What is Call Center Shrinkage?

Shrinkage is a workforce management metric that refers to time in which agents are being paid but are not available to handle interactions. There is planned shrinkage, like agents being scheduled for staff meetings and trainings, and there is unplanned shrinkage, like an agent calling in sick or on vacation.

Shrinkage is important to measure, because contact centers need to factor shrinkage into their forecasts to ensure they will be adequately staffed.

For example: If 10% of the staff is expected to call in sick on a Friday, then the forecast can be increased by 10% to compensate for this eventuality.