Omni or Multi-skill, or Maybe Fungible Flexibility

Is there a new view for the future of efficiency and productivity, or do we just have another name to play bingo!

Redefining Flexibility and the Workforce Strategy

The one common trend across leading organisations is that their flexibility offering and people strategy is always evolving. The other significant factor is that this focusses on fluidity and not control. Whereas the old way was to create “fairness” for everyone, with everyone sharing the good and bad shifts, the new way is built upon a foundation of personal choice, which provides the opportunity to adapt and be shaped by the individual.

Annual Leave: Best Practices, and Leading Concepts in Absence Management

Annual leave is more than a right. It’s a tool for balancing employee well-being, efficiency, and a productive culture. Innovative approaches to holiday planning and leave policies are helping improve both morale and productivity. These approaches redefine traditional concepts of time off. They offer unique perspectives on managing, planning, and optimising employee leave.

Harnessing AI & Advanced Analytics: Insights and Strategies for Real- World Impact

As the world of AI and analytics reshapes our industries, forward-looking organizations strive to adopt and harness these new technologies, embedding them in their strategies to benefit customers, employees, and shareholders. Using my academic and research background in mathematics and statistics, I’ve focused on using AI to solve real problems, improve customer experiences, and gain a competitive edge. I will share my insights on AI’s potential, suggest ways to maximize advanced analytics, and offer ideas to harness AI meaningfully. Through new learnings, collaboration, and education, we can be empowered to transform our future.

Mastering the Future: Scenario Models in a World of Uncertainty

Scenario modelling is a valuable planning tool. It explores and prepares for possible futures by developing and analysing a range of scenarios. But its potential is far more than that. It enables us to make the right decisions with confidence. This is key to great planning, but is also essential for quality management and continuous improvement. Wherever we use insight to shape decisions, scenario analysis can support us.

How Good Is My Forecast?

Accurate forecasting is vital to an effective contact centre operation, driving decisions that balance service levels, customer experience, operational costs and employee satisfaction. Whether managing inbound calls, emails or chats, a reliable forecast helps ensure resources are allocated to meet demands without overburdening staff. Yet, how can you evaluate the effectiveness of your forecasting process? Not all forecasting challenges are equal — some work types are inherently more volatile and difficult to predict than others, making a universal error target impractical.

Unlocking the Potential of Machine Learning: Opportunities, Interpretability, and a Balanced Approach

As organisations become more data-driven, machine learning (ML) is changing how we understand and use information. I’ve seen, in my work, the immense potential of ML. I’m excited about the opportunities it brings to all kinds of organisations. But, with these opportunities comes the duty to use ML wisely. I’ll share insights on ML’s key opportunities. I’ll discuss how to deepen our understanding. I’ll explain why tools like SHAP are vital for trust and transparency.

The Future of Forecasting: Transforming Capacity Planning for Tomorrow

Forecasting and capacity planning are essential for aligning staffing levels with demand. This ensures businesses avoid over- or under-resourcing. Good planning turns strategy into action. It supports budgets. It also builds a base for flexible work and development. Without it, people strategies cannot succeed.

Bad Habits That Kill Your WFM Strategy

Workforce management has evolved far beyond simple schedule creation.

Modern WFM strategies must balance complex variables including customer expectations, agent wellbeing, operational costs, and regulatory compliance whilst adapting to increasingly volatile demand patterns. Yet despite significant investments in sophisticated forecasting tools and analytics platforms, many contact centres continue to struggle with fundamental execution.

The changing face of contact centres: lessons from the UK

The UK Contact Centre Decision Makers Guide provides a deep dive into the latest trends shaping the industry. It highlights key challenges and opportunities. These include AI’s impact, workforce management and customer expectations. So, what can we learn from this year’s findings?

Operational Improvement: How Collaboration Drives Success

Siloed working is one of the biggest challenges organisations face today. We’ve all felt the frustration when teams work alone. It leads to miscommunication, duplication of effort, and missed chances. But how do we move from a fragmented way of working to one where collaboration drives success?

The Power of Reflection: A method for learning and driving improvement

Human nature dictates that we naturally find ourselves looking ahead. Looking forward to something sparks optimism and ambition. It shifts our focus to future ideas. This applies to planning holidays and birthdays, and to work challenges like budgeting and project planning.

The Learning Pyramid: A framework for Growth & Innovation

The Forum has advocated learning since its inception in the year 2000, with an ethos grounded in Raising Standards, this not only applies to our teams and organisations but to us as professionals.

The Evolution of the 8 Key Considerations

A Journey from Operational Efficiency to Purpose-Driven Workforce Strategy

Team Structure

Benchmarking key considerations for now and the future to understand best practice and readiness for whatever is next.

Operational Support Report from Douglas Jackson

Douglas Jackson have published their Operational Support Report for 2025 offering opinion on what 2025 holds for the Operational Support functions. As part of this, they collate Salary Benchmarking for Senior Planning and Insight roles. We have summarised the key points raised within this report along with the benchmarking salary information and thank Perry Fletcher for sharing this insight with us and our community. Follow the QR Code if you would like to read the report in its entirety.

The Challenge of Attrition

Attrition is a huge challenge for many of our members and we see a huge range, with external attrition ranging from 1.1% to 64%. For some, high attrition and rapid turnover drive up costs. They can’t deliver great service. For a few, low attrition can bring its own challenges.

Beyond the Benchmark

Understanding the true industry standard for service levels. In this article we will explore the origins of the service level along with the variations that are being used to understand the right metric for your organisation.

Shrinkage Benchmarking: understanding how we use time

What do the numbers mean and how can you compare your business against others?

Understanding Standards and Creating a Learning Culture

Benchmarking is a critical skill for every professional, however, so called “industry standards” are often out of date and represent lazy benchmarking. The Forum aims to promote and elevate the art of benchmarking from “averages” to actionable learning. This article is designed to support the data presented in this year’s Best Practice Guide, challenge your thinking and help you to draw out meaningful learning so you can do something different.

Challenging, Learning, Growing: The Assisted Learning Pathway Experience

Learning something new isn’t always easy. It can feel overwhelming, especially when juggling work, life, and everything in between. For those who joined The Forum’s Assisted Learning Pathway, it’s not just about learning new skills. It’s about changing how they think and work.