Workforce management is a complex problem involving the optimisation of the makespan and travel distance required for a team of operators to complete a set of jobs, using a set of instruments. A crucial challenge in workforce management is accommodating changes at execution time so that explanations are provided to all stakeholders involved. Here, we show that, by understanding workforce management as abstract argumentation in an industrial application, we can accommodate change and obtain faithful explanations. We show, with a user study, that our tool and explanations lead to faster and more accurate problem solving than conventional manual approaches.

Workforce optimization plays a crucial role in efficient organizational operations where decision-making may span several different administrative and time scales. Existing work focuses on specific sub-problems such as resource allocation and facility location, which are solved with heuristics like local-search and, more recently, deep reinforcement learning. However, these may not accurately represent real-world scenarios where such sub-problems are not fully independent. Our aim is to fill this gap by creating a simulator that models a unified workforce optimization problem. Specifically, we designed a modular simulator to support the development of reinforcement learning methods for integrated workforce optimization problems. We focus on three interdependent aspects: personnel dispatch, workforce management, and personnel positioning. The simulator provides configurable pa-rameterizations to help explore dynamic scenarios with varying levels of stochasticity and non-stationarity. To facilitate benchmarking and ablation studies, we also include heuristic and RL baselines for the above mentioned aspects.

In the span of a few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved from an emerging technology to taking center stage in companies of all sizes. This has been a consistent trend across industries, and adoption will continue to accelerate. According to a recent study by IDC, "60% of Forbes' Global 2000 companies will expand the use of artificial intelligence across all business-critical horizontal functions like marketing, legal, HR, procurement, and supply chain logistics by 2024."* AI is at the heart of SAP's strategy to help customers become intelligent, sustainable enterprises. Bringing transformative intelligence to every aspect of their business through ready-to-use AI capabilities in SAP applications for all business processes, such as lead-to-cash, design-to-operate, recruit-to-retire, and source-to-pay.

Today we see our working routine very different from what it was at least 10 years ago. Due to technology advancement and access to the Internet we are able to telecommute. And for many of us it has become the only alternative because of the pandemic of Covid-19. Nevertheless, even remote workers need to be supervised for sake of productivity. Here are some practical advices how to make it happen.

CEIPAL, an industry-leading talent management platform, will be showcasing some of its latest advances in talent acquisition and recruitment CRM technology at ITServe Alliance's Synergy Conference 2021. The annual conference for IT & business transformation is being held September 30 - October 1 in Dallas. At the event, technology and industry leaders will discuss the challenges around business growth, trends and innovations in technology, and understanding immigration laws. Attendees can learn about CEIPAL's complete talent management ecosystem which improves recruiting, increases new hires, and offers easy workforce management. Those who are not attending can request a personalized demo of CEIPAL here.

TMI's editorial team is comprised of researchers, writers, editors, proofreaders, and contributors with extensive experience in the HR and Talent Management space. The team scrupulously researches, analyzes and deliberates on each submission before concluding its suitability for our publications. In the early part of 2020, the war for talent was as heightened as ever, and poised to become even more so. Several industries and sectors expected ambitious hiring to cater to strong growth. And automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and other forms of HR technology were frequently tapped to aid HR in efficient, quick, and scalable discharge of HR duties.

With contact centers globally adjusted to the new normal, there are a number of artificial intelligence levers they can pull to deliver increased levels of customer satisfaction and major cost savings that aren't constrained by the limited capabilities of today's chatbots., Agents remain a critical part of the equation. When contact centers leverage the opportunity to use AI effectively, they can reduce the cost of customers switching to competitors due to poor customer service, which already costs U.S. industries $1.6 trillion. The proper utilization of AI will also result in the simplification of the agent experience which delivers an outsized impact on reducing training time and costs by 40%, lower absenteeism, and reduced agent attrition. By using AI across all customer touchpoints--on the web, app, and voice--enterprises can finally achieve the omni experience that has evaded the industry for years.

Juniper Networks, Inc. JNPR recently announced that its Wireless LAN platform from subsidiary -- Mist Systems -- has been selected by a leading Belgium-based transportation and logistics company, Transports Vervaeke. The latest collaboration is primarily aimed at leveraging Mist's AI-driven platform to enhance the productivity of the European company's workforce with modernized enterprise solutions. Markedly, the innovative network solution will be designed by Juniper's Elite Partner, Infradata, which provides cybersecurity and automation solutions to enterprises as well as network operators. Equipped with avant-garde cloud architecture, Mist is better known for leveraging its AI-driven network to enhance user experience. It also offers best-in-class subscription services like AI-supported virtual assistant Marvin, Asset Visibility, Wi-Fi Assurance and User Engagement for trouble shooting analytics as well as for seamless connectivity with key insight and automation.

Leading Customer Support Ticket System and Sales CRM platform Zendesk has invested in Tymeshift. Tymeshift is an Omnichannel Workforce Management (WFM) tool that is made exclusively for Zendesk. Tymeshift will use the new funding to push for growth in new markets. At the time of this investment, David Birchmier, CEO- Tymeshift, shared his vision for the company's future. David said, "We're proud of the organic growth we've achieved and are excited to leverage Zendesk's investment to accelerate our product innovation pace and continue to grow our teams in Fairfield, Iowa, Lisbon, Portugal, and Novi Sad, Serbia. In short, we're focused on making our WFM solution even more comprehensive."

Leading Customer Support Ticket System and Sales CRM platform Zendesk has invested in Tymeshift. Tymeshift is an Omnichannel Workforce Management (WFM) tool that is made exclusively for Zendesk. Tymeshift will use the new funding to push for growth in new markets. At the time of this investment, David Birchmier, CEO- Tymeshift, shared his vision for the company's future. David said, "We're proud of the organic growth we've achieved and are excited to leverage Zendesk's investment to accelerate our product innovation pace and continue to grow our teams in Fairfield, Iowa, Lisbon, Portugal, and Novi Sad, Serbia. In short, we're focused on making our WFM solution even more comprehensive."