Live online · 3 full days · with Call Design

Call Centre WFM Essentials

Master the foundations of contact centre workforce management: forecasting, scheduling, performance and real-time control.

Over three live days with workforce specialists Call Design, your team learns to match staffing to demand, protect service levels and control labour costs, with methods that work on any WFM platform.

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4.9/5 from 374 verified reviewsGoogle5.0 from 39 reviews
  • Delivered by Call Design, WFM specialists
  • Workbook and certificate included
  • No WFM software needed
  • No prior WFM experience required

Trusted by leading organisationsHundreds of businesses, from local councils to national brands, have chosen CX Skills to upskill their teams. See who we’ve trained

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  • Taronga Zoo logo
  • Viking Cruises logo
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What’s in it for you

What you’ll be able to do

Workforce management is one of the most powerful levers in a contact centre, yet many teams still wing forecasting, rostering and the changes that hit during the day.

You’ll leave with a structured, practical grasp of WFM, so you can plan with confidence and explain your decisions to leaders and teams.

  • Lower labour costs
  • Steadier service levels
  • Fairer rosters for your people
Workforce planner reviewing schedules across two screens

Forecast with confidence

Analyse historical patterns and predict contact volumes.

Calculate staffing

Turn Erlang C, shrinkage and attrition into the people you need.

Build better schedules

Schedules that fit the demand curve and your people.

Measure performance

Track adherence, attendance and WFM team performance.

Manage in real time

Exception management and contingency plans for the day.

Explain your decisions

Communicate WFM decisions clearly and handle conflict well.

The course

Six modules over three live days

Call Centre WFM Essentials runs live online over three full days: 24 hours of facilitated learning with Call Design’s workforce management specialists.

Each module blends the principles with exercises and case studies from real operations, so your team can apply them straight away.

Every participant receives an electronic workbook and a certificate of completion.

  • 3 full days9am to 5pm, on consecutive days
  • Live onlineVia Zoom, or onsite for private teams
  • Workbook includedPlus a certificate of completion
  • Vendor-agnosticWorks with any WFM system, even spreadsheets

What’s covered: six modules

You move from how WFM works, through forecasting and scheduling, to managing performance and the day itself.

Module 1

Introduction and overview

What workforce management is, why it matters and how WFM teams are structured.

  • Introduction to workforce management
  • Common planning tasks
  • WFM team structures
Module 2

Forecasting and planning

Analyse historical patterns, forecast contact volumes and calculate the staff you need.

  • Time series analysis
  • Erlang C
  • Shrinkage and attrition
Module 3

Scheduling

Turn forecasts into schedules that balance employee needs with operational requirements.

  • Scheduling considerations
  • Scheduling components
  • Schedule creation
Module 4

Performance analysis

Monitor daily performance and see how adherence and attendance affect service.

  • Monitoring daily performance
  • Managing adherence and attendance
  • Measuring WFM team performance
Module 5

Real-time management

Spot problems early and act quickly when the day doesn’t go to plan.

  • Exception management
  • Contingency planning
  • The continuous improvement cycle
Module 6

Communication

Clear messages, the right channels and constructive handling of conflict.

  • Creating a clear message
  • Choosing the right medium
  • Dealing with conflict

Choose how to take part

Book tickets on a public course, or run it privately for your team, online or onsite.

Public course

Join a scheduled live online class

  • Three full days, live online
  • Learn with planners from other organisations
  • Book one ticket or several
  • Save 15% when you book 3 or more
See upcoming dates

Private team course

Your team only, online or onsite

  • Examples built around your demand and rosters
  • Flexible dates and timings
  • Live online or at your workplace
  • Minimum 5 participants
Talk to us about your team

Only need the intraday side? See Real-Time WFM

Getting sign-off?

Everything your manager needs, in one PDF

Download a three-page fact sheet with the outcomes, all six modules, format, price and options, ready to forward or attach to an approval.

Download the fact sheetTalk to us

Upcoming live public courses

Book tickets for one planner or a few

Public courses run live online over three full days, 9am to 5pm Melbourne time, a few times a year.

Each public course needs a minimum number of participants to run. If a date can’t go ahead, we’ll let you know as early as possible and you can move to another date or get a full refund.

  • Led by Call DesignWFM specialists since 1999
  • Three full daysLive online, 9am to 5pm
  • 15% off 3 or moreBooked in one transaction
  • 25% off for membersACXPA member pricing
Next available17Nov2026

Tuesday 17, Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 November 2026

  • Session 1 Tue 17 Nov · 9:00am–5:00pm AEDT
  • Session 2 Wed 18 Nov · 9:00am–5:00pm AEDT
  • Session 3 Thu 19 Nov · 9:00am–5:00pm AEDT

Online via Zoom · Bookings close Mon 16 Nov, 6:30pm

$2,797per person, ex GSTBook tickets15% off 3 or more tickets 4.9/5 · 374 reviews

More dates

Times shown in Melbourne time (AEST/AEDT).

Who it’s for

Who is WFM Essentials for?

Anyone working in, moving into or supporting workforce management in a contact centre, including WFM team members who learned on the job. No prior WFM experience is needed.

WFM team members

Learned on the job and want formal training.

Aspiring WFM professionals

Stepping into planning, scheduling or real-time roles.

Team Leaders and Supervisors

Understanding how rosters and adherence affect results.

Reporting and operations analysts

Seeing the planning behind the numbers.

Contact centre managers

Making better resourcing decisions.

L&D and operations teams

Supporting and onboarding planning teams.

Looking for other WFM training? Browse all WFM courses

ACXPA membership

Want to save $699.25 on this course?ACXPA members pay $2,097.75, not $2,797, plus a year of WFM Hub tools and live expert support

ACXPA membership is a practitioner-built, vendor-neutral toolkit for anyone who plans or manages a contact centre workforce, and you don’t need to book a course to use it.

Each person on your membership gets their own login to planning tools, calculators, templates and training, plus live access to experienced practitioners every fortnight.

  • 50+hours of live expert access a year
  • 65+tools, templates and resources
  • 18calculators
  • 25%off CX Skills live public courses
Open Mic

Live expert access, every fortnight

Our Open Mic is a relaxed, off-the-record Zoom every second Tuesday with ACXPA’s founder and CEO.

No agenda, no slides: bring a question, share what you’re working through, or just listen.

Find out more
Live · every month

Call Centre and CX Roundtables

Monthly live panels with contact centre and CX leaders on the problems customer-facing teams face every day.

Every session is kept in a searchable library, with an AI assistant that answers your questions.

Call Centre Roundtables CX Roundtables
Any time

Eight specialist hubs

Customer service, CX, complaints handling, coaching, training and onboarding, call centres, WFM and benchmarking.

Each hub has its own tools, templates and training, ready when you need them.

Find out more

The ACXPA WFM Hub

Nine purpose-built workforce planning tools for members, plus free calculators anyone can try, that put WFM maths to work in your own centre.

  • Erlang C CalculatorEnter call volume, handle time and your service level target for a quick estimate of the agents you need.
  • Workload & Capacity PlannerConvert volume and AHT into minimum FTE once you factor in shrinkage, occupancy and concurrency.
  • Staffing Levels SimulatorErlang-powered: find the agent count needed to hit your target service level.
  • Service Level SimulatorEnter your team size and see the service level your current staffing can realistically achieve.
  • Interval PlannerStress-test your operation by modelling volume, AHT and staffing scenarios across intervals.
  • Shrinkage CalculatorTurn leave, meetings and training hours into an accurate shrinkage % for smarter planning.
  • Outlier Detection WizardPinpoint top and bottom performers across multiple metrics to focus your coaching effort.
  • Cost of Wasted Call Time CalculatorPut a fully-loaded dollar cost on avoidable handling time and the FTE capacity it drains.
  • Employee Cost CalculatorSee the true, fully-loaded cost of an employee (wage, super, on-costs, overhead and shrinkage) per year, per hour and per minute.
  • Employee Replacement CalculatorQuantify the true cost of turnover, from exit interview through to full productivity.
  • Employee Turnover CalculatorMeasure attrition and retention against contact centre benchmarks.
Explore the WFM Hub

Plus more member tools for planners and managers

Call centre rankings reports

Monthly, quarterly and sector reports from the Australian Call Centre Rankings, tracking 48+ metrics.

Agent Performance Matrix

Plots every agent on quality versus productivity, so coaching and scheduling decisions start from the same picture.

QA tools

QA Sample Size and Advanced QA calculators, plus the QA Sampling Benchmark to compare your sampling by sector and size.

An ACXPA Individual Membership is $197 ex GST a year, and Business Membership starts at $497 for a team of five, under $100 per person.

Every member gets 25% off CX Skills live public courses: one person on this $2,797 course saves $699.25, more than three times the cost of an Individual Membership.

See Business Membership optionsExplore ACXPA resources

Delivered by Call Design

Learn from workforce management specialists

WFM Essentials is delivered by Call Design, our official WFM partner: a specialist workforce optimisation consultancy that has helped contact centre, retail and back-office operations plan better since 1999.

Your facilitator is one of their experienced consultants, who blend global best practice with vendor-agnostic methods that work with any WFM system. As an ACXPA Accredited Trainer Provider, Call Design keeps the course practical and relevant to your operation.

About Call Design
Call Design, ACXPA Official Partner

Why CX Skills

Why contact centres choose CX Skills for WFM training

Most WFM training is either vendor software training or theory that never meets a real roster.

Ours is designed and delivered by workforce management practitioners who plan for small centres and large-scale operations alike, using vendor-agnostic approaches that work with whatever WFM system you run.

So your planners leave with methods and tools they can apply to your centre the next day.

Practitioner-designed

Designed and delivered by workforce management practitioners.

ACXPA certified

CX Skills is the official training partner of ACXPA, and many of our courses are ACXPA certified.

Take-home tools

Practical templates, calculators and take-home tools included.

Vendor-agnostic

Approaches that work across any WFM system or environment.

For every WFM role

Planners, real-time analysts, team leaders and managers.

Flexible delivery

Live online, onsite and self-paced delivery options.

FAQs

WFM Essentials FAQs

Delivery, pricing, content and who the course suits.

Still have questions? Get in touch
Who should attend?
Anyone working in, moving into or supporting workforce management: WFM team members, aspiring planners, Team Leaders, analysts, contact centre managers and the L&D and operations people who support them.
Do I need WFM experience?
No. The course starts with the fundamentals, and it’s just as useful for WFM team members who learned on the job and never had formal training.
Do we need WFM software?
No. The methods are vendor-agnostic and work with any WFM system, including spreadsheets.
How is the course delivered?
Live online via Zoom over three full days, 9am to 5pm Melbourne time. Private courses can also run onsite at your workplace.
Who is the trainer?
The course is delivered by one of Call Design’s experienced workforce management consultants. Call Design is our official WFM partner and an ACXPA Accredited Trainer Provider.
What’s included?
Three days of live, facilitated training, an electronic workbook and a certificate of completion.
How is it different from the other WFM courses?
WFM Essentials covers the whole WFM lifecycle over three days. Real-Time WFM is one day on intraday management, and WFM for Team Leaders is one day on what Team Leaders need to know, run privately for teams of 5 or more.
How much does it cost?
Public courses are $2,797 per person (ex GST). Save 15% when you book three or more tickets in the same transaction, and ACXPA members save 25%. Private courses (minimum 5 participants) are quoted.
What do participants need?
A computer with a stable internet connection, Zoom, and a headset and camera for the best experience. You’ll receive your join link before the course starts.
Will the course definitely go ahead?
Public courses need a minimum number of participants to run, so we reserve the right to reschedule or cancel a date if too few people book. If that happens, we’ll let you know as early as possible and you can move to another date or get a full refund.
How do I book?
For a public course, choose a date in the upcoming dates and book online by card or invoice. For private training, talk to us or call +61 3 9008 7287.

Talk to us

Questions about training your team?

Book a call to talk it through, or send us a message and we’ll get back to you.

Book a callDownload the fact sheet

Prefer the phone? Call +61 3 9008 7287 (Mon–Fri, 8:30–17:30 Melbourne time) or email hello@cxskills.com.au.

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Ready to plan with confidence?

Book tickets on the next public course, or talk to us about a private course for your team, online or onsite.

See upcoming datesTalk to us about your team