Genesys Cloud · Interaction Model Timeline
An interactive deep-dive into WFM status systems
Genesys Cloud \u00b7 WFM
One agent, four status systems, and the slots they fill
Genesys stacks three live status systems on the WFM schedule, then lets a single agent hold several interactions at once \u2014 up to a capacity set per media type, not one overall limit. Scrub the cursor and watch primary status, routing status, the real contacts, and per-channel load line up. The adherence and concurrency lanes aren't drawn by hand; they're computed minute-by-minute from the lanes above.
Reading the lanes
Scheduled is the WFM plan as activity codes. Primary status (presence) is what the agent showed. Routing is system-set and only lives while On Queue. Interactions stack into slots \u2014 the agent works more than one at a time. Concurrency counts live interactions. Adherence is the verdict.
Capacity is configured per media type \u2014 Genesys defaults to voice 1, email 1, chat 4 (each adjustable up to 25). There's no single overall cap: when one channel hits its max, routing stops offering that channel, but the agent can still be sent a different one. A slot stays held through after-call work, not just the talk.
This shift · Monday
09:00 — late on queue. Scheduled On Queue Work, but the agent sat in Available for six minutes. Available maps to Off Queue, so adherence counts it out.
11:13 — the phantom violation. On Queue, scheduled right, nothing visibly wrong. But a missed offer dropped routing to Not Responding, so the ACD benched them and adherence goes red.
13:28 — early back from meal. Returning two minutes early is also out of adherence — the actual activity no longer matches the scheduled one. WFM scores the match, not the effort.
15:06 — blended load. Two web chats and an email at once. Chat sits at 2 of 4 so routing could send another chat; email is at 1 of 1, so no second email comes.
A mis-mapped secondary status manufactures the same phantom red: the schedule expects one activity code, the reason code under the status points elsewhere, and they never meet.
Metric families \u0026 how Genesys classifies time
The three live lanes at the top of the timeline are the three status families. Each produces its own time metrics, and WFM rolls those up into the productive / shrinkage picture. There's no single switch labelled "productive" \u2014 it's built from activity-code attributes (paid, work time, shrinkage) plus where the routing status lands.
The presence the agent sets, or the system sets. One at a time. Decides whether incoming calls go to voicemail.
Available \u00b7 Busy \u00b7 Away \u00b7 Break \u00b7 Meal \u00b7 Meeting \u00b7 Training \u00b7 Out of Office \u00b7 On Queue \u00b7 Offline
Metrics: time in status \u00b7 On-Queue time \u00b7 Off-Queue time \u00b7 logged-in time
Org-defined reason code under a primary status. This is what adherence maps to activity codes.
e.g. Away \u00b7 Restroom \u00b7 Busy \u00b7 Coaching \u00b7 Break \u00b7 Paid
Metrics: time in each secondary status, live and historical (incl. busy secondary statuses)
System-set, only while On Queue. Says whether the ACD counts the agent as working a contact.
Off Queue \u00b7 Idle \u00b7 Interacting \u00b7 Communicating \u00b7 Not Responding
Metrics: Interacting \u00b7 Idle \u00b7 Communicating \u00b7 Not-Responding time
How each kind of time is classified
| Activity / status | Category | Paid | Work time | Productive? | Shrinkage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On Queue \u00b7 Interacting | On Queue Work | paid | yes | Productive | none |
| On Queue \u00b7 Idle (ready) | On Queue Work | paid | yes | Productive | none |
| After-call work (ACW) | On Queue Work | paid | yes | Productive | none |
| Not Responding (on queue) | \u2014 | paid | no | Non-productive | unplanned |
| Break | Break | paid | no | Non-productive | paid \u00b7 planned |
| Meal | Meal | unpaid | no | Non-productive | unpaid \u00b7 planned |
| Meeting | Meeting | paid | no | Non-productive | paid \u00b7 planned |
| Training | Training | paid | no | Non-productive | paid \u00b7 planned |
| Time off \u00b7 PTO | Time Off | paid | no | Non-productive | paid \u00b7 planned |
| Time off \u00b7 unpaid leave | Time Off | unpaid | no | Non-productive | unpaid \u00b7 planned |
| Sick (called in) | Time Off | paid / unpaid | no | Non-productive | unplanned |
| Away / Busy off queue (unscheduled) | Unavailable | usually unpaid | no | Non-productive | unplanned |
Paid and shrinkage are per-activity-code settings, so a break may be paid in one org and a meal unpaid in another \u2014 the rows show common defaults, not fixed rules. The eight categories are fixed; the codes inside them are yours to configure.
The rolled-up WFM metrics
Productive time
On-Queue time the agent spends handling or ready to handle: Interacting + ACW + Idle. The activity-code work-time flag is true. This is capacity actually applied to, or available for, contacts.
Non-productive time
Everything that isn't work time \u2014 breaks, meals, meetings, training, away/busy, not-responding. Paid or unpaid, scheduled or not. All of it is shrinkage.
Paid shrinkage
Scheduled paid time the agent isn't available for interactions: paid breaks, meetings, training, paid PTO. You pay for it and handle no contacts during it \u2014 the expensive kind.
Unpaid shrinkage
Non-available time that isn't paid: unpaid meals, unpaid leave. Reduces coverage without payroll cost, but still has to be staffed around.
Shrinkage %
Share of scheduled time lost to non-interacting activity \u2014 planned (baked into the shift) plus unplanned (sick, no-show, non-adherence). Drives how many extra agents to schedule.
Adherence vs Conformance
Adherence asks whether actual status matched the scheduled activity at each interval (the verdict lane). Conformance asks only whether the agent worked the right total on-queue time, ignoring exact timing.
Occupancy
Of on-queue time, the slice spent Interacting versus Idle. High occupancy means little idle headroom; it's a productivity-pressure gauge, not an adherence one.
Where each comes from
Status times come from the analytics / agent-status views; adherence, conformance and shrinkage come from WFM using the schedule and the activity-code flags. Same raw statuses, different roll-ups.
Illustrative sample shifts, not live data. Routing statuses, the eight WFM activity categories, agent-utilization defaults, and adherence rules follow Genesys Cloud documentation at help.genesys.cloud. Adherence and concurrency are computed in-browser from the data, not hard-coded.