Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for Field Service

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for Field Service

    Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for Field Service enables ServiceNow customers to efficiently plan and manage workforce resources, including shifts, staffing, and schedules, all from a centralized location. It supports integration with on-call scheduling and allows creation of shifts and schedules for on-call rotations, helping teams maintain optimal coverage and operational efficiency.

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    Key Features

    • Team Calendar Management: Add meetings, training, time-off requests, and ad hoc work shifts. Filter agents by location, region, assignment groups, or other agent record fields for targeted scheduling.
    • Shift and Schedule Planning: Create and assign shift plans based on agent skills and availability to ensure efficient resource utilization.
    • Schedule Breaks: Add breaks within shifts to manage work-rest balance.
    • Schedule Plan Publishing: Preview and publish schedule plans to provide agents visibility of their shifts. Plans can be unpublished for edits and republished as needed.
    • Request Management: Approve or reject agent time-off and shift-swap requests within assignment groups.
    • Schedule Adherence and Conformance Tracking: Monitor agents’ adherence to planned schedules using real-time and historical reports. Alerts can be sent for potential issues to enable immediate corrective action.
    • Reporting and Analysis: Analyze schedule adherence (how closely agents follow their schedules) and conformance (work completed irrespective of timing) using default or customizable formulas to identify coaching opportunities and optimize workforce management.

    Key Outcomes

    • Improved Workforce Efficiency: By managing schedules, shifts, and on-call rotations from one place, teams can ensure coverage and reduce scheduling conflicts.
    • Enhanced Visibility and Control: Managers gain full insight into planned versus actual work times, enabling proactive management of workforce adherence.
    • Data-Driven Decision Making: Use adherence and conformance metrics to identify areas for process improvement and resource optimization.
    • Agent Engagement and Transparency: Publishing schedules in advance and managing requests centrally improves communication and satisfaction among field service agents.

    Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for Field Service enables you to manage your workforce resources efficiently by planning and managing schedules, staffing, and shifts across your teams all from one location. You can also integrate with on-call scheduling and create shifts and schedule for on-call rotations.

    Key features

    With Scheduling, you can do the following:
    • Add meetings, training, time-off requests, or ad hoc work shifts by using the team calendar.
    • Filter agents in the team calendar based on their location, region, assignment groups, or any field in the agent's record.
    • Create shift and schedule plans for agents.
    • Approve or reject agent time off and shift-swap requests.
    • Track and manage the team's schedule on the team calendar by viewing the planned shifts versus the actual clock-in and clock-out times for the selected day or week.
    • Analyze whether your team members are following the schedules. If you see a potential issue, you can easily alert your team so that they can take immediate action.
    • Use historical adherence reports to analyze and recommend coaching opportunities for your agents.

    For more information about key performance indicators and sidebars, see Exploring indicators with KPI Details.

    Schedule adherence

    • Adherence is a metric to analyze how closely agents follow their schedule in completing the work assignments. Conformance measures the work completed regardless of when it was completed.
    • A high adherence rate indicates that agents are sticking to their schedules and offering field service when expected. A low adherence rate suggests changing the processes or decisions to manage the team efficiently. The numbers are highlighted in red for non-adherent agents.

    • Schedule adherence and conformance calculations are based on the formulas, agents' actual and planned work timings. The following are the default formulas that are used to calculate adherence and conformance for agents. However, your administrator can change the formulas, as required.

      The following components and formulas are used to calculate adherence and conformance:
      • The shift_planning_clock-in and shift_planning_clock-out scripts generate the agents' clock-in and clock-out events from the login and logout sessions. The business rule Agent Time Work Event Trigger generates clock-in and clock-out events whenever there is a change in agent's presence state.
      • Schedule Adherence= (Minutes worked in shift/Scheduled shift time in minutes + Overtime)
      • Conformance= (Minutes worked in shift + Overtime)/Scheduled shift time in minutes
    • The ideal adherence percentage by default is above 70, and conformance is between 80 to 120. However, your administrator can change the threshold values. For more information, see Scheduling in Workforce Optimization for Field Service. The agents who do not qualify to the defined threshold values are considered as non-adherent and are highlighted in red.