Best practices for forecasting staffing needs

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Workforce Management (WFM) or Workforce Engagement Management (WEM)

Summary: ◀▼

Use forecasting to estimate future staffing needs based on historical data and expected demand. Test multiple algorithms and scenarios to prepare for volume changes, adjust for external events, and refine staffing parameters. Remove outliers and set cutoff dates for outdated data. Forecast scenarios help compare staffing outcomes and plan for different conditions, ensuring your team is ready for changing support volumes across channels.

Use forecasting in Zendesk Workforce Management (WFM) to estimate future staffing needs based on historical volume and expected demand. This article provides best practices and tips for forecasting staffing needs so you can test staffing assumptions, compare outcomes, and prepare for changes in volume.

This article contains the following topics:

Tips for using WFM forecasting
Best practices for using forecast scenarios

Tips for using WFM forecasting

Use these tips when forecasting staffing needs in WFM:

Forecast scenarios let you test “what if” changes safely without affecting the active forecast. See Viewing and managing forecast scenarios.
Only the active forecast is passed downstream to scheduling and reporting. See Viewing your active forecasts.
Be aware that Forecast inbound volume counts workstream entries. Forecast inbound volume counts the number of times a ticket enters a workstream, not the number of unique tickets. This can include repeated work on the same ticket as it moves through multiple workstreams.
Test multiple algorithms. WFM can test multiple forecasting algorithms and choose the best one automatically. It also updates that selection automatically if arrival patterns change. Even so, you should experiment to achieve the best forecasting results, by testing all forecast algorithms to determine which one works best for each workstream. Each workstream’s data patterns are unique, so one option rarely fits all cases. See About WFM forecast algorithms.
Account for channel type. For asynchronous channels, volume received outside availability hours is distributed across the next availability period. For synchronous channels, volume outside availability hours is disregarded. See Understanding required staffing.
Adjust for external events. Forecast algorithms can’t account for external events, such as a planned marketing campaign, an expected service disruption, or a natural event. Use inbound volume adjustments to apply the expected impact on volume. Then regenerate schedules with the updated forecast to prepare for the event. See Adjusting the inbound volume.
Use a cutoff date when historical data is outdated. A forecast is only as good as the data it uses. If your historical data is no longer relevant to current operations, you can set a cutoff date. By default, the algorithm uses up to two years of data, but you can limit it to data collected after a specific date. This is useful if your business undergoes restructuring or a significant change in volume patterns, and the historical volume no longer reflects current operations.
Remove outliers before forecasting. Outliers are periods you can exclude when something unusual affected volume, such as a system outage or an abnormal increase or decrease in tickets that doesn’t reflect normal operations. See Excluding historical inbound volume outliers.
Use folders for combined workstreams. WFM doesn’t forecast volume for a combined workstream. However, you can create a folder in the Forecast area and add the forecasted values for the included workstreams to get a rough estimate of the combined workstream forecast.
Select the active workstream to review it. To view an active workstream, select it from the list. See Viewing your active forecasts.
Use forecast vs actual to evaluate performance. Use the Forecast vs actual page (EAP) to assess the historical performance of the active forecast scenario. You can also export data from the Forecast vs Actual report and compare any scenario with it. See Understanding and using the forecast vs actual page (EAP).

Best practices for using forecast scenarios

Use these best practices when working with forecast scenarios:

Compare staffing outcomes with scenarios. Use forecast scenarios to compare staffing outcomes and prepare for future changes.
Create multiple scenarios for changing conditions. Create multiple scenarios to account for changes that might affect volume, and switch to the scenario that best matches the new conditions if those changes occur.
Refine scenarios as your business changes. You can update historical data, adjust staffing parameters, activate a scenario, or schedule a scenario to become active later. See Setting up WFM forecasting.
Upload your own data when needed. In the Forecast area, you can upload your own historical data to generate a forecast. You can also upload your own volume forecast or FTE forecast to use for scheduling and reporting.
Set staffing parameters carefully. After you establish your volume forecast, take time to define staffing parameters for each workstream so your FTE values align with your expectations. For low-volume workstreams, the industry-standard Erlang C formula may result in slightly higher staffing recommendations, so you may need to fine-tune the results. This is mostly a one-time configuration, so don’t rush through setup.
Understand how staffing parameters affect results. The staffing parameters in a forecast scenario’s workstream define which metrics are used to calculate FTE requirements and how volume received outside availability hours is treated. For asynchronous channels, such as email, that volume is distributed starting with the first interval of the next availability period. For synchronous channels, that volume isn’t included. See Editing staffing parameters.
Pay attention to the required staffing unit. The unit always appears next to the Required staffing section title. It can be either FTEs or Hourly FTEs. For shorter time periods, such as Day and Week, the unit is FTEs, which shows how many FTEs, or people, you need per interval, such as 15 minutes or 1 hour. For longer periods, such as Month and Year, the unit changes to Hourly FTEs, which represents the number of hours required to complete the work.
Use only the selected channel. You don’t need to enter forecast staffing parameters for every channel option in a single workstream. Only the selected channel is treated as active for the workstream.