Position Summary The mission of American Express is to be the world’s most respected service brand. Your role is to support World Service with delivering “Extraordinary Care, At The Right Margins, through Extraordinary People”. Our World Service centres across the globe consist of over 7,000 team members (Customer Care Professionals – CCPs) who work within multiple lines of business including, the Customer Engagement Network, Corporate & Merchant Services both in American Express proprietary sites and through a network of external partner sites. The Global Planning & Real-Time Optimization (GPRO) Team’s vision is to be “A World Class, Global, Short-Term Planning & Real-Time Management Team enabling Relationship Care® through Resource Optimization & Abandon Rate Consistency”. As a member of the GPRO team you will work with your local leader and team members as part of the global Centre of Excellence. The GPRO Team are responsible for a various processes including short-term planning, local site CCP/agent scheduling & shrinkage planning, Real-Time Management and local site support services. The GPRO team receive long & short-term capacity plans, forecasts and schedules from the Workforce Planning/Centralized Call Management (CCM) team for all markets, including all lines of business above. It is the responsibility of the GPRO team to convert these long-term plans into weekly and daily operational plans in order to optimise resources and drive Abandon Rate Consistency across the network. GPRO capabilities will be provided for inbound, outbound, Click to Chat, e-mail and back-office functions. The GPRO Team Leader leads a team focused on executing the Short-Term Planning & Real-Time Management strategy for the centre. The GPRO Team Leader must demonstrate strong collaboration and partnership with multiple functional teams including Contact Centre Leadership, CCM, MIS, Technology, Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Learning, Engineering, Global Business Integration (GBI), various Centres of Excellence and the other Planning communities across the globe. Success in the role is measured by contribution to Voice of the Customer survey results, on target delivery of Operational Excellence metrics (e.g. Customer Handling Time), Forecast Accuracy, Schedule & Operational Effectiveness, Abandon Rate Consistency, Availability/Shrinkage Optimisation and customer satisfaction targets both internal to GPRO and external for our customers & merchants and Employee Engagement measures based on feedback from within the team. 2. Principal Accountabilities and Key Deliverables PEOPLE LEADERSHIP - 30% • Manage, coach and develop a team of GPRO Analysts to exceed set goals; this includes conducting mid-year/year-end performance appraisals with direct reports • Ensure all GPRO Analysts have realistic, achievable goals and actionable development plans • Monitor and evaluate the skills of the GPRO Analysts in order to effectively manage ongoing recruitment and development of existing team members • Ensure the Amex Blue Box values are continually enforced and demonstrated RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT - 30% • Provide support to contact centre leadership in achieving Shareholder, Customer and Employee goals • Act as a key point of contact for communication with Team Leaders and Customer Care Professionals throughout each day (service enquiries Face to Face, by phone inbound and outbound, e-Mail, Chat & Work Lists) • Act as a key point of contact for the CCM Team & Operations Leaders to improve forecast accuracy, maintain eWFM data integrity and deliver flexibility initiatives including Lifestyle Surveys, Shift Bids etc. • Act as a key point of contact for the GBI, CCM, Marketing and World Service local market teams to identify and prepare for marketing activity/plans and projects that influence call volume forecast and resource plans • Act as a key point of contact for CCM, GBI, Technologies and CEN Leaders to support the implementation of call routing strategies; monitor and report on impacts to the business such as occupancy, service level and call delivery purity (i.e. % calls to preferred agents). SHORT-TERM PLANNING, REAL-TIME MANAGEMENT, OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS & SITE SUPPORT SERVICES - 40% • Ensure comprehensive plans are put in place at least 45 days in advance of call arrival to deliver optimal staffing (operational efficiency) based on the most accurate available forecasts (Twelve Week Outlook, Month Ahead, Week Ahead, On-the-Day & Post Incident Review) • Ensure plans are refined on a daily basis throughout the 45 days to production to increase re-forecast accuracy, operational efficiency and Abandon Rate Consistency by working directly with Operations Leaders to assign CCPs’ daily activities • Ensure the prior day’s performance is reviewed against forecast analyzing the issues and impact on Service Level and Abandon Rates • Ensure real-time performance (Calls, Customer Handling Time (CHT) and Staffing) is analysed on an interval basis throughout the day and recommendations to achieve departmental goals are provided • Manage & monitor available ‘day’ resources (CCP Availability to handle calls) to ensure adequately deployed & multi-skilling effectively optimized • Negotiate with Operations Leaders, Business Partners and CCPs regarding scheduling of activities in order to ensure the centre is adequately staffed at all times to service customers (including frequently declining and cancelling requests) acting as an escalation point when issues cannot be resolved by team members • Ensure Approval and scheduling of CCPs’ out of building exceptions including Paid Time Off (Vacation) and In Building Off-Phone activities (e.g. Coaching, Meetings, Training etc.) is managed in an effective and timely manner • Ensure routine operational meetings are chaired by the GPRO Team with Operations Leaders and other Centres of Excellence in attendance in order to agree decisions and actions designed to drive operational goals • Lead the execution of the Abandon Rate Consistency Plans (including Business Continuity Plans) • Ensure accurate, up-to-date data is maintained in Aspect (eWFM) regarding schedule exceptions as it relates to the intra-day performance and achieving Adherence to Schedule (ATS) targets • Track/maintain log of daily events that impact call volume or CHT in eWFM journals in order to capture the “organisational memory” for future planning • Manage ongoing business reporting in order to ensure all information is accurate and provided in a timely manner: Including integrity of data in key MIS systems such as Compass, Opera, SpectR etc. • Identify opportunities to improve and automate reporting • Lead Call Centre Management initiatives (e.g. delivering workshops, training and ongoing organisational education). • Manage various ancillary, local site support services including but not limited to systems support, project support, Payroll, Pay for Performance & incentive administration & consultancy. 3. Critical Challenges • Ability to lead, develop & improve team members (in some cases leading teams of virtual, direct reports) • Ability to successfully balance high workload demands, quality and performance on a consistent basis • Ability to make quick decisions about contact centre dynamics with little or imprecise information and to take risks as necessary • Ability to communicate and influence people at senior levels effectively and without conflict • Gain trust, build relationships and influence World Service leadership teams to foster true partnership • Understand and shape the key strategies of the business and translate these into day-to-day operational and production management activities • Work with the business, marketing & project teams to ensure relevant information is obtained for new products and projects that impact call volume, CHT, Availability and staffing levels in order to put relevant plans in place • Work with Learning/Training & Recruitment Teams to deliver aggressive new hire plans - be creative with resources and react to changing demands quickly and within agreed restrictions. • Authorise changes to employee working schedules and annual leave booking in order to balance business needs and employee engagement. • Ability to work across geographic borders as part of a virtual team and provide short term planning / real time support when needed remotely • Develop and maintain strong and effective relationships with 3rd party partners, without meeting face-to-face 4. Key Business Contacts • Business Leaders, Vice Presidents, Service Delivery Leaders, Directors & Managers • Centralised Call Management, Global Call Delivery Strategy, Voice Response Team, Capabilities etc • Global Business Integration (GBI) & Network Engineering Optimisation (NEO) teams • Learning, Training & Development, Recruitment, Human Resources, Centres of Excellence etc • Contact Centre Managers, Team Leaders & Customer Care Professionals • Internal business partners (e.g. Technologies, Regulatory Strategy etc) • External business partners (e.g. IBM, AT&T, Aspect, Avaya etc) • External service delivery partners (e.g. outsource partners) 5. Problem Solving & Decision Making • To create an environment within team where members are able to develop and apply their skills and knowledge • Leverage relationship with Call Centre Leaders to ensure they are bought into the process and understand why difficult decisions are made • Working with business partners and marketing to identify, plan and implement new business initiatives • Analyse complex data to re-forecast accuracy and operational effectiveness • Deal with escalated schedule and real time decisions on a daily basis, where team members cannot resolve • Responsible leading the Business Continuation Plan • Collaborate with team leaders to manage schedule adherence, absenteeism and non-productive time and highlight when trends / issues arise
At least 2 years direct Contact Centre Planning experience (preferably covering all aspects of the planning cycle) • Proven leadership experience of planning functions in a large, multi-site/multi-media call centre environment • Proven experience of coaching and building knowledge around call centre management principles • Excellent written and verbal communication skills in local market language and English • Ability to manage a team to successfully achieve operational goals • Manage conflict and influence decisions • Ability to work flexible hours based on business needs required • Ability to work under pressure; able to manage multiple tasks and changing demands with minimum supervision • Highly numerate with strength in accuracy & attention to detail in a high output & speed environment • Highly developed analytical and problem solving skills – demonstrating thought leadership • Experience presenting plans to stakeholders such as Operations Leaders and discussing drivers of Contact Centre performance • Excellent PC skills, including advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Access and Project • Strong interpersonal skills to develop and nurture shared ownership in process/project and business goals • Ability to explain key call centre planning principles: The Power of One, Economies of Scale, Dynamics of abandoned calls, Laws of Diminishing Returns, Shrinkage factors, Call arrival patterns e.g. Day of week factors, bank holiday impacts and seasonality. • Ability to explain the drivers of “net staffing”, their current tracking, calculating their forecasted trends • Knowledge of how to influence the drivers of “net staffing” and which levers to pull and when in a real time environment • At least 2 years experience using Workforce Management tools (preferably Aspect eWFM, Empower) with proficiency in scheduling, forecasting, shrinkage data, live IDPs, report exporting and manipulation (preferred) • ACD experience (preferably Avaya CMS) with proficiency in manual skill changes, agent reports, agent traces, live call flows (preferred)
**Job** *Operations*
**Title:** *Team Leader GPRO - India CEN*
**Location:** *India-Haryana-GURGAON*
**Requisition ID:** *16001918*