Senior Analyst - Forecasting/Capacity Planning

CVS Health•Hartford, CT

About The Position

The Senior Analyst - Forecaster develops, maintains, and continuously enhances workforce forecasts, capacity plans, and staffing recommendations to support operational, financial, and COE objectives. The role partners with Operations leadership to turn operational data into workforce intelligence for staffing decisions, budget planning, and long-term workforce strategy. It owns forecasting methodologies, assumptions, scenario modeling, and forecast accuracy analysis across multiple lines of business, collaborating with Operations, Finance, Workforce Management, Reporting, and Business Partners to identify staffing risks, opportunities, and optimization strategies. The role develops workload forecasts and staffing requirements; conducts scenario analyses; maintains forecasting standards and governance; analyzes operational performance, productivity, workload trends, and workforce utilization; and communicates recommendations to leadership. It also supports annual budget planning and workforce investment decisions, and works with workforce management disciplines to align demand forecasts, capacity plans, and operational needs.

Requirements

At least 3 years of experience in workforce management, forecasting, capacity planning, analytics, operations planning, or a related area.
Strong analytical and quantitative problem-solving skills.
Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
Experience working with large data sets and workforce analytics tools.
Experience with NICE, Verint, Aspect, Five9, or Cisco.
Experience with Power BI, SQL, Tableau, or similar workforce and analytics platforms.
Knowledge of forecasting methodologies, capacity planning, Erlang concepts, queueing theory, and workforce optimization principles.
Ability to communicate complex analytical concepts to business leaders.
Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Operations Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Workforce Management experience supporting contact center and back-office operations.
Experience supporting multi-skill, multi-channel, or enterprise workforce environments.

Responsibilities

Develop short-term, mid-range, and long-range workload forecasts.
Create incoming volume, inventory, productivity, and workload projections using statistical and business-driven forecasting methods.
Identify trends, seasonality, growth patterns, and operational drivers affecting staffing demand.
Maintain forecasting models and improve forecast accuracy.
Translate workload forecasts into staffing requirements and FTE recommendations.
Develop capacity plans that align workforce supply with forecasted demand.
Evaluate staffing impacts of business initiatives, regulatory changes, product launches, and operational improvements.
Support annual budget planning and workforce investment decisions.
Conduct what-if analyses and scenario planning.
Assess workforce implications of growth, attrition, productivity changes, automation initiatives, and business strategy shifts.
Recommend staffing levels, hiring plans, overtime utilization, cross-training opportunities, and workforce optimization strategies to leadership.
Establish and maintain standard forecasting methodologies, assumptions, and data definitions.
Monitor forecast-to-actual performance and conduct root cause analysis of variances.
Document forecasting processes and ensure compliance with enterprise workforce management standards.
Drive continuous improvement in forecasting accuracy and workforce planning processes.
Analyze operational performance, productivity, workload trends, and workforce utilization metrics.
Develop executive-level insights and recommendations using workforce data.
Create reports, dashboards, and presentations communicating workforce risks, opportunities, and recommendations.
Partner with Workforce Intelligence, Scheduling, Real-Time Operations, and Business Partners to align workforce management disciplines.
Serve as a trusted advisor to operational leaders and participate in strategic planning discussions about demand drivers and future business needs.
Present forecasts, capacity plans, staffing recommendations, and workforce risks to leadership audiences.
Collaborate with Finance, Operations, and Workforce Management leaders to support informed decision-making.