The workforce optimization technology industry is constantly evolving, and it's essential to stay up-to-date with the latest trends.
In the age of “Total Experience”, business leaders are gaining a new understanding of just how important other “experiences” are when it comes to ensuring good CX. Even if you have the perfect omnichannel contact centre, powerful self-service tools, and the latest technology to delight your customers, you’ll struggle to see the right results without first investing in your team.
For years, WFO (Workforce Optimisation) and WFM (Workforce Management) tools have given businesses more ways to augment team performance. As hybrid and remote work make managing and engaging staff members more complex, demand for these technologies is increasing at a record pace.
As the WFO space grows, we’re beginning to see some defining trends emerging in the industry.
In this article, we'll discuss the hottest trends in workforce optimization technology, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and automation.
1. The Evolution of CCaaS
The shift to the cloud has been a consistent trend for many companies for some time now. Promising agility, flexibility, scalability, and crucial business continuity, the cloud helps businesses to thrive, even during unpredictable times. CCaaS, or “Contact Centre as a Service” solutions, have emerged as one of the more popular tools in this new cloud environment.
Combining everything companies need for CX into one convenient, cloud-native package, CCaaS solutions ensure businesses can maintain the agility they need in today’s service space. One of the biggest benefits of CCaaS solutions is how quickly they can adapt and expand to include new features and functionalities within the CX space.
As WFO investments grow, we’re seeing many leading CCaaS vendors embedding WFO and WFM technologies directly into the contact centre. This ensures companies can access all the tools they need for tracking and supporting their teams within the ecosystem they use for CX management.
2. The Rise of the Hybrid Team
Workforce optimisation technology already provided business leaders with insights into employee performance and efficiency long before the pandemic hit. However, the rise of hybrid and remote work, which exploded during the last couple of years, has certainly impacted adoption.
With fewer team members now present in the traditional office at any given time, supervisors, managers, and business leaders need the right set of tools to keep on top of their staff members. WFO solutions can help companies to track engagement, performance levels, and critical metrics, as well as ensure they can deliver guidance and support to staff wherever they are.
The rise of the hybrid team is also influencing the structure and presence of WFO tools. For instance, many solutions are now being built into business hubs like Microsoft Teams, where staff members collaborate over customer service issues. These tools also come with dashboards and insights to help staff track their own performance and compare it to their peers wherever they are.
3. Self-Service and AI
Self-service and the development of new artificial intelligence tools are two more trends we’ve seen a lot in the CX space over the last couple of years. As customers become more digitally savvy, they’re also more comfortable with the idea of completing tasks and solving problems without agent help.
Notably, however, AI-powered tools for self-service aren’t just beneficial for your customers. They can also be an extremely useful addition to the employee experience strategy. Within WFO systems, AI assistants and bots can be a fantastic way for distributed and remote employees to access help when needed most to boost their benchmarks and performance.
