We have added our Excel schedule adherence template to our collection of free contact centre tools.
What is Schedule Adherence?
Schedule adherence is a metric used in workforce management which measures the amount of time an agent worked which aligned with the time they were scheduled to work. This includes call time, after call wrap, and scheduled activities like meetings and training.
The Schedule Adherence Formula
The formula used to calculate schedule adherence is:
Schedule Adherence = ( Minutes in Adherence ÷ Total Scheduled Minutes ) × 100
Download Your Free Excel Schedule Adherence Template
For a free Excel download of the schedule adherence calculator, simply click the links below:
How Does the Excel Schedule Adherence Template Work?
Our ready-to-use spreadsheet is split into five different sections – as highlighted in the sneak-peek below.
This screenshot is a sneak peek at our free schedule adherence tool.
The first section (entitled: “Scheduled”) you fill in manually, with the help of your schedules, and the second (entitled: “Actual”) using log-in and log-out times.
These log-in and log-out times do not just include the start and end of the day, but they allow you to add in lunchtime figures, to find a true figure for schedule adherence.
The rest are done automatically, giving you figures for:
- Team schedule adherence
- Individual schedule adherence
- Minutes in adherence
- Hours in adherence
It does so by using the following equation, which is best used for calculating schedule adherence:
Being designed in Excel, our schedule adherence calculator is also easy to play with – allowing you to add in more columns if advisors take more than one break a day, for example.
Follow the link to take a look at and play around with our free Schedule Adherence Tool for yourself.
Why Can It Be So Valuable?
Schedule adherence can be a real headache for contact centre planners. Just having one advisor in the wrong place at the wrong time can impact:
- Customer experience – as you are less likely to meet your target service level.
- Advisor experience – as occupancy rises, meaning that advisors get less of a break between calls.
- The business – as call abandon rates rise, meaning that potential business is being lost.
Having a clear way to track schedule adherence will enable you to see which advisors are failing to meet their schedule adherence.
Once these advisors have been identified, we can give them power of one training and hopefully – over time – your schedule adherence figures will improve. This will have a positive impact on the business, customers and advisors.
There Is Also a Conformance Function – Which Is Important for Remote Work!
In the sneak-peek picture above, you may have noticed that our tool gives a figure for individual and team “conformance”, as well as schedule adherence.
Conformance is the percentage of time that advisors are scheduled to work compared to the amount of time that they have actually worked.
So, let’s say that someone has worked seven and a half hours (450 minutes), but they were only scheduled to work seven hours (420 minutes), their individual conformance rate would be 107.14%.
We know that because the conformance rate formula is:
Conformance = ( Minutes Worked ÷ Minutes Scheduled ) × 100
Therefore:
Conformance = ( 450 Minutes ÷ 420 Minutes ) × 100 = 107.14%
But, luckily for you, you do not need to do these manual calculations, as our Excel spreadsheet will do these for you.
You might, however, be hesitant regarding the positive impact of reporting on conformance?
Well, with remote working, many employees are working more hours than they should be. This can be bad for well-being and lead to burnout – so you need to guard against this and protect your people by tracking conformance.
You also need to be wary, of course, that advisors aren’t doing less work than they are supposed to. Your conformance rates will inform you if this is the case too.
What’s New in Version 3 of the Schedule Adherence Tool?
We have produced an updated version of the schedule adherence tool, which now includes tea and coffee breaks as well as lunch.
More Free Contact Centre Tools
Our schedule adherence tool isn’t the only free tool that we offer that will help you to run the best possible contact centre.
These include:
- Our Erlang Calculator for contact centre staffing
- Our Forecasting Tool for contact centre forecasting
- Our Multichannel Calculator for contact centre scheduling
To check out all of these tools and more, visit our tools page.
If you want to upgrade and install specialist WFM software within your contact centre, take a look at our recommended list of suppliers.
For more on schedule adherence and how it is calculated and managed, read our articles:
- How Do I Calculate… Schedule Adherence?
- How to Manage and Improve Schedule Adherence
- A Beginner’s Guide to Adherence Management
Author: Jonty Pearce
Reviewed by: Hannah Swankie
Published On: 2nd Dec 2020 - Last modified: 12th Jul 2024
Read more about - Essential Call Centre Tools, Adherence, Downloads
