At this year’s SWPP Annual Conference, a consistent theme emerged: the urgent need to evolve from legacy scheduling practices and to empower agents to achieve their best work.
Jodi Maffitt, WFM Department Manager at Enova, offered a standout session that underscored the creative aspect of workforce management, stating that “WFM is a blend of science and art, and that scheduling is the best area to showcase your creativity.” Her philosophy challenged the traditional 5-day, 8-hour workweek, advocating for innovative approaches like splitting shifts, rotating schedules, and shorter workweeks based on her research survey.
While there was a shared acknowledgment of the importance of introducing flexible scheduling and the enabling role of AI tools, a notable hesitation also existed from other attendees regarding the potential impact on SLAs. SWPP’s Winter 2024 survey results confirm this: nearly two-thirds of respondents indicated that schedule flexibility was very important to their agents, yet over two-thirds admitted they were not meeting these desires. Primary obstacles cited were maintaining coverage to meet SLAs, and 25% pointed to limitations in their WFM technology.
Beyond Existing Flexible Working Arrangements
While many contact centers now employ some kind of flexible working arrangement, they often fall short of offering the flexibility that employees truly want and need. For example, methods like shift bidding or preference-based scheduling can lead to over-subscription during certain parts of the day, resulting in disappointment for those who do not secure their preferred shifts and contributing to employee disengagement. Tools for shift moves and exchanges offer some relief, but many only allow flexibility when there is excess capacity, and few organisations are equipped to handle on-the-day shift change requests. Limitations, such as a requirement for 48-hour advance notice, can dissatisfy agents by preventing real-time, same-day adjustments for unforeseen emergencies.
What if contact centers could give agents substantial control over their schedules, within well-defined parameters, allowing them to adjust their working hours as and when they need? This kind of autonomy recognizes that employees have different life demands and work preferences, empowering them to deliver their best, which in turn provides benefits to the customer experience. This is no longer a hypothetical scenario; it’s actively happening.
eBay Case Study: Delivering Radical Flexibility
eBay had a vision to offer their frontline agents, known as Teammates, radical autonomy by removing restrictive administrative processes that limited their schedule flexibility. They recognised that existing processes, designed to manage a small minority, were disengaging responsible Teammates. Their plan was to allow Teammates to self-manage and adjust schedules without justification, as long as service coverage remained net-neutral or better.
To achieve this, eBay introduced a self-serve agent app. The app, branded ‘FlexMate’ at eBay, allows Teammates to move, exchange, or split shifts and breaks, and even provides automatic approvals on annual leave requests. Crucially, it supports shift moves during both surplus and deficit periods, as long as the move is to a period of greater deficit. The platform proactively checks service and coverage levels, offering only viable options and providing instant responses, eliminating thousands of manual requests.
By empowering their Teammates with autonomy over their schedules, eBay believed that they would be more emotionally available to deliver better customer service outcomes. They shifted from, “How do we get more from our employees?” to “How can we make our people feel like they want to give us more back?”
eBay Case Study: The Results
This cultural shift significantly impacted employee experience, with Teammates feeling more engaged, emotionally available, and reportedly seeing stronger results across their own metrics. The app has already been a significant contributor to a 25% reduction in attrition and a 4-6% increase in employee satisfaction in the past year.
The shift in control has not come at the expense of customer service levels, in fact, by enabling Teammates to adjust shifts where they need, eBay has seen a 40,000 contact capacity increase.
Operationally, the technology has freed up valuable time for Team Leaders to focus on coaching and developing their teams. Tasks that previously required constant approvals and back-and-forth emails have been streamlined or eliminated entirely, removing over 160 hours of manual effort every week between WFO and Operations teams.
The initiative’s success is also evident in its remarkable 100% adoption rate, with around 8,000 transactions on the app every week. The impact has been so profound that the app has become a central pillar of eBay’s hiring strategy.
Employee Experience vs Customer Experience
It’s no longer a balance between the employee experience and customer service levels. eBay’s story demonstrates that true scheduling flexibility, supported by the right technology, mindset, and structured change process, can radically improve agent satisfaction, performance, and operational efficiency — while actually increasing contact capacity. Empowering employees to deliver their best work benefits the entire organisation, improving engagement, operational efficiency, and ultimately, the customer experience.
Authored by Jemima Walker, Marketing Executive at QStory. This article was originally published in SWPP’s Summer 2025 On Target Newsletter.