Inbound Call Auxiliary Time
Definition
Inbound Call Auxiliary Time
Inbound call auxiliary time is any time an agent is logged into the ACD but unavailable for inbound calls — on a break, in coaching, in training, or clearing admin. Each AUX code is time-stamped, so planners can split talk from off-phone time.
AUX states let workforce planners tell productive occupancy apart from planned and unplanned off-phone activity. Every code flip writes to the ACD’s real-time and historical database, so team leads see who’s at lunch and who’s in a huddle.
That visibility drives fair adherence scoring and honest capacity plans. It also explains why two agents on the same rota can post very different occupancy scores by Friday.
Key takeaways
- Inbound call auxiliary time captures every logged-in minute an agent spends off inbound queues, tagged by a reason code.
- AUX splits into three payroll buckets: paid productive, paid non-productive, and unpaid, each with a different workforce impact.
- Healthy inbound centres target 15–25% total AUX inside paid hours, with breaks and coaching pre-scheduled.
- Badly labelled AUX inflates shrinkage, threatens the service level agreement, and hides coaching gaps.
- Real-time AUX dashboards from Genesys, Avaya, and NICE push exception alerts to team leads within seconds of a code flip.
How it works
Inbound call auxiliary time works through reason codes. Each time an agent taps an AUX button on the softphone, the platform records the code, the start and end times, and the duration, then rolls those minutes into agent, team, and site reports.
Workforce planners split those minutes into three families, and payroll treats each family differently.
| AUX family | Examples | Payroll status | Counted as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid productive | Coaching, outbound callbacks, training, huddles | Paid | Planned shrinkage |
| Paid non-productive | Bio break, water, system reboot, IT ticket | Paid | Unplanned shrinkage |
| System-triggered | Network drop, softphone restart, forced logout | Paid | Unplanned shrinkage |
| Unpaid | Lunch, unpaid personal time | Unpaid | Excluded from paid hours |
The blended figure feeds two headline numbers. Occupancy = (talk + hold + wrap) / (logged-in time minus AUX) × 100. Shrinkage = (total AUX + absence + leave) / scheduled hours × 100.
Both numbers flow into next week’s forecasting and staffing model, and into the longer call center forecasting cycle that sets monthly headcount.
ICMI’s 2024 contact-centre benchmark study pegs total shrinkage at 30–35% across North American inbound centres, roughly half of it AUX-driven.
Deloitte’s 2024 Global Contact Center Survey found that sites publishing live AUX dashboards cut unplanned AUX by 3–5 points within a quarter.
The auxiliary work state itself is configured in the ACD admin console. Avaya CMS, Genesys Cloud, NICE CXone, and Amazon Connect all ship pre-built reason codes you can rename to match local payroll rules.
AUX shows up on scorecards as a percentage rather than a raw minute total, because minutes mean nothing without the shift length sitting behind them.
A 40-minute block reads very differently on a four-hour shift than on a ten-hour one, which is why Auxiliary (AUX) time in percent is the figure planners compare across sites.
Most sites also cap each code. A 15-minute break code that runs to 22 minutes trips an exception — the overage lands in unplanned shrinkage instead of the planned bucket, which keeps shrinkage honest.
Unplanned AUX is where the service level agreement breaks. Ten agents flipping to a break code at the same moment can drop answer rates for twenty minutes, long before any report catches up.
Good workforce management practice pre-loads break and coaching AUX into the roster weeks ahead, so the published schedule already assumes the gap.
Examples
Real inbound programmes show how AUX discipline pays off. The four sites below use different tooling, but each one ties a reason code to a control that a team lead can act on inside the shift.
Concentrix, Manila. A 900-seat inbound insurance programme runs 22 AUX codes tied to Verint Workforce Optimization. Team leads get a Teams alert when an agent sits on “Break” past 15 minutes, so mid-shift shrinkage stays visible.
Foundever, Bogotá. The bilingual retail account runs Genesys Cloud with three paid-productive codes: coaching, e-learning, and callback follow-up. Ring-fencing those minutes lets the site post 78% occupancy while hitting a 90-minute weekly coaching target.
TTEC, Nova Scotia. The healthcare programme built a Power BI overlay on top of NICE CXone AUX logs. In Q1 2025 the team cut unplanned AUX by 4.2 points by replacing one shared “misc” code with five: IT, hardware, weather, wellness, and personal.
Alorica, Cebu. An outsourced telco line ties training AUX to badge swipes at the coaching-room door, so the code cannot be entered from the seat. That one control lifted adherence from 84% to 91% inside two quarters.
Outsourced sites often run tighter AUX governance than captive ones, because a client-side scorecard reviews the numbers every month. That external pressure is why BPO floors tend to catch code drift faster.
The pattern across those four sites is the same. Specific codes beat catch-all codes — and a code a team lead sees live beats one that only surfaces in next week’s report.
Related terms
Inbound call auxiliary time sits inside a small family of workforce-management metrics. Each term below measures a slightly different slice of the logged-in shift, and mixing them up is the fastest way to misread a capacity plan.
- Auxiliary Work State: the underlying ACD status flag that triggers AUX time.
- Auxiliary (AUX) Time In Percent: the same interval expressed as a share of logged-in time.
- Occupancy Rate: productive time divided by non-AUX logged-in time.
- Shrinkage: the roll-up metric that absorbs AUX into planned and unplanned buckets.
- Workforce Management: the discipline that plans AUX allowances up front.
- Service Level Agreement: the answer-time promise that AUX drift can quietly break.
FAQ
These are the questions inbound workforce teams ask most about auxiliary time, answered short enough to quote. Each answer reflects standard ACD behaviour across Avaya, Genesys, NICE, and Amazon Connect deployments.
What counts as inbound call auxiliary time?
Any interval where the agent is logged into the ACD but tagged with an AUX reason code instead of an available state. That covers breaks, coaching, training, bio breaks, callbacks, and IT tickets.
What is a healthy AUX percentage for an inbound team?
Most inbound centres run 15–25% total AUX inside paid hours, with lunch tracked separately. ContactBabel’s 2024 UK report finds financial-services teams average 22% and retail teams 18%.
Does auxiliary time hurt occupancy?
Indirectly, yes. AUX minutes come out of the occupancy denominator, so heavy AUX can flatter the number. Planners cross-check occupancy against adherence to catch that.
How is AUX different from wrap time?
Wrap, or after-call work, sits inside the available bucket and is tied to one specific call. AUX is a discrete state the agent picks when they are not handling inbound calls at all.
Who owns AUX code design?
Workforce management usually owns the code list, with operations and payroll signing off. Keeping the list short and specific matters more than making it long.
Can AUX be automated?
Yes — modern ACDs auto-shift agents into a System AUX state when the softphone loses network, reboots, or the queue drains, which protects live-agent counts from planned outages.
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