Configuring Workforce Management schedules and activities

Workforce Management helps ensure that your contact center is equipped with the right number of agents at the right times to meet customer demands. Workforce Management automates forecasting by using key planning data from Zoom Contact Center to accurately estimate agent headcount for scheduling, better predict agent workload, and help your business react in real time with intraday management. Contact center agents can view their schedule through a simple and intuitive interface.

To set up Workforce Management, admins can follow this article to create activities, schedules, and shifts. After following this article, you can use forecasting to create schedules that align with your organization’s needs and view adherence to help ensure your agents are effectively working on the assigned schedules.

Requirements for configuring schedules and activities

• Zoom Contact Center license
• Zoom Workforce Management license
• Account owner or admin privileges

How to set up scheduling groups

Scheduling groups are a collection of one or more contact center queues used to simplify forecasting and scheduling for a group of agents who are trained to support the same contact center queues/skills.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Groups.
4. Click Create scheduling group.
5. Enter the desired details for the new scheduling group.
   • Name: Change the name of the scheduling group.
   • Channel: Add or remove the scheduling group to or from channels.
   • Scheduling group color: Identifying color assigned to the scheduling group.
   • Engagement capacity: Maximum number of engagements an agent in the scheduling group can work simultaneously.
6. Click Save.

How to edit a scheduling group

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Groups.
4. Locate the scheduling group you want to edit.
5. In the Context menu column of the scheduling group, click the ellipsis  , then click Edit.
6. Make the desired changes to the scheduling group.
   • Name: Change the name of the scheduling group.
   • Channel: Add or remove the scheduling group to or from channels.
   • Scheduling group color: Identifying color assigned to the scheduling group.
   • Engagement capacity: Maximum number of engagements an agent in the scheduling group can work simultaneously.
7. Click Save.

How to add agents to scheduling groups

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Groups.
4. Click the display name of the scheduling group you want to add agents to.
5. Click the Agents tab.
6. Click Add Agents.
7. Enter an agent’s name in the Search by name field to search agents.
8. Click the check box for the agent(s) you want to add to the scheduling group.
9. Click Add.

How to add queues to scheduling groups

Administrators can add existing Zoom Contact Center queues to scheduling groups. Queues can determine the categorization for the scheduling group.

Note: You can only add queues in one of the channels that’s assigned to the scheduling group. For example, if you only assigned the Voice channel to the scheduling group, you can only assign voice queues. Edit a scheduling group to change the assigned channels.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Groups.
4. Click the display name scheduling group you want to add agents to.
5. Click the Queues tab.
6. Click Add Queue.
7. Enter a queue’s name in the Search by name field to search queues.
8. Click the check box  for one or more queues to add to the scheduling group.
9. Click Add.

How to create activities

Activities are segments that make up a full shift. For example, a typical set of activities for call center agent can include phone, chat, lunch, and break. After creating activities, Workforce Management admins and schedulers can build shifts using a combination of predefined and custom activities.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Configuration.
4. Click the Activities tab.
5. Click Add Activity.
6. Enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter a display name for the activity.
   • Activity Type: Click the drop-down menu and select an activity type. The activity type is used for categorizing activities.
     • Break
     • Exception
     • Meal
     • Non-productive
     • Out of office
     • Productive
   • Default duration: Click the drop-down menu and select a default duration in minutes.
   • Calculate Adherence: Select the check box to include this activity when calculating adherence. If this box is checked, you will then select which Agent status type is applied for the adherence calculation.
   • Paid: Select the check box to specify that agents are paid for this activity.
   • Allow editing by agent: Toggle controls available to an agent pertaining to this activity, choosing any combination of Add, Change, or Delete.
   • Advanced color selection: Enable this toggle to customize the color of the activity label in your schedule.
   • Text Color / Background Color:
     • If Advanced color selection is disabled, select a color, then drag and drop the Shade sliders to customize the color shade.
     • If Advanced color selection is enabled, drag and drop the circles to customize the color.
7. Click Add.

How to edit an activity

You can edit an activity to change its values.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Configuration.
4. Click the Activities tab.
5. Locate the activity you want to edit.
6. In the Context menu column of the activity, click the ellipsis  , then click Edit.
7. Change the activity’s settings.
8. Click Save.

How to create fixed or dynamic shifts

Shifts are used to define a weekly pattern of activities and working hours to be assigned to an agent for use in scheduling. This enables Workforce Management administrators to define the rules and activities for pertaining to an agent’s schedule. Based on the staffing recommendations from forecasting, you can create shifts and set the activities that occur at different parts of the work day. Multiple shifts can then be arranged to build out a schedule.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Configuration.
4. Click the Shifts tab.
5. Click Create Shift.
6. Enter the following information for the shift:
   • Name: Enter a name for your shift.
   • Description (Optional): Enter a description of the shift.
   • Shift Type: Select Fixed or Dynamic. A fixed schedule is rigid and inflexible, while a dynamic schedule allows the system to control flex periods for start, lunch, and break times to meet business requirements.
7. If the Shift Type is Dynamic, change the following settings to optimize flexible start, lunch, and break times to accommodate employee needs. They can configure a two-hour flex period for starts, lunches, and breaks. This provides more flexibility in scheduling by selecting a forecast they can schedule to their requirements, or without a forecast spread out breaks and lunches with employees on the same shift to avoid stacking of breaks and lunches.
   • Default Shift Activity: Select the primary activity for the agent, for that week.
   • Timezone: Choose whether to use the agent’s local time zone or a specific time zone.
   • Work days: Click the drop-down menu and check the days to add to the shift to, then click Add. Each day can only contain one shift. The work day will be grayed out if there’s already a shift added to it.
   • Dynamically determine assigned workdays (optional): click this toggle to allow the system to generate assigned workdays automatically based on the work days selected within the created shift. If chosen, you will then choose the number of days that the agent will work (up to the number of days selected in the previous step) and whether or not the agent will be assigned consecutive days off.
   • Shift start time: Select the shift’s earliest and latest start time.
     • Flex increment: Select the duration for the activity to start within the shift. For example, if the shift start time is set from 7:00 to 8:00 with a 30 minute flex increment, the possible start times are 7:00, 7:30, and 8:00
     • Shift duration: Set the duration in hours and minutes.
   • Flexible breaks and meals:
     • Flex Increment: Select the deviation increment between possible activity start (Don’t flex, 15, 30, 1 hour) these will apply to all breaks and meals.
     • Max Flex time: Determine the greatest deviation, up to 2 hours.
     • Break Type: Choose between break or meal activity types.
     • Activity: Choose the activity to be scheduled.
     • Activity Duration: Choose the length of time permitted for the activity.
     • Min work time required before activity: How much time between the item before this activity and the prior event (start time, other activity).
     • Add break type: Click to add an additional break type, repeating the previous steps to create a new break.
8. If the Shift Type is Fixed, specify days and times for the shift.
   • Default Shift Activity: Select the primary activity for the agent, for that week.
   • Timezone: Choose whether to use the agent’s local time zone or a specific time zone.
   • Start time / End time: Select the shift’s start time. End time will be set automatically based on shaft duration.
   • Shift duration: Set the duration of the shift in hours and minutes.
   • Work day: Click the drop-down menu and select the day(s) to add the shift to, then click Add. Each day can only contain one shift. The work day will be greyed out if there’s already a shift added to it.
   • Dynamically determine assigned workdays (optional): Click this toggle to allow the system to generate assigned workdays automatically based on the work days selected within the created shift. If chosen, you will then choose the number of days that the agent will work (up to the number of days selected in the previous step) and whether or not the agent will be assigned consecutive days off.
   • Add work day and time: If you have not chosen to dynamically assign workdays, you may click Add work day and time to add additional days with unique start times, shift durations, and work days.
9. Click Create.

How to add activities to a shift

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Configuration.
4. Click the Shifts tab.
5. Click the display name of a shift you created.
6. Add, remove, and alter activities in a shift using these options:
   • From the Shifts section, drag and drop an activity label to the timeline to build the shift.
   • Click an activity on the timeline, then drag and drop it to change its location on the timeline.
   • Double-click an activity on the timeline to edit that activity’s start and end times in the shift.
   • Alternatively, click an activity on the timeline and drag the left or right edge of the rectangle to edit the start and end times.
   • Double-click an activity on the timeline, then click Delete activity to remove the activity from the shift.

Add the agent for the generated shift once all weekly recurring activities are added.

How to assign agents to a shift

Once you have your scheduling groups, queues, and shifts created, you can assign agents to a shift.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Scheduling Configuration.
4. Click the Shifts tab.
5. Click the display name of a shift you want to edit.
6. Click Assign Agent.
7. Select the check box  for the agents you want to add to the scheduling group.
8. Click Assign.

How to generate and publish a schedule

You can generate a schedule for a defined period of time, in one week increments.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Workforce Management.
3. Click Schedule Configuration.
4. In the Schedule generation tab, click Create schedule.
5. Enter the following information:
   • Work week: Select the days for the schedule. Note: regardless of the date selected, the schedule will be generated for that full 7-day work week.
   • Number of weeks: Select the radio button for the number of weeks you want to schedule, up to 4.
   • Scheduling Groups: Select the scheduling group(s) for which you wish to create a schedule.
   • Forecast(s) (optional): Select any forecasts to consider in the schedule’s generation, if available.
6. Click Create.
   Schedules for the selected scheduling groups will be created.
   Note: If you have dynamic shift templates as part of the scheduling group, you will be asked if you want to select a forecast as the basis for flexing breaks, meals, and start times. Workforce Management will create the schedule and redirect you to the schedule timeline view.
7. Once the schedules have been created, click the check box  next to the schedule you wish to publish.
8. Click Publish.
   The schedule(s) will now be available for the relevant agents to view.