Systems and methods for automatic scheduling of a workforce

#Many of today's contact centers use skill-based routing, where contacts are queued and distributed to agents according to agent skills. In some skill-based routing environments, it is desirable to assign a multi-skilled agent to service all queues for which the agent has the appropriate skill. In other skill-based routing environments, it is desirable to assign a multi-skilled agent to service a specific queue, or queues, for which the agent has the appropriate skill.

#The second option, called “queue hopping” is usually less efficient. However, there are a number of reasons why queue hopping might be appropriate for a call center. Some of the reasons include: the ability to track exact capacity for specific queues at specific times; scheduling solid blocks of scheduled time for particular queues reduces the cost of agent context switching among queues; limitations in contact routing technology or in workstation application software; and the ability to move low-skilled agents to an exceptionally high volume queue.

#Systems and methods are disclosed for scheduling a workforce. In one implementation, a method of workforce scheduling includes receiving a shift activity template describing at least one worker activity performed during a shift, the template having a range of start times and a variable length for the at least one activity, the at least one activity being associated with a queue that has varying incoming volumes at different times and varying goals such that some work associated with the queue needs to be completed before other work associated with the queue, the shift activity having at least one activity being designated as a flexible activity; receiving an association between the shift activity template and at least one worker, and scheduling a plurality of schedulable objects using heuristic searches in accordance with a workload forecast and schedule constraints, each of the schedulable objects being based on the shift activity template.

#Many aspects of the disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a contact center environment 100.

#FIG. 2 is a dataflow diagram showing one embodiment of a system (200) for automatic scheduling of a workforce.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a contact center environment 100. Contact center 100 is staffed by agents who handle incoming and/or outgoing contacts. Although the traditional and most common form of contact is by phone, other types of contacts can be used, such as text chat, web collaboration, email, and fax. An agent workspace includes an agent phone 110 and a workstation computer 120. A network 130 connects one or more of the workstations 120.

#A contact router 140 distributes or routes contacts (incoming or outgoing) to an agent position. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls and computer-based contacts (e.g., chat, email) are routed over one or more data networks, and distributed over network 130 to one of the agent workstations 120. Contact router 140 may include an automatic call distributor (ACD) 150 to route phone contacts. The embodiments described herein will refer to ACD 150 instead of contact router 140, but analogous contact router actions and operations are intended to be captured by this disclosure. Note that a predictive dialer (not shown) could be used for directing outbound calls to agents for handling.

#If an agent is not available to handle a particular call, ACD 150 puts the call into a queue, which effectively places the caller on hold. When an agent is available, ACD 150 connects the outside trunk line 160 carrying the phone call to the trunk line 170 of a selected agent.