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Top Three Pitfalls of Work at Home Programs and How to Avoid Them

Cultural connectivity is one of the top concerns leaders have about deploying an on scale work at home program. The question is, "how will we successfully convey our culture, and inspire people to engage, when they aren't in the building?"

Recently some large companies made announcements about pulling back on their telecommuting programs. In general terms, the notifications advised many professionals who had worked remotely for years - that they needed to come back to the office to work, or lose their jobs. 

A 2017 survey of 60 US contact center organizations indicated that 70% are expanding their work at home programs - many moving to new markets.  It is a fact that when we effectively market home-based positions, we see an increase in applicant flow of 200-400%. Here's the challenge: with growing work at home programs, smart hiring workflows and process automation become a requirement, versus a passing interest.

We have worked with hundreds of organizations who have become very successful at work at home, but all too often the applicant funnel becomes so large, it's unmanageable. As a result, the wrong reps get hired. Here are two examples of proven workflows and processes that help companies hire the best reps for work at home.

People in many parts of the world are changing how and where they want to work, and it is nowhere more evident than in the United States. Flexible working is the #1 new benefit being offered by employers, according to a recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Over the past five years, we've worked with 800+ organizations in design, implementation and continuous improvement of work at home programs for contact centers.  

Now that home working for contact centers is moving into the mainstream, there are some patterns emerging in terms of failure points.  The top three are folllowing, along with proven methods of turning things around, or better, avoiding the failure points all together:

Survey results from 100+ Fortune 1000 companies with home-based employees are in.  Not surprisingly, the top challenge for companies is preparing leaders for effective management of telecommuters.  The second largest challenge has been reported in

Personality tests can predict on the job behaviors, or they are intended to.  And the use of them in customer service jobs is rapidly expanding.  60-70% of prospective workers are tested by US businesses today, doubling its use from a decade ago, according to a September article in the Wall Street Journal.

Two Days of Thought Leadership:  November 12-13, Laguna Beach, CA

Nathan Hickman, Director Workforce Management, and Michele Rowan, President Customer Contact Strategies, lead this two-day meeting on all things remote working.  Topics are attendee-driven, and will incude the following: