The future of homeworking
Can we make it work?
Neville Doughty, Partnership Director, Contact Centre Panel
A recent article in The Times suggested that working from home is no longer popular with employers and that patience for reduced productivity is running out.
Recently I was on a 17:15 flight from Leeds on a Monday evening and as I looked down at the city and the lights below, the queuing traffic suggested that we were returning to the office in ever-increasing numbers.
Changes to legislation in Q4 of 2022 made it feel like employers were obliged to consider any request for remote working as a priority and one that could not be declined. However, against a backdrop of increased pressure to reduce costs, has the tide now turned?
Has the mindset of the working population changed such that there isn’t the appetite for spending a whole working week in the office??I saw a post about the increasing numbers of over 55s who have become “economically inactive”?and how the government are looking to incentivise?them to return to the workplace. What an opportunity these people present to contact centre employers. However, even with an incentive?I don’t think that is going to be an easy option. Put simply, people’s priorities have changed.
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In a recent conversation with a salesperson, he made what was a critical assessment of the nation post-Covid. It probably wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but he was perhaps accurate in his assessment. Post-pandemic, many people have become less generous with their time, they are less courteous, as if not letting someone out at a junction or trying to cut a queue will somehow recompense them for the time “lost” due to the pandemic.
Perhaps this can be applied to the appetite that some people now have for work? For employers with increased costs and potentially falling revenues, if we enter a recession then productivity will be critical.
I didn’t want to hear it as I always prefer to see the best in humanity.
That being said, have we all truly implemented the best processes and support required to make homeworking sustainable for the long term? Are the best practices to support people, seen at the start of the lockdowns, still being actively pursued? Have you gone back and checked in on your technology? Are you confident that everything possible has been done to make working from home viable and if necessary have you ensured that the right conversations about productivity and performance have been had?
Only then should we be considering such a decision to bring everyone back into the office full-time.
Perhaps contact centre outsourcing with all our technology , management information, people, processes and approach are better set to make homeworking deliver. Maybe this is our time to shine and working for a contact centre will gain more kudos as it becomes a way to maintain that critical work-life balance that?so many people are searching for. If this is the case, then we may have an opportunity to attract and retain the best people to deliver great customer experiences.
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1 年When everything kicked off in early 2020, companies had to 1. Comply with the new rules 2. Keep the business running, as best they could 3. Look after people in face of the unknown Things settled a bit and "new normal" was talked about. Productivity initially went up as folks settled into distraction-free homeworking or changed habits and routines when it wasn't distraction-free to be able to work from home successfully, thankful that they were safe. Companies announced that homeworking and many urban homeowners sold to move out to bigger houses with more space and countryside to walk in. Offices were reduced to social/essential meeting spaces or given up totally. This was not a great time to own a lot of office space for rent, it seemed. And the flipside to the new normal is that, for some, working at home resulted in virtually no workplace human interaction on top of almost zero social interaction. People started to climb the walls, struggled to concentrate, missed the coffee machine chats, even missed the commute. Homeworking for contact centres works well where the right people, processes and technology are in place. Hurriedly adapted fixes have to be replaced with what's elegant. Homeworking is good, but not for everyone!
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1 年Contact Centre Panel home-working; all be it a hybrid model in many cases; is the only way forward for 21st century digital world and workforce. All we require as industry leaders is little ingenuity as to how to motivate a remote increasing digital native workforce. I would 100% agree that a traditional Contact Centre model will never be fit for purpose in a new home-working environment but lets face it the contact centre hasn't changed much over the last 20years and was never ever the model of productivity we all desired? With its revolving door of negative( with a little positive attrition), the cost to serve complaining or just plain confused customers was and still is in many cases untenable. So I'd say #homeworking is the only way forward we just have to review what is really broken in our business; as poorly performing contact centre is just the result of a broken or over complicated business process. And begin to focus on what is really important to the personnel we hire! Excellent communication and understanding. Cultures of honesty, authenticity and gratitude. Flexible working hours to fit my life and family. #digitalnomad