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DHL Express

ABA11 Winner / How to Enter

Company: DHL Express, Tempe, AZ
Company Description: DHL has built the world's premier global delivery network by trailblazing express shipping in one country after another. Over 220 countries and territories later, DHL is the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry. DHL specializes in providing customers with innovative and customized transportation solutions from a single source.
Nomination Category: Support Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Support Team of the Year

Nomination Title: DHL Express - Workforce Planning and Reporting

    Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

        In our workforce planning team we support 300 agents with schedules, off phone activities and vacation.   We perform short and long term forecasting of call volume and staffing.  Our team manages real time service level and system outages that impact agent performance and customer ability to do business with DHL. 

        Over the years we’ve optimized shifts based on seniority and as a result we
rarely conducted full shift optimizations.  Two years ago we implemented formal
shift optimizations on a quarterly schedule.  Our agents shared their dislike
for the process and conducted focus groups for feedback.  Agent stated the
following:
• Give the opportunity to volunteer first to change schedules in an effort to
avoid a shift optimization, if not enough volunteers proceed with a formal
process
• Those with intermittent FMLA are not penalized for not being here, which
results in them getting the prime shifts 
• Agents with good performance and attendance should be awarded better shifts 
• Performance criteria such as quality, attendance and schedule compliance
should be used for ranking to determine who selects first. 

        Agents suggested that each category should not be weighted equally and based on
their feedback the criteria was modified.  We communicated focus group outcomes
and actions in a timely manner to our employees.  Our process started by
requesting volunteers to adjust schedules.  They were given a form to select
how many hours and/or days they were willing to adjust.  If we are unable to
get enough volunteers to meet the needs of the business a formal shift
selection process begins. Performance data was gathered, ranked and posted by
employee id.  Schedules were created based on business need.  Agents are asked
to rank shifts in order of preference and filled accordingly. 

        Our first implementation of this new process we were able to get enough
volunteers to avoid full shift optimization.  Every agent submitted a request
to change schedule and we were able to adjust 21% of schedules.  The remaining
79% had optimized lunch and break schedules.  The next time we implemented our
process we did not get enough volunteers and had to implement full shift
optimization.  Our agents knew what to expect and were communicated with
throughout the entire process.  Over 50% were granted their 1st-5th choice of
schedule.  Between shift optimizations agents can request a schedule change,
which is reviewed and granted based on business need.  We continue to conduct
focus groups in an effort to keep our agents engaged in the process.

        We conduct a daily operational review meeting with the management team and bi-
weekly review of our staffing/capacity plan.  We review previous day
performance, current day expectations and risks and what to expect in the
upcoming days/weekends.  We produce a performance report that covers all
aspects of our business on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.  We continually
fine tune our processes and forecasts to ensure our customer needs are met. 

        The Workforce Management team was recognized as “Best in Class” during
a “Center of Excellence” review in July 2010. 

    List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

    Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

        Shari Beckerini, Manager of Workforce Planning & Reporting has been with DHL
for 7 years.  She has strong knowledge of Aspect and call routing.  Her teams
forecast accuracy is below 5% monthly.  Service level is managed to 15 minute
intervals and her team achieves 90/10 service level on 92% of the intervals in
a month.  Her knowledge of planning has been instrumental in achieving our
performance indicators, such as service level, forecast accuracy just to name a
few. Shari and her team were recognized by our Global office as “Best in Class”.