GM Dynamics & Agentic AI Consulting

Empower your contact center workforce with shift bidding and swapping (Enhancing agent flexibility and autonomy through self-service workforce management).

Real-time User Journey

This journey illustrates how agents interact with these self-service features to balance their personal lives with work requirements:

1. Shift Bidding (Proactive): A supervisor publishes a set of “open” shifts for an upcoming holiday weekend. An agent, looking for extra hours, browses the Bidding Gallery in their Dynamics 365 workspace and places a bid on a high-priority morning shift.
2. Automated Awarding: Based on predefined rules (such as seniority or performance metrics), the system automatically awards the shift to the agent and updates their calendar instantly.
3. The Swap Request (Reactive): Later, a different agent realizes they have a personal conflict for a Tuesday shift. They select the shift on their calendar and choose Request Swap.
4. Marketplace Posting: The shift is posted to the team’s “Swap Board.” A qualified colleague sees the request and offers one of their own shifts in exchange.
5. Manager Approval & Routing Sync: Once both agents agree, the manager receives a notification. Upon approval, the Schedule Calendar and Unified Routing engine are updated in real-time, ensuring work is routed to the new shift holder without manual intervention.

Step-by-Step: How to Enable This Feature

To enable bidding and swapping, administrators must configure the Workforce Management settings in Dynamics 365:

• Step 1: Admin Center Access

Sign in to the Customer Service admin center or Contact Center admin center.

• Step 2: Enable Workforce Management Modules

Navigate to Operations > Workforce Management. Ensure “Shift Planning” is active, as bidding and swapping rely on existing shift structures.

• Step 3: Configure Bidding Rules

Go to Shift Bidding Settings. Define the “Awarding Criteria” (e.g., First-come-first-served or Seniority-based) and set the window for when agents can bid on open shifts.

• Step 4: Activate Shift Swapping

Under Scheduling Settings, toggle the Enable Shift Swapping switch to “On.” You can choose to allow “Auto-approval” if the swap meets all coverage requirements, or require “Manager Approval.”

• Step 5: Define Eligibility Profiles

Ensure agents are assigned to the correct Scheduling Profiles. This prevents, for example, a Chat-only agent from swapping into a Voice-only shift.

• Step 6: Update Agent Workspace

Verify that the “Bidding Gallery” and “Swap Board” components are added to the Agent Experience Profile sitemap so agents can see the options in their side navigation.

Infographic: The Workforce Autonomy Model

Feature	Description	Business Benefit
Shift Bidding	Agents compete for/request preferred open shifts.	Reduces the need for supervisors to manually fill gaps.
Shift Swapping	Peer-to-peer exchange of assigned shifts.	Increases agent satisfaction and reduces absenteeism.
Automated Rules	System-driven awarding based on seniority/skills.	Ensures fairness and eliminates administrative bias.
Manager Oversight	Final approval portal for all schedule changes.	Maintains total control over team coverage and SLAs.
Routing Integration	Real-time sync with the routing engine.	Ensures zero downtime during the transition between agents.

References

Empower your Contact Center workforce with shift bidding and swapping

Boost your team’s performance with the Adherence Tracker (Real-time monitoring of service representative activity against scheduled shifts).

Real-time User Journey

This journey illustrates how a Supervisor uses the Adherence Tracker to maintain service levels throughout the day:

1. Dashboard Review: The Supervisor logs into the Contact Center Admin Center and opens the Adherence Tracker dashboard.
2. Visual Oversight: They view a Gantt chart showing a timeline of all service representatives. The chart displays “Scheduled” activities (e.g., Work, Break, Training) vs. “Actual” states.
3. Deviation Alert: The Supervisor notices a red indicator on the Gantt chart for an agent. The tracker shows the agent has been in a “Lunch” state for 15 minutes longer than the “Scheduled” lunch period.
4. Metric Analysis: The Supervisor checks the Adherence Percentage and Time Out of Adherence metrics for that agent to determine if this is a recurring pattern or an isolated incident.
5. Corrective Action: Using the real-time data, the Supervisor sends a quick message to the agent to check if they need assistance or to remind them of the current high call volume.
6. Performance Feedback: At the end of the week, the Supervisor uses the accumulated adherence reports to provide data-backed coaching to the team during their performance reviews.

Step-by-Step: How to Enable This Feature

To enable and configure the Adherence Tracker, administrators must perform the following:

• Step 1: Enable Workforce Management

Ensure that the broader Workforce Management capabilities (Shift Planning and Scheduling) are enabled, as adherence tracking requires a schedule to compare against.

• Step 2: Admin Center Access

Navigate to the Customer Service admin center or Contact Center admin center.

• Step 3: Navigate to Adherence Settings

Go to Operations > Insights > Adherence Tracker (Preview).

• Step 4: Map Presence to Activities

To ensure accuracy, map your custom Presence Statuses (e.g., “Available”, “On Break”, “Busy”) to the corresponding Shift Activities (e.g., “Work”, “Lunch”, “Training”).

• Step 5: Configure Thresholds

Set the “Adherence Thresholds” (e.g., allow a 2-minute grace period before a state is flagged as “Out of Adherence”).

• Step 6: Assign Supervisor Roles

Ensure supervisors have the Omnichannel Supervisor or a custom security role with read/write access to the adherence entities.

• Step 7: Add to Workspace

Verify the Adherence Tracker report is added to the supervisor’s sitemap in the Agent Experience Profile.

Infographic: Key Components of Adherence Tracking

Feature	Description	Operational Value
Real-time Gantt Chart	Visual timeline comparing schedule vs. actual state.	Immediate identification of bottlenecks and “ghosting.”
Adherence Percentage	A score showing how closely a rep followed their plan.	Objective metric for performance reviews and bonuses.
State Mapping	Links CRM presence status to scheduled shift blocks.	Automated tracking without manual agent input.
Integration with Schedule	View adherence alongside the daily/weekly calendar.	Contextual understanding of why deviations might occur (e.g., long training).
Trend Analytics	Historical reports on adherence patterns.	Identifies systemic issues with shift timing or agent burnout.

References

Boost your team’s performance with the Adherence Tracker

Stay organized with the schedule calendar in Contact Center (Empowering service representatives with personalized, real-time visibility into their work schedules).

Real-time User Journey

This journey illustrates how an agent uses the new integrated calendar to manage their workday effectively:

1. Morning Check-in: The agent logs into the Dynamics 365 Customer Service workspace. Instead of looking for an external email or PDF, they click the My Schedule icon in the site map.
2. Daily Overview: The agent views their Personal Calendar, which displays color-coded blocks for their “Work” shifts, scheduled “Training,” and “Breaks.”
3. Real-time Updates: A supervisor makes a last-minute change to the afternoon schedule to cover a volume surge. The agent’s calendar automatically refreshes in real-time, showing the updated shift.
4. Activity Detail: The agent clicks on a specific “Training” block to see notes or links related to the session, ensuring they are prepared without leaving the workspace.
5. Status Sync: As the calendar moves into a “Lunch” block, the agent updates their presence status. Because the calendar is integrated, the Unified Routing engine already knows not to assign new chats to this agent during this window.

Step-by-Step: How to Enable This Feature

To make the Schedule Calendar available to your service representatives, follow these administrative steps:

• Step 1: Admin Center Access

Sign in to the Customer Service admin center or Contact Center admin center.

• Step 2: Enable Workforce Management Settings

Navigate to Operations > Workforce Management. Ensure that the core Shift Planning and Scheduling features are enabled, as the calendar pulls data from these modules.

• Step 3: Configure Agent Experience Profiles

Go to Agent experience > Workspaces > Agent experience profiles. Select the profile assigned to your service representatives (e.g., “Customer Service Representative”).

• Step 4: Add the Schedule Component

In the Sitemap editor for the profile, add a new sub-area. Select Type: Entity and search for the Schedule or My Schedule component.

• Step 5: Define View Permissions

Ensure the “Service Representative” security role has Read permissions for the msdyn_shift and msdyn_schedule entities so they can view their assigned time blocks.

• Step 6: Save and Publish

Save the profile changes and click Publish. Agents will now see the “My Schedule” option in their navigation menu.

Infographic: Benefits of the Integrated Schedule Calendar

Feature	Impact on Agent	Impact on Organization
Personalized View	Reduces “tool switching” by keeping the schedule inside the CRM.	Increases employee satisfaction by providing clear expectations.
Real-time Sync	Agents are instantly aware of shift changes or added meetings.	Reduces missed shifts and “ghost” log-ins.
Activity Breakdown	Clearly distinguishes between productive work and “off-queue” time.	Improves adherence to planned capacity and SLAs.
Unified Routing Link	Agents don’t have to worry about receiving calls during scheduled breaks.	Ensures workload is only distributed to agents on an active “Work” shift.

References

Stay organized with the Schedule Calendar in Contact Center