Auxiliary (AUX) Time in Percent

Auxiliary (AUX) time in percent is the share of an agent’s paid shift spent in non-talking states — breaks, training, coaching, meetings, or admin work logged under an AUX code. Most contact centers aim for 12 to 18 percent AUX to protect service levels without burning agents out. It’s a workforce lever, not a productivity leak.

Workforce planners track AUX minute-by-minute because it’s the single biggest variable in whether the call center hits its answer targets. A quiet three-percent creep in AUX across 200 agents costs the same as pulling six full-time headcount off the phones.

That’s why AUX sits inside every workforce management forecast, right next to shrinkage and occupancy rate. The International Customer Management Institute treats it as the third leg of the staffing stool. Get AUX wrong and the whole day’s staffing math shifts.

Key takeaways

• AUX time in percent = AUX minutes ÷ total logged-in minutes × 100.
• Healthy AUX for inbound service sits at 12–18 percent; sales floors run tighter at 8–12 percent.
• Every one-percent AUX drift on a 200-seat floor equals roughly two full-time equivalents.
• AUX is not the same as shrinkage; shrinkage counts unplanned absences too.
• Codes matter: split AUX into paid-productive, paid-unproductive, and unpaid buckets so you know what you’re paying for.

How it works

Auxiliary AUX time in percent tallies every minute an agent is logged in but unavailable to take a call, then divides that by total logged-in minutes. The ACD records each state change automatically, and workforce planners roll the codes up daily.

Most platforms like Genesys, NICE, Five9, and Amazon Connect ship with a default AUX code set that admins customize. A typical breakdown splits the pool into three buckets tied to how the time is paid.

Coaches and team leads watch the intraday AUX chart on a rolling 30-minute window because staffing gaps show up there before they hit the abandon-rate line.

ContactBabel’s 2024 UK contact-centre benchmark put average AUX-adjacent unavailability at 14 percent — a figure that’s held steady since 2021 despite the WFH shift. The ContactBabel Inner Circle Guide tracks it annually. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies customer service reps as a role where paid non-productive time (mandated breaks, training, meetings) averages closer to 20 percent of shift, roughly six points higher than the disciplined contact-centre band.

Examples

Three quick real-world uses show how AUX policy shapes both cost and CSAT.

Concentrix rolled out a 2024 pilot at its Manila and Bogotá sites that split AUX into 11 sub-codes. Team leads saw that “system slow” was eating 2.4 percent of shift, a legacy CRM issue. Fixing it clawed back the equivalent of 30 heads across the two sites. The change also gave coaches a real-time signal they’d been missing since 2021.

Teleperformance publishes a Global Impact Report each year showing “coaching AUX” trending upward, from 3.1 percent of shift in 2021 to 4.6 percent in 2024. That’s a deliberate move: more coaching minutes correlate with lower agent attrition.

A US health insurer running a captive contact centre capped unpaid-lunch AUX at 30 minutes per shift after HIPAA-related callback delays triggered complaints. AUX policy became a compliance control, not just a staffing one.

Alorica’s Cebu site, servicing a US retail client, dropped AUX from 21 to 15 percent in Q3 2024 by moving one-on-one coaching into a rotating 30-minute post-shift slot. Answer speeds improved 12 seconds within a month.

Related terms

• Auxiliary work state: the underlying agent state that AUX time totals up.
• Shrinkage: total unavailable hours including unplanned absences; broader than AUX.
• Occupancy rate: the mirror metric — the share of logged-in time actually spent talking or wrapping.
• Workforce management: the discipline that forecasts and schedules against AUX assumptions.
• Schedule: the daily plan that bakes in expected AUX by half-hour interval.
• Call center: the operating environment where AUX rules are set and enforced.
• Agents: the frontline workers whose logged AUX drives the percentage.

FAQ

What’s a good AUX time in percent for a contact centre?

Twelve to 18 percent is the accepted band for inbound service. Sales-heavy floors push tighter, at 8 to 12 percent, because dial time is the revenue engine. Under 8 percent usually signals under-coded breaks, not efficiency.

How is AUX time in percent different from shrinkage?

AUX only counts time when the agent is logged in but unavailable. Shrinkage adds unplanned absences, sick days, tardiness, and PTO, so it’s always the bigger number. Both feed the staffing forecast.

Does high AUX hurt customer satisfaction?

Not directly — high uncoded AUX does. Well-managed AUX (training, coaching, brief resets) tends to lift CSAT because agents come back sharper. The ICMI 2023 benchmark showed a four-point CSAT lift on floors with dedicated coaching AUX.

Should agents choose their own AUX codes?

Yes, but from a locked list. Free-text or “other” codes destroy the reporting. Best practice is 8 to 12 codes with plain-language names, plus supervisor review of any single agent exceeding the shift target.

Where does AUX fit in a workforce management platform?

It sits inside the intraday view of the WFM tool and feeds the next day’s forecast. NICE, Verint, Calabrio, and Alvaria all treat AUX as a first-class input alongside call volume and average handle time.

Can AUX time be reduced without hurting quality?

Yes, if you attack the paid-unproductive bucket first. Fixing slow login scripts, consolidating team huddles, and swapping in-person training for micro-modules typically pulls two to three points out of the AUX line without touching coaching or breaks.

Compare outsourced contact-centre providers that already run tight AUX discipline on the Outsource Accelerator hubs.