Staff scheduling in call center considering global service quality

Staff scheduling is the most important issue in call center operation practice. Because the labor cost proportion is usually 70% of the total cost. Although the “3-step” cost based scheduling method has been proposed and widely adopted for a long time, it may cause staffs over work or off duty if the demands fluctuate sharply. To make full and fair use of long term employed staffs, a staff scheduling model considering global service quality was formulated. A linear approximation function was designed to increase the iteration speed. The numerical test given showed that the new model was much conformed to reality, and the model can be solved in a reasonable time.