How to Optimize Your At-Home Workforce at Your Contact Center

Written by KOVA Corp

Once upon a time, the idea of working while hanging out on your couch was just a fantasy for those who couldn’t stand their jobs—people like Office Space’s Peter Gibbons, who can barely bring himself to open the door to his workplace each morning.

But today, working from home is a happy reality for all kinds of people, from marketers and accountants to—you guessed it—contact center agents.

Contact centers have been using at-home agents for a decade, but it’s only in the past several years that they’ve really embraced the practice fully. There are lots of advantages to using at-home agents—lower turnover, easier scheduling, and higher productivity, for example—but there are also some adjustments you or your managers may have to make in order to make sure you’re optimizing your at-home workforce.

First, hire the right people.

Easier said than done, right? Hiring practices can be difficult to get right, and no matter how many interviews or run-throughs you do, you’ll never be able to guarantee a 100 percent perfect workforce.

But with at-home agents there are a few definite things you need to be looking for. For one thing, anyone working at home must be able to work well independently, without supervision. They’ve got to be self-starters who have the motivation to get out of bed and start work on time, even if it’s in their pajamas.

Something that will help you out during the hiring practice is the fact that because you’re hiring at-home agents, you have access to a much larger talent pool. You’re not limited by geographical constraints. In addition, you’ll likely get more mature, experienced applicants when the job allows them to work from home. Parents, for example, who want to remain available to their children during the day—while you’d rarely see them applying for an in-office agent job, many do apply for at-home positions.

Make sure you and your agents both have the right technology.

When using at-home agents, it’s vital that both your contact center organization and the agents have suitable, reliable technology. On the organizational end, that means they need access to the same training materials, knowledge libraries, and other resources that your on-site agents have. That’s a relatively easy proposition nowadays, as many contact centers use at least some cloud services.

Your agents need a dedicated cell phone with reliable service as well as a laptop with reliable wi-fi. Other than that, little equipment is needed. As far as working space, at-home agents need a dedicated workspace. Preferably, it’s one that can be closed off completely, but as long as it’s well-screened from outside noise and interruption, the space should work.

Put in place a formal trial period.

A best practice for optimizing your at-home workforce is to instate a formal trial period—three months is a generally agreed-upon length of time. This allows two things: first, it lets you ensure that the people you hire as at-home agents are capable of performing their work well in that setting. Second, it allows on-premise agents to switch to an at-home setting to see if they actually like working that way. With a trial period, agents who find they don’t like working from home can simply switch back to on-premise instead of simply quitting or going to another company.

Make sure your managers are trained and equipped to manage off-site workers.

Managing a remote workforce can be an adjustment for managers who’ve never done so before. Just as you need to make sure your agents have the training they needed, you need to make sure your managers have the resources they need to succeed.

For instance, ensure that managers know how and are willing to conduct coaching sessions via video chat. They should also realize that they need to be as available to their at-home agents as they are to on-premise workers. The only difference is that at-home workers will be contacting them via chat, video chat, or email.

To learn more about workforce optimization and at-home agents, read the whitepaper “Home-Based Agents and Workforce Optimization.” And be sure to look at KOVA’s Workforce Optimization software suite, which can help you with everything from scheduling to forecasting.

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