WFM Planner

The Senior Workforce Planner / Scheduler is responsible for developing and maintaining forecasts, hiring plans, staffing requirements, schedules, rosters, and related workforce-planning deliverables for a complex contact-center environment. The role translates historical performance, business drivers, operational assumptions, and client inputs into staffing and scheduling recommendations that support service levels, productivity, customer experience, and cost objectives.

Responsibilities

• This role requires hands-on experience with Genesys Workforce Management, strong knowledge of contact-center metrics, advanced Excel and reporting capability, and the ability to communicate clearly with clients, Operations, WFM leadership, and partner teams.
• Planner / Scheduler is expected to identify risks early, solve problems before they affect performance, and continuously improve forecasting, planning, scheduling, and reporting practices.
• Key responsibilities Forecasting and workforce planning Establish and maintain reliable historical data used for trending, including volume, average handle time, service level, staffing, attendance, and shrinkage factors.
• Normalize historical data for unusual events and document the assumptions so similar future conditions can be evaluated accurately.
• Standardize trending methods and customize forecasting inputs and formulas by program, line of business, skill, and channel.
• Identify patterns, business drivers, seasonality, and industry trends that may affect future demand and staffing requirements.
• Develop rolling baseline forecasts for volume, average handle time, shrinkage, and required staffing across short-, medium-, and long-term planning horizons.
• Produce and maintain a 13-month rolling hiring forecast and a 52-week staffing forecast.
• Develop interval-level preliminary and final forecasts, including 45-day and 7-day planning horizons.
• Partner with Operations, the client, Marketing, Product or R&D, Training, Recruitment, IT, Telecom, Finance, and other stakeholders to validate forecast assumptions.
• Document assumptions, risks, decisions, and action items from forecasting and hiring-plan meetings.
• Translate forecast requirements into hiring plans, training-class recommendations, attrition assumptions, and budget-planning inputs.
• Scheduling and staffing optimization Build, recommend, and maintain schedules that align staffing to workload, service-level requirements, business rules, skills, operating hours, and employee availability.
• Maintain accurate rosters, staffing plans, skill assignments, and schedule inputs for multi-skilled programs.
• Evaluate how scheduling methods, days off, shift patterns, training, learning curves, PTO, overtime, and shrinkage affect FTE requirements.
• Coordinate with Operations and Scheduling stakeholders to review and approve schedule recommendations and staffing actions.
• Provide vacation and PTO allotments and support leadership decisions regarding PTO and overtime.
• Review scheduled versus actual staffing and adherence, identify variances, and recommend corrective actions.
• Proactively identify and address staffing shortages and coverage risks at the 7-day and 45-day interval levels.
• Assess opportunities to improve schedule effectiveness and maximize the use of Genesys WFM capabilities Reporting, metrics, and analysis Create accurate daily, weekly, monthly, ad hoc, and client-facing reports that explain staffing, forecast, and performance conditions.
• Report variances in volume, average handle time, shrinkage, staffing, service level, schedule adherence, and other key contact-center metrics.
• Use advanced Excel to analyze large data sets, reconcile information, identify trends, build models, and present clear recommendations.
• Apply formulas, lookups, pivot tables, charts, data validation, and other appropriate Excel techniques to produce reliable planning and reporting outputs.
• Audit data, reports, templates, and assumptions to ensure accuracy and consistency.
• Explain the business impact of forecast or staffing variances and identify actions needed to protect service levels and productivity.
• Maintain clear documentation for recurring reports, planning models, processes, and data sources.
• Client communication and stakeholder partnership Serve as a trusted workforce-planning partner to the client and its vendors by providing clear staffing guidance and recommendations.
• Lead or participate in recurring client, Operations, WFM, hiring-plan, forecast-review, and performance meetings.
• Communicate the current state, future outlook, key risks, assumptions, and recommended actions in a concise and professional manner.
• Present unfavorable trends, capacity risks, or forecast limitations transparently and with a solution-oriented approach.
• Confirm client and stakeholder requirements, resolve questions, and follow through on commitments.
• Escalate issues early, including the business impact, available options, and recommended next steps.
• Continuous improvement and ownership Identify opportunities to improve forecasting accuracy, planning efficiency, schedule effectiveness, reporting quality, and stakeholder visibility.
• Take proactive action to solve situations before they become operational problems.
• Establish repeatable processes, templates, controls, and communication routines that improve decision speed and consistency.
• Seek feedback, develop new skills, and demonstrate a strong personal commitment to continuous improvement.
• Manage multiple projects, deadlines, and planning cycles while maintaining accuracy and service continuity.

Requirements

• Required qualifications Bachelor’s degree in any field or equivalent relevant work experience.
• At least one year of experience in forecasting and resource planning in a contact-center environment.
• At least one year of intraday management experience.
• Hands-on experience with Genesys Workforce Management is required.
• Strong knowledge of contact-center metrics, workforce-planning concepts, forecasting, staffing, scheduling, and shrinkage.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including formulas, lookups, pivot tables, data reconciliation, trend analysis, and report development.
• Strong reporting and analytical skills with demonstrated attention to data accuracy.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate professionally with clients and senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to make sound decisions, prioritize competing deadlines, and work independently with minimal supervision.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, time-management, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to work rotating, overnight, weekend, and holiday schedules as required.
• Ability to live within 30 minutes of an ibex location and reliably support the assigned work arrangement.

Preferred

• Experience supporting telecommunications, technical support, broadband, cable, wireless, or other telco-related contact-center operations.
• Experience supporting a BPO, managed-services, multi-client, or vendor environment.
• Experience with both Genesys WFM and Genesys telephony or ACD platforms.
• Experience with multi-skilled programs, multiple lines of business, multiple sites, or blended channels.
• Experience with budget planning, hiring-plan governance, training-class planning, PTO modeling, or overtime analysis.
• Experience improving forecasting methodologies, reporting automation, planning models, or scheduling processes.
• Core competencies Workforce forecasting and capacity planning Genesys WFM expertise Contact-center metrics and reporting
• Advanced Excel and data analysis Scheduling and staffing optimization
• Client communication and executive presence
• Proactive ownership and preventative problem-solving
• Continuous improvement and self-development
• Stakeholder collaboration and influence
• Organization, accuracy, and follow-through