Work Item
A Work Item in Salesforce Omni-Channel is a record that has been queued for routing to a service agent.
Definition
A Work Item in Salesforce Omni-Channel is a record that has been queued for routing to a service agent. The record can be of almost any type that Omni-Channel supports: Case, Lead, Chat Transcript, Voice Call, Messaging Session, custom objects flagged as routable. When the record meets the configured routing criteria, Omni-Channel creates a Pending Service Routing record that represents the work item, and the routing engine evaluates the agent pool to find the right recipient based on skills, capacity, priority, and presence status.
Work Items are the unit of work in any Omni-Channel-driven service operation. Each one carries a routing context (the source object, the channel, the required skills, the priority) and a lifecycle (Pending, Assigned, Accepted, Declined, Completed). Agents see work items as they arrive in the Omni-Channel widget inside the Service Console, accept the assignment, and work the underlying record. The work item disappears from the widget when the agent closes the work; the underlying record persists with its own object-specific lifecycle.
Work Items in Omni-Channel: lifecycle, routing models, skills, and reporting
What makes a record a Work Item
Not every record automatically becomes a Work Item. Omni-Channel routing has to be configured for the object type, and the record has to be associated with a Service Channel record in Setup. When a record meets the routing criteria (the record is created or updated to match a Queue filter), the platform creates a Pending Service Routing record that represents the work item. The Pending Service Routing carries the link to the source record, the routing configuration to use, the assigned queue, and the routing status. Agents do not see the Pending Service Routing directly; they see the work item as a notification in the Omni-Channel widget. The widget displays the source record (the Case, the Lead, the Chat Transcript) and lets the agent accept or decline.
Routing models: push, pull, queue-based
Omni-Channel supports several routing models for distributing work items. Push routing assigns each work item to a specific agent based on skills and capacity; the agent sees the assignment as a notification they can accept or decline. Most-Available routing assigns to the agent with the most remaining capacity. Least Active routing assigns to the agent with the fewest active items. External Routing lets a third-party engine (Genesys, NICE, IEX) make the assignment decisions and tell Omni-Channel what to do. Queue-based routing leaves the work item in a queue for agents to claim manually. Picking the right model depends on the channel and the team structure; voice typically uses push, email often uses queue-based, chat usually uses Most-Available.
Capacity, presence, and the agent state model
Each agent has a presence status (Available, Busy, Away, Offline) and a capacity (the number of work items they can handle simultaneously). The Omni-Channel routing engine considers both when assigning work items. An Available agent with remaining capacity receives the assignment; a Busy or Away agent does not. Capacity is configurable per Service Channel: an agent might handle 3 chats simultaneously but only 1 voice call. The platform decrements capacity when a work item is assigned and restores it when the work item is completed. Mature service operations tune the capacity carefully; over-assignment overloads agents and degrades quality, under-assignment leaves capacity idle and increases customer wait times.
Skills-based routing and the matching process
Omni-Channel supports skills-based routing where each work item declares the skills required (Spanish-language, Tier 2 technical, financial-products expertise) and each agent declares the skills they have. The routing engine matches work items to agents based on the skill intersection. Skills are configured in Setup as records on the Skill object; agents are assigned skills through Skill Assignment records. Skills-based routing is what separates a simple round-robin from a real service operation; it ensures the right agent gets the right work. Mature skills models include both functional skills (language, product expertise) and dispositional skills (escalation handling, VIP customer experience). Audit the skill assignments quarterly; agents change roles and skills drift if not managed actively.
Work Item lifecycle: Pending, Assigned, Accepted, Completed
Each Work Item moves through a defined lifecycle. Pending is the state when the routing engine has identified the agent but not yet sent the notification. Assigned is when the platform has sent the notification to the agent Omni-Channel widget. Accepted is when the agent clicks Accept and starts working the underlying record. Declined is when the agent clicks Decline and the platform reroutes to another agent (or sends it back to the queue). Completed is when the agent closes the work item, typically after closing the underlying record. Each lifecycle state has timestamps that drive reporting metrics: assignment time, accept time, handle time, completion time. The lifecycle data is the primary input for service-level reporting and agent productivity metrics.
Reporting on Work Items and the operational dashboards
Work Items power the service-operations reporting suite. Standard reports cover: items assigned by hour and channel (call volume patterns), agent utilization rate (capacity used vs available), service level (percentage answered within target), abandonment rate (work items completed without acceptance), and handle time per item. Dashboards built on these reports surface in the supervisor view of the Service Console: queue depth, agent state distribution, items at risk of breaching SLA. Mature service operations review these dashboards multiple times per day during peak periods and use them to adjust staffing, reassign work, and escalate issues. The work item data is the operational backbone of the contact center; without it, supervisors operate blind.
Configuring Omni-Channel to route Work Items effectively
Setting up Omni-Channel to route Work Items is a five-piece configuration: enable Omni-Channel, configure Service Channels per record type, set up the routing models and queues, configure agent skills and capacity, and build the supervisor dashboards. Each piece has to align with the others; an admin who enables routing without configuring agent skills produces incomplete assignments, and one who configures skills without setting capacity overloads agents on day one. Walk through all five steps before activating routing in production.
- Enable Omni-Channel and configure Service Channels
From Setup, search Omni-Channel Settings, and enable the feature. Open Service Channels and create a Service Channel record for each object type that should be routable: Case, Lead, Chat Transcript, Voice Call, Messaging Session, custom objects. Each Service Channel record specifies the object type, the related Queue, and the routing configuration to use. Save each channel and confirm it appears in the Service Console agent experience for a target user. Document the channel configuration in the Omni-Channel runbook for future admins.
- Set up the routing models and queues
For each Service Channel, configure the routing model that fits the workload: push for voice and chat, queue-based for email, External Routing if you have a third-party engine. Create a Queue in Setup for each work-distribution group (Sales Tier 1, Service Tier 2, Spanish Speakers). Assign the right users to each Queue. Configure the routing rules that send specific work items to specific queues based on record attributes. Test by creating sample records that match each rule and confirming they route to the expected queue and agent.
- Configure agent skills and capacity
From Setup, Skills, create a Skill record for each functional capability the team has (Spanish, English, Financial Products, Technical Tier 2). Assign skills to agents through Skill Assignment records. Set Service Resource records with each agent capacity per Service Channel. Validate the configuration by running a test routing against a target agent: does the routing engine respect the agent skills and capacity? Audit the skill assignments quarterly; agents change roles and skills drift if not managed actively.
- Build the supervisor dashboards
In Salesforce Reports, build the standard service operations reports: items assigned by hour and channel, agent utilization rate, service level, abandonment rate, average handle time. Bundle the reports into a Supervisor Dashboard that supervisors check multiple times per day. Add real-time queue depth and agent state widgets through the Omni-Channel Supervisor view in the Service Console. Train supervisors on reading the dashboards and acting on the metrics: when queue depth spikes, call in overtime; when agent state shows many Available but no work coming through, investigate the routing rules.
- Capacity tuning is the most consequential Omni-Channel configuration. Over-assignment overloads agents; under-assignment increases customer wait times. Iterate based on actual handle times and quality metrics.
- Skills assignment drifts over time as agents change roles. Audit skill assignments quarterly; without active management, skills-based routing assigns work to the wrong agents.
- External Routing lets a third-party engine drive assignment but adds complexity. For most orgs, push or Most-Available routing is sufficient; only adopt External Routing when the third-party engine adds specific value.
- Work Items can be declined by agents. Excessive decline rates indicate either bad routing (wrong agent for the work) or culture problems (agents avoiding hard work); investigate the root cause rather than just hiding the metric.
- Pending Service Routing records are not directly visible to agents; they see the Work Item through the Omni-Channel widget. Troubleshooting routing issues requires querying the underlying records through Workbench or Developer Console.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Work Item.
- Omni-Channel OverviewSalesforce Help
- Set Up Omni-ChannelSalesforce Help
- Skills-Based RoutingSalesforce Help
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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