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HOW DO I MANAGE A FIELD WORKFORCE SCHEDULE?

Dynamic workforce scheduling begins with optimised appointment data. The steps to move operations away from inefficient white space filling can be broadly split into three key types. Each has their own unique approach towards workforce optimisation.

ASSISTED
Assisted scheduling solutions offer a balance between the increased efficiency of fully dynamic scheduling and the intuition of an experienced dispatch agent associated with manual workforce scheduling. An organisation must accept the risk of skills and knowledge disappearing if the head office team member leaves their role. This approach to workforce optimisation is generally aimed at smaller organisations who are moving towards a growth phase.

OPTIMISED
Optimised workforce scheduling tends to be necessitated when a field service department needs to automate some of the decision making involved with scheduling. For example, an organisation might wish to keep their call centre for the booking of appointments. This workforce optimisation often involves the use of an algorithm such as PowerOpt, in order to streamline the decision-making process.

DYNAMIC
Dynamic workforce scheduling, or in other words real-time scheduling solutions suit a wide range of medium to large companies. Businesses often realise that their environment is complex and challenging, but become trapped in inefficient custom solutions that may have taken many years to develop. Often, senior level schedulers and dispatchers have grown frustrated with workflows and frequently experience their field business trying to adapt to every small change without any option to review wider consequences.

The system identifies and reoptimises resources to consider the most critical work orders amongst thousands of processes that are both already in progress and planned well in advance. All departments from the field technician through to the customer teams and accounts know that these orders are often missed/impossible to service. It is time to consult a specialist software developer to prevent damaging outcomes to cost and reputation.

For medium to large scale field workforce management, consult the ecosystem of a cost-optimised self-service appointment portal, paired with real-time scheduling, and a paperless experience for field employees via an integrated app.