Cost of fairness in agent scheduling for contact centers

Abstract

We study a workforce scheduling problem faced in contact centers with considerations on a fair distribution of shifts in compliance with agentpreferences. We develop a mathematical model that aims to minimize operatingcosts associated with labor, transportation of agents, and lost customers.Aside from typical work hour-related constraints, we also try to conform withagents' 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'slargest consumer electronics companies. We present insights on the increasedcost to have content and a fair environment on several agent availability scenarios.