Your data might be Sh*T | Antoine Borg

In this episode of WFM Unfiltered, Irina takes us to the sunny island of Malta, where we sit down with the ever-enthusiastic Antoine Borg. From his time in the Maltese Army to navigating the complex waters of Workforce Management (WFM), Antoine’s journey is nothing short of fascinating.

Antoine’s no-nonsense approach to data and his love for “breaking things to fix them” provides unique insights into how WFM professionals should handle their data. He openly shares how his methods might not always be conventional but are undeniably effective. Do you know what happens when you rely on messy data? Antoine has been there, fixed that, and now he’s here to tell you how to do the same.

Learn why Antoine believes in doing everything himself, from scratch, and why understanding Excel—down to the smallest formula—has been critical in his success. He doesn’t just push buttons; he digs deep into the data and builds tools from the ground up. If you’ve ever wondered how to start when everything seems like a mess, Antoine’s practical tips will guide you through the process of transforming chaos into order.

But the conversation doesn’t stop there. Antoine delves into the limitations of AI in WFM and why the human touch will always be essential. He has some strong opinions on the tools we use and what vendors don’t always tell you. For anyone in WFM, this episode will make you rethink how you interact with your data and why you should never settle for subpar tools or methods.

Don’t miss out on this episode filled with laughter, real talk, and actionable advice from one of the most experienced professionals in the WFM space. Hit that subscribe button to keep up with more unfiltered insights: www.youtube.com/@WFMUnfiltered?sub_confirmation=1

Show Links:

• RightWFM website: www.rightwfm.com

• Email: Irina@rightwfm.com

• Podcast email: WFMUnfiltered@gmail.com

• Podcast Directory listings: www.wfmunfiltered.buzzsprout.com/share

• YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@WFMUnfiltered?sub_confirmation=1

• Antoine Borg LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/antoine-borg-1877b0210

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like to contact me about the show, you can email me HERE.

If you have questions about working with me on WFM projects and Consulting, you can find The RightWFM website HERE.

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Transcript

Irina: 0:18

Hi, everyone. I'm trying really hard not to laugh and I see I'm already failing. I'm your host, Irina. And as you can probably already figure out, I love my guest and he's amazing. And we've been already laughing for the past 10 minutes. Probably that's going to be the theme of today's episode. Welcome to WFM Unfiltered. And today, we're off to beautiful Malta, where the food is amazing you have the best pina coladas in the world, and we have a topic that it's worth talking about. But before that, hi Antoine, how are you doing today? Really?

Antoine Borg: 1:03

Irina, I'm very good. It's quite hot today in Malta. You won't believe it's October.

Irina: 1:08

Oh, don't make me jealous now, stop it. Stop it already. But thank you so much for joining me. Now, before we start with our topic that I know we're both very passionate about, can you please tell us a little bit more about your background?

Antoine Borg: 1:24

Yeah I started when I was 18 in HR. I did two years in HR. My dad decided that I wasn't good for a comfortable job, so he told me, you need to go to the army. So I did three years in in the Maltese army. When I was in operations unit, I've learned a lot. So much discipline. Then I decided that I want to leave. So I left the army without any jobs or anything, and I joined the first iGaming company as a customer service agent. After six months, I got promoted to real time analyst. In fairness, I didn't know anything about real time at that time. I did a lot of shadowing but I had no clue, I just wanted out of customer service just to go out this game. After nine months in real time, I got promoted again to Resource Planning Analyst, and I got relocated to Ireland. I started loving resource planning, all the data sets, like you'll see queries, you'll see excels. You'll know so much more about the company, you'll be surprised. And some people, they don't realize what workforce does and stuff like that, and you'll just tell them, Oh, we do this, we do that, we do this, so like you're collaborating with everyone with all stakeholders, so I loved it. And then after two years in Ireland, I came back to Malta for another workforce job, which we started from scratch. We didn't have any Any rotas, any forecasts, any nothing. So they started the team from scratch as well. I was helping them, building up the team and stuff like that. Teaching them all about forecasts, scheduling, FTEs stuff like that. We started the reporting from scratch. We're doing shrinkages. Because they weren't getting any shrinkage for the company. We started tracking adherence and stuff like that. And now, I recently joined another gaming company as a workforce planning manager, and I've been doing it for the last five months, and till now. Let's say I broke a lot of stuff.

Irina: 3:25

You have my thumbs up for this one. And A lot of people that are hearing will be probably, what the fuck does he mean? He broke a lot of stuff, so tell me about it.

Antoine Borg: 3:36

Yeah, when I came in I was seeing a lot of numbers, everywhere scattered around. A lot of, Excel sheets, with different information, like you'll find tensors, which have no data. But then if you go to AH, column AH, you'll find 2, 1, 7. I was like, no, I need something visual. If I don't have time, I need something visual. So I need to see. What I'm doing, I need to understand if I have five minutes and I look at the Excel, I understand what's happening. So we started bringing dashboards to Excel, which looks exactly like Power BI, we have more forecast. So we're calculating forecast every channeling time. We're seeing now, if the customers are coming through emails, chats, if we're having any chats missed, the reply times, if it's between zero to two minutes. We used to have that, but it was scattered all around. And I'm a visual person, I want to see, I want to understand the data. And if I'm inputting any data, I need to make sure that if it breaks, I'm the one fixing it. I don't like other departments handling my stuff.

Irina: 4:44

Not?

Antoine Borg: 4:46

because like most of the times when you're liaising on other departments, you'll have so much information in six months. Then someone new comes in and he'll tell you, Oh, actually we have been providing you the wrong data for the last seven months. We need to start again. And you're left without data. Like I've passed through this. We did two months without the data. My previous jobs and I'm telling you, no one knows what's happening. You're doing schedules. They're asking you if we can change patterns. They're asking you if we should do strategic planning. If we're going to a curve that we should hire people, like how are we calculating FTEs, which would, should we look at, if we should if we should have any promos these coming months, You have no idea what's happening, because all your datas were wrong. So I decided in the past two years, if I'm doing something, I do it on myself. It doesn't matter how long it takes me, I will learn it. And I will do it. Two years ago, when I was still a resource planning analyst, I didn't know equal sum on Excel, but I made sure that I know I took two weeks off work and I did over 160 hours just playing with Excel all along. Like I, and it's for me, learning these kinds of stuff is important, and if you're using a tool, make sure that You know your tool well.

Irina: 6:11

But why? That's the tricky thing, and I can relate to it from my practice as a user, as being in operations as a consultant. People tend to go a lot in the It should be correct, cause it was always done this way, so they're technically never bothered to check. Maybe someone once made a mistake and we just made the wrong assumptions that what we have is wrong. Why are you just not relying that, okay, there were so many people before you? Couldn't it be that one of them checked the data?

Antoine Borg: 6:48

It could be that the data was right, all along, but if I don't do the data myself and if I don't build it from scratch myself, then if someone questions my data, I can go back and I can answer the questions. I can be straightforward, I can explain each dataset, I can explain each query, each formula, I can understand it to the T, plus I can go back and tell them, Okay, this is step one, this is step two, this is step three, this is where I got my answers. But if you don't have the if you don't build your stuff, and something goes wrong, how are you going to explain it to the people? All stakeholders,

Irina: 7:25

I don't know. I'm getting so excited about this point of view because that's the thing that always bugs me off so much when people are, I'm questioning people, for example. Okay, just. Tell me, walk me through your data. What are you collecting? What does it represent? And I'm usually getting a static answer. These are your offered calls. And then you dig a bit deeper. Okay, where are you getting the offered calls from? From which source? From which queues? What do they count? How are they represented? And then we just made an integration and it works, for example. Okay, and who validated that integration, that the data that you're getting is correct? Maybe it's double counted, maybe it's triple counted. You would never know unless you check it yourself and make sure that you understand. What you're basing your work on, it's the thing that you need, in fact. And the other thing that you mentioned that I absolutely admire you for, you didn't take the lazy approach of here is the Excel file, I'm just gonna copy paste this and copy paste that, because it was always copy pasted. You took the time to develop additional skills, and you did it on your own time. Something that I feel like In WFM, we're often relying on what someone else is teaching us and maybe we find some tips and tricks how to do the work slightly faster at times, but it's not a major jump. Okay, let me fully see how can I can improve that work and do it much better and teach other people how to do it better. So how are you coming up with that? Why are you just not, I don't know, why do you do it on your own time? Can't you ask for training in your company? Can't you ask for other team to support you?

Antoine Borg: 9:17

you can this is another thing, right? You can ask your company to provide you training but that means you're doing it during work hours, more stress, if you love what you do, and for me, working in WFM has been the greatest thing ever, I love it so much analyzing data and stuff like that, I if you told me 10 years ago that I would be a WFM manager, I'd be like, I love it. I would have told you like, fuck off, it's not going to happen, I'll be a soldier and that's it, but like taking all these steps and working as much hours as I had in the past 10 years. To get where I am, and still keep it as a passion, because the moment you lose passion for the things, if someone is paying for you, that means extra pressure. I didn't learn Excel by doing fancy courses, 1000 euros no. I went on YouTube, I started practicing, I started building my own obstacle courses, so I know shortcuts on Excel, each day, you keep improving. Each day, you realize there's something new, you know. Even with my analysts I tell them, if you need to understand Excel, never take shortcuts. Never use a system which will create the formula for you. Go on Google, look it up. Understand the value of the formula. Don't take shortcuts. Because today, for example, this month, it will take you five hours to do it. Next month, it will take you four hours. In two years time, you'll be self efficient. You don't need to look at YouTube. You don't need to look at Google. So I will never ask work to pay for something for me, cause I do it out of passion for me. And if you want to leave somewhere, you're not, let's say, they can't hold you, because we paid this for you and now you want to leave,

Irina: 11:04

Yeah, that's true. So how is it with your team members then? Do you insist they understand the data yourself themselves, or it's enough that you understand the data? How are you working with them?

Antoine Borg: 11:18

the way I was trained, right? In different companies, sometimes they, they just tell you, you have this, all you need to do is copy and paste, right? And it works. But what happens when the manager or the reporting analyst is not there? And something breaks, right? So even when they're inputting the data and something is wrong or the connections are wrong, you just need to put the connections back in. I'll explain step by step. I still let them do it because I'm not going to do their work, but I'll explain step by step. So the next time it breaks, they can do it on their own. I'm gonna teach them, but they need to do it. I won't do it for them, because if I do it for them, they get lazy, I want them to have the flexibility, I want them to be, chill, working with no pressure, but at the same time, I want them that if in three months time I'm not here, they would be able to explain what they're looking at. At least if I leave, they will look at me and say, he taught us something, maybe I'm not here. At the moment, they don't see it like that, but in three months, six months time, they will understand what I'm doing.

Irina: 12:25

So I, honestly, I love this so much because I think this is the difference between being a leader And being a boss because you're empowering and enabling your team members to get and develop the skills rather than just be administrators and do manual stuff that don't bring much added value, to be honest, that can and should be automated. And that's the other thing that I was actually curious to throw a little bit of a question Curveball on your end, because I know that you're quite keen on automation and you're very smart and very knowledgeable with data. We have all of these WFM tools and automation tools and AI and all have you. Why the hell do you have to develop stuff on in Excel? Why do you have to develop your skills? If we have all of those systems that are doing the work for you?

Antoine Borg: 13:22

So this is a good question, right? Like we were speaking to some vendors previously and they told us like we have AI, they can do everything for you. They can schedule the shifts for you, to a certain degree, it helps us, okay? I have to understand that it will help us in the future, but it will never replace a human, because you need a human touch. You have people on the floor. We don't have robots.

Irina: 13:43

huh.

Antoine Borg: 13:44

You have people asking questions that AI won't respond to. You have stakeholders or higher level people that they don't understand something, AI wouldn't be able to understand it as well. Cause AI won't build a tool. This is what I tell the vendors all the time. You're showing me a tool, but you don't understand the tool itself. I'm asking you a question about squared or mean error, and you can't respond to that. How are you providing me a tool? Give me two weeks to work on the tool, and I'll come back to you, and I'll ask you questions. Go back to the developers, and see if the developers know what they've built. AI will never replace Workforce. It will be closed. But it can never fully replace Workforce, and that's why most of the data that we extract from any tool, you put it on an Excel,

Irina: 14:37

Huh.

Antoine Borg: 14:37

right? You never keep it on a on the Workforce tool itself, cause if something goes wrong and the tool loses information, you lost two years worth of data. It could be three months, it could be two years, it could be five years. But if I'm extracting data, that means I need to look at it. If I'm looking at it, and I'm looking at my data and it's making sense. I'm learning as well with it, so all the data, I always export it. All of it. Even if it doesn't make sense, I will make sure that I'll go drill in and I'll make sure that tomorrow I understand data, so to answer your question, for me, I will always keep building my stuff, cause my stuff will be reliable for me, and I can understand them and explain them.

Irina: 15:27

You know what? It's interesting when I'm listening to you is I think you are providing an angle that a lot of new users to WFM tools fall into. And it's something that I hate. So if you have never used the WFM tool before, you're getting into those discovery calls with vendors and they're selling you all the fluff and the marketing. How everything is going to be automated. The tool is a magical thing that will resolve all of your issues. And my irritation with WFM tools, many of them, is exactly the same as with WFM Teams. Not many people understand what they're selling you. Yes, that's on the front end. You're clicking that button here. You're pushing that button there. But how are things working on the background? What is the sequence? What takes priority? Because I need to know why the end result is like that. It's something that, at least from my experience, I've not seen many solution consultants being able To explain. And I think the link is probably broken somewhere between the development teams and the solutions consultants, because nobody's lazy, but there is definitely that missing link, which is now you're trying to push forward everything that happens, regardless of the tool is data that you need to be able to understand those connections and what you're going to see, how you're going to use it. So what how the hell do you even get to. to a WFM tool for your specific experience if you can't fully understand it.

Antoine Borg: 17:08

Yeah, this is another thing to all, tools out there, I think the main reason behind a tool should be, you have people who love the tool, right? You have people who are building the tool, explaining step by step, so even the development side can understand what you mean, right? I don't think you could have development team and someone who've seen workforce doing WFM, you need specific people, a group of five people with different expertise in WFM And like teaching them step by step, okay, we need this, we need that, we need these reports, if vendors only knew like how to approach their clients, I know they're in a rush because they want to sell, but if they take the time to explain the tool properly And, not only show you the tool, because they will only show you the good parts, I understand that, but, if they're confident about the tool, because they did their research, they will give you a 2 to 3 weeks trial. Tell you, take it, whatever you don't understand, we will help you. At the end of the tool, at the end of the trial, after 3 weeks, Come back with feedback, let's work on it, try to find me one tool that are willing to do that for you. In my previous companies, we worked with different tools, right? And you can go from one tool to another and see a big difference. Tools have something great, but they're all missing one key component, That is someone not experienced enough to work with WFM tools, someone who doesn't work in Workforce. And you can see even when you're sending emails to the vendors they can come back and tell you, Ah, okay, no, actually, you need to do it like this. It's not like that,

Irina: 18:57

Mm hmm.

Antoine Borg: 18:57

there is a lot of thought, and there is a lot of data behind everything we do. If only they can understand that, before selling you the tool, they would retain customers, clients, much more, and even the prices can be better, because obviously we all have restrictions about budgets,

Irina: 19:17

Yeah.

Antoine Borg: 19:18

And I understand from their point of view as well, when they're trying to sell, the higher the price for them, it's better, if you have a budget and you have the tool that you want, because they're building the stuff for you, that's fine. You'll meet in the middle, but you can't promise a client that you'll have this cup, and then you will have half a cup, but they still need to wait for the full cup,

Irina: 19:41

Oh, I love that comparison, actually. And that's one thing. And I know that this is not exactly the topic that we decided to cover, which is for data. But I'm so passionate about WFM tools because they can be quite powerful and quite helpful, especially if you're scaling your operations or you're dealing with bigger complexity. But it is always the case. When you are new to WFM or you are in your discovery phase, It's basically honeymoon. Everyone is presenting their best side, exactly. As you mentioned it, nobody's our tool sucks here, and this is complete shit, but it's gonna be fine, and we promise. And I think this is why I believe so much in power of the community, because you always find people who hate the tool, and Who loved the tool and you at least get to choose which side you're more leaning towards and be prepared to make informed decision. But to wrap this whole topic around, I still would say the same thing. Everything is based on data, the way that the tool works, what it's built on. You wouldn't need it if you don't have any data to start with. So my questions for you is, and this is something that a lot of companies struggle with. Where do they start? How do they even make sense? Because in many places, stuff has always been mess and people are not even aware that it is a mess. So how would they start even to make things better?

Antoine Borg: 21:20

I think when I started working in the workforce, I started from the bottom, right? So literally from scratch. So the way I would start it with any tool, start from real time, Make sure your real time is good, and then go to the next phase. So if you have real time, you can go on reporting for real time, right? If you got those two right, then you need to go for Strategic Planning, Forecasts, Schedules, you start getting everything step by step, because you can't just get one tool, it will do all. It's a bit difficult, and one of the, one of the few systems that I used recently, last year it had so many great stuff, but it was missing a key component. We reached out to the vendor and we said okay, can you do this for us, cause it will save us time. And, actually, I would like to see my adherence throughout the month, and they said, yeah, but you need to do an API connectivity, which is fine, and I told them, can you let me know how to do it? I've never did an API integration, I don't want to fuck anything. I spoke to my line manager back then, and I told her I'm gonna fuck the system up just in FYI. But I will get it done, because I can't tell you we have 99 percent adherence rate. And our actual adherence could be 50, took me three weeks. I still asked IT and stuff like that because I have no idea how to do it. But I was watching the process from start to finish. And they told me like, you're wasting your time. Why are you watching us? And I told them the next time I want to integrate something, I don't want to rely on someone else. Want to do it myself. As soon as we integrated the tool and we got the adherence, our adherence was 62%. Yeah. So it was a big surprise to everyone, eventually things will improve because you'll start seeing adherence wrong. Like we had the tool for, I think, before I joined last year. So it was around four, four years, but they never integrated it

Irina: 23:27

right?

Antoine Borg: 23:29

But eventually when they did integrate it, they saw a big difference. So they started asking questions. Since I already flagged it before, it was okay for me to go back and say Listen, we said this, we knew this was gonna happen, at least we're better, Then we started doing some real time to help the agents as well, because, it's not all about work for me. You need to find stability as well.

Irina: 23:56

of course.

Antoine Borg: 23:57

Like your real time could be, okay, 95%, 80%, but you still need stability with the agents. So if I see that we're okay, try to put people on emails, let them relax a bit, or start offering holidays or offer projects that they work on something different instead of chats. If the company is doing well, try to offer them certain skills that can make them grow within the company and you can retain them. But without reports, without any of these stuff, this wouldn't be possible. Because if you can't see the data or the customer interactions, where are your busy periods, where are your lowest periods? You can never plan for soft skills, order for you to retain certain people, You need to make sure that when we're not busy, give them additional tasks, make them grow within the company, let them feel important. They're working on certain projects because you're not busy, but you're still utilizing their skills, I think most companies miss that. And I know we're talking about data and stuff, but if workforce really pushes for data and they can understand data, they can do so much more, the company wouldn't have to pay as much because they would retain much more people instead of hiring plus three weeks of training or six weeks, that's extra cost for the company. Retain the people you have, don't lose the people you have, okay? Just make them better. If someone didn't believe in me six years ago, I would still be in customer service, or I would have gone to the army, but one person believed in me, and I made sure that I will repay that,

Irina: 25:39

Such a great advice. I am so on board with what you're saying, and that's exactly it. The data, and this is where a lot of people are making major mistakes and a lot of companies, they do reports for the sake of showing numbers. These should be insights that you're basing your decisions on. So the data is such, means nothing. If you don't have follow up actions, if you don't have strategy, if you don't decide what to do with that data. And the other thing that you said is, I, oh my god, I'm so in love with this point. You mentioned that you were willing to risk it and break stuff, right? Because if you're never, and people are so worried not to fuck up something and not to make mistakes and to always show like, Oh my God, if we miss the data for half an hour, somebody's going to send us an email and it's going to give a shit. Okay, if that's what's required for you to make sure that Your operations are working correctly. So be it, take that risk. Nobody's going to come and say you shouldn't have done that though. You should have done that if it validates your insights. So I'm so happy that you mentioned this point and I just wish that more people, especially in our field, are braver and are willing to put themselves out there and to question what they're doing and how they're working and I think this is. It's basically the fine line between doing a job and being super successful and great at what you're doing. So thank you for these tips.

Antoine Borg: 27:16

Yeah, if you don't break it, you can't fix it, if you can't fix it, you will never learn, and I think most of the people are scared when they're sending data. I'm not scared to send my data, because I know whatever I'm sending it correct,

Irina: 27:31

And because you can answer the questions. That's the thing. Some people were sending data because they were taught how to do a report, but if there are questions afterwards, they're like, no idea. Let me go and check with the real time team, with this team, with that team. No, if you're sending data, you need to understand the data. It's like WFM rule number

Antoine Borg: 27:54

Strict when it comes to data, right?

Irina: 27:56

Of

Antoine Borg: 27:57

office, outgoing, I'll talk to anyone, I'll joke with everyone. But when it comes to data, I don't want to see a dot wrong, or a 0. 1 wrong, if you're sending data, make sure to take your time. Send it with quality, not how much you're sending out. And I think for some people it's misleading because you're taking one hour to send data. But at least, you look back one year from now, and for you, it might not be important, but for me, it's very important, cause if I'm sending, like, how much we need to budget for, I know, and, my analysts when I started here, they told me we need to send it, no, we don't need to send it. Make sure the data's correct, come back, okay, and once it's correct, we just send it out. It took a while, because when I came in we started doing a lot of stuff, we started changing a lot of stuff, and again, I'm not proud of it, because I started changing stuff, and just sending emails, without approvals, without anything, which is still not good, cause you have a letter, you need to obey by it, but when I talk to my line manager and stuff like that, it all makes sense now, because six months down the line, we're seeing profits from it, we're seeing fruit coming out. I did a lot of mistakes when I started, a lot, and I take the blame of the analysts on me, because, they're mistakes, it's my mistakes, right? And I'm telling you now, I have some people who do stuff better than me, and I have six years experience in the workforce. And I love it, and that's what I want. I told them, my aim for me is you take my position, it's not for me to always be ahead of you, I don't want to be If you're doing something better than me, I hope you take my position,

Irina: 29:52

As I said, this is the difference between a boss and a leader, because the leader is always there to encourage their people to grow and to also understand and see their potential. And the boss is someone who is always trying to be the smartest in the room, and have the final say about everything. Wow you have mentioned so much great things and such great advice. Any other final words of advice before we wrap up?

Antoine Borg: 30:21

Yeah, I'm always right, when I'm wrong.

Irina: 30:25

I love you!

Antoine Borg: 30:27

I'm joking.

Irina: 30:28

you

Antoine Borg: 30:28

No.

Irina: 30:29

this out real quick?

Antoine Borg: 30:32

No, if you don't know Workforce go check it out. Do some shadowing like I did. Hopefully someone will take a chance like they did with me. I think it's the best job you could have, for me anyway I wouldn't change workforce with anything, and yeah, if you're doing something, do it yourself, don't ask for help, cause down the line it might come back, and you have no idea where to start. That's my advice, break shit, come back, try to fix it, if you can't fix it,

Irina: 31:01

Then ask for help!

Antoine Borg: 31:02

then ask for help, yes.

Irina: 31:04

Thank you so much for that great conversation, Antoine. It was an absolute pleasure to have a chat again, and this time record our swearing, so thank you so much for this one. You're always welcome on the show, and I know we're airing this on Tuesday, but enjoy, just enjoy the weekend.