Jan 30, 2007
Envision Exchange: Home-Based Agents
Posted by: Connie Smith
Posted by: Connie Smith
Today we held two successful Envision Exchange calls on the topic of home-based agents. A few trends emerged during the calls that I would like to share with you.
Selecting Home-Based Agents
Many companies and employees view working from home as a perk. As such, agents are chosen based upon their previous performance (KPIs) as well as based upon behavioral interviews. Some companies allow home-based agents to start working at home as soon as they have completed new hire training while others make spending time in the contact center a pre-requisite to working from home. Once the agents are selected for the program, many companies put the agents through two week to month-long at-home training program to prepare them for their new work environment. One company even segregates their employees for two weeks within the contact center to see how agents react to the solitude of their work environments. Some agents self-select out of the program.
Connecting with Remote Agents
Clearly, one of the biggest challenges conveyed by our participants was how to keep remote agents connected with the company and with their contact center peers. One company reaches out to remote workers specifically to invite them to corporate events on site. Another company stated that they have a dedicated intranet site for their agents, where they can interact with one another via chat rooms, blogs and also access job aids and other corporate tools. A few companies also stated that they schedule regular meetings at the corporate site as well as home visits to keep connected with their agents. Some companies utilize IM to connect throughout the day and Envision customers use Click2Coach to send informational clips and coaching packages directly to the home-based agents desktop.
Who Pays for What?
There was also lively conversation about the costs associated with setting up at-home workers. Most companies stated that they supply the computer hardware for the agents' home office, but ISP and furniture expenses were up to the individual agents. Overall, there was a sense that the agents must have a sense of ownership and/or investment in the program.
Security
Corporate security has become a hot topic for contact centers. To help keep sensitive customer information secure, companies have put VPNs in place. In addition, multiple participants stated that they require at-home workers to have shredders in their home offices to shred notes and sensitive data that they may collect by hand during calls. Other companies volunteered that they do not allow computer peripherals like printers in the home office. One company even stated that they mask sensitive data within their computer systems.
Resources
Participants shared the following resources for setting up a home-based agent program: Site visits and information sharing within contact center peers was paramount to many participants’ success. In addition, one company volunteered that they used the book Home Workplace: A Handbook for Employees and Managers by Brendan Read. There is also a great white paper by Avaya that I have found useful.
You can access the full recordings of both Envision Exchange calls:
Thanks to everyone for making these such informational and educational networking calls! Did we miss anything during the calls? I would love to hear your thoughts on managing home-based agents.
Post tags: home-based agents, Brendan Read, contact center trends, home-shoring, call center trends, Avaya, teleworkers
4:13 PM
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