Understanding WFM roles and permissions

Zendesk Workforce management (WFM) roles and permissions ensure that agents and admins have access to the WFM features they need to use.


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Understand workforce management roles and permissions to control access to features and data. Use standard roles like Admin and Agent or create custom roles to match your organization’s structure. Assign permissions for tasks like scheduling, reporting, and time-off management, and define scopes to limit access to specific teams and locations. This setup ensures users have the necessary access without overexposure.




Zendesk Workforce management (WFM) roles and permissions ensure that agents and
admins have access to the WFM features they need to use.
Your account includes standard, predefined roles that all Zendesk users are
initially assigned to. You can also create your own custom WFM roles to reflect your
organization's structure and access management system.
This article contains the following topics:

Overview of WFM roles and
permissions
Standard WFM roles
Custom WFM roles
WFM permissions

Related articles

Creating custom WFM roles and assigning users
Managing WFM roles and permissions



Overview of WFM roles and permissions

WFM roles and permissions allow you to manage who can do what in your account.
They help your organization run smoothly by making sure everyone has the access they
need.
There are two kinds of roles:

Standard roles are predefined and can’t be deleted. All users in your Zendesk
account are assigned to a standard role initially depending on what their role is in
Zendesk.

Custom roles are defined by admins who determine which parts of your WFM
account users in these roles can access. This includes who can see which teams,
locations, and workstreams.


When you assign someone to a role, they inherit the permissions and scopes
associated with the role. Note that users can be assigned to only one role at a time.
Both standard and custom roles have the same structure, which include:


Permissions – Allows users to access certain areas of your WFM account, such as
scheduling, reporting, or admin settings. Permissions keep your account secure and ensure
that users have access only to what they need.

Scopes – Determines the teams, locations, and workstreams that users have access
to in their role. Setting the scope for a role allows admins to give users permission for
certain features, without sharing information about all teams, locations, and workstreams.

Note: Agents who aren’t assigned to a team are visible to all roles. Be cautious when
you assign an unassigned agent to a team, because this can expand visibility instead
of restricting it. Roles with matching team-based scopes then also gain the same
visibility as that agent.



Agents – The users assigned to the role.




Standard WFM roles

Your WFM account has two standard, predefined roles: Admin and Agent. By default, Zendesk
admins are automatically assigned to the WFM admin role. The rest of your Zendesk team
members are assigned to the WFM agent role.
In addition to the standard roles, you can create custom roles that reflect your organization’s structure and reassign
users to those roles.


Admin role


The standard WFM admin role can’t be edited, except to be renamed, or
deleted.
WFM admins have permissions for all features, can manage which users are assigned to each role,
and their scope includes access to information about all teams, locations, and
workstreams.
Your account must always have at least one user assigned to the default WFM
admin role. For example, you may want your system administrator to be assigned to this
role so that they have full access to all features and resources in the system.



Agent role


The standard WFM agent role can’t be deleted.
By default, the standard WFM agent role gives permission for agents to access
only the Schedule in Zendesk Support. Admins can edit this
role to give permission to access more features though.
The scope for users assigned to the standard WFM agent role includes access to
information about their own teams, locations, and workstreams.




Custom WFM roles

Custom WFM roles are roles admins create that reflect your organization’s structure. Create
custom roles to allow or restrict access and specify different permissions for your agents,
team leads, admins, managers, or other roles.
Common examples of roles you may want to create include:
Manager
Supervisor
Team lead

See Creating custom WFM roles and assigning users.



WFM permissions

WFM permissions are configured for each role. By configuring permissions for a role, you’re
defining whether users assigned to a role have access to certain WFM features.
Note: When you
configure permissions for a role, keep in mind that they are limited to the role’s
scope.

WFM permissions are segmented by the general feature area and include the following:








Permissions
Description




Forecasting and scheduling:




Forecast


Access the Forecast page to make changes to forecasts, including
recalculating or regenerating.




Schedule


Access the Schedule page to generate, publish, edit, delete and
import schedules.




Time off management


Access the Time off management page to view, approve, deny, and
reopen time off requests.


Trades management
Access the Shift trades page to view pending and closed trade
requests.


Unassigned shifts management
Access the Unassigned shifts page to view pending and closed unassigned shifts requests.


Reporting:




Custom reports


View, edit, create, export, and delete custom reports.




System reports


View, duplicate, and export system reports.




Scheduled reports


View, create, edit, and delete scheduled reports.




Dashboards


View, edit, create, and delete dashboards, including editing dashboard widgets.




Agent activity


Access the Agent activity page and edit and delete
activities.




Agent attendance


Access the Agent attendance page.




Agent status


Access the Agent status page.




Performance boards


View, edit, create, and delete Performance boards.




Forecast vs actual (EAP)


Access the Forecast vs actual page (EAP).


Admin:




Organization structure


View and edit the account’s organization structure, which includes locations, workstreams, teams, and time off reasons.




Automations


View, create, edit, and delete automations.




Integrations


View and edit the Google calendar integration and the Workday integration (EAP) by changing their parameters,
including turning them on and off.




Settings


Access and edit account settings.


Agent:




Agent schedule


Access their schedule, request time off, and create and manage shift trade
requests when shift trading has been activated.




Team schedule


Access the Team schedule tab to view team schedules, time off, and shift trade
requests when shift trading has been activated. The Team schedule in the agent schedule shows only people within the
agent’s permitted scopes.
If the agent’s scope includes only the
agent themself, or a team that contains only that agent, they don’t see the Team
schedule tab, even if the permission is granted.







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