Skill/Service Groups
The Skill/Service Groups screen allows you to organize skills and services into forecast groups for use in Workforce Management (WFM). You can process the skills and services in a forecast group individually or aggregate them so that WFM processes them as a single group.
For organizations with a large number of skills or services, some may receive only small or infrequent volumes of interactions. Aggregating these skills and services can improve forecasting and scheduling by processing their combined traffic at the group level.
Aggregating a Skill/Service Group
By default, skills and services are processed individually. When a forecast group is aggregated, WFM processes the skills and services in the group together.
For an aggregated group:
- Volume from all included skills and services is combined.
- Average handle time (AHT) is calculated as a weighted average for the group.
- The combined volume and AHT are used for subsequent calculations.
- An aggregated skill/service is created using the same name as the forecast group.
Aggregation assumes that agents have all of the skills included in the aggregated group.
To aggregate a forecast group:
- Select Skill Service Group from the WFM navigation menu.
- Select the forecast group you want to aggregate.
- Click Aggregate. All skills and services in the group are selected for aggregation.
- In the Aggregate Group dialog, review any forecasts that will be affected. Forecasts with a current or future forecast period will be reset to the first forecasting step.
- Click Aggregate to confirm.
After the group is aggregated, WFM creates an aggregated skill/service with the same name as the forecast group. The original skills and services are displayed as Included skill services beneath the aggregated skill/service. To return to processing the skills and services individually, click Unaggregate.
Activity Assignments
Skills and services in the same forecast group must have compatible activity assignments before the group can be aggregated. If skills or services in the group are assigned to different activities, WFM prevents the group from being aggregated. Correct the activity assignments before aggregating the group.
When a group is aggregated, only the aggregated skill/service is available for assignment to activities. The individual skills and services within the group are no longer selected separately.
Using Aggregated Groups in WFM
When a forecast group is aggregated, WFM uses the aggregated skill/service in several areas of the application:
- Forecasting uses the group's combined volume and weighted AHT for subsequent calculations. If a forecast contains at least one aggregated group, the Separate Staffing Calculation Method is used.
- Activity Configuration provides the aggregated skill/service for activity assignment instead of its individual skills and services.
- Shift Overview allows selection of the aggregated skill/service. Agent contribution is calculated at the forecast-group level.
- Intraday Management displays and allows selection of data at the forecast-group level.
- Real Time Adherence allows selection of the aggregated skill/service.
- Reports provide the aggregated skill/service as a report parameter rather than its individual skills and services.
Changes to Group Membership
If a skill or service is moved from one forecast group to another, the new group assignment is used for subsequent calculations.