Workforce Management Planner

Overview

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.

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. The Senior Planner / Scheduler is expected to identify risks early, solve problems before they affect performance, and continuously improve forecasting, planning, scheduling, and reporting practices.

Responsibilities

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.

Qualifications

• 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 qualifications

  • 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