Uncategorised – OUR HOMEWORKING NEWS AND BLOGS

Homeworking Tips…. from our experts on the Sensée frontline

Coronavirus is forcing organisations to rapidly change and adapt to new disciplines and business models. Amongst the most significant of these is home working.

In a new weekly feature, we’ll be providing topical tips and advice from Team Managers and Advisors on the Sensée frontline to help organisations make a success of home working. We hope you find them useful.

How do you separate your home and work life…..

“Journey to work is not just a physical distance to travel but a mental one too. Allow enough time before your shift to prepare for the day ahead.”

Jennifer, Sensée Services Adviser

…… organise your workspace?

“Make sure your office area is a nice place to work. Decorate with bright colours, flowers etc. You are spending a lot of time there so it needs to be bright and comfortable.”

Bev, Sensée Services Adviser

…… maintain your health and fitness?

“Even though I work from home I still ‘walk to work’. So I leave my front door every morning – which ensures no jimjams – and take a brisk mile or two walk around the block. I then arrive at work oxygenated and ready to rock.”

Nick, Sensée Services Adviser

…… not end up snacking all day!?

“Bring snacks! There is nobody else in the ‘office’ to steal them!”

Ryan, Sensée Services Adviser

…… motivate yourself?

“If you are honest, with a good work ethic, then home working will pose no issues. If you use work for ‘social’ then you may struggle. So ensure you are part of chat groups to keep up with news, gossip etc.”

Sharon, Sensée Services Adviser

…… optimise your working environment?

“Have plants in the office. I have a venus flytrap called Audrey. Taking care of her is part of my daily routine.”

Janet, Sensée Services Adviser

…… improve your work-life-balance?

“I have a separate desk in a separate room in a quiet part of the house. I get up, get showered, dressed and put on a wee bit of make-up (can’t do anything without my lippy!). I leave the kitchen after brekki and off to the office. Blu tack a ‘do not enter’ sign to the office door (important to let the family know my shifts and my breaks so they are respectful and quiet whilst I’m on shift). When it’s time for a break I am pretty much guaranteed they’ll meet me in the kitchen with a coffee and a toastie. A tik tok dance with my daughter ensures I definitely switch off for a wee while at lunchtime!”

Alison, Sensée Services Adviser

…… manage distractions?

“If you now find yourself with other family members in the house, work out a solution for internet access that won’t interfere with your work. We are using an old android phone as a wifi hotspot with a pay-as-you-go SIM. It gives my son sufficient broadband to do his school work and video chat with his friends.”

Denise, Sensée Services Adviser

…… decide what to wear?

“I look in the wardrobe for something that speaks to me.”

Gill, Sensée Services Adviser

…… and what do you do during your breaks, and at lunch?

“Breaks are a great time to fit in the household chores that you usually save up all week. Hoovering, preparing the tea…. anything really so that when you finish work you have nothing to do. It makes you organise your free time more effectively.”

Zoe, Sensée Services Adviser

MORE TIPS TO FOLLOW NEXT WEEK!

Why Homeworking is the Way Forward for Customer Interaction in the Current Crisis and Beyond

(Republished courtesy of Enghouse Interactive)

In light of many organisations having to work from home due to the current crisis, Enghouse spoke to Mark Walton, CEO at Sensée, a 100% homeworking operation that delivers customer communication services for leading brands across the UK, on how their approach is resonating strongly with businesses in these difficult times.

Gearing up for homeworking

Every business across the UK has been significantly impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and with the government’s recent advice that people, where possible, should start working from home we have seen makeshift offices spring up in dining rooms, bedrooms and studies throughout the UK. Many have got up and running quickly, working over VPNs, and communicating via mobile and video conference calls with their colleagues and customers.

Many organisations will find the benefits of homeworking around flexibility and scalability are compelling, even while the circumstances in which they made the move were serious and concerning.

It is not as simple as that of course – businesses need to think about issues like team management, scheduling, security and IT support. Yet, many organisations will find the benefits of homeworking around flexibility and scalability are compelling, even while the circumstances in which they made the move were serious and concerning.

Many businesses have considered homeworking – and been attracted by the benefits – but largely put it on the back burner. The current crisis has accelerated those moves immensely, however, with thousands of companies seeking out practical and easy to implement solutions, as well as practical tips and advice.

Finding the right answer in a crisis and in calmer times

When you shift the conversation away from organisations in general and onto contact centre operations, our area of specialisation, the range of potential benefits are arguably even more compelling. Social distancing is an issue in a packed office with tens or hundreds of contact centre agents – not so in a home environment.

When it comes to the COVID-19 crisis, like most companies, we have colleagues who have been affected. Given our homeworking environment though, our levels of absence are less than the average business, and interest in our homeworking solutions is higher than ever. The last few weeks have been extremely busy as we ramp up our outsourcing operation to support both existing and new clients, bringing on hundreds of new advisors as we do so.

The last few weeks have been extremely busy as we ramp up our outsourcing operation to support both existing and new clients, bringing on hundreds of new advisors as we do so.

Keeping our clients’ customer contact operations up and running at times of crisis is helping them reassure their customers that it is ‘business as usual’, as well as enabling them to deal with peaks in demand and keep customers informed and updated with relevant information.

Homeworking is also great for Employee Engagement. It is a flexible approach that can offer staff a better work-life balance, enabling them to fit their hours around existing commitments such as the school run or caring for an elderly parent. Homeworking also opens up opportunities for people who can’t access the normal office. 18% of the Sensée workforce are people who live with a disability, with a further 8% carers to people with special needs.

Overall, trends are very positive

Moving a contact centre operation to a home environment isn’t easy, however, and needs to be carefully planned in order for businesses to fully reap the rewards. Recruiting, managing and training staff all need to be carefully handled with a ‘virtual mindset’. The technology used will also be critically important.

Homeworking is also great for Employee Engagement. It is a flexible approach that can offer staff a better work-life balance, enabling them to fit their hours around existing commitments such as the school run or caring for an elderly parent.

At Sensée we use Enghouse Interactive’s Contact Centre Service Provider (CCSP) as a key solution to manage our multichannel customer contact operation. It offers a true cloud-based contact centre capability which gives our clients the flexibility they need to run an agile business. The solution also dovetails and integrates well with our other solutions such as planning, scheduling and forecasting so that we can get a complete picture of what is happening within the business.

So in summary, homeworking is very much at the forefront of business minds due to the current coronavirus crisis, with organisations looking for practical solutions that ensure business can continue smoothly. Sensée is seeing a large growth in interest from businesses demanding contact centre homeworking solutions that deliver full visibility, control, engagement, information security and scalability – and that can also fully support an engaged and flexible workforce. These are difficult and, trying times where, for many businesses, homeworking is the only option. However, we expect the current spark of interest and engagement in the approach to continue long into the future.

Sensée announces 1000 new UK work-at-home contact centre jobs

Sensée is creating 500 new permanent and 500 new temporary positions to meet the growing demand from its clients for work-at-home staff.

The vacancies are for Customer Contact Advisors, Team Managers and back office staff to work for new and existing clients – including Bupa and Hastings Direct – as well as for a number of Government departments. Start dates are immediate.

Sensée is welcoming applications from people of all backgrounds, levels of experience, gender and age. Contact centre experience is preferred but not essential. Customer service and other job-specific training is provided.

“We urgently need new home workers to help our clients support their customers through the current crisis” said Mark Walton, CEO of Sensée. “Over the coming months, homeworking will have a crucial role to play in ensuring business continuity for private sector firms, as well as the effective management of citizen and business enquiries within the public sector.”

Candidates can apply today for the new roles at www.sensee.co.uk

Could homeworking work for you?

(Republished courtesy of disability magazine UCAN2 www.ucan2magazine.co.uk)

The current Coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis has brought homeworking into sharp reality for millions of office workers. But is it a viable route into the workplace for many living with a disability?

The idea of homeworking as an option for disabled people is nothing new. Scope, for example, provides extensive support and advice https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/homeworking/ on the topic.

What has changed recently are two key things. First, there’s now a massive focus on homeworking within the boardroom – both as a disaster recovery response (with the Coronavirus already closing down transport links and forcing some office closures), and as a longer term option on productivity/ cost grounds. Second, the homeworking industry has moved on……. with more effective homeworking models, and a realisation within Corporates that homeworking is a ‘proper’ job, where people can develop rewarding careers.

The contact centre sector is a case in point. 15 years ago, few companies considered it possible to run an effective operation using homeworkers because of a multitude of technology, HR and operational issues. With experience, many of these HR and operational issues have now been resolved, and specialist virtual workplace tools – with virtual training Homeworking advisorenvironments, specialist real-time communications, and real-time management – today provide managers with real-time visibility of homeworkers so they can support and collaborate as required.

Indeed we estimate that 18% of our colleagues have some form of disability, and a further 8% are carers to people with special needs.

In the past, homeworkers were frequently either managers and top performing employees offered homeworking ‘as a reward’ or self-employed people required to create their own limited companies before supplying services. Today, homeworkers are now more likely to choose to work from home and be more experienced.

Indeed, according to the 2016 UKCCF Contact Centre Homeworking Survey, 74 per cent of homeworkers are aged 35 or over, and 66% have over 10 years experience in customer contact roles.

They also come into homeworking for a wide variety of reasons – and our company is a good example. We currently have 700 fully-employed homeworkers who deliver services for Allianz, BUPA, Hastings Direct and others. Amongst our people are work-at-home mums, many who find working in an office stressful, and others that are excluded from the normal workplace. This includes people who live in rural areas or are simply too far from the office to commute, as well as many living with a disability. Indeed we estimate that 18% of our colleagues have some form of disability, and a further 8% are carers to people with special needs.

According to the UKCCF survey, 92 per cent of homeworkers say that they are happy (at least some of the time), and 72 per cent say they are proud to tell people where they work.

The secret to providing excellent work-from-home opportunities is to ensure that everyone is treated equally and fairly, and that engagement, community and socialisation is part and parcel of the homeworking experience. Technology plays a key role here too, ensuring that teams communicate and interact efficiently and that working from home isn’t a solitary experience (unless someone wants it to be!)

Implemented effectively and homeworking can provide not only a route back into the workplace but also a fulfilling career. According to the UKCCF survey, 92 per cent of homeworkers say that they are happy (at least some of the time), and 72 per cent say they are proud to tell people where they work. As for companies, 78 per cent of organisations employing homeworkers said they expected to increase numbers in the next 12 months.

Sensée is in regular contact with organisations that support the disabled community, is a Purple Member, supports the Armed Forces Covenant, is Disability Confident Committed, and is registered with Employers for Carers.

Practical advice and tips on working from home

“Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others” said Boris Johnson on Monday (16th March) “and to stop all unnecessary travel. We need people to start working from home where they possibly can…. and avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues.” On 18th March, it was announced that all UK schools would be closed ‘until further notice’.

We are in dangerous and uncertain times and few would argue with the logic of the Prime Minister’s statement. However, there’s a lot more to homeworking than simply picking up a laptop and a phone from the office and setting up from home.

Homeworking advice

If you google flexible working tips or homeworking tips or even Coronavirus work-from-home tips you’ll find plenty of helpful advice.

On 11th March, for example, The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development issued a factsheet to help businesses support their operations and workforce. ACAS too offers plenty of useful advice, drilling down into much finer detail about what Employers should consider before embarking on their homeworking journey.

Both organisations are communicating a very similar message: that you need to plan for homeworking. In a section within its factsheet entitled Develop flexible resourcing plans the CIPD recommends developing “strategies to maximise the amount of home working to prevent the spread of infection”.

Similarly in the ACAS guidance, the author sounds a note of caution: “One of the first steps for an employer is to consider whether the job is suitable for homeworking or teleworking. Many roles may be, but others may not. And while homeworking can be seen as an attractive option, it will not suit everyone. A homeworker needs to be able to cope with working on their own with little supervision.”

Plan ahead

So having a homeworking strategy is essential. When considering whether a job is suitable for homeworking, ACAS asks Employers to consider whether the role needs “team working, face-to-face supervision, equipment (installed in the home) or equipment (which can only be in the organisation’s central base).” And it suggests homeworkers ideally need to be “able to spend long periods on their own, confident working without supervision, self-disciplined and self-motivated, and able to separate work from home life.”

Is this overkill when all we’re talking about here is people working at home for a few weeks until the Coronavirus sombrero is squashed? Absolutely not!

For certain job roles and functions, switching to homeworking and doing so with scalability and cost-efficiency is highly complex.

Front and Back Office Functions

Take back or front office functions, such as your customer contact centre. It’s highly unlikely that your office-based contact centre agents can just up sticks with a computer and a phone, set up from home and carry on business-as-usual.

The demands of contact centre working means that a complete 360 degree solution is required that provides full visibility, control, engagement, and of course information security. And if an organisation is looking to operate a 100% homeworking model in the longer term, it will need to master an even broader range of skills: from recruiting the right homeworkers, to adapting a virtual mindset when it comes to training, management, scheduling, security, communication and technology. These are not skills that can be learnt overnight.

If used as a short-term measure in the contact centre, organisations won’t have the luxury of trialling concepts and refining their work-at-home model over time. They may have time to turn to an experienced outsourcer that uses a home-based model, adopt some specialist technology tools, or seek the advice of a homeworking consultant – but any medium or long term planning really won’t be feasible.

Here are six things to consider if you are thinking of introducing contact centre homeworking in response to Coronavirus:

Communications: Pay attention to all aspects of communication. Not just company announcements but communication within teams, and real time support for advisors that may be experiencing difficulties (using virtual technologies, instant messaging etc.).
Team Managers: Don’t ignore the crucial role they play in providing support and guidance. If possible, use technology to enable and deploy a system of virtual floorwalkers.
Technology Support: If homeworkers are using company equipment (computers, phones), ensure you can support this equipment effectively.
Appropriate Office Space: Ensure homeworkers can work from a suitable office in the home. Working and making calls from the living room with kids playing in the background, or dogs barking, just isn’t acceptable!
Scheduling: Add greater flexibility into your planning schedules – such as split shifts and micro-shifts. This will enable homeworkers to fit work in around their other daily priorities (such as taking the kids to school or caring for a relative) while helping your organisation better match resources to daily peaks and troughs.
Security: Consider adding extra security measures – such as restricting homeworker access to certain customer data. Also ensure you are not breaching your obligations under FCA, GDPR and other regulations. And ensure company equipment is adequately insured for home use.

With the Government strongly suggesting that people work from home it would be good to see more advice on how organisations can do so most effectively – and avoid the pitfalls. With the expertise available, and specialist technology tools that now exist, that advice could make all the difference.

As a response to the current crisis, homeworking can deliver a more dispersed workforce with a lower single point of failure, and hence a lower risk of cross infection. This will enable contact centres to operate as normal even if other business functions need to close down.

Sensée creates technology ecosystem for businesses to easily deploy contact centre workers at home

Homeworking specialist Sensée has launched CloudWorks™, a homeworking solution that gives organisations all the tools necessary to operate a home-based contact centre operation.

CloudWorks provides technology tools to assist with the remote management, training and co-ordination of staff working from home. It also provides communication and collaboration tools to keep remote workers supported and engaged, as well as the safeguards to ensure the most rigorous Infosec compliance. CloudWorks has ISO27001 accreditation and achieved PCI-DSS and GDPR compliance.

The solution, believed to be the only one of its kind, can be deployed remotely and will bring peace-of-mind to organisations for a fraction of the cost of other standard disaster recovery solutions requiring a secondary passive site.

CloudWorks can be deployed in as little as two weeks – even for large Enterprise deployments. Pricing is calculated on a per agent per month basis.

“The demands of contact centre operations means that a complete 360 degree solution is required that provides full visibility, control, engagement, and of course information security.”

“Homeworking is very much at the forefront of business minds due to the current global Coronavirus crisis” said Steve Mosser, Group CEO of Sensée “with organisations looking for practical solutions that ensure business can continue. For middle management, that may be as simple as ensuring all staff have a reliable computer and phone to work from home. For contact centre operations, doing so with scalability and cost-efficiency is lot more complex. The demands of contact centre operations means that a complete 360 degree solution is required that provides full visibility, control, engagement, and of course information security. CloudWorks delivers all of the above, and more, in a single easily scalable turnkey solution.”

A Complete Homeworking Ecosystem

CloudWorks is composed of four key technologies:

ASSETS™: A homeworker selection and on-boarding tool that enables employees to apply for homeworking, validate that their home office is compliant, and confirm their technology meets specifications.

LIVEDESK™: A Virtual Workplace for collaborating and communicating with homeworkers so that they are engaged and on the business pulse.

SAFEOS™: Sensée’s security framework that locks down the homeworkers’ (self-provided) computer workstation and regulates secure access to business mission-critical applications.

TEAMTONIC®: A sophisticated Scheduling and Tracking tool, tailor-made for the distributed workforce world (with support for multichannel working, split shifts, bid-swaps, real time SMS alerts etc.).

The CloudWorks ecosystem supports the entire Employee Lifecycle – from recruitment and on-boarding to scheduling, training and management – and is fully compliant with UK Employment Law.

Further information about our Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and Peak Management services can be found here.

NI Executive Ministers announce unique 300 job investment by Sensée

Pictured (L-R) are Kevin Holland, CEO, Invest NI with deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Minister for the Economy Diane Dodds, First Minister Arlene Foster and Rob Smale, Director, Sensée. — Pictured (L-R) are Kevin Holland, CEO, Invest NI with deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Minister for the Economy Diane Dodds, First Minister Arlene Foster and Rob Smale, Director, Sensée

The First Minister Arlene Foster and deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill today announced 300 home based jobs in a multi-million pound investment by Sensée.

They were joined in making the announcement by Economy Minister Diane Dodds.

“The home-based work opportunities span a range of roles, including agent, manager and support levels, contributing over £5.8 million in additional salaries to our economy.” — First Minister Foster

This first-time investment into Northern Ireland by the company will see the creation of 300 work from home contact centre roles. The jobs will also provide a unique opportunity for those facing barriers to work as a result of location, personal or family circumstances.

First Minister Foster said: “We are delighted today to announce 300 new jobs for Northern Ireland. Uniquely these are not limited by geography, they are accessible to everyone no matter where they live.

“The home-based work opportunities span a range of roles, including agent, manager and support levels, contributing over £5.8 million in additional salaries to our economy.

“As an Executive we are committed to strengthening our economy and commend Invest Northern Ireland for their work to secure this significant investment.”

“We offer the security of full employment contracts with guaranteed hours and with flexibility to choose workdays and times.” — Rob Smale, Sensée Director

Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill said: “We are committed to working together to bring about prosperity for all our people. Creating employment opportunities is an important part of this, as is working to remove the barriers faced by many people to get into employment. This includes people with disabilities or caring responsibilities.

“These new jobs with Sensée provide a real option for people right across the north who will benefit from home working and give them an opportunity to get in to paid work and improve their quality of life.

“Invest NI has offered £900,000 of support towards the jobs, which the company intends to create by 2022 as it continues to grow its business.”

Sensée works with many well-known brands, including Bupa, Hastings Direct and Allianz, providing service and support for their customers.

Economy Minister, Diane Dodds said: “The contact centre industry is experiencing a lot of change and the home working model is gaining traction with more companies. As well as offering flexible working for staff this approach benefits the environment including reduced energy use and costs. It will also open up rural communities providing employment opportunities for those not able to travel to work. These benefits directly align with many of our Programme for Government objectives.”

Sensée is looking to fill the 300 positions over the coming months. Recruitment and training are both completed on-line and candidates can apply online.

Rob Smale, Sensée Director, said: “Our skilled home based service advisor team work for well-known brands on an outsourced basis, either as continuously available resources or to handle peaks in customer demand. Currently we employ about 700 staff across the UK, all of whom work from home.

“We offer the security of full employment contracts with guaranteed hours and with flexibility to choose workdays and times. There’s also no commuting, saving our people time and money, and a social element that creates great teamwork and companionship.

“Our home based advisor services are also attractive to businesses in all sectors, from healthcare to financial services and retail, with the great attitude of our homeworking team providing excellent customer service. It also reduces the carbon footprint and aligns with their corporate social responsibility aspirations.”

Sensée is looking to fill the 300 positions over the coming months. Recruitment and training are both completed on-line and candidates can apply at www.sensee.co.uk/ni-jobs

Struggling to recruit the right contact centre people? Try homeworking

Business woman planning in front of a whiteboard — The key for enterprises that want to focus on consumer retention is fresh thinking around the traditional way of doing business

Let’s face it. Running a contact centre has become more confusing, complex and challenging, even for the seasoned enterprise professional. With more demands from consumers across a multitude of channels, alongside the need for different technologies and compliance requirements, ensuring end-user loyalty in an efficient manner has never been more difficult. But it need not be that way, provided the right business model is in place, one that leverages the best people, platforms and processes.

One of the core areas of any business model must be ‘People’. Operating a home-based agent model, we are fortunate because we can attract an abundance of top-quality applicants interested in pursuing a home-based contact centre career.

Team members can choose the campaign that they want to work on, helping create a highly experienced and engaged workforce… which equates to better service for our clients and their customers.

A home-based model offers our people the ability to work anywhere in the UK, in a way that suits their lifestyles while providing full-time employment and a full set of benefits to ensure team members’ financial stability. This has a major and positive impact on driving down attrition. Moreover, team members can choose the campaign that they want to work on, helping create a highly experienced and engaged workforce… which equates to better service for our clients and their customers.

Our experience contrasts sharply with those of many bricks-and-mortar contact centres, which often have great difficulty finding a strong base of applicants. In the current near full-employment UK economy, many struggle to retain the talent that they have. With due respect for the traditional contact centre model, the target agent profile is under heavy demand from not only customer experience providers but from other sectors, such as hospitality, travel & leisure, retail and front-line financial services. Combined with recent increases in the minimum wage, it is little wonder that good agents for bricks-and-mortar contact centres are harder to find and costs are increasing!

As a home-based contact centre, we can avoid these pressure points. Our recruits are drawn to customer service as a career. They like working from home; it fits their lifestyles. And because we recruit from across the whole UK – not from a finite pool of labour, typically within a fifteen mile radius of a ‘traditional’ contact centre – we do not experience the regional workforce pressures that many operators do in contact centre hotspots like Manchester, South Yorkshire, South Wales, Glasgow and the North East.

I believe that 2020 represents a great opportunity for business whilst operationally being a challenging time for customer experience delivery.

The virtual model allows home-based contact centre operators to focus on pulling in specific skill sets that would otherwise be very tough to recruit for in a traditional contact centre. We are able to better serve clients across sectors by attracting agents with specific experience, higher education levels, language capabilities or professional certifications. This results in a higher-touch point between the brands that we represent and the consumers we serve.

I believe that 2020 represents a great opportunity for business whilst operationally being a challenging time for customer experience delivery. The key for enterprises that want to focus on consumer retention is fresh thinking around the traditional way of doing business. Embracing new operating models that concurrently deliver the best results alongside efficiencies that can be passed back to the client. As consumers, we continue to grow more discerning than ever, and Sensée’s virtual approach is designed to exceed expectations.

Is homeworking part of your Coronavirus Business Continuity Plan?

Is your business prepared for the unexpected?

Take the current Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. At the time of writing, 14th February 2020, just nine people have tested positive for coronavirus and the risk to individuals is currently considered ‘low’.

Yet the World Health Organisation has declared the situation a “public health emergency of international concern” with The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issuing daily updates, including travel advice to and from various geographies. In late January 2020, Chinese officials heightened concerns by pointing to evidence that transmission could occur during the viruses’ incubation period (i.e. in the days before people become visibly ill) or amongst carriers who never get sick.

Currently, travellers arriving from Wuhan or Hubei Province (or elsewhere in China if they have symptoms) are being advised to stay at home for 14 days and avoid public places. But what if those travel restrictions were extended and really started to impact our daily lives. For instance, if travel restrictions meant we couldn’t travel to the office, or to face-to-face meetings?

It’s not that far-fetched. A recent Forbes article points to several global businesses including Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, and McDonald’s that have closed stores, closed offices and introduced Work-at-Home policies.

Is that an option your business has considered?

Is Work-at-Home possible?

When it comes to the spread of diseases, highly populated business operations are clearly a major concern. And especially so given that Coronavirus carriers won’t necessarily exhibit symptoms and can therefore, in theory, infect a large number of people very quickly.

If your people work in people-heavy operations like factories, goods delivery depots or retail stores home working isn’t an option. But if they work in others, such as contact centres or back office admin functions, where the main ‘physical tools’ of their trade are a desk, a phone and a computer, then it could make a great deal of sense. In theory at least…….

Not as simple as it sounds!

Ask any organisation that has introduced contact centre homeworking (or HomeAgent working) and I’m sure they’ll tell you the same thing: you can get a homeworker up and running easily enough from a technology and HR perspective, but getting a HomeAgent operation running effectively is a completely different matter.

In short, operational effectiveness in homeworking calls for a completely different mindset across everything that your business does: from recruiting the right homeworkers, to adapting a virtual mindset when it comes to training, management, scheduling, security, communication and technology. And these are not skills that can be learnt overnight. The skills, knowledge and operational excellence required to operate a HomeAgent operation can take years to master, with organisations often making many mistakes along the way.

If homeworking is used as a short-term measure, for example in the contact centre context discussed above, organisations won’t have the luxury of trialling concepts and refining their model over time. The only options will be to work with an experienced outsourcer that uses a home-based model. Or indeed just get on with it themselves.

Six Considerations

If you are considering the latter as part of a Business Continuity Plan for your contact centre personnel, here are six considerations:

Communications: Ensure that you pay particular attention to all aspects of communication. Not just company announcements but communication within teams, and real time support for advisors that may be experiencing difficulties (using virtual technologies, instant messaging etc.).
Team Manager Role: Don’t ignore the crucial role of the Team Manager providing support and guidance. If possible, use technology to enable and deploy a system of virtual floorwalkers.
Technology Support: If homeworkers are using company equipment (computers, phones) to conduct their work, ensure that you can support this equipment effectively.
Appropriate Office Space: Ensure that homeworkers are able to work from a suitable office in the home. Working and making calls from the living room with kids playing in the background, or dogs barking, just isn’t acceptable!
Planning and scheduling: Use the opportunity of homeworking to add greater flexibility into your planning schedules – such as split shifts and micro-shifts (i.e. shifts of an hour or less). This will enable homeworkers to fit work in around their other daily priorities (such as taking the kids to school or caring for a relative) while helping your organisation better match resources to daily peaks and troughs.
Security: If you are moving away from a highly secure office environment, you may wish to add extra security measures – such as restricting homeworker access to certain customer data. Also ensure that you are not breaching your obligations under FCA, GDPR and other regulations. And ensure company equipment is adequately insured for home use.

These are just a few thoughts. If you have other concerns, consult an expert with direct experience of contact centre homeworking.

Whether you are looking at homeworking as a short-term fix, or a long-term strategy, remember that it isn’t for everyone. Get it right, however, and it can deliver huge advantages in terms of a better work-life-balance for your employees and financial benefits for your business. According to a major 2016 HomeAgent survey, for example, 42% of organisations reported lower attrition, 58% lower absenteeism, and 46% higher productivity as a result of homeworking.

As a response to the current Coronavirus issue, homeworking will, in theory, deliver a more dispersed workforce with a lower single point of failure, and hence a lower risk of cross infection. This will enable your contact centre to operate as normal even if other business functions need to close down.

Ethical values at the heart of Sensée’s delivery

The real living wage is up to 30% higher than the national living wage set by the UK government and is independently assessed to make sure it provides enough for employees to live on.

Over a long career in outsourcing, I have seen many changes. How we do business as providers of front-line services has little resemblance to even a decade ago. One of the things that strikes me is the need for outsourcers to be proactive around fostering a more inclusive workplace, an approach that benefits the agent in tandem with the client whose services or products they are representing. This aligns with ensuring that environmental responsibilities are taken seriously, and not just paid lip-service. I am proud to say that Sensée is committed to ethical delivery, and we are already taking the needed steps to be a British provider of choice in this regard.

“One of the things that strikes me is the need for outsourcers to be proactive around fostering a more inclusive workplace.”

People are a good starting point for this discussion. After all, human resources count for over 70% of contact centre operations in the UK, so it just makes sense to ensure that front-line team members are happy and motivated. And because workplace uncertainty is so pervasive, at Sensée we want our agents to feel as financially secure as possible. This is why we pay our team members a real living wage, in order to remove the uncertainty that comes with so many other jobs in the current marketplace. There are no zero-hour contracts at Sensée — this way of working only drives low morale. When somebody joins our team, they do so with the understanding that they can count on a steady income, one that includes benefits, holidays and pension.

“There are no zero-hour contracts at Sensée — this way of working only drives low morale.”

Smiling young disabled woman in a wheelchair — Around 30% of our team are either registered as disabled or care for someone at home, a figure far above the national average.

But, at Sensée remuneration is only a part of the agent equation. Anybody that knows the contact centre industry realises that working conditions greatly influences how well a team performs. This is why we have worked to ensure that our workforce across the UK is able to take full advantage of their virtual status. Agents can map their skills and interests to the client campaign that they choose to work on. This immediately means more engagement with the role (and customer) at hand. Consider, too, that among those seeking to work for Sensée, the lack of a daily commute is a real selling point. Anyone who has been caught on the motorway or the train during rush-hour can relate to this. The Sensée ethos is based on inclusiveness, and we are proud to be an employer of choice for individuals who may have reduced mobility, have mental health challenges, have carer responsibilities, live in rurally isolated communities, or who simply do not want to work traditional shifts in a Bricks and Mortar environment.

“we are proud to be an employer of choice for individuals who may have reduced mobility, have mental health challenges, have carer responsibilities, live in rurally isolated communities, or who simply do not want to work traditional shifts.”

The net result of our ethically driven workplace practices is a team of highly engaged agents who are ready to serve consumers above and beyond. The numbers speak for themselves. Our annual attrition is around 10%, well below that found in traditional outsourced operations. And with sickness levels under 3% per annum, it validates that our agents enjoy coming to work.

This goes hand-in-hand with our commitment to the environment. With business more worried about the climate than ever before, it is important for customer experience to be done with a green approach. Therefore, Sensée’s work-at-home virtual model is more relevant now than ever. Keeping agents off the roads, allowing them to work from their homes, delivering high-quality service means that we are operating with a carbon footprint that is 90% lower than an equivalent sized bricks-and-mortar operation. Our clients love this, and it has been a great morale booster for our agents who are very worried about the ongoing climate change crisis.

“we are operating with a carbon footprint that is 90% lower than an equivalent sized bricks-and-mortar operation.”

Ethical contact centre delivery does not need to be hard — it simply makes sense. Sensée is leading the market with this approach to customer experience delivery, and it continues to be received positively by agents and clients alike. I believe that this approach is the right one for 2020 and beyond.