Richard Kenny, Contact Centre Segment Manager

The state of home working, 2013

• 75 participants from UK & Ireland

• Surveyed in June 2013

• Supplemented by meeting with key CCA members to derive interpretation

• These slides are a snapshot of key results

• Added interpretation from different angles and industry sources

Survey details

Main Benefits - Results

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What do you think are the main BENEFITS of implementing home-working for your organisation? (Please select as many as

you think are relevant.)

• Lots of benefits!

• All highly scored

• Flexibility is the key benefit

–Micro-shifts

–Split shifts

–Zero commute time

• Disaster recovery?

Main Benefits - Interpretation

How are Cost Reductions Achieved

*At Home Customer Contacts

• If home working takes away the limits on where your staff are, can you route calls to an advisor who lives somewhere in the area of customer?

• Geographic matching

• If home working changes the age & type of person you recruit, can you route calls to an advisor of a similar demographic?

• Demographic matching

Questions

Main Barriers - Results

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What do you think are the main BARRIERS of implementing home-working for your organisation? (Please select as many as you think are

relevant.)

• Connectivity/technology– Perception or reality?

• Security & Compliance– % of fraud within home working is the

same as or lower than in-house

– 42% of companies reporting fraud actually lower than in house

• H&S not a high priority?– Initially the main concern for companies

investigating home working

– Companies transition once they establish a position

Main Barriers - Interpretation

What is the scale of homeworking - results

Do you currently have customer service staff working from home?

Yes

No

Trialling at the moment

Investigating

Planning to implement within the next 6-12 months

• 59% have implemented, or are trialling/investigating or planning home working

• 61% plan to increase this number

• Almost all are <20%– Expansion– Trial

• Very quick transition from trial to implement– Once trust established– Once companies establish that

it works

What is the scale of home working - interpretation

Technology Choice - Results

14.8%

40.7%

44.4%

What do you use for telephony for your home-workers?

Analogue line with phone

PC-based soft-phone (connected through broadband)

IP/TDM desk-phone (connected through broadband)

• Does not immediately tie in with Q2 where technology was cited as main barrier

• For those who are implementing, broadband is a reliable option

• Companies copying in-house technology for at home advisors

• Do not want expense of putting phone line in?

• Do not want to tie up advisor phone line?

Technology Choice - Interpretation

Equipment responsibility - Results

81.5%

18.5%

Who is responsible for providing hardware such as phones, computers and headsets for your home-workers?

The company provides the full set of hardware for our home-workers

Our home-workers provide their own hardware to a certain specification as agreed by the organisation

• Equipment responsibility was initially a big barrier to home working adoption

• Companies now taking responsibility for all aspects of at home advisor equipment

• Again, copying in house architecture out to home workers

Equipment Responsibility - Interpretation

• Employment status– 58% have a mix of full time and part-time

– No one model of employment is dominant

• Anyone at home?– 43% planning mixed model of some

working at home, some in-house

• Training & Coaching– Over 50% train in-house

• Is it cloudy?– Approx 11% use cloud based software,

50% use thin client

Selected other results

Global airline, 2 year study, 50% of US

workforce

10% increase in calls per hour

12% increase in revenue per hour

Reduced CC budget by 15-20%

Work from home case study*

*At Home Customer Contacts

• Joint benefits of environment and person

• A new environment– Background noise cited as significant

dissatisfaction

– Home is a much quieter environment

• Recruiting a new demographic– Average age in-house – 23

– Average age at home – 38

– Average education in-house – 30% have college level education

– Average education at home – 80% have college level education

Why home working works

Why home working works

• Significantly increased employee satisfaction

• Some increase in customer satisfaction

• It depends…

• …What are your priorities or challenges?

• There isn’t one model that works for everyone

• Increase flexibility or extend availability– Mix part-time & full-time, at home & in

office

• Decrease cost– Close and sell your building & send everyone

home!

• Increase employee satisfaction & retention– Employee advisors directly

What is the right model for you?

• Twitter– @contactcentred

– #athomecctr

• Slideshare– http://www.slideshare.net/plantronicsea

• Blog for interpretation– http://blogcentral.plantronics.com/contact-

centered/

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