At Calabrio, we’re committed to empowering contact centers with solutions that don’t just optimize the workforce, but also enhance the human experience for agents and customers alike. That’s why we’re thrilled to share that in the G2 Fall 2025 Reports, Calabrio has been recognized across multiple categories and regions, with several #1 placements and multiple Top 3 spots. 

These wins are especially meaningful because they’re based on verified customer feedback, real users who experience the impact of Calabrio every day. 

A Clean Sweep for Usability, Results, and Relationships

Our customers consistently tell us that Calabrio makes their jobs easier, their teams more effective, and their customer interactions stronger. This season, that feedback shines through with standout results: 

• #1 – Usability Index for Contact Center Workforce 
• #1 – Mid-Market Usability Index for Contact Center Workforce 
• Top 3 – Enterprise Usability Index for Contact Center Workforce 

Ease of use matters. We’re proud to be recognized for delivering a platform that helps contact centers maximize adoption and achieve value faster. 

In addition, Calabrio ranked: 

• #1 – Results Index for Mid-Market Contact Center Workforce 
• Top 3 – Results Index for Enterprise Contact Center Workforce 
• Top 3 – Overall Results Index for Contact Center Workforce 

These results reflect the real-world impact our solutions deliver, reduced costs, higher agent productivity, and improved customer experiences. 

And because success isn’t just about technology but also about partnership: 

• #1 – Relationship Index for Contact Center Workforce 
• #1 – Mid-Market Relationship Index for Contact Center Workforce 
• Top 2 – Enterprise Relationship Index for Contact Center Workforce 

This demonstrates that our customers value not only our innovation but also the people behind Calabrio, our customer success, services, and support teams who partner with them every step of the way.

Leading Across Regions

Calabrio also shined in regional reports, proving our solutions resonate globally: 

• #1 – Mid-Market Europe Regional Grid® Report for Contact Center Workforce 
• Top 2 – EMEA Regional Grid® Report for Contact Center Workforce 
• Top 2 – Mid-Market EMEA Regional Grid® Report for Contact Center Workforce 
• Top 2 – Middle East & Africa Regional Grid® Report for Workforce Management 
• Top 2 – EMEA Regional Grid® Report for Contact Center Quality Assurance 
• Top 2 – Enterprise Americas Regional Grid® Report for Contact Center Quality Assurance 
• Top 3 – Mid-Market Grid® Report for Contact Center Workforce 
• Top 3 – Overall Grid® Report for Contact Center Workforce 

Expanding Value Beyond Workforce Management

Calabrio’s recognition extended beyond Workforce Management to other areas of our portfolio: 

• Top 5 – Mid-Market Grid® Report for Feedback Analytics

This shows that customers see value not just in scheduling and forecasting, but also in how Calabrio helps them unlock customer insights and drive smarter decision-making across the business.

Thank You to Our Customers 

These achievements would not be possible without the voice of our customers. Your reviews, feedback, and partnership power our innovation and inspire us to keep raising the bar. 

As we celebrate these G2 wins, we remain focused on our mission: to help contact centers balance efficiency with empathy, empowering people to deliver the best possible customer experiences. 

Want to hear directly from the customers who put us at the top? Check out Calabrio on G2 to read reviews, see the reports, and discover why contact centers around the world choose Calabrio. 

Ready to see why Calabrio is consistently recognized as a leader? Book a demo today. 

As 2026 budget season approaches, contact center leaders face a familiar challenge: how to invest wisely in tools and strategies that balance cost efficiency, agent well-being, and customer expectations. But this year feels different. 

The pressure isn’t just about handling more calls or containing costs. It’s about navigating a rapidly transforming CX landscape. Expectations are rising, AI is disrupting old models, and the contact center is under scrutiny as the front line of brand experience. In the past, you might have been able to address key challenges one by one. But in 2026, these are no longer separate issues; they’re each part of a single, interconnected puzzle.  

How will you invest in AI-driven efficiency without losing the human touch? How will you empower agents to elevate CX while keeping your budget grounded?  

This year, the right approach isn’t to balance these priorities. As recent research makes clear, winning contact center investment strategies will focus on finding the tools that solve for all of them at once. 

Why Workforce and Conversation Intelligence Solutions Belong on the 2026 Agenda

According to Metrigy’s latest global research, companies using Workforce and Conversation Intelligence tools consistently reported stronger outcomes in customer experience, revenue growth, and agent engagement. In fact, those achieving the best results, what the study calls the “success group,” saw:

• 📈 10.8%+ Increase in Revenue 
• 😊 17.1%+ Jump in Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) 
• 💰 0.5%+ Reduction in Operating Costs 

And here’s the telling part: none of these high-performing organizations are cutting investment in Workforce and Conversation Intelligence tools. Instead, they’re leaning in. Because Workforce and Conversation Intelligence is no longer a “nice to have,” it’s the engine that powers better forecasting, quality, performance, and ultimately, brand trust. 

3 Strategic Investment Priorities for Contact Centers in 2026 

Based on the research and shifts we’re seeing across the industry, here’s where leaders should focus their contact center technology investments in the year ahead:

1. Reimagine Workforce Management for Flexibility and Autonomy

Agents increasingly demand scheduling flexibility and work-life balance. Nearly three-quarters of companies already allow it, often through self-service portals. WFM systems that support this don’t just reduce attrition, they also unlock new levels of productivity and engagement. 

2. Make Quality Management Smarter, Not Harder

Supervisors are drowning in data. Automated quality management, powered by AI, is giving them time back by scoring interactions at scale and surfacing actionable insights. The organizations that succeed in 2026 will be those that use QM not as a compliance checkbox, but as a continuous improvement engine. 

3. Prioritize Agent Experience Alongside Customer Experience

The best customer experiences come from engaged, empowered agents. Workforce and Conversation Intelligence tools that combine performance analytics, targeted coaching, and employee feedback loops are closing the gap between how companies think they’re performing and how customers actually feel. 

The Role of AI: Evolution, Not Replacement 

AI is everywhere in the contact center conversation, but leaders should approach it as an enabler, not a silver bullet. According to Metrigy, more than 60% of companies are already using AI in Workforce and Conversation Intelligence, with the most successful ones using it to: 

• Automate routine tasks like quality scoring 
• Identify performance trends in real time 
• Support personalized coaching at scale 

 The lesson? AI works best when it augments human expertise, freeing up supervisors and agents to do what people do best: empathize, problem-solve, and build relationships. 

Invest Where It Matters Most 

2026 will be the year where Workforce and Conversation Intelligence solutions separate laggards from leaders. Organizations that continue treating the contact center as a cost center risk widening the gap between customer expectation and reality. Those that invest in Workforce and Conversation Intelligence as a driver of customer loyalty, agent well-being, and business growth will lead the way. 

Your contact center’s investment strategy shouldn’t be about buying the latest shiny tool. It should be about building a resilient, flexible, AI-enabled workforce engagement model, one that empowers your people, delights your customers, and delivers measurable returns.

Why Choosing a Specialist Matters 

As technology advances, the difference between dabbling in Workforce and Conversation Intelligence and fully leveraging it will come down to the provider you choose.  

Many vendors treat workforce and conversation intelligence solutions as an add-on, a “nice to have” feature bundled into broader contact center solutions. But to truly unlock the benefits highlighted by Metrigy’s research, organizations need a specialist provider dedicated to workforce engagement. 

That’s why Calabrio has continued to invest heavily in innovation—launching 70+ new features this year alone. From advanced AI-driven forecasting to Auto QM and an Agentic AI-powered workforce assistant, every enhancement is designed to help our customers maximize the value of their workforce and conversation intelligence investments. 

With Calabrio, you can be confident that your 2026 contact center strategy isn’t just a line item in the budget, it’s the right investment in your people, your customers, and your long-term growth. 

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support Technologies, 2025, is now live, giving leaders a clear view of the innovations transforming the industry, including a focus on workforce engagement solutions.

The Gartner Priority Matrix evaluates both the level of market hype and the maturity of innovative technologies anticipated to shape the second half of 2025, while also assessing the business value they can deliver. Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) sits at the very top of the matrix—an unmistakable signal that it is exceeding expectations and positioned to deliver transformational impact within the next two to five years. 

This ranking underscores WEM’s potential to fundamentally reshape contact centers. Standing alongside AI for Agents as one of Gartner’s top investment recommendations, WEM represents not only a strategic priority but also a crucial, long-overdue dimension in how organizations manage and empower their contact center employees. 

In this year’s report, Gartner explains that WEM is now emerging as the natural progression from workforce optimization (WFO) marketing and expands its focus beyond operational performance to include employee engagement.

As Gartner explains, the underlying WFO component unifies quality monitoring, workforce management, e-learning, performance management, and speech analytics tools—and has been crucial in driving operational improvement at contact centers for the past decade. However, as the report notes:  

“Employee needs are evolving. Incumbent management and career development philosophies and technologies focused on operational performance enhancement fail to address these ambitions.” 

Simply put, the old ways of managing the workforce are no longer enough.

What’s Powering WEM Adoption?

The evolution of the contact center into a hybrid model, blending work-from-home and on-site operations, has reshaped expectations for onboarding, scheduling, coaching, and evaluation, and led operations to move away from the traditional “side-by-side” training approach. At the same time, AI and automation are stripping away routine tasks, leaving agents to handle the most complex and emotionally charged interactions. This shift is putting pressure on organizations to create a positive, supportive work environment that attracts and retains top-tier talent, especially as advisors now have the freedom to work remotely from anywhere and can easily assess employers through platforms like Glassdoor.

Meanwhile, the technology landscape is rapidly changing. CCaaS and customer engagement center vendors increasingly see WEM as essential, yet many still lack robust solutions, making procurement challenging. Gartner expresses the need for modern WEM to go beyond scheduling and quality management to include AI-driven interaction insights, next-best-action guidance, and unified desktop experiences.

Gartner also stresses that while mobile support for agents has expanded, it remains underdeveloped by many vendors, with most tools offering only basic functions like schedule viewing or shift changes.

Finally, Voice of the Employee (VoE) programs, critical for identifying what drives or hinders engagement, are gaining traction but are often still basic, underscoring the need for richer, more integrated WEM capabilities.

Obstacles to Transformation

Gartner goes on to explain that a major obstacle to advancing WEM lies in the immaturity of many CCaaS vendors, which are often the preferred procurement channels for sophisticated organizations. This gap, between offerings and needs, creates friction for businesses seeking fully developed WEM solutions through their existing providers. Compounding this is a lingering focus on operational performance over employee well-being, leading to a WFO versus WEM mindset, where efficiency is prioritized at the expense of engagement.

A shift in both strategic thinking and software will be necessary, as the frontline agent environment continues to undergo dramatic changes, posing new and nuanced challenges to engagement and productivity. Issues like work-life balance, the suitability of employees for remote work, feelings of inadequate support or recognition, limited networking opportunities, and the perception that on-site agents are favored by management all erode morale, as well as performance. Gartner states that the software market is still catching up, with applications needing further refinement to align with this evolving reality and support the “future normal” of hybrid and flexible contact center work.

Our Bread and Butter

This is where Calabrio steps in. Workforce Engagement isn’t just a feature for us, it’s our foundation. While many CCaaS providers offer “tick-box” WEM capabilities, Calabrio delivers enterprise-grade Workforce Engagement Management built to tackle the complex realities of today’s contact center. And with advanced integrations to all CCaaS platforms, we give businesses the freedom to choose the best communication infrastructure while still getting world-class WEM. 

Too often, companies default to their CCaaS provider for WEM because it feels easier to keep everything “under one roof.” But this shortcut rarely solves the real challenges—CCaaS vendors aren’t WEM specialists, and their add-on tools can’t address the deep, evolving needs of today’s workforce. Instead, Calabrio delivers the dedicated expertise and powerful capabilities that only a true WEM leader can provide.

We’re ahead of the curve, having launched 70 new innovations this year alone, and we offer a truly unified suite of WEM solutions: from AI-powered insights and next-best-action guidance to integrated Voice of the Employee programs, a unified desktop, and robust mobile tools that empower agents anywhere. That’s exactly why Gartner recommended Calabrio not once, but twice in this year’s report. 

Gartner’s Playbook for the Next Era of WEM

Gartner recommends that organizations take a proactive and holistic approach to WEM by shifting away from a narrow focus on operational performance and embracing employee well-being as a core strategic priority. This means moving beyond traditional WFO-centric thinking and embedding engagement-driven tools and practices into everyday operations. Gartner also urges leaders to consider complementary solutions, such as Calabrio, to avoid being limited by immature offerings in the procurement chain. 

Equally important, Gartner advises aligning WEM strategies with the realities of the modern, hybrid frontline environment. That includes addressing challenges such as remote work suitability, agent support, recognition, and connection, while refining software and processes to meet the needs of both on-site and remote staff.

By prioritizing technologies and programs that foster engagement, development, and empowerment, organizations can build resilience, attract top talent, and position themselves for long-term success in the evolving contact center landscape.

To find out more, download the full “The Gartner Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support Technologies, 2025” report today.  

We’re proud to share that Calabrio ONE has once again been named a Leader in G2’s Summer 2025 Grid® Report for Contact Center Workforce software. This recognition is a direct reflection of our customers’ experiences and satisfaction—and a clear signal that Calabrio is delivering innovation, reliability, and results.

G2 Grid® Reports are trusted because they are based entirely on real user feedback, not analyst opinion or marketing spin. Our position as a Leader highlights our strong market presence, exceptional customer satisfaction, and the value we deliver across the workforce engagement lifecycle. 

Calabrio by the Numbers: High Marks Across the Board

Based on the latest G2 data, Calabrio shines in every key area of customer experience.

Satisfaction Ratings:

• Quality of Support: 91% (vs. category average 88%) 
• Ease of Use: 91% (vs. 89%) 
• Ease of Doing Business With: 90% (vs. 89%) 
• Ease of Setup: 88% (vs. 84%) 
• Ease of Admin: 88% (vs. 86%) 

These consistently above-average scores reflect our commitment to making workforce, quality, and performance management more human and intelligent for both customer- facing agents and contact center leaders.

Our customers particularly love how we deliver in three core areas of contact center operations: 

• Shift Scheduling: 94% (vs. category average 86%) 
• Agent Availability: 92% (vs. 86%) 
• Forecasting: 91% (vs. 83%) 

Other key features like Mobile Access (87%), Automation (89%), and Dashboards (90%), also outperform category averages, signaling strength across the platform. 

Calabrio vs. The Competition

Compared to other industry players like Verint, NiCE, and Aspect, Calabrio is: 

• Easier to use and deploy – Our UX-first design and modern interface lead to higher ease-of-use and setup scores than legacy platforms. 
• More agile – While competitors often require lengthy customizations, Calabrio delivers flexibility out of the box. 
• Better supported – With a 91% rating in Quality of Support, we consistently outperform peers known for slower, more complex service models. 

Our cloud-native foundation, intuitive workflows, and deep analytics help customers adapt and grow fast.

A Strategic Partner That Puts the Customer First

As contact centers evolve, Calabrio remains a trusted partner. Our commitment to innovation and customer success is evident in every release, every upgrade, and every support interaction. 

Whether you’re a large enterprise or an agile mid-sized contact center, we’re here to empower your agentic and human workforce and elevate your customer experience. 

Ready to See Why We’re a G2 Leader?

• Download the Full G2 Grid® Report
• Explore the State of the Contact Center 2025 Report
• Request a Live Demo of Calabrio ONE

When we think about customer experience in the charity sector, Macmillan Cancer Support sets the standard. At Calabrio’s recent UK Customer Connect, we had the privilege of hosting a conversation with Hannah Mahoney-Smith (Head of Supporter Customer Care), Anna Bradshaw Jones (Resource Manager), and Daniel Keeshan (Senior Service Demand Manager) of Macmillan Cancer Support, who gave us a look behind the scenes at how their contact centres deliver empathy at scale, while staying efficient and resilient. 

Supporting Two Very Different Audiences 

Macmillan’s contact centre operation is split into two core functions: one supporting people affected by cancer, including patients, families, and friends, and the other driving income through fundraising. While the audiences are different, the approach is unified: human connection, backed by the right tech. 

“We support people at every stage of the cancer journey,” said Hannah, Head of Supported Care. “But we also need to inspire people to give their time, energy, and money. That means both contact centres need to deliver incredible experiences, whether someone is climbing a mountain for us, or calling after a diagnosis.” 

Empathy vs Efficiency: Why Not Both? 

One of Macmillan’s biggest challenges is balancing emotional sensitivity with operational performance. Anna, Resource Manager, shared how they structure the working day to allow space for recovery. 

“We build in time for debriefs at the end of every shift. Advisors can also use wellbeing codes if they’ve taken a tough call, and someone will check in. The goal is to help them reset, because every conversation matters.” 

Tech supports this balance too. Their chatbot handles basic queries so advisors can focus on the heart of the conversation. Scheduled autonomy, shift swaps, and rolling annual leave give the team control, while Calabrio helps resource accurately against unpredictable demand. 

Getting It Right on Social 

Dan, Senior Demand Manager, talked about the evolution of fundraising at Macmillan, and how social media is now a major frontline channel. 

“We handle around half a million contacts a year. Voice isn’t even our biggest channel anymore—social media is. So, we centralised our social media operations into one team to ensure consistent tone, faster response, and better moderation.” 

But with high visibility comes high risk. That’s why Macmillan takes a thoughtful approach to resourcing and training. Advisors need the right support to shift quickly between messages – from grief to celebration—while maintaining sensitivity and speed. 

Preparing for the Unpredictable 

Training is no small task. New advisors on the support line undergo a 12-week induction, including time with Macmillan’s “Cancer Voices” (people with lived experience), safeguarding training, and sessions with nurses to understand treatments and side effects.

“There’s also a strong focus on active listening, emotional triggers, and knowledge access,” said Anna. “It’s about feeling prepared for whatever comes next.” 

On the fundraising side, with 150+ live products at any given time, the challenge is breadth. Dan’s team revamped their SharePoint knowledge base and introduced a senior advisor ‘hunt group’ via Teams so that advisors can get quick answers when they need them. 

Tech That Enhances, Not Replaces 

AI and automation have a role to play, but never at the expense of human connection. 

Dan explained, “What we’re excited about is using tech to surface the right information at the right time. Whether it’s real-time call summaries, insight into sentiment, or faster access to knowledge—it’s about helping our people stay in the moment and deliver better service.”

Anna echoed that sentiment, especially around using analytics more intelligently. “We’re already bucketing transcripts by theme, but we want to go further. Calabrio is helping us look at emotional content in context, because not all ‘negativity’ is actually negative when it comes to these conversations.” 

For Macmillan, it’s not just about technology or targets. It’s about staying human, even when scaling support across hundreds of thousands of interactions each year. 

As Hannah summed up: “We may not always be able to invest in all the tech we want, but we invest in our people. Tools like Calabrio help us remove the tasks humans don’t need to do, so our teams can focus on what matters.” 

Macmillan is proof that contact centres can be both high-performing and deeply human. And with the right tech behind the scenes, they’re ready to support even more people today and in the years to come. 

Curious to dive deeper into Macmillan’s journey? Watch the full interview and explore more powerful sessions on Calabrio Customer Connect On-Demand today.

When you’re ready to see how Calabrio can help your team thrive, we’d love to hear from you! 

In contact centers, every agent departure carries a steep cost.

Replacing just one contact center agent can cost up to $20,000 on average. And that price tag doesn’t even factor in the lost expertise, strained customer experiences, and mounting pressure turnover can place on your team. 

Yet attrition is often seen as unavoidable rather than solvable.  

If you’re facing constant hiring cycles, service inconsistencies, or growing burnout, it’s time to take a closer look. This retention checklist isn’t just a list of tips. The questions below are a self-assessment to help leaders uncover the root causes of turnover and adopt a more intentional, employee-first approach. By asking the right questions, you’ll expose hidden gaps and unlock new opportunities to turn retention into a strategic advantage. 

Culture & Leadership Alignment

Retention isn’t just an HR issue—it’s a business priority. Without leadership alignment, even well-intended fixes fall flat. 

1. Do we treat agent retention as a strategic business priority—or just an HR problem?

High attrition impacts more than staffing—it drives up costs and undermines employee experience. Leaders who track retention like the key metric it is are better positioned to address it proactively.

2. Do our frontline managers have the tools and training to support agent engagement?

Managers are critical to agent satisfaction, yet many lack the tools to coach effectively. Real-time feedback, performance dashboards, and leadership training can help them better support and retain their teams.

Hiring, Onboarding & Development

Retention starts before day one. The way you hire, onboard, and develop agents shapes their long-term commitment—and your ability to keep them.

3. Are we hiring for long-term fit, not just immediate availability?

Filling seats quickly can backfire if expectations and reality don’t align. Review your job descriptions, interview questions, and selection criteria: are they screening for staying power, or just short-term availability? 

4. What do agents experience in their first 90 days—and how do we measure success?

The early days are make-or-break. Structured onboarding, hands-on training, and active mentoring can significantly reduce early churn. If you’re not tracking 90-day retention, it’s time to start. 

5. Do agents have a clear path for growth within our organization?

Career stagnation is a leading cause of attrition. Yet 62% of contact center agents say they don’t have a career progression plan in place. Clear development paths, upskilling opportunities, and internal mobility programs show agents there’s a future worth staying for. E-learning tools and coaching programs can turn potential into progress. 

Recognition, Purpose & Belonging

Agents stay where they feel seen, valued, and connected to something bigger than themselves. 

6. When was the last time we celebrated our agents’ success stories?

Recognition isn’t just about rewards—it’s about feeling appreciated. Think beyond bonuses: are you regularly celebrating wins through peer shout-outs, team huddles, or gamified milestones? A culture of recognition fuels motivation and morale.

7. Do our agents understand the impact of their work on customers and the organization?

In any customer service organization, every call has real-world consequences. When agents hear how they’ve made a difference—through customer feedback or team impact stories—it reinforces purpose and pride. Take time to not only recognize agent performance but also shine a light on the positive effects their efforts have had. Ultimately, connecting daily work to a meaningful mission is one of the strongest retention levers you have. 

Reducing attrition doesn’t happen by accident—it starts by asking the right questions. This retention checklist isn’t just a reflection exercise; it’s a roadmap for building a stronger, more engaged contact center from the inside out. Whether you’re uncovering quick wins or identifying deeper gaps, every step toward agent retention is a step toward better customer outcomes, stronger teams, and a more resilient operation.

Ready to turn insight into action? See how Calabrio can help you retain top talent and elevate agent experience—book a demo today. 

Delivering great customer service today is more complex than ever. Customers expect to reach your business on their terms, whether by phone, chat, social, email, or self-service. But the omnichannel CX isn’t just about offering more ways to connect. 

True omnichannel is not multichannel. While multichannel offers choices, omnichannel ensures those choices are connected, so customers can move seamlessly between them without losing context or momentum. 

The real challenge lies in aligning the people, processes, and platforms behind those channels. That’s where Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) steps in. Often overlooked, WEM is the critical foundation for delivering seamless, personalized service across every channel, while keeping your team empowered and your operations efficient. 

What’s Getting in the Way of Great CX?

According to Gartner, 62% of customers find switching channels during a service interaction to be “high effort.” That’s a symptom of deeper issues: 

• Disconnected tools that don’t transfer context between agents or channels 
• Poor resource alignment, leading to long wait times or overwhelmed agents 
• Lack of visibility, making it hard to track and improve performance in real time 

In short, many omnichannel strategies fail because they treat channels as standalone silos, rather than components of a unified customer journey supported by the right workforce. 

Why WEM is the Secret to Seamless Omnichannel CX

A modern WEM platform brings together scheduling, forecasting, performance analytics, quality management, and agent coaching—all in one place. This isn’t just about internal efficiency. It directly impacts the customer experience. 

Here’s how:

1. Optimizing staffing across channels

WEM enables efficient workforce management and real-time resource planning based on demand, skill sets, and channel volumes. Whether your customers are calling, chatting, or messaging, the right agent is always available, minimizing wait times and maximizing resolution.

2. Improving agent experience and performance

Engaged agents deliver better service. WEM gives them visibility into their schedules, goals, and performance. It also powers smarter coaching and development tools, building a more motivated and capable workforce.

3. Delivering insight-driven improvements

With built-in interaction analytics and quality monitoring, WEM provides the insights leaders need to refine operations, enhance training, and continuously improve both employee and customer outcomes.

4. Enabling smarter routing

Integrated WEM solutions allow routing tools to go beyond availability, factoring in agent skill, workload, and historical performance to ensure every customer is matched to the best-fit resource. 

The Cost of Overlooking WEM in Your Omnichannel CX Strategy

Organizations that focus solely on channel technology risk missing the human element of service delivery. Without a strong WEM foundation, even the most advanced omnichannel platforms can fall short, causing: 

• Agent burnout and attrition 
• Missed SLAs and CSAT targets 
• Inconsistent service quality 
• Inefficient resource utilization 

On the other hand, companies that invest in WEM are better positioned to adapt to changing demand, support hybrid teams, and personalize every interaction at scale.

Want to See the Full Picture?

Our latest report explores how Workforce Engagement Management drives omnichannel CX success, backed by fresh data, industry benchmarks, and expert guidance.

Download the full report to discover how WEM can become your competitive advantage in 2025 and beyond.

In Gartner’s recent report “Future of Work Trends: Work Is Distributed,” analyst Helen Poitevin outlines how distributed work implies “significant degrees of flexibility in how work is organized — who is involved in what work activities; and when, where and how it is getting done.” Flexibility is so significant in this new world of distributed work, 64% of respondents to the 2021 Gartner Digital Worker Experience Survey said they’d only consider a new position or job that allows them to work flexible hours.

As a contact center manager, these facts probably don’t surprise you. In fact, they may even annoy you. That’s because the question is not IF distributed work is happening — the question is, how can you as a manager support, enable and nurture the new kind of massive flexibility that distributed work requires while still hitting your service level agreements (SLAs) and running efficient operations?

Poitevin suggests putting in place specific guardrails, practices, tools and data to optimize distributed work patterns — how employees and managers organize and track work — and help you meet your operational goals in this new world.

But in our minds, the key factor in her equation that stands between you and success is the data.

It’s data that’s at the very heart of agent understanding and wellbeing management in hybrid work. It’s data that empowers you to proactively improve the employee experience and your agents’ wellbeing. It’s data that enables you to identify — then eliminate — any friction that exists in distributed work patterns. It’s data that lets you establish and measure progress against the key metrics you have related to employee performance, engagement and productivity. And it’s only with data that impact can be measured and informed improvements can be made.

That’s why we continue to develop and release new capabilities that enable richer, more data-driven actions and insights for Calabrio ONE customers. Our Voice-of-the-Employee (VoE) analytics trend mapping and sentiment analytics, for instance, helps contact center managers monitor and understand how agents really feel about their work. And this, in addition, with our new Calabrio Performance Coaching module allows you to focus on helping agent becoming more engaged by using data to:

• monitor agent interactions for potential skill and behavior gaps that affect the customer experience and adds to agent stress
• automatically schedule the most appropriate training for each agent based upon their individual agent metrics or skill gaps;
• help identify the best coaches in any contact-center organization, highlighting which coaches excel in each specific performance area and the areas where they need coaching themselves; and
• identify which training tools perform best (and which ones may need updating).

Distributed work might make it harder to track how employees feel. And it definitely makes it harder to truly understand how agents experience their new, distributed way of working.

But it can be done. And data is the key.

Read the full Gartner “Future of Work Trends: Work Is Distributed” report.

Ross Daniels at Calabrio looks at the recently published 2022 Agent Management Value Index Report from analyst firm Ventana Research, for insights into how to structure software selection processes – to help organizations pose the right questions to get the right answers.

In its recent report, Ventana Research came to the conclusion that, “The pandemic created the circumstances for a complete reassessment of the tools and processes used in contact centers to manage agents”.1 Based on this insight, it is likely that many organizations will be considering business improvement projects and software selection processes to enable the changes driven by hybrid working, increased demand and employee churn.

Unless you use the most relevant selection criteria and pose the right questions, you can easily choose solutions which aren’t right for your operation, can’t address the most pressing issues and won’t prepare you for the future. Selection of the right platforms and technology is vital for the success of a modern business, however it is not an activity that is undertaken regularly. Often the solution choices and technology options evolve so rapidly that the criteria used in previous selection processes have become outdated and no longer fit for purpose.

With this in mind, it is great to see analysts, with close to two decades of experience, provide some independent advice on how to structure RFI/RFPs and selection processes for Agent Management solutions. The 2022 Agent Management Value Index Report “provides a baseline of knowledge that organizations can use to evaluate vendors and products, to manage and improve agent management processes.” Access the report reprint here.

A process for evaluating vendors

Ventana Research believes that “business improvement efforts should be based on best practices that research indicates deliver value quickly”. The analyst firm has developed what it calls the Value Index which can be used to evaluate agent management business systems and tools. It advocates using the index as part of a structured approach to ensure the right choices are made to provide the required results.

In its Value Index for Agent Management, Ventana Research evaluates software against seven key categories, of which five are product experience related and two cover customer experience. The categories are:

• Usability
• Manageability
• Reliability
• Capability
• Adaptability
• Vendor Validation
• Total Cost of Ownership and Return on Investment (TCO/ROI).

Ventana Research used its own index categories to evaluate agent management solutions from 18 vendors and I’m pleased to say that Calabrio was placed in the leader tier as an Exemplary Vendor and a Value Index Leader for Capability, Usability and Manageability.

Build the categories into selection processes and weight them as needed

The Index categories are also useful to build into your own organization’s RFI/RFP software selection process. The categories can be weighted to match their importance to specific needs. In this way, you can evaluate and score solutions and vendors objectively against common criteria to help drive a structured and documentable selection process. This step provides the evaluation tools necessary to move from a long list of vendors and solutions to a shortlist which can be evaluated in depth to make the final selection.

An ordered, transparent and auditable selection can be useful to:

• Speed up the selection process itself
• Reduce the cost of the selection
• Drive a common understanding across your organization
• Gain sign-off from Purchasing and Senior Management for the selection made
• Provide criteria to measure success.

The Ventana Research report provides an evaluation of vendors and a methodology, built on almost 20 years of research experience, which can be used in your own evaluation and selection processes.

A framework for a technology-driven business improvement project

The report also outlines eight steps which should make up a technology-driven business improvement project. These include the importance of establishing technology evaluation criteria and how to evaluate and select the right technology to match the specific business requirements of your organization more efficiently and accurately. The report in particular helps readers to complete these two phases.

Download the report to help you ask the right questions

As operations reassess the tools and processes used in contact centers to manage agents, it is vital to ask the right questions to gain the right answers. To learn more about how your organization can utilize Ventana Research’s approach, go to Calabrio’s reprint of the Agent Management Value Index: 2022 Vendor and Product Assessment to download your own copy.