Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for trading employee schedules online. One or more rules for determining which schedules may be traded are defined. One or more employee schedules are posted for trade. For each posted schedule, the requirements of the schedule that the employee would like in exchange are also posted. Two schedules are matched for trading based on (a) their respective requirements for the schedule required in return, and (b) the rules that were previously defined. If two schedules match, then the trade is approved, and the schedules traded.

Abstract: A method and computer system for assigning one or more schedules to a plurality of entities such as agents or employees. Schedules are posted online and can be viewed by, and bid upon, the entities to be scheduled. Entities preferably enter their individual schedule preferences. Schedules preferably are sorted in order of priority, based on the entity's preferences. The entities then bid on the schedules. The bidding for each set of schedules is then closed. The supervisor then initiates a process that sorts the entities in a specified order and assigns a schedule to each of the entities, based on their bids.

Abstract: The present invention provides for rescheduling workload. A period is selected. A contacts forecasted to be received (CRF) value for the selected period is selected. A contacts forecasted to be handled (CHF) value for the selected period is selected. A volume of contacts that can be handled based on agent schedules (CHS) is calculated. A contacts handled intraday value (CHI) is determined based on these values, possibly also using values for contacts actually received and handled and perhaps using backlog values and/or backlog threshold values. The CHI value is then overwritten as a function of the CHI value of a previous period, the contacts actually handled (CHA) value of a previous period, and other metrics of contact processing.