Call center workforce management relies on accurately predicting when agents can handle customer interactions. Shrinkage is a metric that accounts for the percentage of paid time agents are unavailable to take calls or chats. Understanding this unavailable time is necessary for ensuring operational efficiency and managing customer expectations. Shrinkage is a factor in accurate staffing, influencing both operational budgets and service delivery.
What Exactly Is Call Center Shrinkage?
Shrinkage is a calculation representing all time for which an agent is paid but is not available to receive customer contacts. When agents are on the clock, their time is divided between actively handling customer interactions and various non-production activities. This metric captures non-productive time, which includes everything from scheduled training to unexpected technical downtime.
Expressing this unavailable time as a percentage allows workforce planners to adjust staffing models precisely. Without accounting for shrinkage, a call center would underestimate the total number of agents required to meet service level goals. The shrinkage percentage is used to determine the actual number of staff necessary to cover the workload. This adjustment ensures adequate coverage remains even when agents are temporarily pulled away from the queue.
The Major Categories of Shrinkage
Understanding shrinkage requires breaking down the activities that contribute to agents being unavailable. These activities are organized into three categories, differentiated by whether the time is scheduled by management or occurs unexpectedly. Segmenting these contributors provides insight into where time is spent and which elements are most controllable.
Planned Internal Shrinkage
This category encompasses all time agents are unavailable due to activities that management controls and pre-schedules within the operational day. Training sessions are a major component, including new-hire onboarding, product updates, and skill enhancement. Coaching sessions, where supervisors meet with agents for performance reviews or goal setting, also fall under this planned time.
Team meetings contribute to planned internal shrinkage. Other factors include scheduled breaks and lunch periods, which are set elements of the daily shift. Time reserved for mandatory system maintenance or software updates that require agents to step away from their workstations are also counted here.
Unplanned Internal Shrinkage
Unplanned internal shrinkage accounts for all time agents are unavailable due to non-scheduled events that occur during the workday. This time is characterized by its variation and lack of predictability, making it more challenging to manage. Examples include unscheduled breaks taken outside of designated times or necessary restroom breaks.
Technical issues are a frequent contributor, such as computer crashes, network outages, or software malfunctions that force an agent offline temporarily. Agents logging in late to their shift or returning late from a scheduled break also increase this metric. Necessary administrative tasks not directly related to handling a customer interaction, like filling out incident reports or complex case documentation, are also included here.
External Shrinkage
External shrinkage represents the time agents are unavailable due to non-workplace factors and is often the most difficult element for operations to influence. This category includes non-productive time tracked over longer periods, such as weeks or months, unlike the minute-by-minute tracking of internal shrinkage. The most significant contributors are agent absences, whether planned or unexpected.
Time off such as pre-approved vacation days and company holidays are counted as external shrinkage. Unscheduled absences, including sick leave, personal days, and leaves of absence (such as FMLA), also fall into this category. Other examples include jury duty or military leave, which remove the agent from the staffing pool for an extended duration.
How to Calculate Shrinkage
Calculating the shrinkage percentage compares the total hours agents were unavailable to the total number of hours they were paid. The standard formula is to divide the total unavailable hours by the total paid hours and then multiply the result by 100 to express it as a percentage.
For example, imagine a team paid for 100 hours in a given period. If agents spent 30 of those hours in activities like training, breaks, or sick leave, those 30 hours represent the unavailable time. Applying the formula (30 unavailable hours / 100 paid hours = 0.30) results in a shrinkage rate of 30%.
Workforce management teams perform this calculation regularly, often daily or weekly, to ensure the staffing forecast remains aligned with operational reality. A 30% shrinkage rate means that for every 10 agents needed to handle calls, the center must schedule approximately 13 agents to compensate for the unavailable time. This adjustment prevents service degradation.
Why Shrinkage Is Important for Workforce Planning
Accurately forecasting and applying the shrinkage percentage directly impacts a contact center’s ability to meet its operational goals and manage costs. Underestimating the actual rate of shrinkage results in understaffing throughout the day. This leads to customer frustration due to long wait times and causes the center to miss service level targets, such as answering 80% of calls within 20 seconds.
Conversely, a forecast that overestimates the rate of shrinkage results in scheduling too many agents for the workload. This leads to overstaffing, where agents spend excessive time waiting for calls, resulting in low occupancy rates and inflated labor costs. Maintaining agents in an idle state represents a direct financial inefficiency.
Operational effectiveness is also tied to the agent experience, which is influenced by the accuracy of the shrinkage calculation. Understaffing places pressure on available agents, often leading to increased stress and burnout. Balancing the shrinkage calculation is an act of managing service quality, operating expense, and employee well-being simultaneously.
Practical Ways to Control Shrinkage
Managing the overall shrinkage rate requires implementing targeted strategies that address the specific causes within each of the three categories. To reduce planned internal shrinkage, workforce managers can optimize the scheduling of non-productive activities. Consolidating training and coaching into specific, less busy times minimizes the impact on peak-hour staffing requirements.
Reducing unplanned internal shrinkage relies on technology and adherence monitoring systems. Implementing real-time visibility tools allows supervisors to immediately address agents who are taking unscheduled breaks or experiencing technical delays. Investing in robust and stable technology infrastructure helps minimize the time lost to system-related downtime.
Mitigating external shrinkage primarily involves efforts to improve overall agent engagement and retention. High employee turnover requires constant new-hire training, which increases the planned internal shrinkage component. Reducing unplanned absences, such as sick days, can be addressed through employee wellness programs and clear attendance policies.