Upgrade Your Work From Home Program
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.
Participants are Vice Presidents and Directors of contact center organizations from health care, financial services, retail, hospitality, utilities, technology/telecom and professional services organizations. Here are some of the findings from the most recent post-pandemic survey:
Better attendance. 53% of respondents experienced reduced absenteeism, as it's easier to "attempt" to get to work even with barriers when at home.
High productivity. 40% of participants are experiencing higher output, attributing that to employee commitment to getting the job done, and overall fewer distractions than the in-office environment.
High engagement. 74% reported overwhelmingly positive attitudes from their employees during and after the transition to home, along with solid communication flow and engagement on both the employee side and leadership side.
Uptime/network connectivity. It's no surprise that uptime/network connectivity is lower than office connections, but what is surprising is that network connectivity seems to be 90% or higher vs. in office for most companies - just a few short months after transitioning large work forces. This metric will continue to improve as WFH programs mature.
Challenges with equipment and services provisioning. There's been a shortage of cameras, laptops, thin clients, and on the employee side, finding the right work space at home, and desk/chair work setup can be challenging.
Forward plans: most will keep a large contingent at home. 72% of companies said that the majority of their workforces would remain at home full time, with some rotation on an as preferred/as needed basis.
The bottom line: WFH has huge upsides for both employees and for businesses, and for this reason, most companies with maintain a significant segment of people at home (short term for safety and long term for employee preferences and company ++ benefits).
The full 2020 Remote Working Benchmarking report is FREE with registration to the upcoming Work From Home Forum for Senior Leadership, on October 22 via Zoom.
Six speakers will be sharing their case studies on October 22 - learn more here: https://www.customercontactstrategies.com/2020-advanced-remote-working-strategies-workshops/