MSHR 6610 Week 11 HR Operations Recommendation Memo Example

Memorandum

To: Operations Director, Customer Contact Center

From: HR Business Partner, Customer Operations

Date: May 29, 2026

Re: Recommend a cohort of 20 part-time evening agents: effect on waits, overtime and certification seats

Recommendation and Effect

I recommend that we hire and certify a standing cohort of twenty part-time agents who work 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. Combined with the staggered start times now being rolled out, the cohort is projected to bring evening intervals to the 80 percent within thirty seconds target on most weekdays, cut evening overtime from about 110 hours a week to about 30 and use two certification cohorts of ten seats each, filled alongside full-time hires over the next four months. The added payroll is about $590,000 a year, offset by about $170,000 in avoided overtime.

Why Evenings Need a Different Solution

The term's analyses point to one recurring problem. The demand analysis found that evening volume is substantial, steady and growing about 3 percent a year. The staffing model showed that evenings need 48 to 64 agents scheduled, more than the roster provides. The coverage memo found the same evening shortfall in seven of the last ten weeks, filled each time with overtime and borrowed staff. The cost analysis found that evening agents leave at about 38 percent a year, and the metrics note showed daily averages hiding failing evening intervals.

The staggered start times will move some full-time agents later in the day, which helps, but not enough on its own: most full-time agents prefer to finish by 6:00 or 7:00 p.m., and moving all of them would push attrition higher. A dedicated evening group fits the demand curve directly.

Projected Effect

The projections use the same Erlang C model as the staffing analysis (Gans et al., 2003), so they can be checked against the earlier figures.

Table 1

Evening Projections, Weekday 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Composite utility. Predictions from the Erlang C model with 135 calls per half hour and a seven-minute handle time; shrinkage 35 percent.

Certification Seats

The cohort needs twenty certification seats. The constraint brief found the certification pipeline running far short of what it could handle. Filling the next two cohorts with ten part-time and two full-time hires each uses seats that would otherwise sit empty, so the cohort does not delay full-time replacements. Part-time trainees would certify on the same six-week course, with classes held in the early afternoon so that working students and parents can attend.

Who the Cohort Would Attract

The evening hours suit people who cannot work a daytime shift: college students, parents whose partners are home in the evening and people with daytime jobs looking for additional income. Thorsteinson (2003) found in a meta-analysis that part-time and full-time workers did not differ much in job satisfaction or commitment overall, which suggests a part-time group need not be less engaged. The risk is turnover among students at the end of the academic year. The memo proposes recruiting in two waves, one in early fall and one in January, and offering certified part-time agents first refusal on full-time evening positions.

Cost

The cohort's annual cost is about $590,000: twenty agents, 20 hours a week each, costed with prorated benefits at roughly $28.50 an hour. Avoided overtime saves about $170,000 a year at the current overtime rate. The net added cost is about $420,000. That is less than the roughly $470,000 the cost analysis estimated for hiring eight full-time positions ahead of vacancies, and the cohort places its hours exactly where they are needed.

Risks

Three risks matter. Part-time agents may leave faster than projected; the ninety-day attrition measure will show this within a quarter. Certified agents working only four hours a day may take longer to build speed; the nesting period may need to run six weeks instead of four. And full-time evening agents may see the cohort as a threat to their overtime income; HR will meet with them before recruiting begins to explain the change and to confirm that overtime for planned events, such as bill-posting days, remains available to them. Becker and Huselid (2006) argue that HR decisions should be evaluated by their effect on the firm's strategic capabilities; here the capability is answering customers when they call.

Decision Requested

Please approve twenty part-time evening positions and the two certification cohorts beginning in August. If you prefer to start smaller, a first cohort of ten would test recruiting and retention for one term before the second is filled, at half the cost and with most of the overtime saving still in reach, since the first ten would cover the worst evening hours.

References

Becker, B. E., & Huselid, M. A. (2006). Strategic human resources management: Where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 32(6), 898-925. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206306293668

Gans, N., Koole, G., & Mandelbaum, A. (2003). Telephone call centers: Tutorial, review, and research prospects. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 5(2), 79-141. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.5.2.79.16071

Thorsteinson, T. J. (2003). Job attitudes of part-time vs. full-time workers: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76(2), 151-177. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317903765913687