Workforce Optimization (WFO)

What is Workforce Optimization? Definition and meaning

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What is Workforce Optimization (WFO)?

Workforce optimization and unified workforce optimization are business strategies that involve integrating solutions, processes, and contact center technologies to optimize employee productivity and efficiency. In call centers, WFO helps maximize workforce management and agent performance.

Workforce optimization is more than just one software. It’s an entire ecosystem of solutions. WFO is a combination of softwares, tools, and processes that all work together to create a better customer and agent experience. WFO softwares utilizes processes like data collection and speech analytics to quickly route customers to the best possible solution. 

The main advantages of unified WFO are to improve customer experience, reduce operational costs, increase efficiency, and boost employee satisfaction.

What is the difference between WFO, WFM and WEM?

WFO is a broad term used to describe multiple workforce management areas, WFM is specifically used to manage staffing needs, and WEM focuses more on improving agents’ engagement and satisfaction.

WFO, WFM, and WEM are all related to workforce management in the contact center industry, but they each have a different focus.

WFO (Workforce Optimization) is a broad term that encompasses multiple workforce management areas, including call recording, quality management, performance management, and workforce management. It aims to optimize all aspects of a contact center’s workforce to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

WFM (Workforce Management) is a subset of WFO that specifically focuses on managing the real-time and projected staffing needs of the contact center. WFM involves forecasting call volume and scheduling staff accordingly while also monitoring adherence to the schedule and adjusting as needed. It helps ensure an efficient use of resources and improves the customer experience by minimizing wait times and service delays.

WEM (Workforce Engagement Management) is another subset of WFO that has a broader focus on enhancing employee engagement and satisfaction. This involves providing agents with the necessary tools and resources to deliver high-quality service, such as coaching, training, and gamification. WEM aims to improve agent morale and reduce staff turnover, leading to a more productive and satisfied workforce.

How do you optimize a workforce?


Use Workforce Management (WFM) tools: Adopting a workforce management solution can help contact centers forecast staffing needs accurately, schedule the right number of agents at the right times, and monitor adherence to service level agreements (SLAs).

Implement continuous training: Provide your agents regular training to improve their skills and knowledge base. Keeping agents ahead with the latest trends, technologies, and updates contributes to skill development and enhances an organization’s overall customer experience.

Optimize processes: Regularly review and optimize business processes to ensure that they are streamlined, effective, and efficient. Identify bottlenecks in operations and seek ways to optimize them by looking for alternate solution providers, checking for automation opportunities, etc.

Improve internal communication: Ensure clear communication between teams to enable coordination of tasks, maximize collaboration and minimize task repetition.

Leverage technology: Embrace technologies such as automation, AI, and chatbots, reducing the workload on staff and allowing contact centers to use skilled agents to focus on resolving complex customer needs.

Use analytics to track everything: You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Use metrics such as average handling time (AHT), call volumes, and customer satisfaction ratings to measure performance indicators accurately, identify underlying issues, and inform business strategies.

Improve your work culture: Foster a fun work environment by incorporating gamification into training and other fun activities that drive collaboration, communication and productivity among agents and teams for a more engaged workforce.


More WFO Resources:

Boost Efficiency With Unified Workforce Engagement Optimization

Easy-to-use, easy-to-activate tools to empower your teams to deliver exceptional customer experiences while improving performance and compliance in your contact center.

Leading Workforce Management Software | WFM Software

Overcome legacy WFM limitations with an advanced communication framework. Agents, supervisors and analysts can be seamlessly connected through tightly integrated desktop portals, messaging groups and notification channels.

WFO in the Contact Center: 5 Ways Quality Management Can Improve Agent Engagement

WFO in the contact center— what is it, how can it help managers work smarter and not harder, and what are some pointers for implementation? 

These are all good questions, and definitely, ones being asked by contact center managers feeling the strain of maintaining staffing levels during an unprecedented labor shortage. Finding ways to keep frontline agents engaged, happy, and well-equipped to do their job is increasingly top of mind for customer support leaders. 

What is WFO? A Full Overview of Workforce Optimization

Workforce optimization (WFO) may seem like a vague, catch-all term. What are the benefits? What should you look for in a WFO software? Is WFO worth the investment?

According to Aberdeen, companies that use WFO software are 60% more likely to capture customer info scattered across communication channels and empower agents with insights to problem-solve. We break down everything you need to know about workforce optimization in this article, so you can find the best WFO solution and start reaping the benefits.

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About LiveVox

LiveVox (Nasdaq: LVOX) is a proven cloud CCaaS platform that helps business leaders redefine customer engagement and transform their contact center’s performance. Decision-makers use LiveVox to improve customer experience, boost agent productivity, empower their managers, and enhance their system orchestration capabilities. Everything needed to deliver game-changing results can be seamlessly integrated and configured to maximize your success: Omnichannel Communications, AI, a Contact Center CRM, and Workforce Engagement Management tools.

For more than 20 years, clients of all sizes and industries have trusted LiveVox’s scalable and reliable cloud platform to power billions of omnichannel interactions every year. LiveVox is headquartered in San Francisco, with international offices in Medellin, Colombia and Bangalore, India.

To stay up to date with everything LiveVox, follow us @LiveVox, visit www.livevox.com or call one of our specialists at (844) 207-6663.

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