Workforce management workitems support

PrerequisitesClick to expand

Workitems are tasks or units of work routed to agents, much like calls or chats. By integrating workitems into workforce management (WFM), organizations can forecast demand, build capacity plans, and schedule resources more effectively. This integration ensures optimal staffing and drives greater operational efficiency.

Notes:

Workitems are only supported in Automatic Best Method (ABM) forecasting.
Service level calculations for workitems are based on the time of creation to completion.
Historical Data Import (HDI) supports importing workitem data for forecasting purposes.

Key concepts

Review the key concepts of workitems:

Media type: Workitems are treated as a distinct media type within WFM, enabling specific forecasting and scheduling capabilities.
Planning groups: You can create planning groups specifically for workitems, allowing for tailored forecasting and scheduling.
Forecasting: WFM supports forecasting of Offered and Average Handle Time (AHT) metrics for workitems, facilitating accurate workload predictions.
Capacity planning: You can enable hiring plans that include workitem staffing requirements.
Scheduling: You can generate schedules for agents handling workitems, ensuring appropriate staffing levels.

Supported use cases

WFM supports:

Single queue routing: Workitems routed through a single queue and handled by a specific pool of agents are supported for forecasting and scheduling.

Unsupported use cases

Reassigned workitems: Workitems must route through a queue and not be reassigned to be supported for forecasting and scheduling.

Configure WFM for workitems

To configure workitems and WFM features for workitems, perform the following steps. Click each collapsible to view additional information.

Step 1. Enable the workitems featureClick to expand

Step 2. Create a planning groupClick to expand

To create a planning group for your organization, perform the following steps:

Click Admin.
Under Workforce Management, click Planning Groups. The Planning Groups page opens. For more information about planning groups, see Planning groups overview.
Click Menu > Workforce Management > Workforce Management Configuration > Planning Groups. The Planning Groups page opens. For more information about planning groups, see Planning groups overview.
Click Add. The Add Planning Group page appears. The Associations tab is displayed by default.
In the Planning Group Name field, enter the name for the planning group.
In the Select a Service Goal Template section, assign the service goal template.
In the Media Type field, select Workitem.
In the Route Path Associations section, select the appropriate queues and other route path attributes.
Click Save.

3. Generate a forecastClick to expand

To generate a forecast, perform the following steps:

Click Admin.
Under Workforce Management, click Forecasts. The Forecast page appears. For more information about forecasts, see Work with forecasts.
Click Menu > Workforce Management > Forecasting > Forecasts. The Forecast page appears. For more information about forecasts, see Work with forecasts.
Click Add. The Add Forecasts page is displayed.
In the Forecast Start Week field, click the Calendar icon to select the forecast start week.
In the Number of Weeks field, select the number of weeks.
In the Forecast Duration field, review the short and long-term intervals with start and end weeks details.
In the Description field, enter the description.
In the Creation Method section, select Automatic Best Method as the creation method.
Note: Only Automatic Best Method is supported for workitem and Weighted Historical Index is not supported.
Click Save.

4. Create a capacity planClick to expand

To create a capacity plan, perform the following steps:

Click Admin.
Under Workforce Management, click [hidden]Icon included[/hidden] Capacity Plans. The Capacity Plans page appears. For more information about capacity plans, see Capacity plans overview.
Click Menu > Workforce Management > Forecasting > Capacity Plans. The Capacity Plans page appears. For more information about capacity plans, see Capacity plans overview.
Click Create Capacity Plan.
In the Plan Name field, enter the name of the plan.
(Optional) In the Plan Description field, enter a description for the plan.
In the Forecast field, click [hidden]Icon included[/hidden] Choose Forecast.
In the Plan Start Date field, select the start date.
In the Plan End Date field, select the end date.
In the Duration field, review the duration of the plan in weeks format and then click Next.
In the FTE Definition (Hours/Week) box, modify the value displayed. Use the up and down arrows to increase or decrease the value or enter the value in the box.
In the Staffing Group section, perform the following steps:
1. In the Starting FTE field, enter the value or use the up and down arrows to increase or decrease the number of FTEs.
2. In the Weekly Attrition % field, enter the value or use the up and down arrows to indicate the weekly attrition % of FTEs.
  1. Click [hidden]Icon included[/hidden] to apply the same values to the other staffing groups.
  2. The Apply value to all rows dialog box appears. Click Confirm.
  3. The values in other staffing groups update.
3. In the Weekly Shrinkage % field, enter the value or use the up and down arrows to indicate the weekly shrinkage % of FTEs.
  1. Click [hidden]Icon included[/hidden] to apply the same values to the other staffing groups.
  2. The Apply value to all rows dialog box appears. Click Confirm.
  3. The values in other staffing groups update.
Click Save. The Capacity Plan is created.

5. Generate schedulesClick to expand

To generate schedules for workitems, perform the following steps:

Click Admin.
Under Workforce Management, click Schedules. The Schedules page appears. For more information about schedules, see Work with workforce management schedules.
Click Menu > Workforce Management > Scheduling > Schedules. The Schedules page appears. For more information about schedules, see Work with workforce management schedules.
Click Generate. The Generate Schedule dialog box appears.
1. In the Select Forecast section, select the forecast that includes workitems.
2. Click Generate.

The following section lists the WFM features that support workitems. Click a section to view the details.

Intraday monitoringClick to expand

Adherence trackingClick to expand

Click the collapsible to view a comparison of WFM metrics between workitems and other media types.

Comparison of WFM metrics between workitems and other media typesClick to expand

WFM Metric	Description	WFM support for workitems
Abandoned	The number of times a user abandoned an interaction in a queue.	Abandon interactions are not implemented or reported for workitems.
Abandon rate	The percentage of offered interactions in which the customer disconnected before connecting with an agent. Abandon rate = (Abandoned Count/Offered Count)*100.	Abandon rate is not implemented or reported for workitems.
Answered	The number of assigned Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) interactions answered by an agent in a specified period. Answered increments when the agent is the first to connect to the interaction.	The number of workitems answered by an agent via routing, manual assignment, or transfer. tWorkitemsAnswered Count
Answer %	The percentage of offered interactions that an agent answered. Answer % = (Answered/Offered)*100.	Same as other media type, but use (tWorkitemsAnswered Count/nWorkitemsOffered)*100.
Average Handle Time (AHT)	The average time an agent spent handling interactions. This calculation includes talk time, hold time, and after-call work. AHT = (cumulative talk time + cumulative hold time + cumulative after-call work + cumulative dialing time + cumulative contacting time)/Number of interactions handled.	The key metric used is tAgentFocusComplete, which measures the total time agents actively worked on a workitem (excluding parked and held time) as it moved across a route group. Count of tWorkitemsHandled is the count of workitems that have been handled (that is, received dedicated work time and reached a disconnected or terminated state, excluding direct routing/shrinkage cases). AHT = (Sum of tAgentFocusComplete for all handled workitems in interval)/(Number of handled workitems in interval tWorkitemsHandled (Count)).
Average Speed of Answer (ASA)	The average amount of time an interaction waits in the queue before an agent answers. This metric excludes the interactions that agents do not answer. Average speed of answer = Total Answered (tAnswered Sum) / Answered Count (tAnswered Count).	The average amount of time an interaction waits in the queue before an agent answers. This metric excludes the interactions that agents do not answer. ASA is directly associated with the service level and provides insight into the customer service your organization provides. ASA is recorded in the interval in which the agent answered the interaction. Average speed of answer = Total Answered (tWorkitemsAnswered Sum) / Answered Count (tWorkitemsAnswered Count).
Long term staffing requirement	Requirement is calculated using Genesys proprietary contact center (Queueing Theory Based) models. For example: Erlang C, Erlang X with patience profile. And so on. The number of staff calculated for each interval is the amount of staff needed to meet the Service Level Goals for the PG for that interval.	The requirement is determined based on workload, calculated as nOffered * AHT. Because workitems often have longer service thresholds and can be deferred between intervals, WFM analyzes historical weekly patterns. This analysis helps distribute the workload across multiple intervals and determine the net requirement for each one.
Offered	The number of interactions routed into the queue for an agent to answer. Offered interactions are either: Answered Abandoned Flowout interactions	nWorkitemsOffered emitted when the workitem enters the acdStarted phase. Workitem that use usedRouting=DirectRouting is not considered. Note: Abandon rate is not implemented or reported for workitems.
Service Level	Service level target is a contact center performance statistic expressed as X percent of conversations answered in Y seconds. Service level = Number of conversations answered within SLA/ Total number of conversations.	The service level % is the percentage of workitems that met service level agreement (SLA) based on completion within the threshold and the total number of workitems terminated during the date criteria. Service level % = (Number of Workitems terminated – Number of Workitems over SLA)/Number of Workitems terminated.

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