From Support Specialist to Scheduling Specialist
Anna's journey
2016
Customer Support Specialist
2017
Planning and Reporting Specialist
2020
Scheduling Specialist
"Due to a lot of changes during these years, I learned a lot and developed my management skills, how to plan in advance and stay on top of things and I think it helps in my private life as well."
Anna’s experience as a Customer Service Specialist has paved the way for her in the Workforce Management team. Read on to find out how her almost eight year long experience in Concentrix + Webhelp lead her to the Scheduling Specialist position.
Q. When and how did you start working at Concentrix + Webhelp?
I started in Concentrix + Webhelp in May 2016 as a Customer Support Specialist in one of the travel pojects. Then I joined the Workforce Management (WFM) team in March 2017 - a bit less than a year from when I started. For three years I worked as a planning and reporting specialist in WFM department. After that I had a small career break for about 6 or 7 months and I joined Concentrix + Webhelp again in 2020 and continued to work as a scheduling specialist here.
Q. How do you remember your time as a Customer Support Specialist?
I worked as a Support Specialist on a project where we had shifts 24/7. The job was fine – there were good days and there were difficult days where you had to stay calm and handle the stress. Working as a Support Advisor was a very useful experince for me, considering I now work as a scheduling specialist.
It gives me the understanding of how support specialists feel when they receive their schedules, but now I also know that there are many things that they have no idea about – things we have to take in consideration when making schedules.
Q. What has been your career journey since then?
When I was a support specialist, I saw that a position in Workforce Management had opened up. I decided to try applying as I had a relevant education in business administration.
I didn’t really think i would succeed because there were a lot of candidates for this position, but I passed three recruitment stages and I was hired.
Q. Can you describe what you do as a Scheduling Specialist?
Basically, as scheduling specialists we are make schedules based on different volume patterns. It’s very important to calculate and understand how many people we need to schedule in the right days and right time. So one of my tasks is to make sure the schedule and amount of people working matches with the volume of incoming calls during specific time intervals. If I don’t, then there might be too many incoming calls and not enough people to pick them up, which would make our quality of service go down. And on the other hand – we can’t have too many people working when the call volume is low.
It’s the balance that we need to follow. It might sound easy, but there are many targets we need to calculate and various indicators we need to take into consideration. Furthermore, we are working across different locations, so we need to follow the local legislation about rest periods and allowed working times in few counties.
And of course, we also need to make not only our clients happy, but make sure our people have the best possible shift schedules, and they can book vacations and days off.
Q. What has been the biggest challenge in your career?
For me it was how many new things I have to learn. I had to learn how to always be ready to adapt to new changes. In the Workforce management department we have to plan everything in advance, so we’re one of the first ones to implement new things in case there are changes in the team, company or the project.
Q. How did you manage that?
I’m a bit of a control freak, so I like to stay on top of things.
We also have a very strong team with very good managers and we support each other and remind each other of important things.
And of course a lot of it comes down to communication, because information needs to quickly flow from one department to another.
Q. What keeps you working in Concentrix + Webhelp?
At the beginning Workforce Management it was interesting for me because it was a new experience for me. Right now I like it because there are a lot of things to do and basically my day goes by very quickly because I am super busy each day, which I like much better than sitting around doing nothing and wasting my time. And due to a lot of changes during these years, I learned a lot and developed my management skills, how to plan in advance and stay on top of things and I think it helps in my private life as well.
And of course, I like the people, because in the WFM team people are working for a long time and I really like the people around me and the people from other departments I have built relationships with.
It’s very nice to work with nice people because if I worked in some other company maybe it would be different.
Q. What has helped you advance your career?
It’s a lot of small parts which contribute to it. My work depends a lot on business needs and business schedules, so someone always might be unhappy with the schedules we make.
We have to be able to balance between what we can do for people and what we can’t.
It’s also important that I am able to change my style of work quickly if it is needed because changes happen really fast and sometimes really unexpectedly. So I have to juggle a lot of things.
Q. Do you have any advice to the newcomers in Concentrix + Webhelp?
I think first advice is to not be afraid to show their skills, be a leader or take some extra tasks if needed. Because sometimes, if some extra tasks are on the table, everyone is silent and they let this opportunity pass. But if there’s someone who is willing to do something extra, then their participation and skills will be more visible to others. And of course, if there is any open position in the company, they should apply even if they have no experience in it. Because in Concentrix + Webhelp, you always have a chance to start learning and developing new skills. And even if they don’t get hired, they will have experience for how to do an interview and develop their communication skills.
Whatever position you apply to, you will win anyway, even if you don't end up in the position. And don't be afraid to let your individuality show.
Feeling inspired?
Check out our open vacancies for your chance to take the next step in your career. Who knows, maybe a few years later you'll look back at this as your kick-off point?
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