What is workforce optimization (WFO)?

What is workforce optimization (WFO)?  

Workforce optimization is a business process, strategy, and set of tools, oftentimes used in contact centers, focused on increasing productivity while reducing operational costs. WFO focuses on improving customer interactions thorough quality management and performance management. WFO usually includes call monitoring and recording, speech analysis, screen recording evaluation, and performance feedback based on gathered data.  

Core components of workforce optimization

Workforce optimization typically includes:

• Workforce management (WFM): Forecasting, scheduling, and intraday management.
• Quality management (QM): Call recording, scoring, compliance, and interaction review.
• Performance analytics: Dashboards, KPIs, and insights to improve decision-making.
• Coaching & development: Structured feedback, targeted training, and continuous improvement.
• Workforce engagement (WEM): Tools that support agent motivation, well-being, and alignment with business goals.

These components work together to help contact centers balance efficiency with agent experience.

What’s the difference between WFO, WFM, and WEM?

Before workforce engagement management (WEM) came into focus, the industry had WFO and workforce management (WFM).  While WFO emphasized leveraging data from analyzing calls and interactions, WFM added an additional layer of scheduling, forecasting, and adherence monitoring. WFM can be seen as an extension of WFO, as the practices and tools work in tandem to promote better customer experiences and employee performance.

Today, WEM has all but replaced WFO as a common term and business strategy, shifting the emphasis to improving employee experience to create a better customer experience.

Learn more: What is workforce management?

Quality and performance management as a cornerstone of WFO

Optimizing performance starts with analyzing customer interactions and productivity levels. WFO strategies include analyzing voice and screen recordings through software tools like Aspect’s WorkforceOS suite. Monitoring call performance and quality analytics helps business leaders understand what employees are doing well, while pinpointing what can be improved.

WFO products provide important quality assurance and performance metrics that can be evaluated against comprehensive criteria. Once customer interactions are evaluated, performance feedback can be provided by management to improve contact center operations and employee productivity.  

Keep reading: 10 best practices for contact center quality management.

How performance data impacts workforce optimization  

WFO introduced data analysis to improve workforce performance, which allows contact centers to be proactive rather than reactive. Data-driven insights help a business anticipate labor demand and allocate resources accordingly.  

These resources include having the right number of employees staffed at any given time and providing coaching to improve skill sets. RCN, an internet provider and Aspect customer, utilized quality management insights to assess customer interactions and pinpoint employee skill gaps, providing training to improve service quality.

Contact centers oftentimes bundle WFO and WFM strategies together when determining data-driven staffing decisions. Effective workforce engagement utilizes this data to forecast staffing levels, ensuring appropriate staffing and minimizing costs from overstaffing.  

Effective workforce scheduling and forecasting with WFM

As businesses reach enterprise-level needs, it becomes crucial to meet labor demand with precision and efficiency. Workforce management tools developed as part of many WFO suites introduced scheduling solutions, forecasting, and adherence tracking.  

WFM ensures businesses have the right number of agents, at the right time, with the right skills. Tools like Aspect Workforce™ use historic data to forecast workload and labor needs, automating employee scheduling to meet demand. WFM tools also track employee adherence to schedule and productivity, ensuring teams are meeting goals. Having an appropriately staffed contact center with productive employees reduces costs and enhances overall company performance.  

Embracing workforce automation and AI in the workplace

Automating workforce processes can improve workflows for managers and employees. WFM tools utilize algorithms to automate scheduling and forecasting, minimizing manual tasks for management and avoiding errors. Workforce automation gives management more time to focus on tasks like training and coaching, directly benefiting employees and their performance. Embracing automation and AI solutions in workforce management allow businesses to improve workflows, while reallocating time and resources.  

How employee engagement factors into workforce management

Several studies have proven that happy employees lead to happier customers. As contact center business strategies shift toward improving employee engagement, WEM became a more popular term and practice than WFO. Focusing on employee engagement rather than solely performance metrics and quality assurance creates a better workplace for teams and subsequent interactions for the customers they assist.  

According to Gallup, highly engaged workforces see 23% more profit, 18% more in sales, 10% higher customer service ratings, and 14% higher productivity rates. Engaged employees are also less likely to quit, making it easier for a business to stay well-staffed.  

Utilizing WFO for training and development

Workforce optimization helps businesses equip workforces for peak performance with data-driven insights. The quality management tools that support WFO processes can give management insight into skill gaps. Businesses can develop customized coaching opportunities and training programs based on individual employee performance.  

Tools in Aspect WorkforceOS™ improve customer care quality through voice and screen recording evaluations, KPI tracking, and tailored training modules, ultimately improve the quality of customer care.

Enhance customer trust with security and privacy in WFO

Not only are security and privacy compliance necessary legally, but both practices are important to effectively foster customer trust. Workforce optimization's focus on quality assurance and recording brought forth additional concern surrounding security.  

Modern workforce tools like Aspect Quality ™ enhance security through:

• Advanced encryption to secure customer data
• Tailored recording protocols to meet business needs and privacy laws
• Secure file storage for phone and screen recordings

The role of labor law compliance in enterprise-level workforce management  

Workforce management introduced new ways for enterprise-level businesses to comply with ever-changing labor laws. Monitoring hundreds, if not thousands of employee schedules across several contact centers are impossible for managers to manually handle. Effective workforce software must include labor law compliance to optimize operations.  

WFM tools promote labor law compliance and optimization by:

• Avoiding legal penalties for improper labor compliance.
• Ensuring employees are paid accordingly for overtime and holidays.
• Fostering a culture of trust and reliability surrounding proper scheduling and pay.

Keep reading: How Aspect ensures union agreements are honored every day.

Implementing cost reduction strategies without sacrificing quality

A major part of all workforce strategies includes minimizing costs without impacting service quality. Businesses can maintain service standards while cutting costs by:  

• Maximizing company efficiency by monitoring employee performance and providing feedback to enhance customer interactions.
• Accurately forecast labor needs to avoid overstaffing.
• Utilize historic data and forecast labor costs to develop more accurate budgets.
• Manage time tracking and minimize overtime when unnecessary.
• Monitor labor law compliance through automated tools, cutting the need for costly compliance training.
• Focus on workforce engagement strategies, improving employee engagement and satisfaction, which decreases turnover and training costs.  

Drive a unified workforce with seamless software integrations

Seamless integration is critical to improving your workforce efficiency. A workforce suite should have a comprehensive set of tools that seamlessly integrate with one another, while also connecting to external CCaSS, CRM, payroll, HR, and BI systems.  

Having unified data sources provides a holistic views of company activity, allowing businesses to make informed decisions. Incorporating WEM connectors into your workforce software helps future-proof your business by adjusting tools and integrations to meet dynamic workforce changes.

Is workforce optimization still relevant?  

Although WFM and WEM are more commonly used terms in the industry, WFO tools and business processes still shape contact centers. Emphasizing quality management, performance management, and data-driven decisions are cornerstones of a successful workforce.  

Traditional WFO has been refined by adding a focus workforce management and employee engagement. Implementing unified workforce practices will save money, keep employees engaged, improve customer service interactions, and boost overall company performance.

Aspect can help enterprise-level business develop holistic approaches to optimizing workforce operations. The Aspect platform includes comprehensive tools to enhance performance, quality, workforce management, and employee engagement through options like gamification.  

Learn more about how Aspect Workforce can make workdays better for your employees and interactions better for your customers.

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