Create WFM agent contracts and rotations

Contracts

Create contracts to define the average work time per day for the agents. The contract contains settings for weekly and nightly rest time and maximum work time per week. Connect one or more multiplicator definition sets to the contract to define how agents on this contract will be compensated when they work extra time.

NOTE   

The agent's contract time for a schedule period is always calculated based on the combination of their contract, contract schedule, and part-time percentage.

  • The contract defines the average work time per work day.
  • The contract schedule defines the number of work days per week.
  • The part-time percentage defines the percentage that the agent works out of the average work time per day defined in their contract.

The calculated contract time for the schedule period is shown in the Schedules module.

Before you create contracts, consider which contracts to create and how to handle agents working part-time. You can either set up specific contracts for part-time agents that define their average work time per day or assign the full-time contract to them and use the contract schedule and part-time percentage to adjust the work time.

A contract schedule defines how many workdays and days off the agent has per week, and which days of the week are the default days off.

The contract schedule is not related to the number of days the contact center is open, only to which days the agents work. If the contact center is always closed on a specific day of the week, that day should be set as a non-workday in the contract schedule.

The average number of workdays per week is not always a whole number, for example, if agents with a part-time contract work two days one week and three days the next. In these cases, add an additional week to the contract schedule.

Rotations

Create a rotation to schedule days off, shifts of certain shift categories, or shifts with defined start or end times in a recurring pattern. The rotation pattern can extend over several weeks. Rotations are useful, for example, to schedule night shifts with a day off directly after, as night shifts otherwise are difficult to schedule. They can also be useful to schedule agents to work weekends on a rotating schedule.

Create a rotation based on an agent's assigned time zone in the People module. When viewing schedules in the Schedules module, it will display the scheduler's time zone by default, but you can change the view point.

BEST PRACTICE   Only specify the days in the rotation that are important and leave the other days. This leaves some flexibility for the automatic scheduling to schedule according to the resource need.

The rotations are assigned to agents in the People module, together with a date and a start week. The start week defines what week in the rotation is the first week for a specific agent. This makes it possible to use the same rotation, for example, to schedule agents to work every third weekend, but for different weekends.

EXAMPLE   You create a four-week rotation. On the first five days of the rotation, you assign working days with the night shift category. The same rotation is assigned to all 20 agents in the team with the same start date, but they are given different start weeks. Each agent work nights one week out of four, and each week there are always five agents that work night shifts.

Prerequisites

  • You have the Manage template, Contracts, and Rotations permissions.

  • Shift categories are created.

  • Days off are created.

Page location

WFM > People > Manage template > Contracts

WFM > People > Manage template > Rotations

Procedures

Create a contract for fixed employees

  1. In the Contract tab, click Add contract.
  2. Enter a name for the contract and click Save.
  3. Select an Employment type.
    • Fixed staff normal work time—The scheduled time and number of days off must match with the target for the schedule period. This type is often used when the schedule period is a set number of weeks.
    • Hourly staff— The staff are scheduled only when they are needed.
    • Fixed staff with day work time—The target time for the schedule period is calculated based on the average work time per day and the number of scheduled days off. This type is often used for monthly schedule periods.

  4. Enter an Average work time per day. This is the average daily contract time for a full-time employee, or for a part-time employee if you choose to create a contract specifically for them.

    NOTE   If the average daily work time is very specific, this can be hard to achieve with a part-time percentage of a full-time contract. In these cases, create a specific part-time contract with the exact average daily work time for these agents.

  5. If needed, enter times for the following target tolerances:

    • Target tolerance -— When you want to schedule less hours than the target time for schedule periods where there is overstaffing.
    • Target tolerance +— When you want to schedule more hours than the target time for schedule periods where there is understaffing.

  6. If needed, enter a number for the following days off tolerance:

    • Days off tolerance -— When you want to schedule less days off than the target for schedule periods where there is overstaffing.
    • Days off tolerance +— When you want to schedule more days off than the target for schedule periods where there is understaffing.
  7. Enter the Minimum time per week. This is the minimum work time per calendar week.
  8. Enter the Maximum time per week. This is the maximum work time per calendar week, including any scheduled overtime. The maximum time per week is often based on the local labor laws or union agreements.
  9. Enter the Nightly rest time. The nightly rest time is the minimum number of hours from the end of one shift to the start of the next shift. The validation is based on work time and includes any scheduled overtime. The nightly rest time is often based on the local labor laws or union agreements.

  10. Enter the Weekly rest time. The weekly rest time will ensure at least one longer block of uninterrupted rest time for each calendar week. Absences are not included when calculating the weekly rest.

    NOTE   The weekly rest calculation can include hours from the day before or after. For example, if the week is from Monday to Sunday and the only day off of the week is on Sunday, the hours until the shift starts on the following Monday are included when calculating the weekly rest.

  11. The Min time per schedule period setting is only used for hourly employees.

  12. Select how to calculate the number of hours for a Full day absence. If there is no need to override the value, use the contract value.

    • From contract uses the average work time per day defined in the contract.

    • From schedule period uses the hours per day value specified for the schedule period. Use the schedule period value to make it possible to override the value, if needed.

  13. Select the Overtime paid, Overtime time, and/or Shift allowance for the Multiplicator definition sets that you want to connect to this contract. The multiplicator definition sets define how the agents are compensated for working overtime or inconvenient work hours.
  14. Click Save.

Edit a contract

  1. In the Contract tab, select an existing contract.
  2. Edit the fields. For further information about the fields, see Create a contract for fixed employees.
  3. Click Save.

Clone a contract

  1. In the Contract tab, click the clone icon beside the contract that you want to clone.
  2. Edit the name of the contract.
  3. Click Save.

Delete a contract

Delete contracts that are no longer in use, and for which you do not need the history.

  1. In the Contract tab, click the trash can icon beside the contract that you want to delete.
  2. Click Delete.

Create a contract schedule

Create a contract schedule to define the number of workdays per week.

  1. In the Contract schedules tab, click Add contract schedule.
  2. Enter a name to describe the contract schedule.
  3. If the average number of workdays for a week is not a whole number, click Add new. To delete a week, click the trash can icon beside the week.

  4. Select the default workdays by checking the days of week check boxes.

    NOTE   It is important that the number of workdays corresponds to the average number of workdays per week for an agent. If the average is 2,5 workdays per week, select 2 days one week and 3 days the other week. This requires a schedule period longer than one week.

  5. Click Save.

Edit a contract schedule

  1. In the Contract schedules tab, select an existing contract.
  2. Edit the fields. For further information about the fields, see Create a contract schedule.
  3. Click Save.

Clone a contract schedule

  1. In the Contract schedules tab, click the clone icon beside the contract schedule that you want to clone.
  2. Edit the name of the contract.
  3. Click Save.

Delete a contract schedule

Delete contract schedules that are no longer in use and for which you no longer need the history.

  1. In the Contract schedules tab, click the trash can icon for the contract schedule that you want to delete.
  2. Click Delete.

Create a part-time percentage

Create part-time percentage values to use in combination with the contracts to define the average work time per day for the agents.

NOTE   

The agent's work time for a schedule period is always calculated based on the combination of their contract, contract schedule and part-time percentage.

  • The contract defines the average work time per workday.
  • The contract schedule defines the number of workdays per week.
  • The part-time percentage defines the percentage that the agent works out of the average work time per day defined in their contract.

Create part-time percentages to complement the contracts you create.

  • If you use specific contracts for all part-time agents that define their exact average work time per day, you only need a part-time percentage of 100%.
  • If you assign the full-time contract to the part-time agents, create part-time percentages to adjust the average daily work time for these agents.

To create a part-time percentage, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Part-time percentages tab, click Add percentage.
  2. Enter a name to describe the part-time percentage.
  3. Enter a percentage value for the part-time percentage.
  4. Click Save.

Edit a part-time percentage

  1. In the Part-time percentages tab, edit an existing part-time percentage.
  2. Click Save.

Delete a part-time percentage

Delete part-time percentages that are no longer in use and for which you no longer need to keep the history.

  1. In the Part-time percentages tab, click the trash can icon beside the part-time percentage that you want to delete.
  2. Click Delete.

Create a rotation

  1. In the Rotations tab, click Add rotation.
  2. Enter a rotation name and click Save.
  3. Define the number of Weeks for the rotation pattern.

  4. For the days in the rotation where you want to control what to schedule, define one or more of these properties:

    NOTE   Only specify the ones that are necessary.

    • Enter an Early start time, the earliest possible start time.
    • Enter a Late start time, the latest possible start time.
    • Enter an Early end time, the earliest possible end time.
    • Enter a Late end time, the latest possible end time. If the late end time is past midnight, select a time with +1 to indicate this.
    • Enter a Min work time, the shortest possible shift length in contract time.
    • Enter a Max work time, the longest possible shift length in contract time.
    • Select a Shift category if it is a work day and you want to control which type of shift can be scheduled.
    • Select a Day off if this day should be a day off and not a work day.
  5. Click Save.

Edit a rotation

  1. In the Rotations tab, select an existing rotation.
  2. Edit the fields. For further information about the fields, see Create a rotation.
  3. Click Save.

Delete a rotation

  1. In the Rotations tab, click the trash can icon beside the rotation that you want to delete.
  2. Click Delete.

Clone a rotation

  1. In the Rotations tab, click the clone icon beside the rotation that you want to clone.
  2. Edit the name of the rotation.
  3. Click Save.

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