Equitable shift rotation and efficient assignment mechanisms for contact center agents

• US 9,123,009 B1
• Filed: 02/26/2015
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alvaria Cayman
• Original Assignee: Noble Systems Corporation
• Inventors: Etter, Thomas J., Koster, Karl H., Etter, Deena S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Harry S
• Application Number:
  US14/632,199
• Time in Patent Office: 187 Days
• Field of Search: 37926504-26506, 705/7.12, 705/7.13, 705/7.14, 705/7.16, 705/7.18
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for facilitating equitable assignment of rotating shifts to agents in a contact center. In one embodiment, points are allocated to agents indicating their frequency of receiving undesirable shift assignments. Based on the previously allocated points, future undesirable shifts are assigned to agents. The point allocation scheme accommodates various exceptions scheduling periodic rotating shifts, such as skipping assignment of an agent from an upcoming undesirable shift, agents leaving, swapping a shift, and agents being added. In another embodiments, agents are assigned to rotating shifts using constructs of a cycle and a rotation template, which facilitates assigning agents to a work schedule with a calendar in a repetitious manner, and where certain shifts are non-rotational in nature and other shifts are rotational in nature.

Claims

1. A method for scheduling agents in a contact center using a computer comprising:

receiving a first input from a user at the computer defining a cycle, wherein the cycle comprises one or more shifts, wherein each shift is associated with a shift starting time, a shift ending time, and one or more shift breaks, wherein each shift break is associated with a shift break start and end time, and wherein each shift is associated with a day of a week;

defining a roster template by using the computer, the roster template comprising one or more cycles, and wherein the roster template covers one or more days;

associating an agent to a particular cycle of the one or more cycles by the computer based on a second input from the user, thereby creating a roster template instance stored in the computer;

associating, by the computer, the roster template instance to a specified one or more days of a calendar in a scheduling period; and

associating the roster template instance to another specified one or more days of the calendar during the scheduling period by the computer, wherein the another specified one or more days does not overlap with the specified one or more days, thereby scheduling the agent by the computer to work on corresponding shifts of the particular cycle on the specified one or more days and the another specified one or more days;

receiving input from a call handler, the input identifying the agent logging into the call handler;

determining the agent is scheduled to work; and

providing a message to the call handler indicating the agent is scheduled to work, wherein the call handler is configured to direct a voice call to a workstation used by the agent.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

associating another agent to the particular cycle in the roster template instance by the computer, thereby scheduling the another agent for the specified one or more days and the another specified one or more days.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein associating another agent to the particular cycle schedules the another agent to work for each shift of the particular cycle during the scheduling period.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

selecting the another agent for a different cycle based on comparing respective point values of the another agent and the agent, wherein the respective point values are based on previously assigned shifts of the another agent and the agent.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the roster template comprises a second cycle comprising a weekend shift.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular cycle comprises five contiguous days corresponding to Monday through Friday.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the another specified one or more days is contiguous with the specified one or more days.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allocating one or more points to the agent for each shift in the particular cycle in the roster template instance; and

using an accumulated value of the one or more points to determine whether to associate the agent to another cycle in the scheduling period.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the cycle comprises more than one shift and the roster template covers more than one day.

10. A computer-readable non-transitory medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to:

receive a first input from a user defining a cycle, wherein the cycle comprises one or more shifts, wherein each shift is associated with a shift starting time, a shift ending time, and one or more shift breaks, wherein each shift break is associated with a shift break start and end time, and wherein each shift is associated with a day of a week;

receive a second input from the user defining a roster template, the roster template comprising one or more cycles, and wherein the roster template covers one or more days;

associating an agent to a particular cycle of the one or more cycles based on a third input from the user, thereby creating a roster template instance stored in a memory;

associating the roster template instance to a specified one or more days of a calendar in a scheduling period;

associating the roster template instance to another specified one or more days of the calendar during the scheduling period, wherein the another specified one or more days does not overlap with the specified one or more days, thereby scheduling the agent to work on corresponding shifts of the particular cycle on the specified one or more days and the another specified one or more days;

receive a login request from a call handler, the login request identifying the agent;

determine the agent is currently scheduled to work; and

authorize the call handler to direct a voice call to a workstation used by the agent.

11. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the processor to:

associate another agent to the particular cycle in the roster template instance, thereby scheduling the another agent for the specified one or more days and the another specified one or more days.

12. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the processor to:

associate another agent to the particular cycle, thereby scheduling the agent to work for each shift of the particular cycle during the scheduling period.

13. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the processor to:

allocate one or more points to the agent for each shift in the particular cycle in the roster template instance; and

use an accumulated value of the one or more points allocated to the agent to determine whether to associate the agent to another cycle during the scheduling period.

14. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the processor to:

select another agent for a different cycle based on comparing respective point values of the another agent and the agent, wherein the respective point values are based on previously assigned shifts of the another agent and the agent.

15. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, wherein the particular cycle comprises five contiguous days corresponding to Monday through Friday.

16. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, wherein the roster template comprises a second cycle comprising a weekend shift.

17. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, wherein the another specified one or more days is contiguous with the specified one or more days.

18. The computer-readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, wherein the cycle comprises more than one shift and the roster template covers more than one day.

19. A system for scheduling workers over a scheduling period, comprising:

a workforce management component comprising a first processor configured to;

receive a first input from a user defining a cycle, wherein the cycle comprises one or more shifts, wherein each shift is associated with a shift starting time, a shift ending time, and one or more shift breaks, wherein each shift break is associated with a shift break start and end time, and wherein each shift is associated with a day of a week,

define a roster template, the roster template comprising one or more cycles, and wherein the roster template covers one or more days,

associate an agent to a particular cycle of the one or more cycles based on a second input from the user, thereby creating a roster template instance stored in the computer,

associate the roster template instance to a specified one or more days of a calendar in a scheduling period, and

associate the roster template instance to another specified one or more days of the calendar during the scheduling period by the computer, wherein the another specified one or more days does not overlap with the specified one or more days, thereby scheduling the agent to work on corresponding shifts of the particular cycle on the specified one or more days and the another specified one or more days, and

determine the agent is scheduled to work in response to receiving a login request; and

a call handler comprising a second processor configured to;

transmit the login request to the workforce management component,

receive a response from the workforce management component indicating the agent is scheduled to work, and

direct a voice call to a workstation used by the agent in response to receiving the response from the workforce management component indicating the agent is scheduled to work.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a score is associated with the agent based on associating the agent to the particular cycle, and the score is used to associate the roster template instance to the another specified one or more days.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the roster template comprises a first cycle and a second cycle, wherein the first cycle reflects one or more weekday shifts and the second cycle reflects one or more weekend shifts.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein a second agent is associated with the particular cycle thereby scheduling the second agent to the specified one or more days.