Unlocking Agent Potential in the Contact Centre with WEM

Published 29/05/25 under:

Solutions like Genesys Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) have become increasingly important as contact centres come under mounting pressure to deliver exceptional customer experience (CX) – while also managing operational efficiency, agent engagement and compliance across hybrid working practices.  

Kerv CX and WEM Consultant, Neil Draycott, charts this evolution and shares tips on how to drive better agent engagement and efficiency by using Genesys Cloud.

The true cost of poor agent experience

When agents feel unhappy, unsupported or disengaged, it affects everything from customer satisfaction and net promoter scores to first contact resolution and cost-to-serve (see Figure 1). High attrition leads to loss of expertise and lowers overall team morale. Burnout and stress fuels more absenteeism and errors. Lack of training, unclear processes or inadequate tools frustrate agents and slow resolution times. And these service-impacting signals are quickly picked-up by customers. 

Figure 1. Understanding the agent experience.

Time for a more employee-centric approach

Workforce management (WFM) tech has come a long way since it emerged in the 1980s, primarily to ensure that the right people, with the right skills, were in the right place, at the lowest cost. WFM evolved into workforce optimisation (WFO) combining effective scheduling with new tools for managing high-quality interactions, compliance and productivity.

Now, as interactions continue to grow in volume and complexity, progressive customer-first organisations are paying more attention to the human aspects of the contact centre. And this renewed focus on employee experience (EX) is set to accelerate. Training staff in new tools and protocols (37%), staying compliant with evolving regulations (31%), and managing quality and productivity with remote hybrid working (28%) rank among the biggest challenges cited by CX leaders^[1] today. 

Genesys WEM Overview

That’s where Genesys Workforce Engagement Management can help. Natively pre-integrated within the Genesys Cloud platform, WEM enables contact centres to create a more engaging and rewarding environment. One that recognises the need for a better work-life balance – reducing turnover and improving both CX and EX. The end result is happy, motivated, empowered agents. 

Figure2. Genesys WEM key components.

In addition, agents benefit from:

• Personalised dashboards that make it easier to see their schedules, coaching appointments, evaluations and how they are performing against goals. 
• Task automation, reducing tedious admin work through AI assistance. 
• Real-time metrics, providing immediate feedback and customised targets based on skills and experience. 
• Schedule control, allowing greater autonomy over working hours, breaks, shift trades and leave requests. 

 

Watch our WEM webinar

Our CX and WEM Consultant dives into WEM in this comprehensive webinar. Recorded May 2025.

Recording

Flexible working advantages

Crucially, Genesys WEM bridges the gap between office-based and remote workers in several ways – effectively making contact centre operations more location independent.  

Popular use cases include: 

Hybrid working challenge	How Genesys WEM addresses the challenge
1. Reduced visibility into agent activity and productivity.	Real-time dashboards and analytics allow managers to monitor agent performance from a distance. Quality management tools enable 100% interaction monitoring with easily retrievable (call and screen) recordings and evaluations, regardless of location.
2. Employees feel disconnected or unsupported.	Gamification encourages motivation and performance through leaderboards and fairer rewards. Surveys and feedback tools gauge employee sentiment and engagement regularly. Coaching and eLearning delivers personalised development content and real-time feedback.
3. Ensuring data protection and compliance in remote environments.	Cloud-native architecture ensures secure access and data encryption. Role-based access controls and audit trails help maintain regulatory compliance.
4. Inability to promote and drive real-time collaboration.	Shared performance data keeps everyone engaged on goals and expectations.
5. Coordinating schedules and workloads across virtual teams.	AI-powered forecasting and scheduling accurately predicts demand and provides alerts for non-adherence tracking. Genesys Tempo Apps allows hybrid workers to request changes, swap shifts or set availability (coming soon).

Quantifying WEM benefits

Contact centres investing in Genesys WEM typically see the biggest gains in the following areas: 

1. Increased productivity, largely from workforce management improvements across all channels – voice, chat, email, social, etc. – with the ability to re-optimise on the day. 
2. Lower turnover costs as attrition rates drop, saving money on training and recruitment. 
3. Reduced overtime through more effective spend tracking and capping. 
4. Training efficiencies through the newfound ability to easily scale and automate virtual coaching and assessments to dispersed hybrid teams, without compromising quality. 
5. Fewer errors by having skilled people with the right knowledge in the right place, resulting in less handling, re-work and duplicated effort. 

In addition, organisations implementing real-time adherence tracking reported a 10-15% improvement in schedule adherence rates^[2]. WEM gamification features help to further boost employee productivity and retention. For example, through dynamic scorecards and visual indicators when agents achieve specific KPI targets. Or, by introducing fun competitions with customisable leaderboards and prizes. All of which makes it easier to share best practice from star performers and help new starters get up the learning curve faster. 

We would love to hear from you

The longest standing Genesys Cloud partner in EMEA, Kerv has successfully deployed Genesys Cloud to over 25,000 agents in 90+ customers. Drawing on our unrivalled technical support, managed services and customer success practice, we obsessively ensure Kerv customers always get the greatest benefit from their Genesys technology.

To learn more about transforming your contact centre workforce, watch our full webinar.

Or to register for a free two-hour WEM Discovery session, please contact sales.experience@kerv.com.

 

[1] The State of Customer Experience, Genesys 2025.
[2] Genesys Cloud WEM Performance Metrics Study, 2023.