Over the past 18 months, the majority of contact center employees have been working from home, and many are expressing interest in a hybrid approach for a healthier work-life balance. Meanwhile, enterprises are listening and are willing to accommodate these requests, trusting their BPO partners to provide the proper tools and technology to support all staff, regardless of location.
Work-At-Home: No Longer Just For Business Continuity
Before 2020, many companies considered work-at-home models to be a luxury or an extra investment. They’d have a few remote employees on standby to serve as a temporary business continuity solution in case of a weather disaster, but once all was resolved, the entire staff would safely file back into the building and resume business as usual.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, brands across every vertical quickly learned the value of offsite employees, and companies whose BPO partners were already accustomed to secure work-at-home implementations are those that have fared the best. Tens of thousands of contact center employees immediately began working remotely for the first time, and most remain virtual today.
Learn More: 3 Hybrid Workplace Best Practices To Maintain Employee Wellness and Avoid Burnout
Hybrid Models: Forward-Focused Flexibility
Thinking ahead, those affected are questioning what work will look like in a post-pandemic world: will it be 100% office, 100% remote, or a mix of both? The right model depends on an organization’s goals, the nature of the business being supported, and each employee’s capabilities and personal preferences. A hybrid model has an inherent flexibility that will accommodate any organization’s strategy.
Overall, satisfaction scores for clients, customers, and employees have soared throughout the course of the pandemic. Many agents are finding that they actually prefer working from home and hope that they can remain remote permanently. The same goes for several companies—if they’re seeing positive results with an at-home model, they likely have no intention of sending their employees back to the office. But some employees will always crave real-life workplace interactions, and some companies will always prefer that staff perform their collective duties from a shared work space. Face-to-face collaboration boosts creativity and teamwork skills, and the mental health of many workers relies on the ability to see and speak with their co-workers in person.
For these particular circumstances, the concept of a hybrid operation model is emerging, and in some geographical areas less affected by the pandemic, hybrid models are already effectively in place. For example, a team of agents might be split so that some work in the contact center while others work from their nearby homes, rotating in and out of the center depending on the day or week. This has been a common social distancing practice to comply with reduced capacity requirements.
In another scenario that could quickly become attractive to clients and employees alike, each work-at-home staff member is given access to a small-scale hybrid hub within their community. In this non-contact center digitally enhanced space, remote employees can either drop in on occasion or meet at an agreed time to drive increased collaboration with teammates and leaders. The frequency can be scaled in relation to specific needs.
In Chiswick, England, HGS has developed a prototype of this model called the HGS Engagement Hub. Once a week, small teams and client representatives meet to collaborate and participate in non-production activities. For the other four days a week, the employees work from home. The modern environment includes digital dynamic branding, multipurpose meeting spaces, collaboration areas, video conferencing, and breakout areas, all embracing current and future social distancing and safety measures.
Learn More: 5 Tips for Managing a New Hybrid Workforce
Technology Toolkit: How To Go Hybrid
For companies that find a hybrid model appealing, it’s essential to ensure support for each team member throughout their entire employee lifecycle—no matter where they are. Here’s how HGS creates a hybrid environment:
- Move on-premises contact center technologies to the cloud for flexibility
- Adopt automation for a frictionless employee experience throughout all recruiting, onboarding, and training
- Connect and engage with applicants via video and our online bot SophieTM
- Supply all equipment to provide consistency, more easily troubleshoot issues, and eliminate computer cost barriers for potential employees
- Encrypt all data, require two-factor authentication, disable Wi-Fi, and allow network access only during hours of operation
- Assess work area regularly via 360-degree webcam view to ensure compliance with clean-desk policy
- Integrate RPA, AI, and bots to assist agents with real-time access to client data, streamlining operations and improving customer interactions
- Maintain a motivated team through continuous engagement with employees via online chat and video conferencing
The Future Is Flexible: Customization Is Key
Going forward, BPOs and their clients must communicate transparently in order to custom-craft the ideal operations model for each line of business. Whether the assigned individuals will work in traditional contact centers, their own homes, shared work spaces, or a combination of these options, it’s imperative that they not only operate within a secure and compliant environment, but also remain engaged and motivated as they perform their roles. With the right tools and technology in place, these CX professionals will be set up for digital-age success.
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