Newport Optimises!

Putting the new Workforce Optimisation buzz into practice is Newport Council's contact centre. Significantly, Newport's workforce optimisation solution is geared towards employee self-determination. Every agent can access roster information and reserve the shifts that they want to work in order to achieve a flexible work/ life balance.

It's an approach that has already been a key factor behind their recent Excellence Wales Awards success.
Helen Gunter, Contact Centre Manager at Newport City Council said:

"We forecast five weeks in advance, and employees are able to input their preferences into the system before rosters are produced so they can be taken into account when created.

"After that, employees can swap their own shifts, view their working pattern and also drill down to see what duties and breaks they have been allocated. It works so well that there is rarely the need to even adjust lunch-breaks

"Our workforce management system is essential to planning and agent satisfaction. Very shortly we will also be offering our agents the ability to access this functionality from home via the web with the system being intelligent enough to be able to automatically process their leave requests."

They can plan their shift patterns, holidays and even car sharing through the system, and they can access it without the need for a supervisor.