ClarivoxxBy Abdessamad Ghanem

Free tool

Agent Utilization and Occupancy Calculator

Occupancy = hours handling contacts ÷ hours logged in and available × 100. Utilization = hours handling contacts ÷ paid hours × 100. With 160 paid hours, 136 available hours and 108 handling hours per agent, occupancy is 79.4% and utilization is 67.5%.

Occupancy

79.4%

Occupancy is in the range many teams aim for: busy, with some breathing room between contacts.

Utilization (of paid time)

67.5%

Handling hours ÷ paid hours.

Logged in share of paid time

85.0%

The other 15.0% goes to breaks, meetings, training and absence.

Team handling hours

1,080 h

Occupancy = 108 h ÷ 136 h × 100 = 79.4%
Utilization = 108 h ÷ 160 h × 100 = 67.5%

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between occupancy and utilization?
Occupancy compares handling time with the time an agent was available in the queue. Utilization compares handling time with all paid time, so breaks, meetings, training and absence pull it down. With 108 handling hours, 136 available and 160 paid, occupancy is 79.4% and utilization is 67.5%.
What is a good agent occupancy rate?
Many support teams aim for roughly 75–85%. Above 85–90% for long stretches, agents get little recovery time between contacts, and teams often see more errors and sick days. Below 70%, you may have more staff than the volume needs.
How do you raise utilization without burning agents out?
Look at the gap between paid and available hours first. In the example, 24 of 160 paid hours (15%) are spent off the queue, so trimming meetings or admin can lift utilization while occupancy stays near 79%.

About the author

Abdessamad Ghanem

Customer Experience & Customer Success Consultant · Founder of Clarivoxx

Abdessamad Ghanem works across Customer Support, Sales, Customer Success, Account Management and Partner Management. He writes Clarivoxx Insights for B2B SaaS professionals who own retention, adoption and customer outcomes.

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