Many call centres do not allow for adequate shrinkage allowances for the varied off-phone activities.  By the term 'shrinkage' we mean the total staff headcount shrinks, once you consider activities such as holiday, sickness and other.

Shrinkage factor and appropriate consideration when calculating service level is vital.  If it is overlooked or inadequate, then off-phone activities, or service level suffer.  If you calculate your service level headcount with appropriate shrinkage at 100 full time equivalents (FTEs), then you can allow appropriate off-phone activities to take place.  If you have a shrinkage factor of 35%, then with a 100 FTEs, this shrinks to 65 FTEs.  This means you only need 65 FTEs to deliver service level.

The centres, which do not allow for adequate shrinkage, end-up reducing training or depriving staff of other off-phone opportunities.  This is a common cause for high occupancy and low service levels.

What is an appropriate shrinkage level, well this can vary, centre by centre, but the table below shows a typical list and levels.

You can find this working Excel model in Toolkits to calculate your own shrinkage levels.