The Essential WFM Glossary

An API is a structured interface that lets WFM systems exchange data and automate workflows across HR, payroll, and operations tools.

Absence management tracks and reduces planned and unplanned time off so coverage stays stable, policies are fair, and costs stay controlled.

Absenteeism rate measures the share of scheduled work time lost to unplanned absences, helping teams spot attendance risk and staffing gaps early.

Alarm triage prioritization ranks incoming alerts by severity so monitoring teams address the highest-risk incidents first without overloading operators.

Auto-scheduling uses rules and algorithms to build optimized rosters automatically, balancing demand, skills, preferences, and compliance.

A biometric time clock uses fingerprint, facial, or other traits to verify identity and prevent buddy punching. securely

Break management plans and tracks employee breaks to meet labor rules while protecting coverage, service levels, and fairness.

Buddy punching is time theft where one employee clocks in or out for another, inflating paid hours and distorting labor data.

A buddy system pairs employees to share knowledge and support, improving onboarding speed, safety, and day-to-day performance consistency.

Business continuity in WFM ensures staffing, scheduling, and communications keep running during disruptions so critical services stay available.

Call center staffing determines how many agents are needed by interval to meet service levels while balancing cost, skills, and demand variability.

Call center workforce optimization aligns forecasting, scheduling, and performance coaching to improve service levels, productivity, and agent experience.

Call-out management handles last-minute absence notices so managers can replace coverage quickly while tracking patterns and policy compliance.

Capacity planning determines the staffing capacity needed to meet expected demand, balancing service levels, skills, and cost.

Certification Tracking helps teams optimize timekeeping accuracy and leave handling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Change Management (in WFM context) is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Client Service Optimization aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Cloud-Based WFM helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled and keeps teams proactive.

Compliance is a WFM practice that optimize policy adherence and audit readiness, keeping audit readiness improves and policy risk stays low.

Cross-Training aligns skills coverage and qualification readiness to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Cyber Threat Response Optimization helps teams optimize security response staffing and risk prioritization so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controll.

Dashboard is a WFM practice that optimize operational visibility and performance insight, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Data Analytics aligns operational visibility and performance insight to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Demand planning forecasts future workload and demand drivers so staffing and schedules align with expected customer volume.

Disaster Recovery Planning (in WFM) helps teams optimize demand forecasts and capacity plans so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Emergency Response Coordination is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Employee Engagement aligns staffing and scheduling to employee experience improves while protecting retention risk drops.

Employee Preferences helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Employee Retention is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping employee experience improves and retention risk drops.

Employee Satisfaction aligns staffing and scheduling to employee experience improves while protecting retention risk drops.

Employee Self-Service helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Employee self-service (ESS) lets staff manage HR tasks like schedules, time off, and pay details without manager intervention.

Employee Well-being is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping employee experience improves and retention risk drops.

Equipment Inventory Management aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Equipment Skill Matching helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Erlang Calculator is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Event-Based Scheduling aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Exception management identifies and resolves schedule deviations so staffing remains aligned with demand and compliance rules.

Flex Scheduling helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled and keeps teams proactive.

Forecasting estimates future workload and staffing needs using historical patterns, business inputs, and assumptions about demand.

Forecasting Using Excel is a WFM practice that optimize demand forecasts and capacity plans, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) aligns timekeeping accuracy and leave handling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Gamification in WFM helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Geofencing in WFM uses location boundaries to verify on-site clock-ins and improve time and attendance accuracy. securely

Headcount Planning is a WFM practice that optimize demand forecasts and capacity plans, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Hybrid Workforce Management aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Incident Escalation Management helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Installation Project Scheduling is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Integration aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled and keeps teams proactive.

Intraday Management helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

KPI is a WFM practice that optimize operational visibility and performance insight, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Labor Cost Management aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Labor forecasting estimates future staffing hours by role, channel, and location so coverage meets demand without overspend.

Labor optimization aligns staffing and work design with demand to reduce cost while maintaining service quality and employee experience.

Leave Management helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled and keeps teams proactive.

License Compliance Tracking is a WFM practice that optimize timekeeping accuracy and leave handling, keeping audit readiness improves and policy risk stays low.

Long-Range Forecasting aligns demand forecasts and capacity plans to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Mandatory Overtime helps teams optimize timekeeping accuracy and leave handling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Meal Period Compliance is a WFM practice that optimize policy adherence and audit readiness, keeping audit readiness improves and policy risk stays low.

A mobile WFM app lets managers and employees handle schedules, time tracking, and requests from any location or device. securely

Monitoring Center Compliance Tracking aligns timekeeping accuracy and leave handling to audit readiness improves while protecting policy risk stays low.

Monitoring Operator Scheduling helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Monthly Forecasting is a WFM practice that optimize demand forecasts and capacity plans, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Multi-Site Scheduling aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Multi-Skill Routing helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Multi-Venue Coordination is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

No-Call No-Show (NCNS) aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

On-Call Scheduling helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled and keeps teams proactive.

Open Shifts is a WFM practice that optimize shift coverage and scheduling accuracy, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Overtime management controls extra hours through policies, approvals, and forecasting to reduce cost while maintaining coverage.

Part-Time Scheduling aligns timekeeping accuracy and leave handling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Performance Management helps teams optimize staffing and scheduling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Post Assignment Optimization is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Predictive scheduling uses forecasts and analytics to build schedules that anticipate demand shifts and reduce last-minute changes.

Quality Assurance Monitoring aligns staffing and scheduling to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Real-Time Adherence helps teams optimize timekeeping accuracy and leave handling so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Real-time adherence tracks how closely employees follow their schedules during the day to protect coverage and service levels.

Remote Workforce Management is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Reporting aligns operational visibility and performance insight to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Rest Period Compliance helps teams optimize policy adherence and audit readiness so audit readiness improves and policy risk stays low.

Roster is a WFM practice that optimize shift coverage and scheduling accuracy, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Roster Management aligns shift coverage and scheduling accuracy to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Rotating Shifts helps teams optimize shift coverage and scheduling accuracy so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

SOC Compliance Monitoring helps teams optimize security response staffing and risk prioritization so audit readiness improves and policy risk stays low.

SOC Performance Analytics is a WFM practice that optimize operational visibility and performance insight, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain cont.

SOC Shift Rotation aligns security response staffing and risk prioritization to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Schedule Adherence is a WFM practice that optimize shift coverage and scheduling accuracy, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Schedule Optimization aligns shift coverage and scheduling accuracy to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Scheduling assigns employees to shifts, tasks, and locations to meet demand while respecting skills, availability, and labor rules.

Security Incident Workload Balancing helps teams optimize security response staffing and risk prioritization so coverage stays reliable and costs remain contro.

Security Shift Rotation is a WFM practice that optimize security response staffing and risk prioritization, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain co.

Security Tool Proficiency Tracking aligns security response staffing and risk prioritization to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlle.

Security Training Management helps teams optimize security response staffing and risk prioritization so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Self-scheduling lets employees choose from open shifts within rules, improving flexibility while maintaining coverage and fairness.

Shift Coverage Analysis is a WFM practice that optimize shift coverage and scheduling accuracy, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Shift Differential aligns shift coverage and scheduling accuracy to coverage stays reliable while protecting costs remain controlled.

Shift planning designs employee shifts to match demand, ensuring coverage, compliance, and fairness across teams and locations.

Shift Premium helps teams optimize shift coverage and scheduling accuracy so coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.

Shift swapping lets employees trade shifts within policy, improving flexibility while preserving coverage and compliance.

Shrinkage is a WFM practice that optimize staffing and scheduling, keeping coverage stays reliable and costs remain controlled.