Operational & Scheduling Analyst - Peterborough

Over 175 years ago, our founder Thomas Cook began this company with a vision to ‘broaden the mind of others and break down the partition walls of prejudice.'

Once describing himself as ‘the willing and devoted servant of the travelling public,’ Thomas Cook was a true pioneer of the travel industry, opening up a world of new destinations and new travel experiences to everyone. By obtaining the best services and prices for his customers, he laid the foundations of the company that still bears his name today.

Thomas Cook is now one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups, supported by around 22,000 colleagues and operating from 15 countries.

Our vision today remains true to Thomas Cook’s ambitions - to be the world’s most loved holiday company.

Operational Planning & Resourcing Analyst – Peterborough

Job purpose:  To cascade workload forecasts and supply projections, together with approved key planning & productivity assumptions, into operational schedules and real-time delivery tactics. Working with key stakeholders across Contact Centre Operations and support areas, to schedule the optimal shift patterns for contact centre agents and optimize resourcing in real-time, to deliver the best possible levels of efficiency and effectiveness in the Contact Centres. Providing high quality insight and analysis of performance.

Key accountabilities and decision ownership:

•    Engaging key stakeholders across Contact Centre leadership team to pro-actively agree Schedules and Service Delivery tactics, acting on feedback to improve plans
•    Creating optimal Team Manager and Agent working patterns and Schedules, including as much pre-planned activity as possible, to minimise subsequent changes
•    Analyse trends in performance (i.e. productivity, call patterns, absence) and feedback concerns and possible underlying causes against forecast to Senior Analysts.
•    Manage requests for changes to the agreed schedule (team briefs, trainings etc), optimising Net Staffing, so that service targets are not adversely affected
•    Pro-actively monitor service levels (PCA, ASA, etc) and Agent schedule adherence, taking early and appropriate action to protect service level targets.
•    Analysing Agent productivity, schedule adherence and operational discipline to improve performance providing analysis and insight to CCM’s & TMs
•    Analysing call volumes, call arrival patterns, Average Handling Times (by component), Shrinkages, against assumptions to identify learnings to improve plans
•    Maintaining historical data sets to inform future planning of both BAU and Special events, across multiple data types and sources.
•    In the event of an emergency incident, implement the required procedures so that contact centre telephony system delivers appropriate messages to customers
 
Skills, know-how and experience
Must have:

•    Good communication and negotiation skills to resolve issues with schedules and re-deploy resources in real time
•    Demonstrate experience within high volume sales and service telephony operations operating to challenging service targets
•    Demonstrate ability to analyse complex situations enabling rapid action
•    Proven strengths in analysing data and providing insight
•    Expert knowledge of MS Office / WFM / M.I. tools & techniques

Preferred:

•    Knowledge of best practice Contact Centre Resource scheduling
•    Knowledge of best practice Contact Centre Real-Time management
•    Technical / professional qualifications:
•    Professional Planning Forum Accreditation or above
•    Key performance indicators:
•    PCA / internal SLA Performance
•    Stakeholder satisfaction feedback
 

Life at Thomas Cook is fast-paced and full of opportunities. We’re a leading international travel company that believes in empowering our people, so when you join us, you’ll be given the chance to create, learn and innovate. You’ll also be given the support and training you need to develop your career in the direction you choose.

As you might expect, our holiday benefits are something special. We’ll give you an allowance towards your holiday every year, depending on how long you’ve been with us.  There are also special last minute employee deals, which give you the opportunity to pick up a holiday at an outstanding price. Working for Thomas Cook, you can travel the world for less.

We also offer a flexible benefits package that gives you a range of options to ensure your benefits match your lifestyle.