Real-time and tactical planning: A PPF discussion document

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1 Real-time and tactical planning: A PPF discussion document Introduction The Professional Planning Forum (PPF) is committed to professionalising all aspects of the planning function. One of our key streams is Real-time where we are focused on determining and developing best practice to make Real-time teams the best they can possibly be. Why? Because a Real-time team is the key link in the chain of communication between planning and the operation; telling the story of the day before it happens as it happens and advising on improvements. Real-time teams can make or break any plan. Often considered the rock of the planning process, they need to have a good grasp of all planning functions, ensure steady and consistent management of the forecasted plan, whilst feeding back improvements to ensure even better planning next time. It s such an important function that earlier this year, we kicked off a series of real-time master classes with 6 leading organisations. The aim was to undertake a detailed review of the Real-time function and understand if there are processes, or principles which should be promoted as best practice. Discussions have been focused on: the role of the Real-time function, best practice with regard to shrinkages, strategies for short-term flexibility, operational communications and buy-in and the future of Real-time. The sessions have been both interesting and lively, and the attendees have generously shared their thoughts, experiences and views on best practice. The work is on-going and this paper is designed to share interim findings and invite our membership to feed back on the content and the questions we have asked, as well as provide us with any relevant experiences. The steering group will then formalise the findings which will be presented at our best practice seminar in November. We also aim is to develop an efficiency model and defined maturity categories which will be published in the PPF s 2014 Best Practice guide. The role of the Real-time function The role of the Real-time team is to build, develop and manage Real-time operations. They have responsibility for driving improved monthly, weekly, daily and intra-day service level consistency for customers. They maximise resource utilisation on the day, ensuring cost-effective operational efficiency and effective management of call flows, skill sets and short term shift profiles. The team is also responsible for supporting the company s commercial and change management agenda by building strong links with relevant functions across the business. During the master classes, we mapped out views on best practice, ways to provide greater integration with the other planning teams and the rest of the operation and how to deliver a greater degree of agility and empowerment to the Real-time team. The exercise led to a conclusion that to drive genuine Real-time efficiency a 2 stage process is required. Firstly, for stage 1, there should be a formal handover from the Scheduling team to the Real-time team between 1 and 4 weeks prior to implementation of the schedule. The actual time required will generally be dictated by the volatility of the organisational environment; i.e. in a fairly stable environment it can be further out, but in a complex, rapidly changing environment, this will tend to happen closer to go live. The short-term forecast should be completed by one of the following teams: Forecasting, Scheduling or Real-time. The short-term scheduling activities (including the planning of all known offline activities (e.g. training and communications sessions) will need to be managed at this point and the real-time projection should include a detailed intra-day view. It is important to hold in-depth analysis and communication meetings with all required individuals, whilst remaining decisive and openminded. Remember, it s not air traffic control! So be decisive without worry, champion the customer and lead from the front. Robert Tuck, Planning & Performance Manager, Thames Water Utilities Ltd Stage 2 is focused on on the day management. The Real-time team will, at regular intervals throughout the day, review, refocus and reforecast depending upon the business requirements at the time. They will make changes to the original plan as needed and be allowed to take here and now live, operational decisions. They will create interval projection reports that optimise the new refocus for the day. Hereafter you will see what the Realtime efficiency model could look like. We invite our members to send views and suggestions on the proposed Real-time efficiency model. 1 Professional Planning Forum Ltd

2 Putting People First Real-time skills The tables in this section lay-out the competencies required for each skill level for the Real-time function, as laid out in the PPF s accreditation framework. These skills and competencies were reviewed, discussed and validated by the master class participants who felt that a couple of things were worth pointing out: n Firstly, Real-time teams need to have skills in all areas of planning. The nature of the job requires an understanding of forecasting and scheduling and the ability to assimilate and deliver good management information n Secondly, it is our belief that the industry skill levels are probably at levels 1 and 2. We attribute this to the fact that Real-time planners have typically been promoted quickly from more junior and perhaps administrative roles. The function itself is also relatively recent n Last but not least, the more volatile the environment, the more skills and experience are required for example agility and dexterity (i.e. attributes that are difficult to learn) which are mostly gained through extensive, on the job exposure Our first skills benchmarking exercise completed in September 2013 reinforces the points above more on this in our November newsletter and at our National Best Practice seminar on 19 November. Operational focus and awareness The ability to understand the impact on operational performance of individual and group actions, as well as external factors, and use this in influencing the behaviour of colleagues at all levels. Real-time operational planning and management Plan and co-ordinate management of resources on the day, working with a range of managers and functions to respond to issues, seek resolution and take longer term operational learning from situations that arise. Tactical and contingency planning Plan and co-ordinate resources over the coming days/weeks and develop contingency plans, working with a range of managers and functions to resolve issues and drive operational learning. Information and Analysis for Planning The ability to bring key data to life, communicating complex information in a way that is concise, relevant and drives effective decision making. Relationships and engagement Establishes effective relationships and networks, engaging crossfunctional collaboration. Change and innovation Develops the role of the planning function as a catalyst or responder, stimulating effective innovation at the heart of the organisation. Co-ordinate offline time, time off and post-scheduling changes Manage requests for post-scheduling changes and for time-off or off-line activities, so as to meet both business and people requirements. Analyse staffing shortfall/surplus & performance implications Identify and evaluate staffing shortfalls or surpluses by interval and for long term planning, making appropriate recommendations about the use of resources to better meet business objectives. Forecast resource availability and 'shrinkage' The ability to forecast actual resource availability, understand the factors behind this, set appropriate 'shrinkage' parameters and put in place activities to continually learn and improve. Forecast staffing demand/capacity required The ability to forecast resource requirements, understand the drivers of this demand, set appropriate forecast parameters and put in place activities to track performance against forecast and continually learn and improve. Long term planning and budgeting Develop staffing plans & budgets for 2-36 months ahead, involving the right parties to ensure the correct 2

3 inputs and assumptions are included and reviewed and the necessary actions are identified and agreed. People Planning The ability to analyse and plan for the entire employee lifecycle from recruitment to promotion or leaving - working with HR and other departments to integrate activity in this area and track the people impact. Build forecasting and planning models Create, test and improve models to forecast or plan for any factors important to contact centre planning and analysis and the ability to explain these to others so that they can be used to best effect. Gather the data required to plan and forecast The ability to understand what information is required for good forecasting/planning and to gather this, working with other departments and people to gain their involvement and support. Schedule employee time Development of employee schedules and scheduling strategies to meet business objectives and improve flexibility in meeting both business and people requirements. Skills-based scheduling and work blending Analysis of the factors that make up a successful skills strategy in the centre and the ability to think creatively around new alternatives and to assess the impact of these. Planning for different channels The ability to optimise resources and customer experience across multiple channels and contact types - creating the necessary processes, communication, accountability and understanding. Professional development Clear progress in supporting continuing professional development and learning, with demonstrable benefits to individuals and the business. Discussion: We invite our members to provide their views on the following questions: n Is your Real-time team knowledgeable about all areas of the Planning function? n Where would you put the skills levels of your team members (categories above)? n Give examples (positive and negative) of how this level of skill is impacting/limiting your planning operations and performance. 3

4 Putting People First Best practice with regard to shrinkages Shrinkage is one of the big questions most often raised by our members: how do our paid or scheduled hours shrink away when you take account of all the factors that cause people not to be on the phones? What are shrinkages? How much shrinkage should we plan for? What should the shrinkage target be and what shrinkages does everyone plan for? And how do you manage all these factors whilst remaining flexible and agile? The table hereafter shows at which stage of the planning process shrinkages are likely to occur and therefore at which point the shrinkage category can be planned and calculated correctly. It also provides a structure/guideline to help with the communication and reviewing of shrinkages. And one last time - it is critical that information is fed back into the plan and doesn t end with Real-time. The master class participants agreed that to deal with shrinkages effectively it s essential to track and manage operational factors very tightly. Discussion: n Does your organisation track the daily changes made and regularly review these? n Are patterns built into future plans, or prevented from happening again? n Do you track these shrinkages on the day and talk about them, so everyone understands the impact? Strategies for short-term flexibility Over the last 10 years the Planning Forum has encouraged members to challenge legacy employee contracts and existing scheduling processes to drive improvement for the business and the employee. Clear evidence has been seen through the innovation award finalists each year which shows that by creating a worklife balance and a greater degree of flexibility, it s possible to drive improvements in absence, attrition, employee morale, schedule fit and overall performance. The steering committee acknowledged that schedulers will do the best they can with the tools they have available, but restrictive contracts and lack of scheduling options and/or misguided flexibility ambitions often mean failed delivery against strategic goals and unnecessary cost. And if restrictive contracts and limited scheduling options exist, the Real-time team will lack the agility they need to take appropriate corrective action. There are also times when trying to be too flexible is misguided and can backfire. Let s take a simple example. Business A is in a fairly volatile environment and they decide to increase occupancy by scheduling training and offline work for each and every 15 minute idle time slot. Initially, occupancy increases, but very quickly flexibility is lost and agents burn out. We all recognise that agent burn out leads to increased agent turnover and/or absence rates, which are both detrimental to service levels and a key driver of unnecessary cost as additional resource will need to be scheduled or recruited. However, it s important to think about the implications of the actions we take. In this instance, there s also the distinct possibility that agents will adapt their behaviours in order to cope. For example, they could take longer to deal with customers in an effort to reduce idle time and avoid getting training interventions delivered to them. This behaviour will subsequently impact historical average handling time data that schedulers use to schedule resource which will mean that MORE agents will be scheduled, thus increasing operational costs. Another knock-on effect could be an increase in manager and Real-time administration time to analyse and manage the situation, which will reduce the time they are able to spend on other activity, such as short term planning and better shifts /scheduling. So the lesson here is be careful not to drive flexibility in ways that could negatively impact operational performance over the longer term. Cautionary words aside, some years ago and in close collaboration with our members, the PPF identified 18 different flexibility options that were built into a flexibility toolkit. This vital reference material provides the pro s and con s of each potential flexibility option, along with some top tips, provided by forum members on how to successfully implement each approach. The flexibility toolkit was reviewed by the steering committee and found to contain a robust list of areas that can help drive operational flexibility and reduce detrimental occurrences on the day. It can be found on our website ( but the key categories are as follows: 1 Homeworking 2 Student working 3 Term time 4 Part time 5 Job share 6 Second job 7 Fixed shifts 8 Rotational patterns 9 Trade off shifts 10 Annualised hours 11 Flexi-time 12 Time banking 13 Unpaid leave 14 Overtime 15 Contractual overtime 16 Zero-hours contracts 17 On call 18 Relief/short-notice shifts 4

5 Discussion: The steering committee believes that flexibility is a strategic decision, with a number of questions that should be asked at a senior level. We d love to hear your thoughts on the following questions: n How volatile is the business environment and how much flexibility does the organisation need? n How does your organisation ensure flexibility? n How are employee needs balanced with those of the business? n What scheduling strategy is needed to match strategic goals? n Do changes to employee contracts need to be made to achieve this? n What is the cost of getting this wrong? You need to combine different flexibility options to provide a fit for the business and the employee. Advanced contact centres will also use these options as a way of attracting and retaining the best employees. Steve Woosey, Chief Executive, Professional Planning Forum Communication A principal cause of in-effective communication is misaligned KPI s. For example, many operations managers will have KPI s around customer experience and employee engagement whilst Real-time will be trying to deliver a service level; i.e. abandon rate or percentage of calls answered for the day. So, imperative number one is to make sure KPI s are aligned and understood by all parties! Above and beyond this key point, during the master classes the participants all agreed that communication is vital but that, far too often, it isn t optimised. Communication is a massive subject and far too detailed to cover comprehensively in this discussion paper, but you ll find hereafter some tips that are important to highlight: n There needs to be a formal hand over meeting between Real-time and forecasting and scheduling to communicate the assumptions and rationale behind the plan. Why? It s simple: without this Real-time can soon degenerate into fire fighting n As well as the hand-over, it s important to schedule enough discussion time to focus on continuous improvement and operational learning. During these meetings, make sure the right people are present to discuss what happened and what can be improved/prevented next time n Speak to team leaders and managers daily. Agree what information needs to be communicated and discussed and how regular the updates need to be, without forgetting to agree the ideal time for the updates Do you have any top tips to share? Are your departmental KPI s aligned? What communications processes have you implemented that are having a positive impact on operational performance and team work? A final thought: Real-time processes need to consider the impact on front line staff and customers. If you get your processes right, your Real-time team will perform better, customers and agents will be happier and your organisation will become more productive and costefficient. It s a win-win for all concerned! Please send your comments, suggestions and experiences to: phil.anderson@planningforum.co.uk 5 Professional Planning Forum Ltd