Hi,

I have been searching a way to calculate the FTE requirement for a data process. I could only find FTE calculation for calls. Here is the sceniro

I have multiple queues with diff AHT, Volume and TAT and a mix of resources.
The data looks something like this.

Resource Data
Queue 1 Queue 2 Queue 3 Queue 4 Queue 5
Resource A Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Resource B Yes No No Yes Yes
Resource C Yes No Yes No No
----------------------------------------------------
Queue 1 Queue 2 Queue 3 Queue 4 Queue 5
AHT, seconds 150 70 80 230 95
-------------------------------------------------------
TAT Details
Queue 1 Queue 2 Queue 3 Queue 4 Queue 5
TAT, days 10 1 3 2 1
-------------------------------------------------------
Volume
Queue 1 Queue 2 Queue 3 Queue 4 Queue 5
Jan 64,162 30,539 2,048 7,253 7,555
Feb 31,174 24,490 1,865 4,746 4,299
Mar 21,819 21,939 1,390 4,178 3,011
Apr 10,543 11,149 1,266 2,116 2,256
May 11,620 7,101 1,850 2,205 2,197
Jun 11,104 6,607 1,775 1,860 2,462
Jul 10,005 6,325 1,384 1,496 1,973
Aug 9,685 3,144 4,742 1,850 2,001
Sep 8,932 2,620 3,645 1,580 1,631
Oct 12,232 1,999 4,981 6,077 3,430
Nov 81,714 2,204 11,259 12,887 10,022
Dec 95,994 3,957 24,190 10,453 9,466
-------------------------------------------------------
What would be FTE requirement resource wise,,

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards
Mo.

Mo,

You may be out of luck.

As it's a multi skilled process it looks like
you'll need to get some form of WFM of it.

I don't think it can be done with a simple
POISSON / ERLANG process.

As a gross calculation you can do it by looking at the
repective demands for each queue and the requirements thereof,
however, the fact you've multiple skillsets and cross skilling
you'll never get an accurate picture and will always be overstaffed.

Sorry it appears negative but it's probably better than bashing your
head against a brick wall.

Regards

DaveA

Hi Mo

Using some general productivity assumptions you can produce a monthly FTE requirement.

Based on an 85% productivity and 30% shrinkage the monthly FTE requirements, per queue would be

Queue 1 2 3 4 5 Total
Jan 27.7 6.1 0.5 4.8 2.1 41
Feb 13.4 4.9 0.4 3.1 1.2 23
Mar 9.4 4.4 0.3 2.8 0.8 18
Apr 4.5 2.2 0.3 1.4 0.6 9
May 5.0 1.4 0.4 1.5 0.6 9
Jun 4.8 1.3 0.4 1.2 0.7 8
Jul 4.3 1.3 0.3 1.0 0.5 7
Aug 4.2 0.6 1.1 1.2 0.5 8
Sep 3.8 0.5 0.8 1.0 0.4 7
Oct 5.3 0.4 1.1 4.0 0.9 12
Nov 35.2 0.4 2.6 8.5 2.7 49
Dec 41.4 0.8 5.6 6.9 2.6 57

As there is severe seasonality i these figures I'd suggest that you plan by week rather than month.

Given your current skills profile I'd suggest
- Resource A+C cannot be lower than 8 FTE
- Cross-skilling resource C additionally into Queue 2 would de-risk service level failures


Going forward I'd suggest creating a multi-skilled group of 8 FTE who can handle all queues. In peak periods augment this group by recruiting 10 FTE to handle Queues 4 and 2, then recruit the balance of staffing required to handle just Queue 1.

Hope this helps.

Eamon

No marks if you don't show your working {GRIN}.

I was looking at the overall multiskill aspect.

Your idea of two combined is actually very elegant!

Kudos..


DaveA

Monthly volumes * 12 / 52 (converts to weeks) * AHT / 3600 / Productivity / (1-shrinkage) / hours per FTE per week

In this case I assumed the hours per FTE per week to be 37.5

Multiskilling is only really required where you have a small number of FTE involved or where you need to deal with significant unpredictability in the forecast. Reducing the number of skills required to be trained across the entire operation saves on training costs and improves the productivity and experience of the agents involved.

Elegant, I like elegant, thanks Dave

Eamon

Eamon,

What you just typed in there dint even bounce over my head. How on earth do you work out calculations like that.

Im in an inbound airline contact centre, can u tell me a simple formulae of how do we calculate the number of resources required to achieve a SL of 85%, AHT around 5 mins, abandoned call rate of not more than 4% at any particular time...am i missing any part of the equation?

Pls help me with this

Hi

No problem, how many calls per week?

What are your opening hours?

And your SL of 85%, is that 85% in 10 or 20 or 30 or?

Eamon

Hi Eamon

Thanks for the revert.

Sorry missed that out. Its 85% in 20 seconds.
Calls around 12000 a week ( thats just a rough estimate )
We cater to inbound calls from Australia and USA, so its basically a shift pattern. Is that important for you in your calculation ?

Awaiting your revert.

You can even send me an email on dickenthomas@rediffmail.com if the sames gonna be elaborate.

Thanks

No problem

Using the a variation on the previous calculation we can quickly work out your resource requirement

weekly volumes * AHT / 3600 / Productivity / (1-shrinkage) / hours per FTE per week

equates to 12000 * 300 / 3600 / 75% / (1-32%) / 37.5 = 52.28 FTE.

Notes

- I divide by 3600 after the AHT to convert the calculation from seconds in hours as in reaching the FTE number the calculation needs to be divided by 37.5

- Productivity is worked out using an erlang model, it shows that in order to achieve service level agents can only be busy handling calls 75% of the time that they are directed at call activity. This percentage changes slightly whenever you change the AHT, call volume or service level target, however if you are operating in an environment where the overall call volume does not vary by more than 10% then this is a fairly safe value to use as a constant

- Shrinkage is the percentage of time that you pay for an agent’s time when they are not directed at phone activity expressed as a proportion of their total employed time. This differs from company to company 32% is towards the lower levels of shrinkage seen, you should replace this with the figure relevant to your company

- hours per FTE per week in our company is 37.5, some other companies express it as 35 hours some as 40, put in what your company uses.

I'll copy all this to your email address, that being said is 52 agent FTE close to what you employ?

Eamon

Hi Eamon,

Would appreciate if you can explain the formulae given by you.


Thanks,
Rishab

Hi Eamon,

I just tried out your formula

Monthly volumes * 12 / 52 (converts to weeks) * AHT / 3600 / Productivity / (1-shrinkage) / hours per FTE per week

and put in my variables
Monthly volume = 207,500
AHT = 239 seconds
Hours of operation = Mon-Fri 9am-9pm
I assume the following
Productivity = 80%
Shrinkage = 20%
FTE per week = 40

Arriving at the following equation

207500 * 12/50 *239/3600 / 80% / 80% / 40 = 125 heads

Did i get it right :)

Hi Jasper

The calculation looks fine except I came up with 124.18. Also it's *12/52 in the first part of the calc.

Is this close to the number you currently employ?

Thanks Eamon,

Yep that's the same figure I got, I just rounded it off to remove the decimal places :)

That will be the initial plan, since the initial volume given is on a monthly basis, were still looking into breaking it down on a daily/ per interval basis for better planning.