Matthew Pitts Named as 2011 Workforce Management Professional

SWPP
I N S I D E
WFM Survey Results . . . . . . . . . 2
WFM Spring Survey. . . . . . . . . . 3
Workforce Planning for the . . . . 4
Back Office
Ask the Workforce Wizard. . . . . 5
Planning For Outbound . . . . . . . 6
Contact Centers
Workforce Management in . . . . 8
the Multichannel Call Center
Transforming Performance . . . . . 9
Monitoring into Active
Performance Management
Events Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Our Sponsors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Spring 2011
Over 300 Workforce Planners
Attend 2011 SWPP Annual
Conference
N
ew ideas and industry best practices were in abundance at the
ninth annual SWPP conference
held in Nashville, Tennessee in March.
Over 300 workforce planners gathered to
network, exchange ideas, see the latest
in WFM technologies, and hear about
proven solutions and best practices from
industry experts. They learned much
about the industry and how to improve
their workforce planning processes and
also had some great fun along the way.
“The SWPP Annual Conference
is an excellent experience for every
workforce optimization employee role,”
according to attendee Larry Blumenstyk
of DialAmerica. “The nice thing about
being in one place with so many talented
planning professionals is validating one’s
own best practices and learning new ones.
We don’t know what we don’t know, and
this conference offers an opportunity to
gain knowledge about issues one may
have never considered.”
Continued on page 10
Industry News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Join SWPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Matthew Pitts Named as
2011 Workforce Management
Professional of the Year
T
he Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) has
announced Matthew Pitts of
Bluegreen Corporation as the winner of
the 2011 Workforce Management Professional of the Year Award, which recognizes a workforce management professional
who has shown outstanding leadership in
the industry.
“We are so pleased to announce Matt
as the winner of this prestigious award,”
said Vicki Herrell, SWPP Executive
Director. “His workforce management
knowledge, leadership, and vision have
helped him achieve great results for his
company. We believe he is truly representative of the great workforce management professionals around the world.”
According to Angela Blevins, VP of
Club Services at Bluegreen, “Matt exhibits a complete understanding of his role’s
responsibility, authority, accountability
and his importance to our organization’s
success. He promotes a cooperative behavior to build a stronger sense of purpose
and manages change with minimal resistance.” She adds, “Matt is well respected
by the senior management team and
strives to work harmoniously with each
department.”
Continued on page 12
W F M
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Most Valuable Capability of WFM Software
ach quarter SWPP surveys the workforce planning community on critical workforce planning topics. Over 200
call center professionals representing a wide variety of
industries participated and provided insight into this survey on
workforce management software.
When asked about the most valuable capability of the current workforce management software, the most frequent answer
is scheduling accuracy, followed by ease of use, and forecasting
accuracy. Reporting options and customer service from vendor
were also mentioned.
Currently Have a WFM System
Eighty-four percent of the respondents have a commercially
available workforce management system. Thirteen percent do
not have any type of automated system, while three percent
have a home-grown software package.
Use of Different WFM Software
Forty-seven percent have never used a different workforce
management software, while 35% have and 18% don’t know.
Length of Time with Current WFM System
Over half (62%) have had their current workforce management system for more than five years.
Reason for Changing Systems
Those who have used a different workforce management
system were asked why they had changed systems, and the most
frequent answer by far was that they needed additional features
available in the new system. Other top answers included needing a system for a larger number of agents, having upgrade issues
with the old system, needing a system for networking multiple
sites, and poor customer service from the old vendor. In the
Other category, some responses included that the company
consolidated workforce management software across multiple
regions, the new software was bought along with a suite of products, the cost of the upgrade for the old software was prohibitive,
and that the company owner had changed precipitating the
change in software.
Level of Satisfaction with Current WFM
System
Fifty-six percent of respondents say they are Satisfied
with their current workforce management system, while 19%
are Very Satisfied. Fourteen percent are Neither Satisfied or
Dissatisfied, 10% are Dissatisfied, and only one percent is Very
Dissatisfied.
Continued on page 14
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The focus of this survey is multichannel
workforce management processes.
Responses to the first two questions will
allow us to segment the answers by size and type
of call center to contrast and compare workforce
management practices. Survey results will be
completely anonymous.
1.How many agents are in your call center?
n Under 50
n 300 – 400
n 50 – 100
n 400 – 500
n 100 – 200
n Over 500
n 200 – 300
9.Is there a deliberate strategy to encourage customer
usage of one channel over the other?
n Yes n No n Don’t know
2.What industry do you represent?
n Telecommunications n Retail/Catalog
n Travel
n Government
n Financial
n Health Care
n Insurance
n Outsourcer
n Utility
n Other: ___________________________________
3.What customer contact channels besides inbound
phone calls does your company use?
n E-mail
n Outbound calling
n Web chat
n Facebook
n Fax
n Twitter
n Regular mail
n Other: ___________________________________
4.What percentage of your total contacts is made
through these other channels (besides inbound
phone calls)?
n < 10% n 10-20% n 20-30% n > 30%
5.Has this percentage increased as you have opened
new customer contact channels?
n Yes n No n Don’t know
6.Do the same agents answer phone calls as well as
these other channels?
n Yes n No
7.Are the service level expectations between chat and
voice the same?
n Yes n No n Don’t know
8.If one service level is failing, do you prioritize one
channel over another?
n Yes n No n Don’t know
10.If the answer to #9 is Yes, which channel is
favored?
n Phone calls
n Regular mail
n E-mail
n Web chat
n Facebook n Twitter
n Fax
n Other: ___________________________________
11.How is forecasting done for other customer contact
channels?
n Manually
n Computer simulation
n Automated workforce management system
n Other: ___________________________________
12.How is scheduling done for other customer contact
channels?
n Manually
n Computer simulation
n Automated workforce management system
n Other: ___________________________________
13.Do you have software besides workforce
management software that you use to help forecast
and schedule for other customer contact channels?
n Yes n No
14.If so, what software do you have and what type of
contact does it support?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
15.Do your call center agents respond to social media
contacts from channels such as Facebook and
Twitter?
n Yes n No n Don’t know
Respond and Win!
Not only will you receive a report of our findings, but you’ll have a chance to win a free SWPP Membership for
responding to the survey. Please return to SWPP by June 30, 2011. Congratulations to David Galvan of DS Waters of
America, who won a free SWPP Membership last quarter for completing the SWPP survey.
Name ___________________________________________________________________________________________
Company___________________________________________________________________________________________
Email Address_______________________________________________________________________________________
3
multichannel workforce management processes
WPP conducts a survey each quarter on
critical workforce planning topics. These
results will be published in upcoming issues
of On Target, as well as on the SWPP website in
the members-only Library section. You may fax
this page to 615-352-4204 or fill in the survey
online at www.swpp.org.
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Workforce Planning for the Back Office
By Maggie Klenke, The Call Center School
W
e have been applying workforce management principles
and software tools to the call center for years. There
has typically been an element of the work in any call
center that is not inbound calling such as dialer-driven outbound
calling, email, web chat, and even fax and paper-based correspondence. Our primary methodology for dealing with much of this
non-call work in terms of staff planning is to build in a set amount
of time for these non-phone activities as “shrinkage” or set aside
a period of time in each agent’s day for it. This strategy supports
that these things need to be done and take people away from
inbound calls, but does little to track the actual number of these
activities or how long each takes or to plan the specific amount
of time into the day on a schedule that will ensure that these
deadlines are also met without wasting valuable resources.
Some centers have found that this is not a very efficient
method for accounting for this work, especially as it continues to
grow. When a specific amount of time is set aside each day for
an agent to complete these tasks, it is often too much or too little
time and rarely just right for every agent every day. Email management systems have been added to give control and statistics
similar to those available on calls from the ACD so that the number and handle time of these is more visible and can be planned.
However, some of the other work continues to be elusive from a
WFM perspective.
Now we are beginning to hear about the application of
WFM tools and processes in areas of the company outside of the
call center, typically referred to as the “back office.” The idea
once again is to gather data about the number and handle time
of tasks so that they can be better planned and managed and the
expensive staffing resource used effectively.
Let’s start with a definition of front office and back office.
The front office is where we deal with customer interactions.
This could be the contact center but could also be a retail operation such as a customer service counter within a branch location, a teller in a bank, or a cashier. In general, the work arrives
randomly, whenever the customer decides to initiate the contact.
The response time is generally measured in seconds or minutes.
The back office is generally not a place where customer
interactions start although there may be a need to involve back
office personnel in the resolution of specific issues. However, the
back office is key to meeting customer needs and some studies show that 60% of customer dissatisfaction is directly related
to work done (or not done) in the back office. There is much
repetitive work and the response time may be measured in hours
or days. The work may involve multiple applications on the PC,
manual processes, hand-offs between departments, long hold
times waiting for a critical step (like the meeting of the loan
committee to approve a bank loan), and may even pass between
teams in different geographical locations and speaking different
languages. It is common to see staff in these areas multi-tasking,
working on one thing while waiting for another to come back to
them. It isn’t as simple as a call coming in and being handled to
completion in one step.
Many business process improvement projects have tried
to make this work more efficiently but little has been done to
address the staffing model until recently. Now we can bring the
capabilities of forecasting, scheduling, and tracking performance
into these operations, but it won’t be easy. There are a couple
of critical elements to put in place before you begin. The first of
these is to gain support from senior management for the effort and
investment. This will be a significant change for these back office
operations and it will take someone at the highest level to drive
that change. The next thing will be investment in a workflow
management system that will track the tasks throughout their life
cycle even as they go from one department to another. The data
from this type of system will be critical to the planning of these
tasks, especially those elements that are not automated. While
systems can be implemented that track the interaction of the
worker with PC applications, it is the work done using multiple
applications or done outside of those systems that will be challenging. One of the great benefits of implementing the workflow
management system itself is that the processes will be defined in
detail in a way that many are not today and this often reveals opportunities to eliminate unnecessary activities and delays.
Once these two elements are in place, it is time to consider
the implementation of the back office capabilities of your WFM
software tool. With access to the data from the PCs and the
workflow management system, the task of creating a history of
the number of work items and how long each takes at each step
in the process has begun and we all know that history is the
foundation of the forecast. Of course, we must be aware that the
data from these systems will be very dependent upon the workers who use them. As much difficulty as we have with getting
correct use of the ACD buttons to capture an accurate after call
work statistic for calls, now we will need the staff to use the right
work states in many ways to ensure accurate history. So be sure
the training and proper incentives are in place to make this as
likely as possible.
Once we have a reasonable forecast, it is time to create
schedules. We have multi-tasking (somewhat like managing
more than one web chat simultaneously) and backlogs to consider
along with the newly arriving work. There are worker preferences
and skill differences as well as labor cost variances. But this is not
all that different from dealing with multi-media and skill-based
routing in the call center. It may be an iterative process or one
that will require simulation tools and the vendors are taking a
variety of approaches to the challenges.
One thing to think about is how the shrinkage assumptions
apply to back office scheduling. These folks do go on vacation,
have sick time, and experience other reasons not to be available
to do their work. Therefore, we need to think about the proper
application of elements of shrinkage but some that we use in the
call center when we worry about response time in seconds may
not be needed here. In addition, the concept of real-time adherence may not be critical as long as the workers put in the proper
number of hours and accomplish the assigned tasks within the
day as planned.
Back office is the new frontier of workforce planning.
You can think of it as one more project to add to your already
overwhelming pile or the opportunity to get involved in a much
broader context within your organization. There are some real
career opportunities lurking beneath all this work.
4
Question:
proved only to find out that it has a much bigger impact than
expected due to the additional missing people. Therefore,
input as quickly as the exception is known is ideal.
Entering after the fact can be useful in tracking shrinkage assumptions to improve the quality of that data and improve the staffing plans. The more real information that we
have, the better we can make assumptions about shrinkage
by time of day and day of week as well as the overall effect.
Adherence is a critical measurement that affects
customer delay, cost, and agent occupancy so it is one that
many centers measure. However, the goal is not to have
100% adherence to the schedule but generally something
in the 92-95% range. This “forgives” some amount of time
each day for the unexpected such as getting stuck on a call at
break time, etc. We strongly urge centers not to enter these
long call issues as exceptions as this is already built into the
expectation of the percentage of adherence and serves little
purpose for the time expended by the agent, supervisor, and
workforce management staff to handle the entries.
Other types of exceptions that are not agent decisions
but management ones probably need to be entered to account for lack of adherence that the agent had no control
over. We will want to track these against management
largely to support #4 above. For example, if one supervisor
seems to take folks off the phone for unplanned coaching
sessions much more frequently than others, this is a management issue and should be identified and dealt with as such.
If these are not in the system as exceptions coded to management, then the root cause is unlikely to be identified and
addressed. But once again, if this is entered the following
day, it only serves as a historical analysis tool and provides
no real-time help in viewing the state of the call center for
intraday decisions.
There is a balance to be struck in all of this. If the
exception entry serves a solid business purpose (such as accurate payroll), then it is critical. But other exceptions entered
the following day do little to help us manage the center
intraday. They only contribute to historical analysis for root
cause. Unfortunately, we rarely see them used for root cause
analysis in identifying management decision issues and the
focus is all on the agent adherence. Best practice would
separate these two things more effectively.
One of the call centers we support tends to
have a significant amount of schedule exceptions that occur
on the day of, and are reported to us after-the-fact. The
majority of these exceptions are justifiable and are part of the
business. The question I have for you is what is the best way
to handle these exceptions? How should they be tracked so
we have an understanding on how often this occurs? Do we
key the exception into our workforce management system
as is? If so, that would put the agent into adherence. Or
should we use a different code identifying this exception as a
specific type of exception?
Answer:
Your question is one we frequently deal with
regarding exception entry. The answer in your case is a bit
complicated because of the use of the workforce management system as a primary source of time information for
payroll purposes. You need to enter into the system anything
that would affect payroll regardless of other considerations.
That being said, let’s look at the whole idea of entering
exceptions after the fact.
There are four basic reasons to enter exceptions into the
workforce management system:
1. Track the actual availability of staff so that an accurate picture of the real-time and immediate future
can be seen and good management decisions supported on overtime, time-off, and changes of planned
off-phone work activities.
2. Build an accurate indication of shrinkage for future
staff planning.
3. Track agent adherence to schedule and other key
performance indicators.
4. Support analysis of the root causes of staffing mismatches to actual needs so that adjustments can be
made in the future.
When exceptions are not entered in near real-time, the
data cannot be used for the intra-day analysis and planning
envisioned in #1. So if three people are off the phones that
the workforce management system thinks are available, then
any requests for intra-day adjustments will be based on faulty
assumptions. A request for a short team meeting may be ap-
Have a tough question?
Send it to wizard@swpp.org and we’ll try to find an answer!
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Planning For Outbound Contact Centers
B y R i c K o s i b a , P r e s i d e n t , B a y B r i d g e D e c i s i o n Te c h n o l o g i e s
Outbound is Different from Inbound
For most outbound operations, the probability of contacting their customers certainly changes hour by hour, but
also changes significantly week over week. For example, it
is harder to reach customers during the summer months,
because they tend to be on vacation.
Let me start out by stating the obvious: planning for
outbound contact centers is different than planning for inbound
centers. Inbound centers serve to respond to a customer generated contact, while outbound centers serve to start up the
conversation.
Here are some other differences between inbound and
outbound: Customers may not want to chat with our agents when
we call them; however, when they call us, they definitely want to
talk. When we are calling, we’re not sure when our customers are
home; however, our customers have a toll-free number to dial us
and they’re pretty sure we’re always available to chat. We have
a large, but finite set of customers we want to speak with, while
they’ll speak to any of us. And, this is likely the most important
difference: the value of speaking to a customer is very different for
outbound operations than it is for inbound operations.
2. Contact rates are a function of segment, list size, and list
quality. I’ll start with the main point: contact rates matter when calling customer lists, otherwise agent scheduling
would never matter. The point of planning (and scheduling)
is to ensure that the right numbers of agents are available to
make calls in the right proportion to the number of customers who are ready to take calls. An intensity goal ignores this.
Further, different customer segments can vary greatly in
their availability (or desire) to answer your calls. Collections centers may find contact rates on the order of 5%,
while sales centers may experience 20% contact rates.
State of Planning for Outbound
Similarly, all experienced outbound managers understand
that a contact list, be it a list of delinquent cardholders or a
marketing list, all have diminishing probabilities of contact
as you dial through the list more than once. Considering
the contact probability decay as you dial and deplete a list is
important.
Most outbound planning groups still use the big, complicated spreadsheet to develop staff plans. These spreadsheets
contain staff parameters like shrinkage and attrition, and the
standard operational items, like handle times.
However, instead of using the inbound staffing approximation (Erlang), outbound planners typically use a simple “intensity” staffing equation. This calculation determines the number
of agents required, by assuming that the number of contacts is
known beforehand. In other words, “intensity” (the number
of contacts per name in the outbound dialing list) is the goal,
and it is assumed that the operation will always hit this goal.
Because the number of contacts is known up front, the resulting
“workload FTE” (calls answered multiplied with handle time)
can be determined. Easy.
But it isn’t right.
Finally, if your list is large or the quality of leads is better
or worse, your ability to connect with those customers will
also change. Again, contact rates matter, and assuming they
don’t is a bad staffing policy.
3. Wrong party contact rates also matter (and are also seasonal). When dialing, the time required to handle “wrong
party” connections is not immaterial — they can significantly change the overall efficiency of the organization. For
this reason, the seasonality of both right party and wrong
party contacts matter; as the proportion of right to wrong
party contacts changes, so does the handle time associated
with the average call.
Why Isn’t the Intensity Calculation Correct?
Outbound contact centers are very complex, and assuming
that the goal will always be reached regardless of the efficiency
of the outbound dialing list or the seasonality of items like contact rates is truly an oversimplification.
All staffing models should accurately reflect the operation
which is being simulated. In the case of outbound centers, there
are complicating factors that are simply ignored with an intensity calculation. Here’s a list:
4. The concept of “staffing requirement” is different for
outbound centers. Outbound contacts are performed at the
initiative of the contact center management, and the work
is not similarly “time sensitive,” which is clearly different
from inbound centers. Hence, while an inbound staffing
requirement is tied to an expected volume and a desire to
provide a specific service goal, an outbound requirement
is better tied to an economic decision to allocate enough
resources, over a specific window of time, in order to generate specific revenue. Given the nature of outbound contacts,
usually collections or sales calls, the staffing calculation is
explicitly economic in nature, as it should be.
1. Contact rates are seasonal. Like all contact centers, seasonality is meant to be tamed with the long-term planning
process. For outbound contact centers, the probability of
contacting customers changes both by customer segment
and by season. Intensity calculations assume that “contactability” is irrelevant, but as any outbound operational
manager will tell you, the contact rate directly impacts both
the speed of the dialer and the efficiency of the operation.
5. The intensity goal is likely wrong. This one is the biggy. In
much the same way that service level goals for inbound callContinued on page 7
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Planning For Outbound Contact Centers
So let’s walk through a waterfall of calculations:
Continued from page 6
ing centers is often less-than-perfectly-analyzed, intensity
goals for outbound contact centers are often developed with,
at best, manager “experience.”
While experience counts for a lot, the science behind
developing service standards for outbound revenue producing centers is not on its face very difficult, and I’ll discuss it
next. But it does require estimates of contact rates and how
they diminish as the list ages, abort and drop rates, handle
times, center efficiencies and more.
Here’s why the intensity goal is likely wrong: for most
organizations, intensity goals are static over time, while all
of the items listed above that contribute to determining an
optimal service goal change seasonally. A proper analysis of
service goals would likely require different service standards
over time.
The Holy Grail in Outbound Staff Planning
My very smart boss at a large credit card company told me
that there was one number that is “The Holy Grail” in collections planning (and I believe it is true of sales centers, too), and it
is this: If I were to add one more phone agent, what would they
contribute to improving collections losses? This question cuts to
the heart of the matter — it is the basis for marginal economics.
This is an incredibly difficult question to answer. As our
economies of scale change, the answer to the question also
changes.
But we do know a few things already, gleaned from our dialer and customer databases, that we can combine to come close
to this Holy Grail.
You know…
… so you can calculate
Contact history, probability
of a contact, probability
of a wrong party contact,
probability of a non contact,
and the handle times of each
The number of contacts
you’d expect if you prescribe
a series of attempts
The number of contacts you
expect
The number of promises or
sales you’d expect
For collections: The number
of payments you’d receive,
the balance, payment due,
and the probability of a
payment without a contact
For collections: The
marginal payment amount
associated with making
a calling attempt to that
customer
For sales: The average sale,
the sales distribution (for
multiple products)
For sales: The marginal
revenue associated with
making an additional call
Agent expense
The marginal profit
associated with a dialing
attempt
By walking through this waterfall, we can come much closer to
that Holy Grail. We can know the marginal profit of each agent.
An Operational Model
So how do we determine the appropriate staffing requirement? Even if we know what an optimal intensity goal is, we
cannot be assured that we can reach it without understanding the
number of resources needed to hit that goal. It is not as simple as
taking the implied number of right party contacts multiplied with
handle times.
Because of economies of scale and diminishing probabilities
of contacts as the list is worked, we cannot assume that we’ll always get the appropriate number of contacts in the allotted time.
Note that the element of time is critical: given an infinite amount
of time, a single agent can make all of your contacts.
While I may sound like a broken record, the way to determine the relationship between the number of calls answered and
the staff level is through simulation modeling. In knowing this
relationship, and by walking through the economics calculation
waterfall, we can determine the best intensity goal.
1. Contactability: We know the probability of contacting
each customer segment as we pass through the dialing list.
Further, because we can track this probability each time we
attempt a contact, we can determine the diminishing probability of contact for each pass. Finally, if we have decent
data associated with our CRM tools, we can determine the
probability of wrong party contacts each time we attempt a
call. We can also determine the probability of an aborted
call or a dropped call.
2. Handle Times: We can determine the handle time associated with a right or wrong part contact.
3. Agent Shrinkage and Staffed Hours: Through our workforce management system and our dialer, we can determine
agent shrinkage, and the historical distribution of staffing
across every week.
Intensity as a Metric is Really Not So Bad
I want to leave you with the right impression. Intensity as
a staffing goal is not the real issue. In my opinion, intensity is a
fine measure to staff to if it is evaluated weekly or monthly. My
issue with the current way many of our operations use intensity
is that it most often never changes or is analyzed.
Continued on page 9
4. Probability of Sale: If we are a sales function, we can
determine the probability that we will make our sale. If we
are a collections function, we can determine the probability
of a promise and a payment.
5. Agent Costs: We know what our agents cost.
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Workforce Management in the
Multichannel Call Center
B y L a y n e H o l l e y, D i r e c t o r, T h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l C u s t o m e r M a n a g e m e n t I n s t i t u t e ( I C M I )
H
ow agent groups are structured, as well as workforce
management (WFM) practices and experiences, can
have a significant impact on the success of the multichannel contact center.
Recent research from the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) revealed a pattern for agent group
structures. For the most part, according to ICMI’s 2010 research
report Self-Service and the Multichannel Contact Center, some or
nearly all agents in the center handle phone calls, Web calls,
and Web callbacks. For more specialized e-support (email, text,
chat, video chat and fax), most respondents reported that they
specially train and dedicate a smaller, separate group of agents.
It’s important to point out that contact centers should be
vigilant regarding overuse of segmentation. Consider the pooling principle, which states that any movement in the direction
of consolidation of resources will result in improved trafficcarrying (i.e., call handling) efficiency. Conversely, any movement away from consolidation of resources will result in reduced
traffic-carrying efficiency. Specialization may be necessary for
certain complex call types or for multiple languages, but cross
training should be practiced whenever possible. The best time
to start this practice is in the hiring process — recruit and hire
people with the broadest possible variety of skills.
Forecasting and scheduling agents for the multichannel
environment is challenging for most survey participants’ centers
(22.4% said it is much more challenging and 26.3% said it is
somewhat more challenging). Just more than one-third (34.1%)
said the multichannel environment is no more challenging than
a traditional environment.
That forecasting and scheduling for the multichannel center is challenging isn’t a complete surprise given most centers’
inclination to create channel-specific teams. Of course, not
all centers participating in the study have a WFM system in
place — such systems aren’t always appropriate for small contact
centers. Of those centers that do report having a WFM system,
however, many of them do not have accounting in their system
for channels other than telephone. Only 38.5% said their WFM
system accounts for email; the number is even lower for chat
(18.5%), and lower yet for fax and video chat.
Of those respondents whose WFM system does not effectively account for all contact types, 69.9% said they manually
analyze historical date for each contact type (using tools such
as spreadsheets) to forecast workload. A few centers (19%) use
computer simulation. Unfortunately, too many (20.5%) reported
that they simply guess at forecasting for channels their WFM
system can’t account for.
We see then that there’s much ground to be gained in the
multichannel and self-service environment. WFM can both
benefit and contribute to the overall cost savings to their centers
The Self-Service Impact on WFM
The potential cost and loyalty benefits of customer
self-service are huge. In the contact center, for instance,
a typical transaction completed in an IVR system costs
about 50 cents, versus five or six dollars for a typical call
handled by a live agent. However, respondent data in
Self-Service and the Multichannel Contact Center shows
that some organizations with self-service offerings have
trouble meeting service level goals.
Self-service and multichannel environments can
take a toll on forecasting and scheduling accuracy. Based
on the survey results, we can confidently posit that at
least some of the trouble in meeting service level goals
can be attributed to the failure of self-service strategies
to truly address and meet customer needs.
What’s Wrong with Customer Self-Service? (a complimentary research companion whitepaper) offers
some tips for looking at your organization’s self-service
customer experience — and may help WFM professionals understand why the promise of cost savings through
customer deflection has yet to come to fruition.
and their organization. WFM professionals, by sharing their
knowledge and experience, can help the contact center understand the impact of the multichannel environment and how
their decisions may be inadvertently binding resources.
Layne Holley is Director of Community Services for The
International Customer Management Institute (ICMI). She may be
reached at lholley@icmi.com.
SWPP members can save half the cost of the full research report
Self-Service and the Multichannel Contact Center with the
code MultiSWPP. (Offer Ends June 15, 2011)
The companion whitepaper What’s Wrong with Customer SelfService? is complimentary.
NOTE: links to report and whitepaper
Self-Service and the Multichannel Contact Center
http://icmi.com/Resources/Research/Self-Service-Report
What’s Wrong with Customer Self-Service? http://www.icmi.com/
Resources/Whitepapers/Customer-Self-Service-Whitepaper
8
Transforming Performance Monitoring
into Active Performance Management
B y L a r r y S c h w a r t z , Wo r k F l e x S o l u t i o n s
M
ost workforce management systems include a Performance Monitoring console that provides workforce
administrators with a visual representation of real-time
adherence to key performance indicators (KPIs) in their call
centers. Agents with Adherence issues are typically highlighted
(e.g., displayed in red) and/or moved to the top of the screen so
that administrators can identify performance management issues
as they are occurring.
The challenge, however, is how to translate these issues
into actions that can actually improve performance in the call
center. Real-time administrators must analyze identified issues,
determine what actions need to be taken, and then communicate
those actions to the appropriate people (e.g., agents or supervisors). Some of the everyday challenges intraday administrators
encounter include:
Determining what actions to take and who should be
contacted is typically predefined by a documented process that
reflects business policies defined by the call center operator. As
a result it is possible for this analysis to be automated by simply
translating these business policies into a software program that
analyzes real-time performance data coming from the workforce
management system.
Communication of the information can be accomplished by
integrating messaging capability into the automated performance
analysis system. The channel of communication should be appropriate to the recipient – for example the best means of communicating to an agent is likely a screen pop, whereas it might make
more sense to send an email or SMS to a supervisor that may not
be sitting in front of his/her computer all of the time.
The Benefits of Automated Performance
Management
• Which are the most important issues to deal with
• How can multiple issues be analyzed within a timely
manner
• Who needs to know about the issues
• How can these people be reached in a timely manner
In other words, real-time performance administrators themselves become a bottleneck to timely performance management
if there are a lot of issues to deal with or it is difficult to contact
an agent or supervisor to communicate issues and/or suggested
corrective actions. For example, if there is an intraday staffing
shortfall and several agent adherence issues occurring at the
same time, which is most important to resolve first ? It is typical
in many call center environments for only a small fraction of issues to be acted on in near real-time when the impact is highest,
and many issues are only acted on days or weeks later or in some
cases not at all.
Adding more intraday administrators is an expensive approach to solving this problem, and as a result, performance management remains a big challenge for many call center operators.
By augmenting real-time performance monitoring with
real-time analysis and communication, many of the bottleneck
challenges with intraday performance management can be addressed, multiple issues can be analyzed in a timely manner, and
recommended actions can be effectively communicated to the
right people in near-real time. As a result, intraday adherence
issues on a variety of KPIs ranging from intraday staffing levels
to shrinkage can be minimized, resulting in improved call center
performance.
Larry Schwartz is the co-founder and CEO of WorkFlex Solutions a SaaS company specializing in Automated Intraday Workforce
Administration. Information on WorkFlex can be found at www.
workflexsolutions.com.
Planning For Outbound
Contact Centers
The Solution – Automated Performance
Management
When you look at the activities of real-time performance
administrators, it typically involves:
1. Recognizing adherence issues as reported by the Workforce Management System
2. Determining whether the issue requires action and if so
what action should be taken
3. Communicating this information to the appropriate
person (agent or supervisor in a timely way)
Reporting of adherence issues is based on pre-configuration
of the workforce management system, and as such, is already
automated.
Continued from page 7
By walking through the economics calculation waterfall
often, we can derive an intensity goal tied to the marginal profit
of an agent. Ideally, this intensity goal will change as our contactability, etc. changes (usually weekly).
It is most important that staffing goals are tied to the changing economics of the outbound contact center.
Ric Kosiba, PhD is a charter member of SWPP and co-founder
and president of Bay Bridge Decision Technologies. He can be
reached at EDK@BayBridgeTech.com or (410) 224-9883.
9
Over 300 Workforce Planners Attend
2011 SWPP Annual Conference
When asked what she liked best about the conference,
Natalie Robertson of Fairmont Raffles Hotels said, “Networking,
networking, networking! It’s always a fabulous way to meet new
people and network with people who do what you do every day,
have the same challenges and even have some suggested solutions. I’ve attended four SWPP conferences and always find that
I return from the conference re-energized and ready to take on
whatever comes my way at work. It’s great to have the contacts
to reach out to throughout the year when you are trying to
implement new things. The resources at your fingertips are truly
priceless!”
Diana Heinrich of Nelnet said that “even better than all
of the knowledge is the fact that we found people who talk
Workforce-ese. It was so great getting to just sit and talk to
others about the things we think are so exciting like SLAs and
adherence.”
The last day of the conference started off with Behind
Closed Doors sessions, where workforce management vendors
had time with their customers, and ended up with a closing session where the attendees shared their favorite moments of the
event.
“Another attendee asked me if I get the same information every year after they learned that I have attended multiple
years,” said Victoria Marcella of VW Credit. “My response was
definitely no — that I get new and fresh information every year
since there are so many diverse sessions to choose from.”
We are already planning for the 2012 conference, which is
set for March 7-9 at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. This will
be our 10th Annual Conference, and we are going to make this
event better than ever!
Continued from page 1
After a morning of conference warm-up sessions, the
conference kicked off with a motivational keynote by popular
speaker, Neil Dempster. After the keynote, the breakout sessions began. There were over 50 sessions for this conference,
all presenting great information about industry trends and hot
topics of interest to all. Here are just a few of the most popular topics for 2011:
• Keys to Operating with Home-Based Agents
• Hiring for Workforce Management: Part 1 & 2
• Basics of Call Center Math
• The Perils & Pitfalls of Performance-Based Scheduling
• The Power of One Activities
• Lean Six Sigma Tools for Everyday Use
• Getting the Leaders On Board
“The sessions were excellent,” said Lucille Jones Grant of
Amerigroup. “The workshops covered all of the materials from
intraday to forecasting. The speakers were well-rounded and
understood their area of expertise.” She added, “The speakers invited interactions from the participants which allowed a
wealth of knowledge to flow from everywhere.”
Meeting peers and networking is an important part of this
event. The first day was capped with a networking reception,
and the evening event the next night was an outing to Margaritaville, where we discovered the hidden singing talents of many
attendees during the live band karaoke.
10
Events
Calendar
Trade Shows/Conferences:
Title
Date
Location
Driving Innovations: Verint User Conference
May 16-19
Red Rock Casino
Las Vegas, NV
Pipkins User Group
May 17-19
Doubletree Hotel
St. Louis, MO
NICE User Group
May 23-26
The Venetian Resort & Casino
Las Vegas, NV
Call Center Optimization Forum
June 2
Washington, DC
Call Center Week
June 13-17
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
Las Vegas, NV
Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE)
June 13-15
Sheraton New Orleans HotelNew
Orleans, LA
Call Center Optimization Forum
July 14
Omaha, NE
Web Seminars:
Web Seminars from The Call Center School — 90-minute seminars @ $300 each*
Note: SWPP Members Receive One Free Web Seminar Per Year
Spring/
Summer 2011
Fall 2011
Introduction to Workforce Management: An Overview of the WFM Process
May 6
Sept 9
Data Collection and Analysis: Getting Off to the Right Start
May 13
Sept 16
Forecasting Fundamentals: Proven Practices for Predicting Call Workload
May 20
Sept 23
Calculating Call Center Staff: The Math of Call Center Staffing Tradeoffs
May 27
Sept 30
Scheduling Principles and Problems: Solutions to Scheduling Challenges
June 3
Oct 7
Managing Daily Service Levels: An Intra-Day Guide to Managing Staff and Service
June 10
Oct 14
Attendance and Adherence: Getting and Keeping Bodies in Seats
June 17
Oct 21
Advanced Forecasting Techniques: Fine-Tuning Workload Predictions
June 24
Oct 28
WFM Design Dilemmas: Optimizing Staffing in Evolving Contact Center Scenarios
July 15
Nov 4
Skill-Based Routing Design: Balancing Customer, Agent, and Center Needs
July 22
Nov 18
Skill-Based Routing WFM Challenges: Forecasting and Scheduling for SBR Scenarios
July 29
Dec 2
* Also available in e-learning format
11
Matthew Pitts Named as 2011 Workforce
Management Professional of the Year
Continued from page 1
The other finalists for the award were Jackie Reeves of West
Corporation, Greg Samos of Computershare, Sean Stewart of
Permanent General, and Jonathan Waller of Good Sam.
Matthew Pitts has 13 years of call center experience, and
has been in Workforce Management since 1999. He is currently
the Resource Planning Supervisor for Bluegreen Corporation’s
owner contact center in the Indianapolis area. Since joining
Bluegreen in August of 2007, Matt has been responsible for supervising the Workforce Management team and overseeing the
various aspects of the team including forecasting, scheduling,
and real-time contact center management.
Matt was born and raised in suburban St. Louis, but thanks
to his parents relocating to Indianapolis, after spending a year
after high school in the Rotary Youth Exchange Program in
Bremen, Germany, he found his way to Indiana University. He
graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts in Germanic
Studies and Political Science, and was fortunate enough to
spend his junior year studying at the University of Hamburg.
Prior to working at Bluegreen, Matt worked for Resort Condominiums International of Indianapolis, IN.
Matt’s primary goal is ensuring that Bluegreen is meeting the service level goals they have outlined for their owners as well as the owners for whom Bluegreen provides resort
management services. This has required a heavy attention to
forecasting and adapting to change in what proved to be an
extremely volatile economy and industry over the past several
years since the credit and mortgage industries took a turn in
2008. Bluegreen management adapted quickly and appropriately, created new revenue streams, brought in new management
contracts, and increased online servicing. Throughout it all,
Matt and his team weathered all of these changes and achieved
an annual forecast variance of 3% in 2008, 1.5% in 2009 and
2.4% in 2010, often done with little or no historical data for all
the various changes that were implemented.
In 2009, the WFM team was given a challenge to get even
more creative with associate schedules. The directive was just
another component of a global “do more with less” theme in the
midst of struggling economic times. Within a short period, Matt
had led his team in developing a fairly robust Flex Scheduling
pool of phone associates. The biggest challenge to successfully implement this
commonly-used concept was the existing culture and mindset
within Bluegreen’s contact center. To provide a little background, Bluegreen’s hours of operation are 8AM - 9PM, Monday
through Friday and 9AM - 5:30PM Saturday. The 13-hour business day lent itself to traditional 8-hour schedules overlapping
during the mid-day and often causing staffing overages. Since
From left to right, Finalists Sean Stewart of Permanent General, Greg
Samos of Computershare, Jackie Reeves of West Corporation, and
Workforce Management Professional of the Year Matt Pitts of
Bluegreen Corporation. Not pictured: Jonathan Waller of Good Sam.
95% of the associates are full time at 40 hours, WFM desired a
large pool of part-time associates to offset the overages. However, the 160-hour new hire training, vast resort knowledge,
complex systems and customized customer service expectations
do not make it easy to keep part-time associates who are just
looking for an “easy second job.” Matt and his workforce team partnered with the operations
department to target 20 to 25 associates (or 25% of the targeted
department of associates) who were willing to flex 30-40 hours
worked weekly while providing 50 hours of schedule availability. Under Matt’s diligent leadership, a flex-scheduling program
evolved and was tested for 90 days during the 2nd quarter of 2010. Matt was able to extend a shift differential to pilot participants to
include $1.00 per hour for weekday flex plus an additional $1.00
per hour for Saturday availability. After modeling, Matt was able
to demonstrate the ROI for the shift differential to show a payroll
savings in number of hours worked per associate and efficiencies
gained by the program. He also proposed flex-schedule participants get first rights at vacation bidding.
Matt also partnered with Human Resources to have participants sign an acknowledgement form and make a commitment to
participate. He also trained them on the details of the flex-scheduling; how to mark their availability selections, submit schedule
change requests, and use the program to their personal benefit. During the pilot program, Matt and team realized a savings
of 1087 scheduled labor hours; an estimated payroll savings of
$16,500 with only 20% of the department in a 3-month time
period. The average associate worked 33 hours weekly; a total
savings in 3 months of 84 hours per associate. The increased
Continued on page 13
12
2011 WFM Professional
of the Year
Thank You
to
Continued from page 12
ability to efficiently place schedules decreased overtime needs
by 600 hours; an additional estimated payroll savings of $13,500
in 3 months or nearly $54,000 annually. The pilot program was a hit for both WFM and associates
and flex-scheduling has become a permanent part of Bluegreen’s
scheduling options. Associates willingly volunteer to participate on a quarterly basis and the flex team is now approximately
30% of the targeted department. All new associates are now
hired in as part of the flex team. Under Matt’s leadership and flair for creativity, his team
has actively participated in the development of contests targeted to increase staffing on Mondays; Bluegreen’s peak volume
day. Matt implemented the now famous “Manic Mondays”
contest soliciting overtime targeted to Mondays during peak
season. Each hour of approved and worked overtime earned
the associate 5 tickets. The tickets were collected and a winner
from each department was drawn weekly the following day. The associate had to be present to win (no absences the day of
the drawing). The motivating prize was being able to turn the
tables on WFM — the associate got to tell WFM what schedule
they wanted to work for an entire week. This contest was a
huge success within the center. And one that virtually motivated many without costing a dime.
Matt is heavily involved in a company initiative of driving
transactional activity to the web instead of a phone call. He
has recommended several “what-if” staffing models to support a
reduction in inbound volume and is depended upon to routinely
provide initiative reporting and year-over-year comparisons,
along with a rolling staffing model to support the trending efforts
in this area of focus. Matt has also implemented a Workforce Committee with
agents from the call center and a Job Shadow program in which
an agent spends 90 days with the WFM team to learn the basics
of what goes on in the workforce management area.
The SWPP Board of Advisors selected the five finalists
from nominations submitted on the SWPP website. The Workforce Management Professional of the Year award is chosen
from the five finalists by the Board of Advisors and announced
at the 2011 SWPP Annual Conference.
Sponsors
Platinum Level
Gold Level
Silver Level
Bronze
Interested in becoming a sponsor?
Call Vicki Herrell at 877-289-0004.
13
W F M
S u r v e y
R e s u l t s
Reason for Not Purchasing WFM System
Continued from page 2
New System vs. Old System
The participants who do not currently have workforce
management software were asked why they have not purchased
a system, and the largest percentage of respondents (18%) said
that it is too expensive or they haven’t found a system to fit their
needs. Twelve percent do not have enough schedule variation
to need a system, and nine percent have too few agents to justify
the purchase. In the Other category, some responses included
that executive management doesn’t see the need, it is not set as
a priority, they were unsuccessful in pitching to senior management, and then there were several folks who are in the process of
looking at systems.
When asked how the new system performed compared to the
old system, 65% said the new system works better. Fourteen percent said they work about the same, 11% said the new system is
worse, and 10% said they traded one set of problems for another.
Considering Switching WFM Systems
in Next Year
Fourteen percent of the participants are considering switching workforce management systems in the next year. Seventythree percent said they are not, while 13% did not know.
Plan to Purchase WFM System
in Next 12 Months
Of the participants without workforce management software, 36% plan to purchase a system in the next 12 months.
Thirty-five percent don’t know if they will purchase, and 29%
said they will not purchase in the next year.
Considering WFM Software as a Service (SaaS)
When asked if they had considered acquiring workforce
management Software as a Service (Saas) versus having the
software installed on their servers, 59% said no, while 21% said
they didn’t know it was available that way. Fifteen percent said
they considered it but chose not to use, and five percent are using workforce management software in this manner.
Closing Comments
There are some interesting findings in this survey, including
the fact that over half of the participants are “Satisfied” with
their current workforce management system, but a very small
group is “Very Satisfied.” Also, over half have had the current
system for over five years, and the most valuable capability of
the current system is scheduling accuracy. Over a third has used
more than one workforce management system, and the reason
cited for the change for the largest group is that they needed
more features that were found in the new system. Also, the majority that has changed systems has found the new system better
than the old one. Of the group that does not have a workforce
management system, the reason that most have not purchased is
that the software is too expensive.
We appreciate your participation in this study and hope
that you will participate in our Spring Survey, which focuses on
multichannel workforce management.
Contracting for Services
The respondents were asked if they contract for workforce
management services from any outside vendors, and while the
numbers were small of those who were actually doing this, the
largest group is contracting for assistance with forecasting.
Data analysis assistance
Forecasting assistance
Scheduling assistance
Other services (please describe in Comments)
Yes
3.0%
3.1%
1.6%
2.2%
No
97.0%
96.9%
98.4%
97.8%
14
I
n
d
u
s
t
r
y
N
e
w
s
Aspect Recognized as Service Leader
by CRM Magazine for Workforce
Optimization Suite
Verint Launches Industry’s First
“5th-Generation” Enterprise
Workforce Optimization Solution Chelmsford, MA — Aspect, a leading provider of customer
contact and Microsoft platform solutions, today announced it
has been named a Leader in the Workforce Optimization Suite
category of CRM Magazine’s 2011 Service Leader Awards announced in the publication’s March issue.
Named a leader for the fourth consecutive year, Aspect was
acknowledged for what analysts referred to as “having a clear
and well-articulated company direction, several strong partnerships, a broad workforce optimization product line, and a reputation for exceptional customer care.”
“Aspect has executed on a well-designed workforce optimization strategy for many years, evidenced by the strong market
success and customer satisfaction results of its solutions,” said Paul
Stockford, chief analyst at Saddletree Research. “The company’s
unified communications-enabled workforce optimization solutions
provide solid capabilities for contact centers to effectively control
costs, enhance service levels and align performance to support
strategic goals while bringing greater insight to the management
and improvement of the overall customer experience.”
Melville, NY — Verint® Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNT)
today announced the availability of the enterprise workforce
optimization (WFO) market’s first and only “fifth-generation”
suite. The latest version of the Impact 360® Workforce Optimization™ software from Verint Witness Actionable Solutions®
became generally available in Q1 2011.
With Impact 360, organizations can benefit from a solution
set that is truly unified across the full range of WFO capabilities—enabling them to capture, analyze and act on customer,
business and market intelligence; gain a singular and complete
view of individual customer interactions, experiences and
histories; maximize information and workflow across functions;
and take a customer experience management approach that’s
Real Time at the Right Time™. By mastering the balance between
efficiency and effectiveness, organizations can drive customer
loyalty, top-line revenue, customer service operating margins
and compliance through continuous performance improvement.
The fifth-generation Impact 360 Workforce Optimization
solution represents a strategic architectural release that sets new
standards in the market for unified, enterprise WFO—including
real-time enterprise collaboration, navigation and ease of use,
total cost of ownership, simplified system administration and
depth of functionality. This latest version of Impact 360 will
integrate with the company’s new Voice of the Customer Analytics platform that combines all sources of customer interaction
data into a single holistic platform for cross-channel analysis
and individual customer tracking capabilities.
The Call Center School Announces
Web-Based Quikstaff Tool
Nashville, TN — The Call Center School announces the
availability of its popular Quikstaff calculator as a web-based
offering at www.quikstaff.com. Quikstaff is a complimentary,
easy-to-use tool to help call center managers and workforce
planners with all types of staffing calculations. The tool uses an
Erlang formula to calculate required staff for a given amount of
workload and a service goal, or conversely it can provide the
expected service to be delivered with a specified workload and
staffing number. The Quikstaff tool can also be used to calculate
and apply staff shrinkage numbers and to calculate telephone
trunk requirements in the center.
Free-of-Charge Teleopti CCC Forecasts
Now Includes Budgets Module
Stockholm, Sweden — The free forecasting offering of Teleopti
has been available for workforce management forecasting in the
contact centre, back-office and retail markets for almost two
years, and has been a huge success with more than 2000 downloads from customers world-wide. Customers of all levels of complexity have been enjoying the easy-to-use forecasting wizard
that makes data validation and seasonality and trend analysis
quick and painless, for inbound as well as all types of multimedia
and email. The ability to work with months as well as weeks and
days, and to easily add campaigns or follow-up forecasting accuracy all in one screen has been very appreciated by customers.
Teleopti announces that a completely new module of
functionality, Budgets, will be added to the workforce management solution Teleopti CCC Forecasts, while still keeping it
free-of-charge. This allows customers to create long-term staffing
budgets based on the forecasted need as well as the available
resources, while taking into consideration attrition, shrinkage,
efficiency, exceptions, and to balance these out with new hires,
contractors, overtime etc. Bringing staffing budgets into a balance on a daily, weekly or monthly basis has never been easier!
Teleopti CCC Forecasts, now with staff budgeting functionality,
will be available for public download for both new and existing
customers from early March at http://forecasts.teleopti.com.
Pipkins Announces Date for Annual User
Group Meeting
St. Louis, MO — Pipkins, Inc., a leading supplier of workforce
management software and services to the call center industry,
today announced the 2011 User Group Conference will be held
May 17-19, 2011 in St. Louis. The conference is an excellent
opportunity for Pipkins’ clients to network and exchange ideas
with other software users. Pipkins started the User Group Meeting in 1998 to allow clients to network and exchange ideas with
other software users.
Since the first User Group conference, clients from across
the United States, as well as Canada, United Kingdom and the
Caribbean have attended. “We see it as part of our continued
customer service,” said Bob Webb, VP Sales. “It is a great opportunity for our clients to meet one another and discuss specific
issues related to maximum utilization of our software. They
are always eager to hear about new features and ways to make
improvements in their contact centers.” User Group instructors
are experts in their fields and provide outstanding feedback and
support related to specific situations.
15
Join the Society of Workforce
Planning Professionals
B
ecome a part of an organization designed specifically to facilitate professional
development of workforce planning professionals. SWPP provides its membership with a variety of benefits, including this quarterly newsletter, regional
networking meetings, online forums, an annual conference, and more.
Membership in SWPP is available to anyone in the workforce planning or related
profession.
There are three distinct levels of membership in SWPP: individual/associate
membership, site membership, and corporate membership. One of these memberships
is right for you! Membership costs vary with the type of membership. Prices for each
membership are as follows:
• Individual/Associate Membership
• Site Membership (up to 3 members)
• Corporate Membership (unlimited number of members)
$295 USD
$595 USD
$4995 USD
Membership applications are available on the web at www.swpp.org. Still have
more questions? Call us at 877-289-0004 or email us at info@swpp.org. We’d love to
hear from you!
Society of Workforce Planning Professionals
6508 Grayson Court
Nashville, TN 37205
Visit us on the web at www.swpp.org
16
SWPP
Spring 2011
A quarterly publication of the
Society of Workforce
Planning Professionals,
6508 Grayson Court
Nashville, TN 37205
877-289-0004
www.swpp.org
Editor: Vicki Herrell
vicki.herrell@swpp.org
©2010 Society of Workforce Planning Professionals