How to empower agents with CXone WFM

Contact center and back-office environments face an ongoing battle to boost agent satisfaction and retention. Recent surveys reveal alarming attrition rates, with average turnover hovering around 49% for contact center agents and 47% for back-office employees.^[1]

With the cost of replacing agents with average performance at a staggering $20,800 per individual, there’s an urgent need for solutions that prioritize employee satisfaction and retention.^[2]

One key trend driving this need is agent demand for flexible work models and schedules. Millennials, Gen Z workers, and remote employees alike prioritize flexibility in their work arrangements. Flexible hours consistently rank as a top benefit, highlighting the crucial role of flexibility in enhancing employee satisfaction and retention.

The latest salvo in this battle to improve agent satisfaction and reduce turnover is CXone Workforce Management (WFM). CXone WFM provides the tools to manage and forecast agent schedules, simplifying the process of overseeing the contact center's workforce. It enables organizations to create and optimize schedules based on their business needs.

CXone WFM is highly configurable, giving administrators the power to define permissions, configure activity codes, and set parameters for shift trades and auto-approval rules. CXone WFM gives agents access to their schedules in two ways: My Zone and a mobile app.

Configurable flexibility through My Zone web interface

CXone WFM offers powerful features through the My Zone web interface that empower agents with control over their schedules, enhancing the overall performance of the contact center and back office.

Agent empowerment features within CXone WFM include:

• My Zone intuitive web interface: The central hub for agents' interactions with the WFM suite. From viewing schedules to requesting time off, agents have a range of capabilities at their fingertips.
• My Schedule: Agents can easily view, manage, and request changes to their schedules through My Schedule. Whether it's requesting time off or editing activities, agents have the autonomy to make adjustments while keeping managers informed.
• Schedule Requests: The Schedule Requests feature provides agents with visibility into the status of their requests, from PTO to shift trades, streamlining the process and reducing administrative overhead.
• Notifications: Agents can stay up to date with app notifications for everything from schedule updates to shift trade approvals.
• Trade Shift: The Trade Shift feature allows agents to seamlessly exchange shifts with their colleagues, ensuring flexibility without compromising business needs.
• My Zone scheduling capabilities: Features like shift preferences and shift bidding give agents a voice in the scheduling process, fostering a collaborative approach that aligns with both business requirements and individual preferences.
• Self-service scheduling: By giving agents the ability to request scheduled intervals off work, work extra hours when available, and make self-swaps, the organization can meet staffing needs, minimize variances, improve occupancy, and reduce overtime. Automation through approval rules further streamlines the process, enhancing agent satisfaction and reducing administrative burdens.

On-the-go access and visibility with the CXone WFM mobile app

Given that 96% of call center agents want some form of remote work, mobile solutions are quickly becoming a requirement for today’s workforce management teams. According to our research, 72% of contact center agents now work in a hybrid or fully remote environment. While flexible work environments do empower agents in many ways, they can create specific challenges around IT issues, lack of performance visibility, and scheduling difficulties. All these factors can increase agent stress and contact center managers must implement flexible tools and guidelines to ensure ongoing retention.

Organizations can significantly reduce dissatisfaction and attrition by giving agents the ability to manage their schedules through intuitive, accessible tools. The CXone WFM Mobile application is designed to meet this need, offering comprehensive agent empowerment features that enhance both flexibility and control. The app grants agents the autonomy to balance their work and personal lives effectively. Key features include:

• Ease of access: Like My Zone, the mobile app provides convenient access for agents on the go, enabling them to check schedules, submit requests, and receive notifications from anywhere.
• Notifications: Agents can get real-time notifications via the mobile app and stay in the loop on the go. This keeps them consistently connected and reduces the kind of uncertainty that can lead to dissatisfaction.
• Streamlined time off requests: The CXone WFM Mobile app allows agents to view a color-coded calendar showing approved and pending time off. Agents can also check their time off balance, including total earned, taken, scheduled, and remaining days, providing a clear understanding of available time off.
• Easy shift trades: Agents often need to adjust their work schedules, whether for a doctor's appointment, family commitment, or Taylor Swift concert! The ability to trade scheduled shifts empowers agents to balance their hectic schedules with work responsibilities and not encroach on precious vacation time.
• Advanced self-service options: In contact centers, where staffing needs can fluctuate daily, CXone WFM Mobile’s self-service features offer agents real-time visibility and scheduling power for interval-level time off, extra hours, and self-swap opportunities, allowing agents to manage their work-life balance more effectively.

By reducing uncertainty, simplifying administrative tasks, and fostering greater flexibility, CXone WFM Mobile empowers agents to take control of their work experience, leading to higher satisfaction and improved performance.

Empowering agents with control over their schedules is essential for driving retention and performance in today's contact center and back-office environments. CXone WFM, with My Zone and the mobile app, offers a comprehensive solution that puts agents at the center of workforce management, enabling scheduling flexibility while optimizing efficiency and control. Learn more about how CXone WFM can revolutionize your workforce management strategy in our white paper, “Empowering Agents with CXone WFM.”

^{[1] Simpler Media Group: Managing the Modern Contact Center: Current Employer Trends (2024)
[2] SQM: Call Center Attrition Rate – Is It Now the Most Important KPI? (2023)}