Apr 26th, 2011

Big wins for contact centres, says Spescom if corporate South Africa can change its management approach

Corporate South Africa has been slow to embrace a ‘work from home’ policy, despite the no-brainer benefits that has caused this model to be widely adopted globally by companies in various industries. Locally, a key challenge seems to be an inability to move away from the need for direct control.  One business sector – contact centres – could gain much through migration to a ‘work from home’ policy. In fact, it may just spark the creation of a new business model for the sector.

Says Paul Fick, MD of Spescom DataFusion: “Moving to a ‘work from home’policy is about much more than just technological enablement. Getting it right, or even making the migration decision, depends as much on the business you are in as on your company culture, the needs of your staff and your management approach. Careful testing of these waters through a pilot or two across different functions or business lines should offer the insight needed to create a blueprint that works for your organisation.”

While a sales or service driven business may seem ideal to operate using a work from home policy, the culture of the organisations may not be compatible with this model, he suggests, and there is also the temperament, maturity and preferences of staff to be taken into account. “Some prefer the stimulation that the traditional work environment and face-to-face encounters with colleagues provide, others may be less socially oriented or need less mentoring, and may be able to self-manage,” Fick notes. “Thus it may be more suitable to only apply the work from home policy in some instances, or areas of your business. In addition, since a manager cannot control the activities of an employee too closely in their home environment, the manner in which work outputs are measured and staff are managed will need to change with outputs perhaps measured on results instead of on activities.”

The benefits of a work from home policy are considerable. There is no, or very little need to lease office space, equip it, pay ongoing utility and maintenance bills, and install all the necessary additional systems, like security. Staff don’t need to spend time travelling to and from work, which means less stress, more flexibility and more free time for the individual, and a ‘greener’ footprint for the business with less pollution of the atmosphere by travelling vehicles. And if location of staff is not an issue, it also means the business will have access to staff from across a broader geography.

“In contact centres, agents are still the biggest cost, especially experienced people with specialised knowledge. The contact centre that moves first to capture the broad range of skills currently dormant in our society stands to gain significant advantage,” says Fick. “There are a huge number of home-bound mums with professional qualifications that have a few hours a day to give. and consider the potential of the growing segment of highly skilled and experienced retirees. And, of course, you will have access to those people that are skilled and capable but (for whatever reason) live in areas where work opportunities are limited.”

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to migrating to a work from home policy, however. “All the technology exists to run a contact centre remotely with home based agents – from call distribution to agent access to client and business data, and measuring and monitoring productivity and quality of service,” says Fick, “but to truly make it work, there needs to be a shift in management approaches and communication with staff. Technology offers us the means to recreate a functional work environment but human interaction – communication, motivation, mentoring and the creation of a team — will take some forethought. Social platforms along with chat, IM, group collaborations solutions such as video conferencing and other tools provide the foundation to develop virtual engagement models between staff and management, but refining these interactions to make them work for each business will take some effort. Given the benefits of a work from home business model, the options are certainly worth assessing.”