WFM- Specialist

About Us:

Being the global leader in international education services, IDP has been the pioneer in this sector for more than 50 years, specializing in combining human expertise with leading technology to help people reach their global ambitions. Operating in more than 50 countries around the world, IDP values and celebrates diversity, fostering a safe and inclusive workplace.

IDP Education Ltd. is the proud co-owner of IELTS (International English Language Testing System), the world’s most popular high-stakes English language proficiency test.

To learn more about us and our various service lines, please visit:

https://www.careers.idp.com/what-we-do   

  POSITION PURPOSE

Resource planning is a critical function for the success of a contact center. It manages the balance between exceptional student experiences and the cost of serving. It is also a critical element in employee morale and workplace harmony.

Often this role is considered a “back office” function, but given it’s critical nature and numerous lagging indicators, successful WFM Optimization Specialists must consider their role in contributing to the future success of the contact center and approach the role with this leadership mindset.

Optimization Specialists support the Mission and Vision of the company through effective operational workforce planning. They achieve this through

1. Deep understanding of the desired SP WOW student experience journey
2. Empathy for the student and their “job to be done”
3. Empathy for contact center staff and their desire to deliver great outcomes for their students and achieve work-life balance (quality of life)
4. Purpose-driven passion and persistence in the quest for ensuring the right agent is on the right call at the right time against an accurately forecasted workload
5. Imagination, curiosity, and co-creation courage to drive continuous improvement in CC operational efficiency as defined by the strategic objectives of the contact center in providing delightful customer experiences

RESPONSIBILITIES

Areas of Accountability

Resource Planner Accountabilities

The role is designed to elevate the IDP Global Contact Center environment to best practice. It is specifically designed to map a path to the “sweet spot” of exceptional student experience and conversion at the lowest cost to serve. Maximizing revenue impacts and driving productivity It is tasked with empowering contact center leaders to be armed with the right information, from long-term forward-looking to real-time, to make informed, insightful, and impactful decisions on how to best utilize resources effectively.

In IDP‘s context, not all contact centers (for example, small 2-seat centers) may need a WFM forecast or schedule, but all centers will need performance analysis on outcomes and identified opportunities for improvement.

Thus, the scope of work may include the following, depending on each country's requirements:

1. Produce high-quality workforce data and information to support workforce planning, monitoring, and maintenance of service levels as defined (targets).
2. Provision of timely, accurate, and relevant reporting to support business processes with a view to reviewing, prioritizing, streamlining, and automating existing operational reporting, ensuring the reports that are produced provide high value with minimal manual effort.
3. Effective strategic and tactical forecasting is needed to ensure accurate scheduling of resources to meet seasonal workload demand.
4. Manage rosters and data in real time to ensure efficiencies are maintained in real time.
5. Monitor workforce management, operational, and call management systems, proactively identify opportunities, and assist in the implementation of system enhancements.
6. Production of agreed forecasts (labour, staff/resources, calls, etc) on agreed timeframes (regular and one-off)
7. Production of all schedules on agreed timeframes, including all known and assumed activities
8. Effective operational workforce planning includes on- and off-phone activities.
9. Real-time management and decision-making on resourcing to meet variances from forecasts and schedules so as to meet desired KPI outcomes
10. Peer-measured contribution outcomes
11. Analysis and recommendations to improve customer or productivity outcomes without unintended consequences.
12. Vocal and active custodian of the student experience journey (active contributor to this important activity)
13. Proficient use of systems contributes to the development ‚ of tools and resources, including policies and procedures.
14. Active generator of ideas and innovative thinking with regard to balanced multi-party stakeholder outcomes

Contributing to WFM as a Service

WFMaaS is a new concept for IDP, and as such, the role requires very clear leadership, ownership, proactivity, and accountability.

WFM optimization Specialists are influential leaders across the IDP contact center universe. The role plays a critical role in culture, shared success, and business outcomes. These roles lead through:

1. Understanding that they play a key role in culture and morale, they take that responsibility with the utmost professionalism.
2. Be decisive, but take a balanced approach to all decisions.
3. Collaborate, don’t dictate.
4. Learn-it-all mindset, not a know-it-all mindset.
5. Be a Difference-Maker

Specifically leading in the following areas:

1. Genesys and Nice inContact Experience are mandatory.
2. Build a WFM service built on trust and support, not an autocratic prescription
3. Automation skills are mandatory, as we are very keen on looking for an RTA role inside WFM.
4. Be collaborative, recognizing that regional contact centres can always “do their own thing." Optimizations' Specialists need to show them why using the WFMaaS is a better choice for them
5. Active contribution to the leadership team on insight, feelings, concerns, ideas and options heard through general duties
6. Catalyst between the outside and inside of the world of WFM and industry trends and innovation
7. Make a difference for all stakeholders by actively analyzing risk. Both business and operational risk and establish recommendations to either prevent, mitigate, or manage the risk outcomes.
8. Document all WFM processes, procedures, and policies and ensure they remain up-to-date and published to all relevant stakeholders.
9. Ensure all stakeholders receive and acknowledge value from the WFMaaS activity
10. Undertake an ongoing communications activity to ensure all current contact centre staff operate with a detailed understanding of how they can leverage the WFMaaS activity to benefit their performance
11. Establish an ongoing improvement process that reviews current WFMaaS processes and practices and evolves them ahead of the IDP SP WOW initiatives. WFM needs to be ahead of the SP WOW execution so that it is capable of planning and managing the desired outcomes

Performance

The performance of resource planning is often a good barometer for the performance of the contact center. High-performing optimization Specialists rarely operate in low-performing centers. The most successful optimization Specialists operate on a balanced mix of leading and lagging indicators, which include:

1. Metrics that are both objective and subjective
2. Metrics and measures that are both action-oriented and behavior-led
3. Outcomes that measure across multiple stakeholders
4. Insight that empowers actionable change

Specifically, the metrics to be achieved include (but may not be limited to):

1. Production compliance: all regular activities completed on time and published
2. Forecast accuracy is measured at interval level +/- variance and the target number of intervals. For all forecast types
3. Schedule efficiency, measured pre-actual and post-actual
4. Real-time management impact, essentially measuring impact of decisions
5. Budget to actual costs compared to experience outcomes
6. Engagement metrics, typically via 360-degree feedback from all stakeholders
7. Ideation, improvement metrics
8. Learning outcomes, measured via process change
9. Risk management metrics

Communication and Engagement

Optimization Specialists must make certain that communications and engagement across all roles within the organization are quite literally the most important functions of the role. This is achieved by:

1. Making communication of insight and interpretation OF information, not production and distribution of information, the cornerstone of their activity
2. Be proactive. If in doubt, be more proactive
3. Looking at how communication takes place and innovating on that. Such as use of Infographics, explainer videos, social media, apps, time and space, questions as opposed to spreadsheets and opinion-based statements, emotion versus logic,

Specifically, the key communications and engagement activities should include:

1. Regular face-to-face discussions with all stakeholders, both inside and outside the organization, with a key focus on how to improve that stakeholders outcomes (curiosity and a growth mindset, not fixed mindset )
2. Communicate in many different forms on a regular basis; this should include recommendations, insight, inspiration and information
3. Become a recognized custodian for the views of many. Professionally represent the views of many stakeholder groups to other stakeholder groups, both informally and formally
4. Provide advice or counsel where required to mediate any resource issues
5. Educate (in plain English) all stakeholders on contact center math and the often contradictory "at conflict" process of balancing desired outcomes

Stakeholder Management

Persuade people, make commitments, build trust, change behaviors, and

1. Build strong and trusted relationships with key stakeholders across the organization.
2. Positively influence these individuals and groups in the interest of delivering agreed objectives and activities effectively and simply.

Relationships

Internal

1. 1 Digital Adoption Success Lead, DigiTech LX, WalkMe, Comms and KMS teams
2. Student Placement Operations team
3. Delight Marketing teams
4. Delight Tech teams
5. Other Project Teams, Leads and Sponsors
6. Country Directors, Managers and other offshore stakeholders
7. RCXMs
8. Fellow Melbourne-based operational colleagues
9. People and Experience Melbourne team

External

1. Third-party vendors, partners and suppliers

Key performance Indicators

1. Forecast accuracy
2. Timely production of forecasts, adherence, utilization and performance reports
3. Insights analysis and identification of improvements
4. Shrinkage performance
5. Utilization performance
6. Adherence performance
7. Service level targets (speed to answer, conversion rate performance, etc)
8. Average handle time analysis

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Essential Requirements

Resource planning is as much art as it is science, and the key competencies of professional resource planners start with their beliefs. Contemporary optimization Specialists believe:

1. Their role is one of, if not the most important, in striking the perfect balance of conflicting stakeholder outcomes (things like: contact centre professionals want to work and break at their desired times, the company wants the lowest possible cost to serve, students expect world-class service)
2. They have a duty to ensure everyone understands the importance of workforce planning and the role it plays in success. Not just expecting people to understand
3. Their role is to engage and influence, not dictate
4. They can't contribute to stakeholder success being purely reactive; they must be proactive
5. Balanced student, regional centre leader and employee centricity can be achieved
6. They can continually learn and grow and that challenging the status quo is important

Specific essential competencies;

1. Detailed understanding of contemporary contact centre math
2. Detailed knowledge of contemporary workforce planning models, methods and frameworks covers all aspects of WFM, from strategic planning to real-time management
3. Experience and capability in modern workforce management tools
4. Ability to visually and simply convey complex messages for mass consumption
5. Detailed analytical skills
6. Provide workforce operational and financial information required for the development of business cases relevant to contact center planning. Write draft material for straightforward submissions and assist in the development of material for more complex submissions.
7. Have supported and participated in projects that impact the community locally, organizationally, and stakeholder-wide.
8. Identify, plan, and implement projects to support improvement and responsiveness in areas of responsibility. This will include assisting with budgets, resources, risk management, and communication planning for projects.
9. Actively strive for quality outcomes in your area of responsibility. Ensure all systems and procedures support quality outcomes and proactively engage in enhancement.
10. Work with other roles to ensure workforce planning supports the best possible customer, client, and employee-centered outcomes for the individuals we support. Identify and plan for future workforce needs, including new services and leave management.
11. Identify potential financial and operational risks and work with managers to effectively control risk in ways that maximize opportunities.
12. Look for current and emerging workforce trends, both positive and negative, and suggest actions to address them.
13. Sound organizational and analytical skills and attention to detail; ability to review practices and determine trends
14. Strong administrative skills: time management, coordination of tasks, efficient work practices
15. well-developed communication skills, both verbal and written
16. Extremely high proficiency in Excel (super user capability: simple test, create a complex pivot chart with updatable graphs), Word and PowerPoint
17. Ability to work autonomously
18. Ability to drive and support continuous improvement and innovation
19. Capacity to support change and deliver creative solutions
20. Knowledge of human-centered principles and approaches
21. Commitment to reflective practice and ongoing learning
22. Capacity to learn and work within all systems and technology tools provided to support outcomes
23. Advocate and create a high-quality work environment
24. Vocal, engaged stewardship and teamwork

Desirable Requirements

• Good budgeting and financial skills
• A good understanding of advanced multi-channel digital experience technology
• Good understanding of matrix management style of organizational design and operating model
• The candidate should be flexible enough to work on shifts (including nights).
• The candidate should have Nice contact and Genesys Experience.
• Candidates should be ready to come to the office five days a week.

WORKING AT IDP  

 IDP Education’s ongoing success comes from our highly committed and caring employees around the globe.  We encourage teamwork in order to leverage our people's diverse talents and expertise through effective collaboration and cooperation throughout our business.  

We strive to provide a working environment where people are encouraged to excel, be creative and seek new ways to solve problems, take initiative, generate opportunities and be accountable for their actions.  
 We believe in developing dynamic, inclusive work places that encourage and celebrate cultural differences and views, and provide opportunities for personal, professional and career development all around the world. We respect diversity in our people: their ideas, work styles and perspectives as well as offering flexibility to ensure employees enjoy a satisfying balance of work and personal life.