CX & Support Metrics

Shrinkage

Definition

Shrinkage is a workforce management metric that captures the percentage of paid agent time not spent handling customer contacts — including breaks, meetings, training, absenteeism, and other non-productive activities.

Also known as: contact center shrinkageproductivity shrinkage

How to calculate it

Shrinkage = (total unproductive time ÷ total scheduled time) × 100. Unproductive time includes both planned activities (breaks, meetings, training, coaching) and unplanned ones (sick days, late arrivals, no-shows).

For example, if agents are scheduled for 400 hours in a week but 80 hours go to breaks, training, and absences, shrinkage is 20%. That means only 320 hours are actually available for handling contacts.

Why it matters

Shrinkage is the gap between headcount and real capacity. Staffing to raw ticket volume without accounting for it guarantees understaffing — you have to hire and schedule enough agents to cover the shrinkage, or queues will run hot even when the roster looks full.

Frequently asked

What is a typical shrinkage rate?

Contact center shrinkage commonly runs 30–35%, though it varies widely with training load, PTO, and absenteeism. What matters is measuring it accurately so staffing plans reflect real available time.

Is all shrinkage bad?

No. Planned shrinkage — training, coaching, breaks — is necessary and healthy. The goal is to account for it in forecasting and reduce avoidable, unplanned shrinkage like absenteeism.

Related terms

Schedule Adherence

Schedule adherence is a workforce management metric that measures how closely agents follow their assigned schedules — being available for work (on calls, chats, or tickets) during the times they're scheduled to be..

Forecast Accuracy

Forecast accuracy measures how close a support team's predicted contact volume (or workload) was to the volume that actually arrived, expressed as a percentage that shows how reliable the forecast was..

Occupancy Rate

Occupancy rate is the percentage of an agent's logged-in, available time that is actually spent handling contacts — including talk, chat, and after-contact work — versus waiting for the next contact..

Agent Utilization

Agent utilization is the percentage of an agent's paid time spent on productive, support-related work — handling contacts and related tasks — versus total time on the clock..

Service Level

Service level is the percentage of contacts answered within a defined target time, most often expressed as an "X/Y" goal — for example, answering 80% of calls or chats within 20 seconds..

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