Managing Daily Staffing and Service

Communications Strategies

Once the numbers indicate that overstaffing or understaffing is happening, the next step is to communicate the problem. Developing a communications strategy involves deciding what to communicate and who all should be involved in the communications loop.

It is likely that the workforce planning specialist or team will be the first to know there is a problem. This group may communicate directly with staff for the necessary adjustments, or may relay the information by team or by supervisor wherever changes are required.

Reaction Options

You should always know your reactions options whenever adjustments needs to be made as to whether you need to add or subtract the staff requirement.

Selecting a strategy depends upon answers to the following questions:

• How severe is the problem?
• What is the effect on service level to customers?
• Can you fix the cause rather than react?
• How long will the problem last?
• What are the options from easiest to hardest?
• What will each adjustment cost in terms of dollars, resources, and effort?

Common staffing reaction strategies for understaffing include:

• Have supervisors or other staff take calls
• Delay meetings or training
• Eliminate optional call content
• Engage other qualified staff or outsource

Following are the technology changes that can help dealing with the understaffing situation:

• Re-routing calls to other sites or groups
• Adjusting delay announcements
• Changing ring delay settings
• Adjusting trunks
• Invoking other technologies such as IVR or callback messaging

Likewise, common staffing reaction strategies for overstaffing include:

• Do impromptu training
• Schedule team meetings
• Catch up on paperwork
• Make proactive outbound calls
• Offer time off without pay