A DSS for Shift Design and Workforce Allocation in a Call Center

Workforce scheduling, shift design and staff allocation are the major problems in call center management. The aim of the call center manager is to allocate and dynamically update the workforce so that the incoming calls are answered in the shortest possible time, above certain service level measures. The software tools developed to aid decision making in these areas use the models that are based on Erlang C calculations. However the strict assumptions of Erlang-C often lead to invalid decisions. Especially at peak times during the day, dynamic updates in the proposed design is inevitable. In this study, a framework for a decision support system is proposed for designing the shifts and allocating the agent workforce to the shifts in a call center, so that target service levels are met. In the proposed system, shifts are designed by solving a linear optimization model. Using this solution as the input, a simulation model is developed to dynamically update the workforce design so that the minimum required service level is met at all times. The proposed DSS is illustrated on an existing call center system, alternative designs are generated and compared.