50 Years of Growth, Innovation and Leadership

Workforce Engagement Management

How to Engage Your Team for the Best Customer Experience

A Frost & Sullivan White Paper

 CONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Why Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) is important and what
you should know by now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Understanding the “Workforce Engagement Management

Journey” Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Enhanced productivity and profitability drive the adoption of
Contact Center management solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Companies are realizing the benefits of a highly engaged
workforce from the implementation of WEM tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Automation for WEM processes is well on its way . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Increased demand for Workforce Optimization (WFO)
cloud solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Best-of-suite suits best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The impact of EX on CX cannot be overstated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Final Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

About Genesys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
 Workforce Engagement Management

INTRODUCTION
Why Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) is
important and what you should know by now
Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) refers to the suite of products and
solutions that helps companies manage and improve employee engagement
throughout several processes, including: recruiting, performance evaluation and
training, time and task management, agent assistance and recognition, and Voice
of the Employee (VoE) surveys.

Whereas Workforce Optimization (WFO) solutions focus on the overall quality

and efficiency of an operation, the relatively new concept of WEM focuses on
employee engagement and addresses one of the most critical trends in customer
contact today; that of recognizing that the customer experience (CX) and
employee experience (EX) should be on equal footing.

Frequently, organizations rely too heavily on WFO and performance metrics

to drive agent and operational efficiency. The result, besides employee
disengagement, is a continual stream of numbers and targets bombarding
agents every day. While this may have been considered effective in the past,
a fully engaged and motivated workforce needs a new approach—one that
leverages management and motivational tools to nurture a truly knowledgeable
and empowered employee base.

To address this trend, leading industry providers are beginning to transform

their products into more agile and employee-focused solutions. While some are
positioning WEM as part of an end-to-end contact center suite that includes several
components, other vendors are pushing WEM as a stand-alone employee performance
and engagement solution.

With the heightened emphasis on WEM, we will see increased innovation aimed at
helping companies deliver a better experience for their employees. Certainly, leveraging
technology to improve employee engagement is not new, but with the arrival of cloud,
artificial intelligence (AI) and automation solutions, WEM can be more flexible and
powerful than ever.

In order to truly motivate and engage contact center teams, companies must equip
their staff with the right tools, empower them to manage their tasks effectively,
and accommodate their style of working. Undoubtedly, the quality of CX a company
can provide is inextricably linked to how it engages and motivates its workforce. As
Frost & Sullivan research shows, full adopters of WEM solutions, are:

• 96% more likely to be able to achieve overall profitability.

• 82% more likely to provide better quality of customer experience.

• 60% more likely to have more highly engaged and motivated employees.

• 40% more likely to be able to satisfy their customers.

• 34% more likely to have a higher profit growth.

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 Workforce Engagement Management

UNDERSTANDING THE “WORKFORCE ENGAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT JOURNEY” SURVEY
With the augmented role of employees at the center of a seamless CX model, focused on improved
internal and external engagement, organizations (of all sizes) have started to recognize the tangible
benefits of enhancing the employee journey.

WEM, a natural evolution of WFO, places a huge emphasis on agent empowerment, assistance, and
reward by providing worker-focused tools, such as flexible scheduling, personalized training and
coaching, and renovated agent workspaces.

Innovative components of a WEM solution include VoE surveys, gamification, mobile applications for the
worker, team communication and collaboration tools, eLearning, knowledge management, and guided
resolution.

To understand how contact centers are using WEM products, Frost & Sullivan surveyed 1,031 business
decision makers1 across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, to discern their key
challenges and benefits. For the purpose of this research, the specific industry sectors selected included
financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, and retail.

The study explores current adoption and use of contact center management solutions, including WEM
and what it means in terms of business impact and priorities. The study also examines technology
demands and planned purchasing trends. Below are the five key takeaways from the survey:

1 Enhanced productivity and profitability drive the adoption of

Contact Center management solutions
Contact centers have always been in an ongoing race against the clock to process interactions, and then
move on to the next one, without delay (and without impacting quality). The fundamental task of contact
center operations remains an attempt to balance the variables of time and quality, and to come up with
an optimal solution that will improve the customer journey.

The supply chain in a contact center links a pool of potential hires and their skills with training resources,
coaching, and performance management. However, boosting productivity and effectiveness requires
matching skills and knowledge to a problem, rather than just matching headcount to (interactions)
volume.

Achieving operational productivity has become a tight balancing act between meeting rising customer
expectations and controlling costs. But in today’s extremely competitive environment, the stakes have
rarely been higher. Fortunately, there are methods and tools available to help organizations achieve
positive outcomes.

1 Respondents have a primary role in the purchase process for systems or tools for their contact center.
Respondents’ primary area of responsibility is either contact center operations or human resources
management.

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 Workforce Engagement Management

Hence, it is not surprising that 55% of organizations have contact center solutions that enable performance
and workforce management; while close to 50% currently use knowledge and learning management
systems.

CHART 1: CONTACT CENTER MANAGEMENT TOOLS ADOPTION

Performance management 56%

Workforce management 55%
Knowledge management systems 47%
Learning management systems 47%
Employee survey tools 44%
Traditional form based quality management 44%
Virtual assistants 41%
Interaction recording 40%
Speech and text analytics 38%

n = 1,031
NOTE: Multiple mentions.

Q. Which of the following capabilities are provided by your contact center solutions? (Select all that apply)

Contact centers have long been one of the most

expensive facets of organizations’ operations.
But the concept and application of agent
Globally, 55% of
productivity has evolved from cost containment organizations currently
to goal and profit achievement to ensure excellent
customer journeys. Nowadays, ensuring that
employ contact center
contact center agents are productive is essential solutions that enable
to being able to provide excellent customer
experiences.
workforce management.

2
Companies are realizing the benefits of a highly engaged workforce
from the implementation of WEM tools
A new generation of agents is bringing novel habits, practices, and capabilities to the workplace. Millennials
have become used to easy and intuitive experiences but several contact centers tools and processes
are archaic and ineffective. Improve associate tools usability can result in some major improvements
that drive both employee and customer satisfaction. Whereas this new generation expects continuous
feedback and seeks social recognition and rewards for robust performances, they are also strong team

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 Workforce Engagement Management

players. Finally, these agents want more control over their schedules, along with a greater work-life
balance.

While the addition of Millennials into the workforce may represent several challenges to contact centers,
when asked about priority work issues, 50% of respondents cited the lack of employee recognition, the
lack of tools to help employees improve the CX, and the under-utilization of employee skills as the main
workforce concerns to be resolved. Also, not surprisingly, the lack of proper communication, coaching
and training, and a poor fit between the job requirements and the employee profile & skills were noted
as very relevant.

CHART 2: PRIORIT Y WORK ISSUES

Feeling underappreciated and

unrecognized for their work
50%
Lack of enabling infrastructure and tools to help
employees provide a good customer experience
48%

Underutilization of employee skills 48%

Lack of proper communication between
manager and employees
47%

Lack of coaching and training 47%

Poor fit between the job and the
employee profile and skills
47%
Lack of feedback and direction
from their manager
46%
Lack of understanding or connection to the
core mission and values of the company
46%

Dissatisfaction with basic salaries or wages 46%

n = 1,031

Q. If you had an opportunity to prevent or resolve some of the following issues that may be impacting your contact
center employee motivation or engagement, which ones will you prioritize?

Definitely, organizations should give agents more control over customer service decision-making. Also,
they should incentivize them for continually improving their skills, and give agents the freedom to select
their schedules, but base this privilege and shift choices on performance.

In order to improve and maintain workforce engagement, companies believe that the three most
important capabilities/practices to consider are performance management, forecasting workload &

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 Workforce Engagement Management

staffing, and the ability to improve employees’ work-life balance. However, task and time management
are also significant when looking at enhancing the working environment and relationship with agents.

CHART 3: IMPORTANCE OF WEM CAPABILITIES

Performance management (in general) 80%

Ability to accurately forecast
workload and staffing needs
79%
Ability to improve employees’
work-life balance
76%

Workforce management (in general) 75%

Ability to customize training
mix for each employee
74%

Task management 74%

Time management 72%

Employee recognition 71%

E-Learning / Learning management 69%

Ability to consider employee
preferences when scheduling
68%
n = 1,031

Q. Select the capability you consider MOST important to improving and maintaining workforce engagement?

Novel agent skills and specializations, digital channels, heightened customer service, and agent demands
have made contact center scheduling and forecasting more complex. The customer-first focus requires
excellent quality management (QM), coaching, and analytics to anticipate issues that may arise.

For instance, gamification use is growing as a tool to reward agents for meeting and exceeding goals,
scores, and targets; and for achievements, compliance, and training. Also, to keep a close track of agents’
feedback, companies are deploying voice of the employee (VoE) solutions, which survey workers,
including gathering their opinion on their experiences with customers.

As a result, WEM tools have seen a steep adoption globally, as 70% of the surveyed companies have
deployed these solutions already. By now, 1 out of 3 organizations are full adopters, meaning they are
realizing the benefits of a highly engaged workforce.

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 Workforce Engagement Management

CHART 4: WEM TOOLS CURRENT USE

We have no plans to purchase or deploy

5% WEM tools in the next 18 months
We intend to purchase or deploy
7% WEM tools in the next 18 months
Non-Adopters
We are in the process of purchasing
18% or deploying WEM tools

Partial Adopters
34% We have deployed WEM tools but have yet to
realize the benefits of a highly engaged workforce

70%

Full Adopters
36% We have deployed WEM tools and are realizing
the benefits of a highly engaged workforce

n = 1,031

Q. Which of the following best describe where you are in terms of deploying and utilizing workforce engagement
management (WEM) tools?

3 Automation for WEM processes is well on its way

Solution providers have turned to process automation and the addition of new technologies under
the umbrella of artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to improve agent tools as well as enhance the self-
service options that today’s modern consumer craves. Automation has allowed companies to broaden
their relationships with their customers through
enhanced self-service options, which has allowed
many of them to take the lead in managing their own
journey. 36% of companies
Frost & Sullivan analysis shows that automation as worldwide are already
a key component in WEM tools is well on its way,
as 50% of the organizations globally have already
realizing the benefits of a
automated at least 4 WEM processes, including highly engaged workforce.
quality management (QM), forecasting and
scheduling, agent assistance, and e-learning.

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 Workforce Engagement Management

CHART 5: AUTOMATION OF WEM PROCESSES

Workforce Engagement Processes (Total)

ALRE ADY PL AN TO AUTOMATE NO PL ANS TO

AUTOMATED TO IMPROVE PROCESS AUTOMATE
Quality management
(Call listening)
56% 34% 10%
Forecasting and scheduling 53% 36% 11%
Agent interaction assistance 50% 38% 12%
E-Learning assignment 49% 40% 11%
Recruitment 45% 35% 20%
Interaction dispositioning 45% 41% 15%
n = 1,031

Q. For each of the following workforce engagement processes, please indicated if they are already automated,
or if you are planning to improve them through automation, or if you have no plan at all to automate.

By automating the QM process, companies can automatically score every call, reducing costs, saving
time, and maintaining consistency and quality. This is infinitely better than random sampling and manual
call evaluation (where less than one percent of all recorded agent interactions are audited). In addition,
QM resources can be re-allocated from scoring and other manual tasks to higher value activities, such
as agent coaching.

Organizations are also looking at how agents carry out their tasks, in order to shrink average handle time
(AHT) while improving the CX. They also want to limit agent errors, while seeking to provide consistent
service. As a result, companies are examining and investing in desktop automation, guided assistance,
knowledge management, and robotic process automation (RPA) solutions to assist agents with tasks.
These applications improve service delivery by providing agents with next best actions and relevant
information at the point of need, allowing them to stay focused on the customer, instead of worrying
about the technology.

4 Increased demand for Workforce Optimization (WFO)

cloud solutions
Globally, companies are looking to the cloud as the shortest path to modernization, providing the ability
to scale up or down as their business needs dictate. Growth in the cloud contact center market is being
driven by end of life cycles of existing system platforms, new optimization tools, redesigned agent
desktops, the continual addition of new channels, richer integrations to third-party applications, and
new analytics capabilities.

In this context, willingness to adopt WFO solutions in the cloud is accelerating. Currently, over a third
of the surveyed companies state that they prefer to deploy all their WFO tools in the cloud; while 26%

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 Workforce Engagement Management

choose a hybrid approach (cloud for some WFO products and on-premise for others). In other words,
60% of organizations worldwide already prefer to use at least some WFO products in the cloud.

CHART 6: WFO DEPLOYMENT MODELS

No preference
10%
Cloud
34% for all WFO products
Mixed
Cloud for some WFO products 26%
and on premise for others

30%
On Premise
for all WFO products
n = 1,031
Q. What deployment type do you prefer for your Workforce Optimization solutions right now?

While 1 out of 4 organizations already have a WFO cloud deployment, 60% of companies shared their
plans to embrace one by the end of 2020. Only 7% of the interviewees, worldwide, commented they
have no plans or are unsure about using WFO cloud solutions.

CHART 7: TIMING OF CLOUD UTILIZATION

4% Unsure
3% No plans
10% By end of 2021

28% By end of 2020

32% By end of 2019

Already have a
24% cloud solution
n = 1,031

Q. Do you plan to utilize cloud solutions for your workforce optimization solutions in the future?

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 Workforce Engagement Management

Increased demand for cloud-based solutions in

the contact center will continue at a brisk pace,
mainly for the benefits the cloud provides: fast
25% of companies have
implementations, increased business agility, adopted a WFO solution
scalability, lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
and seamless customer enhancements.
in the cloud.

5 Best-of-suite suits best

Today’s WFO solutions provide an interesting blend of forecasting and scheduling alternatives. By
offering flexible scheduling and shift-bidding, companies can make room for agents demands, while
taking into account business needs. For example, workforce managers can create customized schedules
and define their team’s agenda for each campaign, accommodating client needs while splitting a task
among employees.

As discussed, WEM solutions expand traditional WFO product suites with additional features that are
designed to address agents’ well-being (such as VoE and agent assistance tools). But what are the “must
have” capabilities in any given WFO solution? According to the majority of companies, performance,
workforce, learning, knowledge management systems and employee survey tools are the top 5
capabilities they look for in a WFO solution.

CHART 8: MUST HAVE WFO CAPABILITIES

Performance management 50%

Workforce management 48%
Learning management systems 43%
Knowledge management systems 42%
Employee survey tools 40%
Virtual assistants 36%
Speech and text analytics 34%
Traditional form based quality
management
34%
Robotic process automation (RPA) 34%
Interaction recording 34%
Q. What capabilities should a contact center workforce optimization (WFO) solution n = 1,031
have before you would consider purchasing and using it? (Select all that apply.)

Likewise, when asked about their planned product acquisitions over the next 18 months, one out of
three organizations mentioned plans to purchase workforce management, virtual assistants, learning &

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 Workforce Engagement Management

performance management systems and RPA tools. Certainly, contact centers are under constant pressure
to improve performance, employ automation tools, and create an engaged and high-performance
workforce in the short term.

CHART 9: WFO PRODUCT PURCHASE INTENT

Workforce management 35%

Virtual assistants 35%
Learning management systems 34%
Robotic process automation (RPA) 33%
Performance management 32%
Employee survey tools 31%
Knowledge management systems 29%
Speech and text analytics 28%
Interaction recording 25%
Traditional form based quality
management
24%
Q. Which of the following products are you planning to purchase within the next 18 months? n = 1,031
(Select all that apply.)

Finally, the survey addressed how companies want to adopt these solutions. Three out of five organizations
preferred an integrated suite from one vendor rather than a best of breed approach (sourcing from
multiple vendors). The above may create more business opportunities for those vendors able to integrate
WFO and WEM capabilities into a broader suite, providing a one-stop shop for contact center solutions.

CHART 10: INTEGRATED VS. BEST OF BREED

Best of breed
approach with products 43%
from multiple vendors
57% Integrated suite
from one vendor

Q. Are you looking for an integrated suite from one vendor or do you prefer a best of breed n = 1,031
approach with products from multiple vendors?

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 Workforce Engagement Management

CONCLUSION
The impact of EX on CX cannot be overstated
Building a better workforce means incorporating
elements that engage, recognize and enliven
the workforce, but also empower them to do 3 out of 5 organizations
their jobs more effectively. It is important to
make sure companies are equipped to make
prefer an integrated suite
employees happier, which will result in happier from one vendor when
customers and more profitable outcomes.
acquiring a WFO Solution.
Beyond doubt, creating an engaged and high-
performance workforce is a key factor in delivering best-in-class customer experiences. According
to Frost & Sullivan surveys, 89% of respondents consider that improving contact center workforce
engagement significantly enhances the quality of customer experience.

CHART 11: THE RELEVANCE OF WORKFORCE ENGAGEMENT

We believe that improving contact center

workforce engagement significantly 89%
improves the quality of customer experience
Improving customer experience
is a high priority in our company
89%

Improving and maintaining contact center

workforce engagement is a high priority
88%

We measure the quality of customer

experience with our contact center
88%

We measure the quality of customer

experience across all channels
87%

Q. To what extent would you agree or disagree that the following is descriptive of your n = 1,031
company’s beliefs or practices?

WEM solutions should be considered a strategic tool for any organization, as they not only help to
improve operational performance but also elevate employee engagement. The impact that motivated
and engaged employees can have should not be underestimated. High agent turnover is expensive and
disruptive; something to be avoided at all costs.

WEM is a critical focal point in customer contact today, as the employee experience (EX) and CX are
deeply intertwined; and improving both leads to cost reduction, higher customer satisfaction levels, and
increased brand loyalty.

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 Workforce Engagement Management

FINAL WORD
WEM seeks to improve the employee experience,
A huge majority of
just as contact centers have sought to improve
CX. Lately, the focus on WEM has revitalized organizations believe that
the contact center market, as it encompasses
organizational and physical environment
WEM significantly impacts
initiatives, creates incentives and rewards, and the quality of customer
improves desktop tools and mobile apps by
leveraging emerging technologies.
experience.
Regardless of how an organization has been relating with its employees, there is an immediate opportunity
to rethink that engagement strategy. By taking advantage of WEM tools and empowering employees to
better engage with customers, enhanced business outcomes are more likely to be achieved.

The ROI from such initiative is likely to justify the expenditure, as Frost & Sullivan research shows that
companies that are full adopters of WEM solutions:

1. Are 96% more likely to be able to achieve overall profitability

2. Are 82% more likely to provide better quality of customer experience
3. Are 60% more likely to have more highly engaged and motivated employees
4. Are 40% more likely to be able to satisfy their customers
5. Are 34% more likely to have a higher profit growth

ABOUT GENESYS
Genesys® powers 25 billion of the world’s best customer experiences each year. Our success comes from
connecting employee and customer conversations on any channel, every day. Over 10,000 companies in
100+ countries trust our #1 customer experience platform to drive great business outcomes and create
lasting relationships. Visit us at www.genesys.com

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