How to calculate the required man power? what is Utilization and Occupancy..? What is the difference between agents productivity and agents utilization..?

Reply To:

Hi Doug

Thank you. Nearly the same as my understanding as well :-)

http://wfmanagment.wikispaces.com/

Check this out, is a wiki for workforce planning terms. Hope it helps.

Reply To:

Hi,

Before we calculate man power needed, we need some forecast calls, parameter and target. Calls volume, handling time, service level target and staffing rules are some of target and parameter need to be define in the first place. If you have those are defined, then you could go to man power calculation.

Utilization and Occupancy, those things are nearly the same, but different. Both are used to measure agent efficiency and of course contact center efficiency as final result. 

In my understanding utilization is measurement of agent activity during agent in the office, that included some productive activity out of taking calls, such as training, briefing or mentoring ( coaching and counseling ).

In the other side, occupancy is a measurement of agent activity during agent on their desk, such as handling time, aux, holding calls, and ACW. 

We will need those to measure our center efficiency, as we know man power sometimes becomes the highest expense of our center.

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Hi,

For inbound operations, calculating the required man power is an analytical process based on forecasts which are outputs of statistical as well as empirical data. Utilization is your success in utilizing your workforce with activities, for a call center; calls. Productivity on the other hand is your success in converting your inputs into outputs by means of production. For instance; you might be experiencing a low call volume and decide to log off your customer service representatives and send them to a break for a while. This action would increase your utilization as you reduced the number of the non-utilized workforce. But it won't increase your productivity as breaks are not means of production.