Fusion merges bits of employee down‐time into useful blocks : Software enables contact‐center workers to help with back‐office tasks

Purpose – This paper aims to describe a computerized system at Fusion, part of the BGL Group, which enables contact‐center employees to help out their back‐office colleagues during quiet times of the day when fewer customers are calling. It explains that, in a further move designed to improve the management of call‐center teams, Fusion recently launched Just...Leading Our People, a development program for its first‐level line managers. Design/methodology/approach – It explains the reasons for the two developments, the form they take and the results they have achieved. Findings – It reveals that contact‐center advisors have more structure in the way that their down‐time is managed, and an improved understanding of business requirements and priorities. In addition, turnaround times have improved and an increase in the overall volume of work has been absorbed without the need to recruit more employees. Practical implications – The paper observes that the back office is often complex, as work can arrive through a range of channels to start and feed into multi‐stage processes. It reveals that the software Fusion is using is designed to handle this complexity, enabling agents to process work in priority order, to achieve service‐level agreements irrespective of how or when work arrives. Social implications – It demonstrates how software can help companies to get the most from their existing employees and so, perhaps, avoid having to take on more workers when the volume of work increases. Originality/value – The paper provides the inside story of how two initiatives are helping to improve productivity and efficiency at Fusion.