing?
It usually is, in one direction or the other, and that is the value. A number that confirms everything was already right would not have been worth measuring.
Who should do this?
Whoever currently gets blamed when the roster is wrong. They have the context and the motivation, and it is usually a team leader rather than an analyst.