In the first in a series of LinkedIn Live discussions by the Contact Centre Managers Association, Leigh Hopwood, CEO, CCMA talks to Mark Walton, CEO, Sensée about homeworking and how to make it REALLY work.
To listen to last Friday’s discussion, click on the image below:
“LiveDesk has been a real eye opener for our teams in ageas especially as it’s so versatile and user friendly. They love it. It provides an instant overview of all the teams, who is working at any given time and which managers are there, ready to support our consultants.
“Controlling the system is really simple. It is easy to join a room so that IT, trainers, consultants and managers can get together. And it’s great for communication: for asking questions, training, quick de-briefs and collating information from live chats to highlight training gaps and areas that may need more focus.
“If Team Leaders or Managers need to deliver comms to the whole team they can go into breakout rooms with screen sharing capabilities and run Q&As. This is ideal for demonstrating new processes to the team and supporting those struggling with something. With consultants having quicker access to information, hold times are reduced and customers have a better experience.
“All our teams that have worked on LiveDesk have thought it is fantastic, it brings the team closer together and supports our purpose of making insurance easy.”
Andrew Edwards, ageas
After serving an apprenticeship as a software engineer and then working in the catering trade, making his way up to head chef, Sean decided on a change of career.
“I wanted to retrain and gain a professional qualification but that’s difficult when you’re working full time and commuting two hours a day” explains Sean.
After successfully applying for a role at Sensée in July 19, he has been working with the Allianz Partners team while at the same time studying part time at the Open University for a law degree.
“Flexibility is a huge factor in why working from home is ideal for me. I can log off for the day and be straight into my studies without wasting any time.
Working for Sensée has also helped me massively with my study discipline and I use the same rules that I follow for work towards my studying (set hours for studying, phone in the other room, nobody in my office – and no distractions!).
For 9 years Linda worked as a software architect in the telecoms industry designing and building call centres. The job involved a lengthy daily commute to work.
However in 2014 Linda was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a condition that affects the body’s collagen, creating joint issues and causing ligaments to tear easily. Commuting to work became emotionally difficult as well as painful and exhausting.
A change of lifestyle was required and Linda decided to move to the countryside. However this made the commute even trickier. With the country bus service quite unreliable, she turned to cycling but that just added to her stress – worrying all the time about what the weather would be like the next day.
Things improved for Linda when her employer have her the opportunity to work from home. Unfortunately though she was made redundant and started to become really worried about finding another role that would allow her to homework.
In March 2019, Linda came across Sensée and applied for a work from home role on the Bupa account. When she heard her application was successful, she felt a weight removed from her shoulders. “Not having to stress about commuting has massively helped my physical and mental health” she explains. “and the support I’ve received from my Team Leader and colleagues has been outstanding. I’ve not felt pressured in any way and have never met two companies that are so good, and so understanding, when it comes to mental health.”
“Flexibility is key to why it works for me. While I work for 30 hours a week I can’t work more than 4 hours at a time because of my joints aching. So I’ll typically work from 9 till 1, then have a break and work from 2.30 – 4.30. If I can’t make a planned schedule then there’s nearly always a colleague that can step in who is happy to do a shift swap. In the future I’d like to move on to do some virtual floor walking duties and longer term to possibly get back into training, and maybe a Deputy Team Leader role. It’s fantastic that such opportunities exist in a homeworking role.”
In October 2019, Jade saw an advert on an online recruitment site for customer advisers to work on the Sensée Bupa account and successfully applied. She has never looked back.
In her previous job working in the call centre of a large telecoms company, she struggled with a culture she found intimidating and distracting. “It was like working in a school playground” she says “and it started to affect my mental health”.
Things have been very different since joining Sensée though. “There’s no gossip culture and I’m more relaxed, meaning I’m more enthusiastic, focused and helpful. I love virtual floorwalking and helping out colleagues. Working for Sensée has also afforded me the time to study part time for a Psychology with Counselling degree while holding down a full down a full time job. I work 35 hours Monday to Saturday but try and dedicate Tuesdays to studying. Working for Sensée has been a saving grace!”
Date: 18th February 2021
Time: 10am to 11.30am
Chair: Sandra Busby, Chair, Welsh Contact Centre Forum
Are you having problems with absenteeism and attrition? Engagement and productivity? People isolation and motivation? Team Leader and adviser training? Worried that these problems are getting worse rather than going away?
You’re not alone. In a recent study of over 100 of the UK’s largest businesses, 74% said they thought that ‘communicating effectively with homeworkers’ would be just as big a problem in 2021 as it was in 2020, while 66% thought similarly about ‘employee engagement/motivation’.
In this online workshop, we examine what communications systems & processes are necessary to create an effective work-from-home (WFH) environment. The workshop will cover:
Agenda
10.00 – 10.05: Introductions and agenda (Sandra Busby, WCCF)
10.05 – 10.20: The benefits of homeworking (Mark Walton, Sensée)
10.20 – 10.40: Demo: Building a WFH Comms System that’s Fit-for-Purpose (Steve Mosser, Sensée)
10.40 – 11.30: Question and Answer session (Sandra Busby, WCCF: Mark Walton, Sensée; Steve Mosser, Sensée)
To register your attendance simply send your name, email, company and job title to Lucinda Butler at the Welsh Contact Centre Forum lucinda@wccf.uk
Lucinda will send a Zoom link and joining instructions to registrants a week before the online workshop.
