FTE needed for 5,000 contacts a month
5,000 contacts a month is about 231 a day over a five-day week. At a five-minute handle time and an 80/20 target, the busiest half hour needs 8 agents scheduled, the week needs 343 agent-hours, and that is 9.1 FTE before roster efficiency and 10.1 after. The table repeats the calculation across handle times; every row opens the planner with the same inputs so you can change the hours, shape, shrinkage or targets.
| Handle time | Contacts a day | Peak half hour (scheduled) | Agent-hours a week | FTE (theoretical) | FTE at 90% roster efficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 180 s | 231 | 5 | 260 | 6.9 | 7.7 |
| 240 s | 231 | 6 | 303 | 8.1 | 9.0 |
| 300 s | 231 | 8 | 343 | 9.1 | 10.1 |
| 360 s | 231 | 8 | 390 | 10.4 | 11.6 |
| 420 s | 231 | 9 | 423 | 11.3 | 12.5 |
Click a handle time to open the calculator with that row's inputs.
Assumptions
- Open 08:00 to 20:00, five days a week with an even split, a morning-and-afternoon-peak shape, 30-minute intervals.
- 80% within 20 seconds, an 85% occupancy ceiling and 30% shrinkage applied in every interval; 37.5 contracted hours per FTE.
- A month is 12 ÷ 52 weeks. FTE is weekly scheduled agent-hours ÷ contracted hours; the last column divides by 0.9 for shifts that do not fit the curve exactly.
Change any assumption in the week planner and fte calculator
Frequently asked questions
- Why is the FTE so much higher than contacts × handle time would suggest?
- Four terms sit between the two: Erlang slack for random arrivals, the occupancy ceiling, shrinkage, and roster efficiency. The FTE guide walks through each with this same calculation; together they roughly double the naive figure.
- My centre is open different hours or days.
- Open the planner from any row and change them. Longer opening hours spread the same volume thinner and usually need more FTE, not fewer, because each interval still needs enough agents to keep its own queue short.
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