Making Call Center Shift Bids a Positive Experience
Change your shift bids and schedule assignments from a liability to an asset with a simple to use interface.
What is ShiftMatch?
ShiftMatch has been specifically designed to deal with three issues that affect the schedule assignment process: disruption for employees, fairness of how shifts get assigned to whom, and increased workloads for the Resource Management group. There are various ways of managing a shift bid, all of which are impacted by these issues in differing degrees. Because of these negatives, many contact centers don't do shift bids as often as they may want to. ShiftMatch has solved these problems using best practice process design and the technology to enable that process.
Great for employees - ShiftMatch gives all employees the chance to obtain the best possible schedule based on availability and preferences. Agents can manage their own preferences on the ShiftMatch website, and are able to see at all times what schedules offered match their preferences. They can also see how many agents are ahead of them in the ranking to qualify for specific schedules, so that ShiftMatch manages expectations. When a shiftbid is initiated, ShiftMatch dynamically matches open schedules against preferences as they become available during the assignment run (each time an employee is assigned a new shift, the schedule vacated becomes available and is re-offered; in effect a series of shift bids within the overall bid). As a result, many employees stand to gain each time you run a bid, with positive impact on employee morale.
Great for the business - With ShiftMatch, you can run shift bids as often as you need to, without forced schedule changes. All the WFM group has to do is drop vacated schedules due to turnover, add any new schedules, and run ShiftMatch. At the end of the process, each schedule will have been optimally assigned based on employee maintained preferences; any remaining schedules can be allocated to new hires. There is no need to temporarily assign 'good' schedules to new employees, while tenured agents continue to work unpopular shifts. The optimal Required / Planned staffing distribution is refreshed frequently, so that there is less need for overtime, forced schedule swaps and changes to fill the gaps. Consequently you will deliver better Service Level outcomes at lower cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of operations should utilize ShiftMatch?
Any contact center that offers non-standard schedules and has employee turnover has to have a schedule assignment process in place. All traditional methods have major drawbacks – the most significant ones are the disruption new shift assignment cause to the employees' lives (and associated turnover), and the fairness issue – if the process is seen to allocate 'more desirable' schedules to 'less deserving' agents, morale issues follow very quickly, again with potential turnover implications.
What is the ideal frequency of running shiftbids?
Although there is no fixed frequency, in general terms much more often than most contact centers do them currently. The value of doing a shiftbid is that the outcome is a close match between required staffing and scheduled staffing for most intervals during the day and the week. However, shiftbids are like newspapers: they are old news very quickly. With turnover, changes in traffic patterns and productivity rates the match between required and scheduled staff levels deteriorates very quickly. Resource Management has to spend increasing efforts filling the gaps with forced shift changes and overtime on the one hand, and sending agents home unpaid on the other hand. ShiftMatch combines process design and technology to deal with these issues successfully.
What information does ShiftMatch need to operate?
1. Agent information – such as names, WFM ID, tenure date / rank, and paid hours.
2. Schedules – both assigned and newly added
3. Agent preferences
Resource Management provides the information for items 1 and 2; data is easily uploaded to the web sites to suit your WFM file formats. The agents manage their own preferences, so that the workload for the Resource Management group is negligible. Running the bid is a matter of seconds, and results are instantly available, both to Resource management and agents. And because agents will only be assigned to schedules they are willing and able to work, the new shifts can become active very quickly.
Can ShiftMatch use senority to determine shiftbid order?
Yes, ShiftMatch can accommodate ranking by tenure dates or any other numeric ranking systems based on merit, etc.
Are there any limits on number of agents, locations, etc?
Effectively there are no limits. In fact, the larger the number of agents utilizing ShiftMatch the more beneficial it becomes. You are not limited by number of locations or number of skill groups per location and you have complete control over how many employees can be accommodated within shiftbid.
Does ShiftMatch integrate with my workforce management solution?
In principle, ShiftMatch can import any file format. We have developed a standard .csv format as a default. Please contact us and we can let you know whether we currently accommodate your system; if not an interface will be developed at no extra cost.
What is needed to install ShiftMatch?
ShiftMatch is web-based and utilizes our server resources so there is no need for any installation effort on the part of your IT organization. ShiftMatch supports all modern browsers including Internet Explorer 7+, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.
What technical support is offered?
We offer online support during standard business days via a ticketing system. We aim to fully resolve issues within 24 hours during standard business days.
Is training required?
ShiftMatch provides extensive help files. Due to its intuitive design there is a very short learning curve, so no formal training is offered.
How is the pricing structured?
ShiftMatch is licensed on a per agent basis with volume discounts available. There is a minimum of 100 agent licences with additional licenses to be added in increments of 100. Please contact us for additional information and further details on pricing.
