Adherence to Schedule

What is Adherence to Schedule?

Adherence to schedule or schedule adherence helps determine if call center agents work for the amount of time they're scheduled to work. It also accounts for the time agents spent on breaks and other non-work-related activities.

Most call centers define an accepted limit for schedule adherence percentage. This allows for some buffer time in addition to the scheduled lunch and break times.

To calculate adherence schedule, divide the total time a call center agent is available for work by the total time they're scheduled for.

Here is the formula:

Adherence to Schedule = [(Scheduled Work Time – Non-Adherence Time) / Total Scheduled Work Time] * 100

For example, if a call center agent is scheduled to work for a 6-hour shift and spends the following time on non-adherence:

• They arrived 10 minutes late to work.
• They returned to work 5 minutes after the allotted break time.

Converting total shift time into minutes = 6x60 = 360 minutes

Total non adherence time = 10+5 = 15 minutes

Adherence to schedule = [(360–15)/360]*100 = 95.83%

A high adherence rate shows that agents stick to their schedules and offer customer service when expected.

However, achieving an adherence rate of 100% is impractical. You can’t expect your agents to be available to answer every single inbound call.

But for extremely low rates, here’s how you can encourage agent for schedule adherence:

• Emphasize the importance of schedule adherence right from the onboarding process.
• Monitor agent statuses through call center technology to understand how agents are spending their time.
• Offer feedback and coach agents who aren’t adhering to their schedules
• Create a reward system to encourage agents with high adherence rates.