Humberside Police improve call centre efficiency

Humberside Police's call centres will be more efficient

Humberside Police is improving call handling management and service levels within its 24-hour contact centres.

The force is using GMT Planet software to match inbound call demand more accurately with staff resources in its two command centres and two customer service crime centres.

The Centres are staffed all year by 350 agents across three different locations, who responded to over 860,000 calls during the period April 2005 to March 2006.

'We’re continually looking at ways to improve efficiency, enhance effectiveness and drive best practice,' said Katie Powell, project manager for the Crime and Call Handling Programme at Humberside Police. 'The new systems forecasting capabilities will allow us to identify potential shortfalls and make decisions about staffing levels.'

The force will also introduce more flexible working initiatives by enabling staff more visibility of shift availability, call demand, and annual leave requests with an online system.

'We understand the role that real-time visibility to demand and resourcing can deliver. We believe that empowering our staff will improve both performance and attendance,' said Powell.