WFM Labs Maturity Model™

Introduction

We leverage the WFM Labs Maturity Model™ to support the framework for the next generation of workforce management. This model has been updated in 2025 to reflect the availability of technologies and approaches which can be leveraged to support delivering the WFM framework in a new light:

• where employees are prioritized first and how automation technologies can be leveraged to benefit employees.
• where new methods for creating more resilient capacity plans incorporate simulation and variance probabilities into our processes.
• where strategies are leveraging real-time automation to address variations to our plan.
• and where WFM teams leverage technology and automation to impact employee satisfaction and retention.

Leveraging a maturity curve allows the organization to assess its current position and plan for future enhancements to advance up the maturity curve.

The curve is segmented into five areas, with the value for an organization increasing advance up the curve:

Level 1 - Initial / Manual

Level 1 in the WFM Labs Maturity Model™ represents organizations that are in the early stages of workforce management development or have minimal investment in the people, processes, and technology needed to support effective contact center operations. This is where most contact centers start, particularly smaller teams or growing businesses that lack dedicated WFM expertise.

At this level, forecasting, scheduling, and real-time management are informal or non-existent. Operational leaders often manage queues manually, distributing workload as issues arise, and staffing adjustments are reactive, driven by service level emergencies rather than strategic planning.

Key characteristics at this stage include:

• Staffing decisions are made based on instinct and observation, often using spreadsheets or manual methods.
• Hiring is triggered when performance issues surface, leading to delays and cost inefficiencies.
• Shrinkage activities like training and coaching are sporadic, as day-to-day survival takes precedence.
• Customer experience is inconsistent, and costs can escalate rapidly when service levels dip, requiring expensive overtime or urgent hiring.

While Level 1 is a natural starting point for many organizations, it is often not sustainable as contact center complexity grows. Advancing to Level 2 involves formalizing WFM practices, establishing basic forecasting and scheduling processes, and exploring entry-level WFM software to support more structured and proactive staffing decisions.

Level 2 - Foundational (Legacy WFM Practices)

Level 2 in the WFM Labs Maturity Model™ is where the majority of contact centers operate in 2025. Organizations at this level have made substantial investments in workforce planning personnel, standardized processes, and traditional WFM software platforms designed to balance supply, demand, service level, and cost. These practices, built over decades, rely heavily on forecast precision and pre-planned schedules as the primary levers for operational success.

At Level 2, WFM is viewed as a planning function, with teams focused on accurate forecasts and scheduling "just the right number" of agents in advance. However, this pre-planning approach creates fragility—when demand or staffing fluctuates, plans break down, leading to reactive fire-fighting and increased operational strain.

Key characteristics at this stage include:

• Forecasting, scheduling, and real-time teams operate as distinct functions, often working in silos.
• Variance is seen as an exception, not an expectation—causing disruptions when reality deviates from the plan.
• Shrinkage activities (training, coaching, off-phone work) are rigidly scheduled, resulting in frequent cancellations or productivity gaps when queues spike unexpectedly.

While Level 2 reflects maturity compared to Level 1, it reveals its limitations as operational complexity grows. The lack of real-time adaptability leaves contact centers vulnerable, requiring significant manual effort to restore performance whenever reality deviates from the forecast. At Level 2, organizations may achieve stability during periods of low variability, but service level, employee satisfaction, and cost control are all at risk when demand shifts unexpectedly—highlighting the need to progress toward automation and real-time flexibility in Level 3.

Level 3 - Progressive

Level 3 in the WFM Labs Maturity Model™ represents the transition from static pre-planning to dynamic, intraday adaptability, unlocking real-time control over staffing, shrinkage, and queue performance. At this stage, automation becomes the critical enabler, allowing WFM teams to address intraday variance proactively rather than reactively.

Organizations at this level extend beyond traditional ACD and WFM software, deploying real-time automation platforms that dynamically adjust staffing, breaks, training, and off-phone activities based on live queue conditions and agent availability. This allows teams to fine-tune staffing levels throughout the day, improving service stability while reducing reliance on overtime or reactive interventions.

Key advancements at this stage include:

• Intraday Automation: Systems continuously monitor queue performance and agent states, automatically rescheduling breaks, coaching, and off-phone tasks to balance service levels and productivity throughout the day.
• Variance Response: WFM teams shift from pre-planning to active tuning, using automation to counteract demand surges, agent absenteeism, and fluctuating handle times as they occur.
• Rethinking Forecasting & Scheduling: With real-time adjustments available, forecasting and scheduling evolve from rigid precision to flexible guidelines, designed to accommodate ongoing intraday shifts.
• Operationalizing WFM Labs Erlang-O™ Components: The groundwork for variance-aware staffing begins, as automation enables WFM to adjust staffing in sync with natural interval fluctuations, paving the way for Level 4’s risk-assessed capacity planning.

Level 3 is the foundation upon which advanced practices in Level 4 and Level 5 are built. Real-time automation becomes the backbone that allows future capacity plans to move from fragile precision to resilient flexibility. At Level 3, organizations begin to unlock a new WFM capability—balancing service levels, employee experience, and cost in real-time, positioning the WFM team as an active performance optimizer, not just a planning function.

Level 4 - Advanced

Level 4 in the WFM Labs Maturity Model™ marks a fundamental shift in how organizations approach contact center capacity planning, transitioning from single-point estimates to resilient, risk-informed staffing strategies. This level moves beyond static plans by embracing probability, variability, and algorithmic precision—ensuring capacity models can withstand the inherent volatility of contact center operations while aligning service level, employee experience, and cost control.

At the core of Level 4 is WFM Labs Erlang-O™, an evolution of traditional staffing models that builds operational overhead directly into interval-level staffing calculations, accounting for variance, volatility, and intraday shrinkage. Unlike legacy approaches that treat deviations as disruptions, Erlang-O™ integrates variability as a natural component of the staff line, enabling more robust interval coverage without inflating costs.

Key advancements at this stage include:

• Monte Carlo Simulation: Capacity plans incorporate thousands of possible staffing outcomes, reflecting natural demand variance and unpredictable spikes, empowering leaders to understand risk exposure and calibrate staffing buffers accordingly.
• WFM Labs Risk Score™: A proprietary framework that quantifies the flexibility and risk tolerance of staffing plans, providing executives with an intuitive, numeric index to evaluate trade-offs between service level protection, employee satisfaction, and expense containment.
• Flexibility Indexing: Models account for how easily staffing adjustments can be made across intervals and employee preferences, transforming rigid plans into adaptable capacity frameworks.
• Advanced Staffing Algorithms: Real-time staffing calculations evolve beyond basic Erlang-C/A formulas, integrating interval-level overhead adjustments, automation feedback loops, and AI-powered variance monitoring to dynamically fine-tune staffing levels in response to real-world conditions.

While Level 4 planning can technically exist without Level 3 automation, optimal execution depends on real-time adaptability. Intraday automation becomes the operational enabler, tuning staffing delivery in sync with variance-adjusted capacity plans.

This level positions WFM as a strategic bridge between operations and the C-Suite, enabling leaders to translate capacity risk into business language—communicating staffing variability in terms of financial exposure, service level confidence, and employee retention risks.

At Level 4, workforce management transforms from reactive problem-solving to proactive risk management, empowering organizations to navigate uncertainty with precision while aligning staffing strategies with broader business objectives

Level 5 - Pioneering

Level 5 in the WFM Labs Maturity Model™ represents the pinnacle of workforce management evolution, where human-centric design, automation, simulation, and AI-powered capacity planning converge to achieve the optimal balance of customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), and operational efficiency. Organizations at this level move beyond traditional staffing models, repositioning WFM as an orchestrator of a blended workforce—where human agents and AI-powered assistants work in concert to elevate performance and well-being.

Capacity plans are dynamic and adaptive, continuously informed by attrition risk modeling, sentiment analytics, and real-time employee feedback, ensuring agent needs are met without sacrificing queue health or cost control. AI Agent Assistants empower human agents by accelerating speed-to-proficiency, reducing handle times, and mitigating burnout, while AI voice and digital agents are fully integrated into capacity models, flexing alongside human teams to absorb routine interactions and stabilize service levels.

At Level 5, shift bids, scheduling, and development pathways are redesigned to reflect employee-first policies, aligning agent flexibility with operational stability. WFM leaders at this stage fluidly orchestrate human and digital capacity in real-time, leveraging AI insights to optimize outcomes across CX, EX, and cost. Organizations operating at this level are future-ready, equipped to scale AI-driven capabilities while fostering a thriving, resilient workforce.