What each number is
Total shrinkage, agents on the queue and agents to schedule are arithmetic on your inputs. The planning range is an assumption, labelled as a heuristic. The value of paid time off the queue is a conditional forecast at the stated wage, hours and load: wages already paid, described as where paid time goes, never as a saving.
Formulas
The sum of every category, each entered as a percent of paid hours
Categories on one base add. The total stops at 99%, because scheduling divides by what is left; a larger sum is corrected and disclosed.
Planned: breaks, coaching, training, team meetings, PTO. Unplanned: system downtime, absenteeism, late and out of adherence
Planned time is booked ahead; unplanned time happens on the day. PTO is planned because it is booked ahead.
Roster × (1 − total shrinkage)
How many of the rostered agents are handling contacts at any moment, on average.
Agents needed on the queue ÷ (1 − total shrinkage), rounded up
The same gross-up the Staffing Calculator applies. Multiplying the need by one plus shrinkage understates it.
Roster × total shrinkage × hourly rate × paid hours a year × benefits load
Split into planned and unplanned in proportion to their shares.
Roster × 1% agents, and that times hourly rate × paid hours a year × benefits load
What one point of the total moves, so a change in any category can be sized.
Rules and bands
Can mean tight control, or coaching and training time being skipped. Check which before treating it as good.
Inside the range most plans start from. It says nothing about whether the mix is right.
Worth decomposing by category before it is treated as fixed. The Staffing Calculator flags the same line.
The planning range is a labelled heuristic shared with the Staffing Calculator. No published benchmark sets it, and the tool attaches no judgement to a position against it.
Every constant and where it comes from
Bottom of the planning range for total shrinkage. A total below it can mean coaching and training time is being skipped as easily as good control.
Top of the planning range for total shrinkage. Staffing flags a total above it as worth decomposing before it is treated as fixed.
The 2,080 hour full-time year (40 hours for 52 weeks). Occupancy prices an added agent on it; Shrinkage prices paid time off the queue on it.
Wage plus benefits and employer payroll burden, and nothing else. The narrowest of the three loads. Use it wherever a wage becomes a loaded hourly rate for unit metrics.
The one agent wage benchmark the platform cites. Staffing, Cost per Contact and Channel Shift read it. It is the occupation median, no figure of the user's own, so a driver still at it grades evidence Directional. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (released 15 May 2026), SOC 43-4051 Customer Service Representatives, national median hourly wage.
Worked example
Computed by the tool's own engine at its default inputs, so this page and the calculator always agree.
Agents on the roster: 200
Agents needed on the queue: 140
Hourly rate: $21.53 (BLS median)
Planned: breaks 8%, coaching 3%, training 4%, meetings 2%, PTO 8%
Unplanned: system downtime 1%, absenteeism 5%, late and out of adherence 2%
8 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 8 + 1 + 5 + 2 = 33% (25% planned, 8% unplanned)
200 × 0.67 = 134
140 ÷ 0.67 = 208.96, rounded up to 209, 9 more than the roster
200 × 33% × $21.53 × 2,080 × 1.3 = $3,842,330 a year ($2,910,856 planned, $931,474 unplanned)
2 agents, $116,434 a year
What this tool cannot tell you
- Shrinkage here is a planning average. It varies by interval, day and season; schedule by interval where your WFM system allows.
- Every category must be on the same base, a percent of paid hours. A category measured against hours present has to be converted first, or the total understates shrinkage.
- Agents to schedule start from the agents needed on the queue, which this tool takes as given. The Staffing Calculator sizes that number for a service level.
- The value of paid time off the queue is wages already paid. Planned time is part of running the operation, so the figure is no budget for cuts.