Getting started with Zendesk WFM: Overview

<body>
<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Zendesk WFM is Zendesk’s workforce management (WFM) solution. Expanding Zendesk’s feature set, Zendesk WFM improves the predictability and efficiency of customer service organizations through its wide range of planning, scheduling and monitoring tools. It eliminates the need to track schedules and assignments in spreadsheets, gives you a bird’s-eye view of agent adherence and activities across channels, and automates time-off requests and approvals.</p>
<div class="article-banners">
<div id="docs-wmp-link">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5411234991258-plan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">What's my plan?</a>
</div>

<div class="article-banner" id="addon_wfm">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>Add-on</strong>
</td>
<td>Workforce Management (WFM) or Workforce Engagement Management (WEM)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

</div>

<div class="body">

<p class="p" dir="ltr">Zendesk WFM is Zendesk’s workforce management (WFM) solution. Expanding Zendesk’s
feature set, Zendesk WFM improves the predictability and efficiency of customer service
organizations through its wide range of planning, scheduling and monitoring tools. It
eliminates the need to track schedules and assignments in spreadsheets, gives you a bird’s-eye
view of agent adherence and activities across channels, and automates time-off requests and
approvals.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">If you’re new to WFM, you’ll benefit from reading through this introduction to
learn how Zendesk WFM’s key features work together to support your WFM needs. </p>
<div class="p">This article contains the following sections:<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_hsv_2zh_hzb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_onq_zww_c1c">Introduction to workforce management in
Zendesk WFM</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_lml_wbx_c1c">Who uses Zendesk WFM and when</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_vll_z5t_d1c">More resources and next steps</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_onq_zww_c1c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Introduction to workforce management in Zendesk WFM</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">Workforce management (WFM) provides a framework for businesses to strategically run their
operations. Zendesk WFM’s tool set powers the planning and monitoring that are foundational to
WFM. It facilitates resource planning and management across your organization in the near
and long term. Key features include:<ul class="ul" id="topic_onq_zww_c1c__ul_hcl_fxw_c1c">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_w5j_jxw_c1c">Work segmentation</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_u1t_zxw_c1c">Forecast and scheduling</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_byv_j1x_c1c">Real-time monitoring</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ngn_nbx_c1c">Seamless agent experience</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested2" id="topic_w5j_jxw_c1c">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title3">Work segmentation</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Zendesk WFM helps you segment your organization’s work and develop forecasts and
schedules based on that segmentation. Its segmentation feature, workstreams, allows you to
organize your work through channels, agent <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828237722" target="_blank">default groups</a>, and teams. Workstreams also serve as the basis
for your forecast, shifts and schedules. Additionally, performance within workstreams can
be monitored and measured daily and over time, so you and your team can iterate
on your WFM planning for optimal results.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_dvp_fyw_c1c">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Forecast and scheduling</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">After establishing workstreams, you can build forecasts and schedules. Zendesk WFM draws on
historical data of inbound ticket or call volume to automatically create a forecast of
your required staffing. You can adjust the forecast based on channel, occupancy rate,
average handle time (AHT), or service level targets. With the forecast, managers receive
up-to-date inputs that help ensure staffing is adequate when creating shifts and
schedules.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_dvp_fyw_c1c__image_pdy_1hz_khc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/wfm_schedule_overview.png" width="800"></p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_byv_j1x_c1c">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Real-time monitoring</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">In addition to planning tools, Zendesk WFM also provides real-time insights into
agent attendance, status, and activity. Managers can quickly see who has clocked in,
monitor adherence patterns, and determine whether ticketing work is on track. You can even drill into each
individual agent’s work and view the ticket they’re working on.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_byv_j1x_c1c__image_z1p_gbx_c1c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ts_agent_activity_producitivity.png" width="650"></p>
<p class="p">Zooming out from those granular views, you can also access customizable dashboards and
flexible reports. These show you how you’re performing, or have performed, against
commonly held metrics such as first response time or AHT. </p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested2" id="topic_ngn_nbx_c1c">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title6">Seamless agent experience</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Agents use Zendesk WFM from the Agent Schedule app in Zendesk Support. Agents can
clock in and out of ticketing work, view and request changes to their schedules, or trade
shifts with coworkers. With these centralized tools, Zendesk WFM gives agents more
transparency into their workday. </p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_ngn_nbx_c1c__image_sy2_nhz_khc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/wfm_agent_schedule.png" width="800"></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_lml_wbx_c1c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">Who uses Zendesk WFM and when</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Zendesk WFM supports many roles within a customer service organization. Depending on your
organization’s size and complexity, these roles may include a system admin, workforce
planner and scheduler, manager, analyst, and agent. Larger companies tend to separate out
these roles. Smaller companies often rely on the same role to fulfill many responsibilities. </p>
<div class="p">To get started, it’s important to understand how and when your team will use Zendesk WFM.
Generally, the range of tasks supported by Zendesk WFM occur at these intervals:<ul class="ul" id="topic_lml_wbx_c1c__ul_tym_lcx_c1c">
<li class="li">Quarterly — Plan, set up and grant access, then forecast</li>
<li class="li">Monthly, weekly — Schedule</li>
<li class="li">Daily — Monitor, enter time </li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">The following example demonstrates how you and your team can use Zendesk WFM to plan your
schedule and your resourcing needs at different intervals.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Quarterly </strong></p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_lml_wbx_c1c__ul_hjw_vcx_c1c">
<li class="li">Anne is a workforce planner at Eatwell, a food delivery organization. She's been asked
to hire 100 new agents in the next quarter in advance of the summer months because her
global teams typically see sharp spikes in food orders and ticket volume. <p class="p">Using
Zendesk WFM, Anne can forecast and plan for these hiring needs. She'll review past
quarters’ inbound volume and review both team and individual performance metrics against
that volume to determine her actual resource needs.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Monthly</strong></p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_lml_wbx_c1c__ul_a3y_xcx_c1c">
<li class="li">Charles is a manager of the San Francisco location of Eatwell and builds the schedule
for his team. A new feature is going to be released next month and he’s confident that
this will result in an increase in tickets based on historical data of his team’s new
releases. <p class="p">In Zendesk WFM, he adjusts next month's schedule so that 25% more agents are
working chat and voice channels when the feature releases.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Daily</strong></p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_lml_wbx_c1c__ul_lvg_1dx_c1c">
<li class="li">Charles can also use Zendesk WFM after the new feature releases to monitor how well his
team is handling the surge in tickets. He can get a bird’s-eye view of his team's
performance with dashboards and reports. If there's anything that captures his attention,
he can get a more granular view of any workstream, team, or agent.</li>
<li class="li">Iris is an agent at Eatwell who just won a concert ticket and wants to leave early the
day of the concert. She can check her schedule from within Zendesk Support and request to
trade shifts with a coworker.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested1" id="topic_vll_z5t_d1c">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title8">More resources and next steps</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">Depending on your role in setting up or using Zendesk WFM, review the following:<ul class="ul" id="topic_vll_z5t_d1c__ul_apt_gdx_c1c">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6514632760730" target="_blank">Getting started with Zendesk WFM: Admin guide</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6514633060634" target="_blank">Getting started with Zendesk WFM: Manager guide</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6514645504282" target="_blank">Getting started with Zendesk WFM: Agent guide</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<script id="docs-schema-markup" type="application/ld+json">{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6514644101914",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6514644101914",
"headline": "Getting started with Zendesk WFM: Overview",
"description": "You learn how workforce management tools help you plan, schedule, and monitor agent work, forecast staffing, track adherence, and manage schedule changes and shift trades.",
"articleSection": "Getting started with Zendesk workforce management",
"datePublished": "2023-12-19T21:51:09+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-08-03T12:03:13.469904+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6514644101914"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"isPartOf": {
"@type": "WebSite",
"name": "Zendesk Help",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/"
},
"about": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com",
"softwareAddOn": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Workforce Management",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/7156071715738"
}
}
}</script>
</body>