Workforce Planning Lead - Customer Contact Centres

Marks and Spencer plc (UK); Salford; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

20% discount for colleagues

Discretionary bonus schemes

Defined Contribution Pension

Life Assurance

Wellbeing support

Volunteer day

Job summary

Marks & Spencer plc in Salford seeks a highly analytical WFM leader to drive demand forecasting, capacity planning and scheduling for our contact centre operations. You will build and continuously improve workforce plans, align resources with service levels, and monitor performance against targets.

You will partner with customers services and third‑party partners to optimise productivity, implement real-time adjustments and ensure robust business continuity.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading workforce planning, forecasting, scheduling or WFM in customer service.
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision making.
• Proactive planner balancing short-term needs with long-term capacity.
• Influential stakeholder management across functions and partners.
• Excellent communication of complex data to insights and action.

Responsibilities

• Lead demand forecasting, capacity planning and resource management across in-house and outsourced contact centre operations.
• Create, maintain and continuously improve workforce plans, including recruitment, training and long-term capacity plans, with forecast performance analysis.
• Oversee workforce management and scheduling, ensuring resources are planned effectively, schedules are optimised and adherence/shrinkage monitored.
• Lead real-time service delivery, monitor intra-day performance, adjust resources, and provide data-driven insights for performance management.
• Manage activity planning and business continuity, ensuring all customer service activities are effectively sequenced and delivered.

Skills

Forecasting

Capacity planning

Workforce management

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Communication

Job description

Responsibilities

• Lead demand forecasting, capacity planning and resource management across in-house and outsourced contact centre operations, producing accurate forecasts aligned to agreed service levels and commercial arrangements.
• Create, maintain and continuously improve workforce plans, including recruitment, training and long-term capacity plans, whilst analysing forecast performance and leading in-year reforecasting activity where required.
• Oversee workforce management and scheduling processes, ensuring resources are planned effectively, schedules are optimised and adherence, shrinkage and operational performance are continuously monitored.
• Lead real-time service delivery, monitoring intra-day performance, making resource adjustments as required, measuring productivity and service levels, and providing data-driven insight to support performance management.
• Manage operational activity planning and business continuity, ensuring all activity impacting Customer Services is effectively sequenced, communicated and executed whilst maintaining excellent service delivery for customers.

Who You Will Be

• A highly analytical leader who can challenge data, assumptions and calculations to drive accurate forecasting and effective decision making.
• A proactive and organised planner who can balance short‑term operational demands with long‑term workforce and capacity strategies.
• An influential stakeholder manager, capable of working collaboratively across Customer Services, wider business functions and third‑party partners.
• A confident communicator who can translate complex operational data into clear insight, recommendations and service delivery communications.
• A continuous improvement champion who is passionate about enhancing workforce planning processes, operational efficiency and customer outcomes.
• Proven experience leading workforce planning, forecasting, scheduling or workforce management functions within a customer service or contact centre environment.
• Strong experience producing and validating forecasts, capacity plans and resource models, with the ability to analyse forecast versus actual performance and identify improvement opportunities.
• Expertise in workforce management principles, including forecasting, scheduling, resource planning, shrinkage management and service level performance.
• Experience managing real‑time operational performance, analysing productivity metrics such as AHT and contacts per hour, and making informed adjustments to optimise service delivery.
• Excellent analytical, organisational and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to govern planning processes, manage operational activity plans and maintain robust business continuity arrangements.

Company culture

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We're disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We're transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

Equal Opportunity & Inclusion

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

Being part of M&S

Being a part of M&S is exactly that - playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We're an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.

Benefits

• 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third‑party brands for you and a member of your household.
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
• Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
• A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
• A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
• Industry‑leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
• Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/6 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
• A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.