WFM Review
Independent review of your forecasting and planning to identify what is constraining performance and where improvement will add most value
Forecasting and planning problems are not always obvious to see. Yet they show up through pressure on customer experience, rising cost, missed revenue, poor employee engagement or a growing sense that the operation is working hard without enough control.
Atlantic WFM provides an independent review of forecasting and planning capability, helping organisations see where the current approach is strong, where it is creating risk and what should be improved first.
This review is relevant for contact centres, back-office operations, field and branch environments and other customer operations where resources need to be deployed carefully and performance needs to stay under control.
When this is needed
A WFM Review is valuable when forecasting, planning and real-time management are not giving you the confidence, control or results you need.
Maybe forecasts are regularly challenged, service levels are missed for unclear reasons, planning feels reactive or recent change has exposed weaknesses in the current approach. Perhaps the WFM approach is not delivering the right balance of customer experience, colleague experience and cost, but you are not sure why.
A structured review brings those issues into the open and gives leaders a clearer basis for action.
How the review works
We review your forecasting and planning operation to understand how it works today, how well the different elements join up, and where the main risks and improvement opportunities sit. The full review framework spans 35 elements across 8 key categories:
Workflow
Management Information
Forecasting & Resource Requirement
Capacity Planning
Scheduling & WFM System Use
Absence Planning
Interval Planning
Real-Time Management
The review can cover the full framework or focus on selected categories or elements, depending on your priorities and concerns.
Across the areas in scope, we assess processes, measures, assumptions, governance, decision-making routines and supporting tools.
Deliverables
A WFM Review gives you a clearer view of what is helping performance, what is holding it back, and where improvement effort should be focused first. That clarity leads to:
Capability assessment
A structured assessment across the elements in scope, showing the current level of capability and the areas that need most attention
Practical recommendations
Clear, specific recommendations for each element reviewed, designed to strengthen capability in a practical and proportionate way
Prioritised action plan
An action plan that weighs likely benefit against implementation difficulty
Outcomes and benefits
A WFM Review gives you a clearer basis for deciding where improvement effort should be focused first. That understanding leads to:
- clearer priorities for improvement
- more confident forecasting and planning decisions
- better-targeted time, effort and investment
- improved service and customer experience
- reduced cost volatility
- stronger support for revenue performance
- better colleague experience through more effective planning
Client perspective
Paul Whymark Chief Operating Officer, Sensee
Why Atlantic WFM?
Independent judgement, grounded in practice
A WFM Review needs independent judgement, a clear framework and enough practical experience to separate visible performance pressures from the planning issues behind them.
Atlantic WFM brings deep hands-on experience in forecasting, planning and real-time management, together with a structured review approach that helps organisations identify strengths, weaknesses and priorities for improvement. The focus is on findings that can be acted on, with recommendations shaped around the realities of the operation.
Breadth of review perspective
Atlantic WFM brings review experience across multiple industries, both in-house and outsourced operations, from smaller operations to large-scale environments with many thousands of colleagues.
That includes assessing and challenging the full WFM workflow, from management information, forecasting and resource requirement through to scheduling, interval planning, real-time management and performance management.
It also includes reviewing operations using different technologies and WFM systems, and bringing perspective shaped by experience at analyst, manager and departmental leadership level.
That breadth matters because a WFM Review has to assess how forecasting, planning, systems, governance and operational decision-making work together. It also requires judgement about which issues matter most and which improvements are likely to be practical.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a WFM Review take?
That depends on the scope, and the size and complexity of the operation. The review is designed to be practical and proportionate. After an initial conversation, we can usually determine the likely scope and number of days required.
Is this only for organisations with serious performance problems?
No. It is also useful for organisations that have built up a forecasting and planning capability, but would like an independent view of where they can improve further or reduce future risk.
Will this work if we already have a WFM system in place?
Yes. Forecasting and planning capability involves more than a WFM system alone. In addition, many organisations have implemented a WFM system without achieving the value they expected. A review can help determine whether the system is being used effectively and supported by the right processes, information, assumptions and governance.
Will the recommendations be practical?
Yes. The focus is on improvements that can be applied in the real world, not generic best practice that is difficult to implement.
Can the review be tailored to the areas we are most concerned about?
Yes. The review can cover the full forecasting and planning framework or focus on the area or areas where concern is greatest. We will agree the scope clearly before the work begins.
Request a WFM Review
If you are questioning whether your current forecasting and planning approach is delivering what it should, please contact us to discuss the issues you are seeing and the areas that may need attention.