Starbucks CEO Harold Schulz announced last week that they are “ordering” employees to return to the office a minimum of three days per week, after his earlier request fell short of 100% compliance. He also states that working from home is a “privilege.” Wow.
The pandemic period has proven something really important for contact centers, and that is that Work From Home on scale is a huge win. Separate from the impact that the health emergency itself had on overall service levels and customer experience, all in all the outcome of WFH for contact centers has been extremely positive. So much so that many organizations are now taking a very large stake in permanent work from home as a workplace strategy (see Contact Center Pipeline/WFHAlliance 2022 Benchmarking Survey Results).
Understanding what others are doing with hybrid work and work from home is more important now than ever before. For many, large populations of contact center employees and support staff will now be in office only a few days a month, or (for many organizations) will remain fully home-based. It was one thing to piece together the operating game plan during the health emergency, but now we need to think about long term strategy, and the road to getting there.
Organizations are working hard to support employee preferences while balancing business objectives and aligning company values and vision – by offering full time work...
WFH: Transitioning from a Staffing Strategy to a (How We) Work Strategy
I've been thinking about some of the key considerations for employees returning to office after this long period of WFH exclusivity, and wondering whether these resonate with you...
Shifting Savings and Expenses of WFH - Become the Progressive Employer
Businesses are social organizations, full stop. In-person gatherings, whether they be one-to-one or formal/informal meetings with a few or many attendees, hold tremendous value. Most people have a burning desire (on varying levels) to look others in the eyes and express themselves both verbally and through body language. Imparting energy, expressing joy or disappointment, entertaining and having fun, are all components of the business of social interactions.
With 90%+ of contact center populations now working from home, the time has arrived to accurately assess what's working, what's not working so well, and where the opportunities sit for upgrades and tweaks to optimize WFH programs for the long haul. Michele Rowan, President of Customer Contact Strategies, conducts benchmarking surveys with Senior Leaders on their work from home programs several times per annum.