Schedule Optimization Rules

Use Schedule Optimization to improve the net staffing without effort. With one click of a button, you can improve the productivity of your workforce.

First, set up schedule optimization rules and receive a daily plan that you can use.

Once you set up a rule, the optimizer will generate a plan to adjust the break activities in the schedule. The plan looks at the whole shift and finds intervals with over or understaffing. Next, it moves the scheduled breaks across the shift to improve the net staffing.

You receive the optimization plans on the day and time defined in the rule.

See example

Let's say you look at the forecast. It says you need 100 agents open for interactions during every interval between 11:00 and 12:00 (required agents: 100). When you generated your staffing plan, 120 agents were scheduled to work for that shift.

Next, you look at the schedule for each 15-minute interval:

11:00: 100 agents are available for interactions, and 20 agents are on break.

The net staffing is optimal for this interval.
11:15: 105 agents are available for interactions, and 15 agents are on break.

You are overstaffed by 5 agents during this interval (+5).
11:30: 105 agents are available for interactions, and 15 agents are on break.

You are overstaffed by 5 agents during this interval (+5).
11:45: 90 agents are available for interactions, and 30 agents are on break.

You are understaffed by 10 agents during this interval (-10).

After the rule runs at its defined time, you look at the plan. It could suggest taking the break activities for five agents from 11:15 and another five from 11:30, and moving them to 11:45.

This way, the net staffing will be optimal between 11:00 and 12:00.

You first create an optimization rule for the days you want it to create a plan. In the rule, you select the scheduling units and break activities. The optimizer will adjust those activities to improve the net staffing. The activities that can get adjusted must be defined as Break in the activity code's settings.

After that, you decide when the optimization plan should get generated. On the selected day and time, you can review the Optimization Plans and approve them.

You can learn more about Schedule Optimization with these videos:

Overview: Discover how the Schedule Optimization feature in CXone WFM can enhance your workforce productivity with just a single click.
Rules: Learn how to set up schedule optimization rules and receive a daily plan that you can use.
Plans: Learn how to review and optimize plans, understand the improvement rate, and track plan status.

Prerequisites

Before you set up rules, make sure you get the most out of schedule optimization:

For agents to be included in the optimization plan, they need to be:
- Scheduled with a daily rule. If you manually create or edit agent schedules, the optimizer won't include them.
- Assigned to the Can be Scheduled attribute on the Set Up Employees page.
Let's say a scheduling unit has 100 agents. Now, 20 agents don't have that attribute or weren't scheduled with a daily rule. The plan can adjust the schedule for the other 80 agents.
The optimizer doesn’t consider the Consistent start time option in the weekly rule. The plan can override this option if the schedule has this option.

Break activities are adjusted to optimize the schedule. So it's likely those activities will have a different start time.
The plan can move each activity based on their slack in the daily rule. The slack is how long the activity can deviate from the defined start time. The longer it is, the better you can optimize the schedule. Make sure the slack for each activity is consistent with all daily rules.

Create a Schedule Optimization Rule

Click the app selector and select CXone WFM.
Go to Schedule Optimization > Rules.
Click New Rule, and enter the optimization rule name.
Select the Scheduling units and the Activities that are included in the optimization. You cannot select a unit and code combination that is set in another rule.

Keep in mind, the plans are generated according to the scheduling unit's time zone.

See example

Let's say you define that the plan is generated at 8:00 in the morning. You are located in New York and manage two scheduling units, one in New York and another in Los Angeles.

At 8:00, one plan is generated for the NY. At 11:00, the LA plan is generated because it's 8:00 for that scheduling unit.
Define when the plan optimizes schedules from. The generated plan adjusts the break activities for all agents in the scheduling unit that start after this time.

The selected time is also when the plan expires. You won't be able to optimize after this time. Once a plan expires, it moves to the optimization plan history.

See example

Let's say a plan was generated at 9:30, and you selected to optimize schedules from 10:00.

When the plan gets generated, it adjusts the break activities from 10:00. If an agent has a break between 9:50 and 10:20, that break won't be included in the optimization.

Because 10:00 is also the expiration time, you won't be able to optimize after that. It will be active between 9:30-10:00.

If the selected Optimize from time was 11:00, and the plan was generated at 9:30 then the plan will expire at 10:30.
Under Run from, select the days and time to generate the plans. For example, you can set a rule that generates a plan every Monday–Friday, at 9:00.

Keep in mind, the plan can take up to 15 minutes to generate. It's recommended that you don't edit the schedule during the Run from time until the plan is generated.
Click Save.

Manage Optimization Rules

You can only have one active rule for each activity and scheduling unit combination.

Let's say you define a rule for Scheduling U1 and Break activity A. If the rule is:

Active: You can later create another rule for Scheduling U1 but with other activities. You can also create another rule for Break activity A but with other units.
Inactive: You can create another rule for the same scheduling unit and activity combination. However, you won't be able to have two or more active rules with the same combination.

Timing in Schedule Optimization

When creating a rule, you define when to generate plans and when the plan optimizes schedules from. This is the time range when the optimization plans are displayed. After that, the optimization plan is moved to the history.

When a plan is generated, you receive a notification that it's ready. You can review and accept it on the Schedule Optimization Plans page.

Optimizing Night Shifts

The generated plan optimizes the schedule from the selected time until the day's last activity. Plans that include night shifts that start before midnight are also optimized. In this case, activities that end before 8:00 the following day are optimized.