Open AccessCost of fairness in agent scheduling for contact centers
Author(s) -
Onur Şimşek,
O. Erhun Kundakcioglu
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of industrial and management optimization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.325
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1553-166X
pISSN - 1547-5816
DOI - 10.3934/jimo.2021001
Subject(s) - computer science , scheduling (production processes) , workforce , aside , operations research , operations management , economics , mathematics , art , literature , economic growth
We study a workforce scheduling problem faced in contact centers with considerations on a fair distribution of shifts in compliance with agent preferences. We develop a mathematical model that aims to minimize operating costs associated with labor, transportation of agents, and lost customers. Aside from typical work hour-related constraints, we also try to conform with agents' preferences for shifts, as a measure of fairness. We plot the trade-off between agent satisfaction and total operating costs for Vestel, one of Turkey's largest consumer electronics companies. We present insights on the increased cost to have content and a fair environment on several agent availability scenarios.