What is Shrinkage?
Shrinkage is the percentage of paid time that agents are unavailable to handle customer interactions. It includes breaks, lunch, training, meetings, coaching, system downtime, absences, and other non-productive time. Shrinkage is a critical factor in workforce planning—failing to account for it leads to understaffing.
Types of Shrinkage
- Scheduled shrinkage — Breaks, lunch, training, meetings (planned)
- Unscheduled shrinkage — Sick time, tardiness, no-shows (unplanned)
- Internal shrinkage — Coaching, one-on-ones, admin tasks
- External shrinkage — Vacation, FMLA, jury duty
Calculating Shrinkage
Shrinkage = (Total Paid Time − Time Available for Calls) / Total Paid Time × 100
Typical contact centers experience 25-35% shrinkage. Not accounting for shrinkage in staffing calculations guarantees missed service levels.
Using Shrinkage in Planning
To staff properly, calculate base staff needed using Erlang C, then divide by (1 − shrinkage rate). If you need 50 agents at any moment and shrinkage is 30%, you need to schedule 72 agents (50 ÷ 0.70).
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