Question: How do we schedule seats for agents when they only work on-site part of the time?

Answer:

Managing agent workstation utilization has traditionally been a time-consuming and labor-intensive manual task and the complexities of today’s contact centers have only made this more cumbersome. Hybrid staffing models (where agents work on-site and at home different days of the week), split shifts, part-time, gig economy hours, flex time and dynamic real-time adaptive scheduling, etc. – have made automated workspace allocation capabilities a requirement. 

Workspace allocation modules in workforce management (WFM) solutions are designed to automate the seat assignment process for on-site employees in contact centers, back-office environments and other shift- and people-intensive business units. This has proven to be invaluable in developing dynamic seating plans that track where an employee is working and which days they are in the office or working from home. Workspace allocation modules can also be used as a strategic planning tool to manage seat utilization to meet long-term facility requirements or to help quantify expansion or consolidation requirements. Other capabilities include the ability to create a floor plan map, organize on-site teams in proximity to their team leader/supervisor, and assign key attributes to workstations to ensure that agents are assigned to the right area and outfitted with appropriate equipment, software programs and any other configurable characteristics.