There’s no place like home! …but getting there isn’t always easy

Up to now, we’ve reviewed history on the evolution of the US call center outsourcing market. Initial BLOGs described how focus on cost reduction, using technology advances and global economies influenced the move from domestic operations to near-shore and off-shore geographies. Recently there has been increasing momentum for call center employers and employees to consider the Home Agent operation model. Drivers on the employer side:

• Continuously advancing technology, especially in the security and communications area
• International political unrest
• Domestic Disaster Recovery capabilities (driven from the point above)
• Increased US legislation on data privacy and security-complicating off-shore operations
• License requirements for specialty services (triage nurses, accountant support, insurance services, etc)
• Pressure to improve CSAT, which seems to benefit from accent & cultural affinity
• Schedule Flexibility – WAH split shifts and part-time/seasonal workforce
• Desire for very local support, like government services only wanting to hire from their own constituents

Employees seek work at home (WAH) for the following:

• Eliminate commute time and related expense
• Reduce costs for meals on the go and eating out
• Reduce wardrobe requirements
• Minimize concern over appearance (i.e. Make-up, shaving, etc)
• Enjoy comfort of working from your own home =  control your workplace environment

Despite the allure of the WAH model, employers shouldn’t underestimate the commitment required to be successful.  The operation is very different from Brick & Mortar (B&M) and we’ll get deep into that detail through this BLOG series. But to expose the magnitude of the situation, let’s start by choosing one area as an example. Let’s consider the employee applicant pool. Hiring for a B&M operation is generally confined to the radius people are reasonably willing to commute to work. This fact limits the applicant pool an employer can expect to attract when choosing a B&M location.

However, consider if an employer virtualizes their operation processes entirely, such that they can hire from anywhere - the applicant pool explodes. This model is typically referred to as the “Remote Agent” model or “RA”.  Agents provide their own PC, ISP connection and perhaps a landline telephone and headset. In this model, hiring unique skills such as languages and professional certifications become easy. Professional associations, LinkedIn groups and organizations such as heritage and language clubs become massive recruiting pools.

As a partial step, the hiring radius can be increased if workers know they will work primarily from their homes and need only visit the B&M center for training purposes, acquiring equipment and perhaps a meeting now and then. This is typically referred to at a “Telecommute” agent model or “TCA” where the employee is “tethered” to a facility. In this model, some WAH advantage is achieved like schedule flexibility and some disaster recovery benefit as well, and the hiring population can expand to some degree. Using B&M as a base, employers can deploy and support equipment, have face to face meetings and train staff locally, practices they are familiar with.

In my experience with multiple WAH companies, immediately following an occurrence of national exposure to a WAH employment opportunity, at times we experienced 1000+ applications per day. You can imagine how that challenges application and communication processes!  How does a company interact with 1000+ new applicants daily, and ongoing? How long before the application ages out?  How does a company build that DB of applicants into a longer term asset? How do you avoid being labeled a scam, because you don’t even respond to 95% or more of your applicants?  How do you automate the qualification process, so applicants self select out if it’s not the best fit?  It’s nothing like a traditional B&M application process.

Many companies fail implementing the Home Agent call center operation because they don’t recognize the level of process change involved and the required investment to make the model work. And it’s actually a bigger challenge for companies with a history of successful B&M operation. “Conventional wisdom proves that historically successful organizations resist change, due to paradigm “blindness” – at worst, they crush innovation before it interferes with the status quo.”  (CIO Magazine - June 22, 2008)

WAH should be approached like launching an entirely new, off-shore operation. The changes are extensive.  Let’s consider additional areas of note:

• The technology platform and related tech support processes and tools
• As touched upon above, applicant sourcing, recruiting and hiring
• Employee communications in general
• E-mail, voicemail, texting, bulletin boards, team performance tracking
• Outages!  How to communicate status to the troops, when systems are down
• Reference material distribution
• Human Resources documentation processes
• Operations management and monitoring practices
• Consider: Chat rooms, instant messaging, screen sharing, employee status monitoring, escalations, documentation, team huddles, simple agent note taking practices … how about raising a hand or pom-pom?
• Quality Assurance and Coaching
• Scheduling – Shift Bids, trading, flexibility with last minute changes
• Time keeping systems and practices – no turnstiles involved, but legally they must be paid from login initiation.
• Training is a huge area of change, and needs to be incorporated into the hiring practice to improve profiling, building knowledge in the workforce as they come through the process

Despite the challenges to implement the model, significant benefits are achievable. Successful WAH operations report advantages in the following areas:

• Customer Satisfaction with cultural affinity is on the rise
• Employee attrition improves if hiring, training and communications work properly
• Significant real estate costs avoided: mortgage/rent, real estate taxes and insurance, office capital and maintenance, furniture, utilities, LAN/WAN, PC’s and telephones, etc.
• Schedule efficiency improves across all the call center operation through WAH staff flexibility, to the benefit of both the employer and the employee population.
• Schedule consistency, less B&M Voluntary Go Home (VGH) required = happier B&M workers
• WAH “jump on” opportunities = increase WAH earnings 
• Highly qualified applicant pool; especially noteworthy is the emergence of three unique and valuable sources:

1. Stay-at-home moms
2. Highly qualified/experienced retirees
3. Physically challenged workers

Over the next few BLOGs we’ll break down WAH idiosyncrasies and the investments required in the following areas: Technology, Recruiting, Training, Operations Mgmt, Legal/Security & Audit, Human Resources, and finally Communications.

Please share some feedback with me at Rick@HomeAgentConsulting.com or via this BLOG comment area.  Welcome Home!