Latest news with #WFM
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Sport
- New Indian Express
At 11, Bengaluru's Charvi making heads turn at Norway Open
STAVANGER: India's chess conveyor belt shows no signs of slowing down. One of the latest to emerge from the seemingly limitless pool is Charvi A, who has already made the likes of Viswanathan Anand sit up and take notice. The 11-year-old, currently in action at the Norway Open event in the city, is a WFM (Woman Fide Master). Already an age-group world champion, what makes the Bengaluru-based Charvi special is the way she's laser-focused in her chess. Even in a game where obsessives are dime-a-dozen, it's unheard of for somebody as young as her to set boundaries. For example, she has already told her parents to not reveal the identity of her coach (she has worked with Swayams Mishra and RB Ramesh in the past). Her dedication also lies in her wanting to learn from her mistakes. After every game, she makes it a point to have a debrief with all of her opponents. "It can go on for 30 minutes also," her mother, Akhila, who left behind her IT job, says. She and her husband Anil Kumar had to rely on YouTube to understand the game and keep pace with their daughter. Her parents were undecided on her daughter pursuing chess but after she won the Under-8 girls World Championship, they were sold on her obvious talents (post that, she also got the highest civilian award given to children for her chess exploits). They were okay pulling her out of school (she only visits to give term exams) apart from customising her training schedule. Apart from chess training, she also goes for swimming and badminton classes in the evening to ensure she gets some physical activity on a daily basis. Charvi has had a mixed Open event but that's to be expected at this level as the players she faces are either higher rated or have more experience. But it will stand her in good stead going forward.
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Norway Chess 2025: Eleven-year-old Charvi's single-minded focus to master craft
STAVENGER: VISWANATHAN Anand likened her to a 'star'. Swayams Mishra, a popular Indian coach, called her 'very talented'. The '64 Squares Initiative' are part funding her every move across the globe. Group E4, an Anand-backed campaign where Indian families from around the world support young chess players, funds her drive to the top. Meet Charvi A, a 11-year-old who's already marrying off-the-board dedication with on-the-board precision. An age-group world champion, Charvi, currently featuring at the Norway Open tournament in the city, is showing an unnatural appetite for elite-level competition now. Her clarity of thought is already so clear she only goes to school for her mid-term and annual exams. She's also secretive about who her current coach is. Rated 2056 in Classical, the WFM (Women FIDE Master) already has a laundry list of accomplishments to her name. In fact, in 2024 she was bestowed with the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar by President Droupadi Murmu (India's highest civilian award given to children).
Scotsman
22-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
SVL Business Solutions and Bluecrest unite to Drive AI-enabled customer service excellence
The UK's longest-running contact centre solutions provider, has secured a long-term partnership with a multi-award winning private health assessment provider. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... SVL Business Solutions, has solidified its partnership with Bluecrest, signing a six-year, seven figure contract to deliver cutting-edge solutions that help enhance customer experience and improve operational efficiency. This new contract represents a significant step forward in the partnership between the two companies, which began almost three years ago with the implementation of a Workforce Management solution (WFM). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad SVL will introduce NICE CXone technology to Bluecrest, adding advanced capabilities in quality management, interaction analytics, and customer feedback alongside integration of AI-driven tools like Co-pilot. Anne Holmes, Account Director at SVL This significant technology investment will support Bluecrest's mission to further improve customer experience and service delivery, enhance responsiveness and strengthen PCI compliance for their secure payment processes. Anne Holmes, Account Director at SVL Business Solutions, said: 'Our ongoing partnership with Bluecrest highlights our shared commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences through transformative technology. By embracing NICE CXone, Bluecrest is taking a significant leap in operational efficiency and customer engagement, underpinned by AI and advanced analytics.' Bluecrest, a leader in preventative health assessments, is focused on further enhancing its customer service capabilities while adapting to evolving customer expectations and industry standards. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
Techday NZ
28-04-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
Calabrio boosts contact centres with over 70 new AI features
Calabrio has announced the introduction of more than 70 new artificial intelligence-driven features to its Calabrio ONE workforce performance suite designed to enhance efficiency and customer service in contact centres. The company stated that these additions will be available to users of Calabrio ONE within a six-month period. The suite's enhancements focus on streamlining daily tasks, improving agent engagement, and offering managers and agents tools to increase operational efficiency. Calabrio highlighted that artificial intelligence is increasingly central to contact centre operations. Data from Calabrio's 2025 State of the Contact Center Report suggests that managers expect AI and automation to support agent wellbeing, foster a better workplace culture, and provide enhanced analysis of customer behaviour. By automating routine processes, offering deeper operational insights, and promoting greater flexibility for agents, the suite's features are intended to allow centres to operate with higher efficiency. According to the company, this shift helps managers transition from manual oversight towards more strategic initiatives, while empowering agents and aiming to reduce burnout and improve the quality of customer service. Dave Rhodes, Chief Executive Officer of Calabrio, said, "AI is here to stay and it's quickly changing the game. Calabrio has made very thoughtful investments to create AI-driven features– not just for the sake of AI – but for the humans who use them. The purpose is to help agents more easily and successfully improve the customer experience. Much like the evolution from handwritten letters to email, our AI-powered Quality Management (Auto QM) is poised to redefine traditional methodologies, delivering immediate value and powerful outcomes on day one." The updated Calabrio ONE suite introduces several key functions. The Auto QM feature uses AI to evaluate customer interactions for consistent scoring and rapidly identify coaching opportunities, with the option for users to customise generative AI prompts according to their business requirements. Trending Topics leverages AI to categorise customer conversations, helping teams pinpoint emerging trends, address issues, and implement data-based improvements. Interaction Summary provides AI-generated overviews of customer interactions to assist with compliance and engagement monitoring. WFM Notifications deliver real-time alerts to agents and managers, improving awareness and planning capabilities. Other additions include Vacation Planner Pro, which automates vacation scheduling to provide fairness and reduce administrative processes, and Real-Time Desktop Analytics, which offers immediate visibility into agent activity for identifying workflow inefficiencies. The Activity Requests feature within Calabrio Workforce Management enables agents to self-schedule activities within pre-approved parameters, and the Periodization function helps track actual worked hours against set targets for each agent on a weekly basis. Magnus Geverts, Vice President of Product Marketing at Calabrio, said, "We're proud to collaborate with some of the world's top contact centers, whose insights were instrumental in shaping these features. Contact centers need to balance efficiency with employee wellbeing and customer satisfaction. These features help organizations create a more agile, efficient and engaged workforce by addressing contact centers' key operational challenges. Managers gain actionable insights, agents experience greater flexibility and job satisfaction, and customers receive faster, more personalized service." All newly announced features are now accessible for users of the Calabrio ONE suite.
Forbes
25-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Prioritizing The Hourly Employee Experience During Retail Expansion
Michael Spataro is the SVP of Partnerships and Employee Value Solutions at Legion Technologies, an innovator in workforce management (WFM). In-store retail is on the rebound. After a healthy holiday season—77% of holiday shopping took place in-store in 2024—and an overall rise in retail foot traffic, retailers entered 2025 with renewed optimism for their brick-and-mortar operations. To meet this invigorated demand for in-store experiences, retailers are expanding, whether through opening new locations, renovating existing facilities or acquiring or merging with another brand. The trend is especially prominent within the convenience sector. C-Store Dive reported that M&A activity is rampant in the industry, from major chains to smaller operations, while others are expanding aggressively. 7-Eleven, for example, plans to open 600 new locations by 2027. The expansion fervor is certainly exciting. But the success of any growth initiative depends on how well retailers manage the accompanying changes with their employees—especially their in-store hourly workers. In times of transformation, employees want assurance that the changes to the greater organization are also going to benefit them. Expansion puts the business in a malleable state, making it the perfect opportunity for retailers to modernize their workforce management processes to be more employee-centric, while simultaneously improving labor efficiency and productivity. To ensure a smooth transition and strong results, here are three key workforce management strategies that retailers undergoing expansion should adopt. Employee flexibility is the undeniable foundation of a modern workplace. For hourly workers, this starts with them choosing which days and how many hours they want to work—but true flexibility goes beyond that, extending into which store locations they prefer, which tasks utilize their best knowledge and skills, and even how often they're paid. Enabling greater flexibility during expansion can help retailers maintain satisfaction among their current workforce while attracting and retaining talent, which is why leaders should look for opportunities to: • Transform labor processes. Labor optimization must be top of mind during expansion. Leaders and managers must ensure not only that they have the proper staff to accommodate changing demands, but that they can prepare for any unique challenges that may arise, especially if they're moving into a geographic region where they have not done business before. • Upgrade communications. When workers can easily communicate with their managers and colleagues, they'll feel more engaged and empowered, which will improve their overall experience. Streamlined communication also makes it easier for companies to relay important expansion information, such as a new location opening. • Offer earned wage access. Pay flexibility is a crucial part of the larger flexibility of the equation. The ability to get paid early can influence hourly employees' decision to accept or stay in a job. It's also been linked to higher productivity and overall employee well-being. The addition of new locations to a retail chain can be an employee benefit in itself, as employees may have the opportunity to work at a more desirable location or swap shifts across more stores to maximize schedule flexibility. In an hourly workplace, the manager-report relationship is the most critical front of change management and implementation. Managers serve as ambassadors from upper leadership, helping their employees put strategy into action while ensuring they can do their jobs efficiently and effectively. To enable teams to keep up with expansion-related changes, leaders must create environments where these coaching and mentoring relationships can thrive. Managers should have the training and resources—and most importantly, the time—to help employees sharpen their best skills, improve their weaknesses and unlock their potential. Managers have a real appetite for teaching and coaching opportunities: according to our company's 2024 State of the Hourly Workforce report, 67% of managers wish they could spend more time teaching and coaching their reports. However, 40% of frontline leaders say they receive inadequate coaching from their managers, revealing a startling disconnect that could hinder the success of an expansion if left unaddressed. The intelligent automation of less 'human' tasks, such as timekeeping, payroll and inventory management, will afford managers more time to train and develop their employees. Bringing managers out of the backroom and onto the floor with their teams can also create more opportunities for hands-on coaching and direct observation. This ultimately helps new employees acclimate faster, accelerates the adoption of new technologies and processes, and improves the in-store experience for customers. As retailers expand, managers will likely have new expectations (and fresh paperwork) to handle. However, this is also the time to lessen the administrative burden in other areas—permanently. Companies should aim to make admin-heavy processes like workforce management as autonomous as possible, from long-term labor planning to everyday assistance. Managers should be able to trust that they're working with the most accurate insights and can complete key processes within the minimum of steps. The rise of agentic AI, which experts predict will explode in the coming years, will be critical in reducing the administrative burden on managers. The possible use cases cover a broad spectrum of everyday tasks, such as distributing and changing schedules easier, drafting team messages and easily managing time and attendance records. With these tools in their repertoire, managers can focus on collaborating with their teammates and connecting with customers—high-value work that will drive measurable success. Retail expansion, in whatever form, is a deeply complex process. From potential regulatory hurdles to hiring initiatives to construction and supply chain challenges, leaders have their hands full. But amid all the paperwork and protocol, there is an opportunity to reshape their business in a way that fosters a better workplace for everyone and makes them more competitive in the long run. 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