Set Up Your Schedule Codes for Adherence: Channels, Productive Statuses and Adhering Statuses
Schedule adherence compares what an agent was scheduled to do with what they did in Zendesk. Your schedule tells Qvasa the first half. For the second, Qvasa needs to know what each schedule code expects of an agent: which channels they should be online on, and which Zendesk agent statuses count as doing the right thing.
This is a one-time setup, done on three pages, and it powers three adherence metrics. Each metric reads a different part of it:
Metric | An agent adheres when… | Set up in |
Scheduled Adherence | they're online on a Zendesk channel the code expects | Step 1: Expected online on |
Productive Unified Status Schedule Adherence | they're in a status marked Productive, while scheduled on a code in a productive category | Steps 2 and 3: Productive statuses and categories |
Unified Status Schedule Adherence | they're in one of the statuses that code allows | Steps 4 and 5: Adhering statuses |
You don't have to use all three. Set up the parts for the metrics you want. What each metric is good for, and how it's calculated, is in Schedule Adherence in Qvasa: Three Ways to Measure It.
Before you start
You need schedules in Qvasa from your WFM tool. Your codes are on Scheduling > Activities (see Schedule Codes and Categories).
The two unified status metrics need agent statuses from Zendesk. If Zendesk Agent Statuses lists no statuses, or Activities has no Adhering statuses column, contact us and we'll turn status tracking on.
Who can do it: admins, and anyone with Can manage schedule codes and categories.
It applies to the past too. Adherence is worked out when a widget loads, so every change here recalculates earlier dates as well. You can adjust the setup at any time and see the effect straight away.
The top of the Activities page sums this up: one card per metric, saying what it reads.
1. Say which channels each code expects
On Scheduling > Activities, each code has three switches under Expected online on: Email, Messaging and Talk. Switch on every channel an agent should be online on while scheduled on that code. Each switch saves as soon as you flip it.
A Messaging code expects Messaging. An Omnichannel code might expect all three.
Leave all three off for breaks, lunch, training, meetings and time off. A code with no channel switched on is left out of Scheduled Adherence.
These switches feed only Scheduled Adherence. The two unified status metrics ignore them.
2. Mark the statuses agents work in as Productive
Go to Scheduling > Zendesk Agent Statuses. Every agent status your Zendesk uses is listed, default and custom, with what Zendesk treats it as on each channel (Maps to: Online, Away or Offline).
Switch Productive on for the statuses agents do their work in, typically Online and Wrap-up, and for any custom status that is working time, such as back-office or email-only statuses. Leave it off for breaks, lunch, meetings, away and offline.
Productive counts in more places than adherence: it also decides which time counts as productive in occupancy, utilization and the productive-agent counts. While you're on the page:
Color is how the status is drawn on the Schedule and in the agents table.
Table column offers the status as a column in the agents table, so a dashboard can show time spent in it. Once it's on, it stays on, because dashboards may already use the column.
3. Put your working codes in a productive category
Productive Unified Status Schedule Adherence measures only the time agents were scheduled to work: blocks on codes in a productive category. That's Productive Work, plus any custom category you mark Counts as productive time.
On Activities, check each working code's Category. Your Email, Messaging and Talk codes usually sit in Productive Work already. If you have working time that isn't on the queue, such as back-office work, give it a custom productive category rather than leaving it in Admin Time. How: Schedule Codes and Categories.
4. Group statuses into collections (optional)
A status collection is a named set of statuses, such as Available to take work (Online, Wrap-up) or Breaks (On Break, Lunch). You can give a code a collection instead of listing statuses one by one, and change the collection later without touching each code: every code that uses it follows.
Go to Scheduling > Status Collections and click Add status collection….
Name it and describe it. The name labels every widget built on it, and the description becomes its tooltip.
Add its statuses with Add a Zendesk unified agent status…. Each one is saved as you add it, and the × removes it.
Collections are useful beyond adherence too: each one becomes metrics and agents-table columns of its own (see Status Collections and Formula Columns: Build Your Own Agent Metrics).
5. Choose each code's adhering statuses
This is the most precise of the three: each code gets its own list of the statuses that count as doing what it schedules.
On Activities, click the pencil in a code's Adhering statuses cell.
Search for and pick statuses, collections, or both. Picked ones show as chips above the search box; the × on a chip removes it.
Click Save.
A typical setup:
Schedule code | Adhering statuses |
Email, Messaging, Talk and your other working codes | The collection Available to take work (Online, Wrap-up) |
Break | On Break |
Lunch | Lunch |
Training | Training |
A code with nothing chosen is left out of Unified Status Schedule Adherence: time scheduled on it counts neither for nor against. The cell reads None chosen, and the line above the table counts these codes. Click without adhering statuses to list them. Leaving time off out this way is usually right.
No statuses left means every status the code allowed has since been removed in Zendesk. Agents can never adhere to it until you choose new ones.
What done looks like
Every working code expects the channels its agents work, and every off-queue code expects none.
Zendesk Agent Statuses shows your working statuses as Productive.
Every working code is in a productive category.
The count of codes without adhering statuses is down to the ones you mean to leave out, such as time off.
Add the adherence widgets to a dashboard to see the result. Which widgets there are, and how to read them, is in Schedule Adherence in Qvasa: Three Ways to Measure It.
Troubleshooting
A widget says "No schedule codes have adhering statuses yet." Do step 5 for at least one code.
A widget says "No unified statuses are marked as Productive." Do step 2.
A widget says "No schedule codes count as productive." Do step 3: put your working codes in a productive category.
Scheduled Adherence leaves a code out. It has no channel switched on under Expected online on.
There's no Adhering statuses column, or no statuses to pick. Agent statuses aren't tracked for your account yet. Contact us.
The switches and pencils are missing. You can see the page but not change it. Ask an admin for Can manage schedule codes and categories.