Contact centres are under increasing pressure to deliver exceptional customer experiences while supporting employee wellbeing and maintaining operational efficiency.
At the same time, workforce expectations have changed dramatically, with agents seeking greater flexibility, better work–life balance, and more autonomy over when and where they work.
To meet these changing expectations, workforce management is evolving beyond simple scheduling.
Today’s leading contact centres are combining hybrid working, flexible shifts, skills-based planning, and artificial intelligence (AI) to create more adaptable workforces that benefit both employees and the business.
To find out more, we asked Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO at Content Guru, to explain how workforce management is evolving to support agent work–life balance and what the future could look like.
Video: Work–Life Balance: Accrue WFH Benefits on a Sliding Scale of Time Served
Watch the video below to hear Martin explore how hybrid working, AI, and skills-based workforce planning are changing the way contact centres build and manage their teams:
With thanks to Martin Taylor, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO at Content Guru, for contributing to this video.
This video was originally published in our article ‘Smarter Ways to Give Agents Better Work/Life Balance’
How Contact Centre WFM Is Changing to Give Agents Better Work Life–Balance
Modern contact centre workforce management is becoming far more than simply creating rotas, it’s about building a workforce that is engaged, resilient, and equipped to meet changing customer demand.
Here are five key developments shaping the future of contact centre workforce management:
1. Using Training to Build Culture as Well as Capability
For new contact centre employees, training is about far more than learning systems and processes, it is also the ideal opportunity to introduce new starters to:
- Your contact centre’s approach to work–life balance
- Team culture and values
- Support networks
- Relationships with colleagues and team leaders
This early investment helps employees feel connected from day one and lays the foundations for stronger engagement and retention, as Martin explained:
“For most new contact centre workers, training represents the ideal opportunity to absorb and understand their employer’s attitude to work–life balance, as well as to get introduced to their new role and colleagues.”
2. Balancing Hybrid Working With Human Connection
Hybrid working offers employees greater flexibility, but it also presents new challenges, as when advisors spend less time together in the office, it can become harder to identify when someone is struggling after a series of emotionally difficult customer interactions.
Without those informal conversations between colleagues, wellbeing issues may only become visible once performance begins to decline, as Martin continues:
“In-office working is also important to build camaraderie within and between those teams, which becomes especially important during tough times.
If agents experience a number of successive harrowing interactions, no one might know they’re upset until their stats fall off, at which point the situation would likely be treated as a performance issue rather than a support one.
Hybrid working is also an important consideration. It might be appropriate to place the right level of hybrid working for each individual on a sliding scale of time served, with increased work from home benefits accruing as an employee works for longer and has had time to fully assimilate.”
Rather than applying the same policy to everyone, contact centres can introduce home working on a sliding scale, allowing employees to earn greater flexibility as they gain experience and become fully embedded within the team.
This balances employee autonomy with the support that newer advisors often need.
3. Using Flexible Shifts to Improve Workforce Agility
Flexible scheduling is creating new opportunities for both employees and employers, and instead of relying solely on fixed shift patterns, contact centres can notify available advisors when unexpected demand arises, for example:
- An advisor finishing the school run could work for an hour from home
- Experienced agents could pick up short shifts during peak demand
- Contact centres can respond more quickly to sudden spikes in contact volumes
This approach gives employees greater control over their working lives while helping contact centres improve operational resilience.
“Flexible shifts add a further layer of possibility for hybrid workers. Organizations can notify potentially available staff to pick up last-minute shifts from home during spikes of demand.
For example, an agent may be able to log in for an hour after the school drop-off, improving both individual autonomy and operational resilience.”
4. Building Shifts Around Skills, Not Just Headcount
Modern workforce planning is increasingly driven by skills rather than simply ensuring enough people are available.
Many contact centres now use skills matrices that assess both what advisors know and how effectively they perform across different channels, for example, an advisor may:
- Handle voice calls extremely efficiently
- Be less experienced when responding to emails
- Excel at technical enquiries
- Require additional support with digital channels
“Increasingly, agents earn a score across a skills matrix, reflecting both what they know and how they work. An agent might excel at achieving low call handling times, for example, but be much slower and less skilled with email.
The scoring matrix would then be used to build the optimal mix of appropriately skilled workers for each shift. These workers can also be supplemented by the right number of digital machine agents to make up for any staffing shortfalls.”
These individual scores allow workforce planners to build the optimum mix of skills into every shift, ensuring customer demand is matched with the right expertise.
Rather than treating every advisor equally, contact centres can create more balanced teams that maximize performance across every channel.
5. Letting AI Build the Workforce of the Future
Artificial intelligence is beginning to transform workforce management itself, and rather than simply forecasting demand, future workforce management platforms will automatically generate the most effective schedules by combining:
- Skills matrices
- Employee availability
- Hybrid working preferences
- Human advisors
- Digital workers and AI agents
These schedules could even be created instantly using a simple voice command, as Martin explained:
“New AI-powered workforce management will soon be taking things even further, leveraging the scoring matrix and automatically producing shifts from available human and machine agents and doing so instantly from a voice command.”
This allows contact centres to respond to changing demand far more quickly while ensuring the right combination of human and digital resources is always available.
Creating a More Flexible and Resilient Workforce
The future of workforce management is about much more than filling shifts, and by combining thoughtful onboarding, balanced hybrid working, flexible scheduling, skills-based planning, and AI-driven optimization, contact centres can create workplaces that support both employee wellbeing and operational excellence.
Ultimately, contact centres that invest in smarter workforce management will be better positioned to retain talented advisors, respond to changing customer demand, and deliver consistently outstanding customer experiences.
Author: Robyn Coppell
Reviewed by: Jo Robinson
Published On: 14th Aug 2026
Read more about - Video, Content Guru, Culture, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience (EX), Health Wellbeing and Stress, Hybrid Working, Leadership, Management Strategies, Martin Taylor, Remote Working (Homeworking), Shift Patterns, Team Management, Technology Enablement Strategy, Technology Roadmap, Training and Coaching, Videos, Workforce Management (WFM), Workforce Planning
