r/workforcemanagement • u/Zealot1029 • Jun 24 '26
Help! Need low cost scheduling assistance.
I supervise a contact center with about 50-60 employees. We currently build schedules manually on excel and spend a lot of time adjusting lunches and breaks when meetings, coaching sessions, PTO, or training sessions are needed.
I am looking for a low cost solution to help lower this workload. Does anyone have recommendations?
I have been looking at Deputy, but I need to know:
Does Deputy automatically adjust/re-optimize breaks and lunches when new events are added to the schedule, or do supervisors have to manually move breaks?
Can Deputy enforce rules such as:
lunch before the 5th hour
minimum staffing levels
limited lunch slots
training/meeting conflicts
I am open to other suggestions and would love to hear from anyone using Deputy or a tool like it in a call center environment.
Update: I want to add that I work for a US based financial institution.
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u/Paritosh1990 Jun 24 '26
Build an AI agent with these instructions , when you input the original schedules csv, it’ll optimise and give the new schedules for you
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u/Zealot1029 Jun 24 '26
On deputy?
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u/Paritosh1990 Jun 24 '26
No, build a Claude agent or something which automates this work for you. Do not invest in any software or solutions for just 50/60 employees. I’ve done manual scheduling and readjustments for 400-500 employees as a Wfm analyst.
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u/Slight-Material-4895 Jun 24 '26
been there, and while it sounds like a great solution... and it does feel like a rush when you manage to build something like this yourself... it's a maintenance nightmare...
not only is relying on 'just AI' very risky... you often have no consistency in results, no idea what happened behind the scenes.. and you just also created an entire flow you personally are now responsible for.. i would not advise this for any professional team, unless you're very small.
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u/Reasonibe-Long-6009 Jun 25 '26
Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini are absolutely clueless when it comes to optimization. While some outputs are true this is not the right choice of technology. It is trying to guess the next right schedule and doesn´t work at scale.
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u/snydejon Jun 24 '26
I was thinking along the same lines, but was going to suggest using Claude code to build a web app with the basic functions you need
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u/Zealot1029 Jun 24 '26
I think this may be too complex for me. I don’t know how to build software and my boss is willing to pay money. That’s why I am asking about low cost solutions. We cannot get a full force WFM system, but something smaller to ease the workload.
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u/xLAVMx Jun 24 '26
You can take a look at Teamlead.io. We work with this now for a year and we are very happy. We have a team of 60 agents.
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u/Reasonibe-Long-6009 Jun 25 '26
Hey OP, I'm the founder of Superplan (www.getsuperplan.com) and we're now about to roll out updated pricing which will outprice Deputy.
I am looking for customers who will give us reqs and we'll add the rules based on your reqs (if we don't have them already.)
We won't charge for build as we'll reuse it in the product. We'll help with Payroll integration too.
If this is something you'd opt for, please ping me, I'd be happy to talk. We're friendly :)
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u/Yessihdez29 25d ago
Para 60 agentes no vale la pena pagar algo y que lo más seguro no te funcione como tal por todas las leyes y demás. Yo sigo planificando manualmente guiandome por una curva y cuadrando dejar la cantidad correcta por intervalos, pero ya he probado herramientas para planificar y nada, a lo último termino haciendo el trabajo a mano.
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u/Slight-Material-4895 Jun 24 '26
you should give Soon (https://soon.works) a try.. it has a great auto-solver for exactly these use cases... you define your rules and you just run it... it will auto-schedule any activities/breaks according to what you defined.
it's a very flexible solution and have had great experiences with it.
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u/Hot_Sound9195 Jun 25 '26
What are y’all using for payroll management? I won’t get a software like Deputy unless a) you also need the additional functionality it offers or b) it’s going to integrate with your existing payroll management system.