Occupancy is measure of how busy we are (Talk time + After Call Wrap time), but what should appropriate occupancy levels be?

priTel in priTel Rule 75, indicate the most efficient and balanced level, having regard efficiency and staff is the following:

Occupancy 75% (Talk time + After Call Wrap time) and Ready 75% (Talk time + Available time)

Occupancy 75%

Non-Occupancy 25%

This is an excellent 'rule of thumb', how do your occupancy levels compare?  priTel indicate call centres should aim to have a minimum occupancy of 75%, maximising no higher than 80% - recognising, smaller skill groups do have to be less occupied to achieve service levels.  However, these groups can still be occupied at the higher levels, with 'infill' work.

What these occupancy levels mean in terms minutes per hour is as follows in a typical 07:30hrs day:

Occupancy 75%

Non-Occupancy 25%

Low occupancy can reflect too few calls, too many staff or small group sizes.  High occupancy, reflects too many calls or too few staff.

It is management responsibility to ensure the minimum occupancy levels are delivered, this means where occupancy is below 75%, they should be seeking additional work or reducing staffing levels to bring up occupancy.

Occupancy has a cost, for any given number of calls, the lower the occupancy, the higher the unit cost.

There are many tools for establishing and measuring your occupancy levels in TOOLKITS - such as the one below.

Calculate occupancy levels from your current variables

or calculate non service level FTEs from occupancy