With COVID 19 taking hold of the nation … wait, no, let me correct myself, the world. Who would have thought that we would all be working from home so successfully? Which in itself, begs the question of do we really need to go back to ‘normal’?
At RWR we are a specialist in Call Centre and Contact Centre recruitment, and we love what we do. But it has got me thinking with so many client’s employees now working from the comfort of their dining room table, sofa, or, dare I say it, their bed, why do we even need call centres anymore?
Now hear me out before you all come after me with a big stick, I am not saying that we need to replace people with robots, but we need to think of the bigger picture. Let me give you two examples…
Client one:
This client wants every single one of their employees to make a 30 minute (it maybe less it maybe more) journey to work every day, spend their money traveling to work, to then sit in a (normally) very large room all together where everyone is talking all at the same time, then to be limited to social interaction and then have the pleasure of traveling home after (normally with a headache after all the listening they have had to do for the customers) for just over, what is minimum wage. Then getting home and feel like they are on this endless hamster wheel of get up, go to work, come home, go to bed.
Client two:
This client is not bothered where the employee is based geographically, but more so that they can do the job and do it well for their business. The employee gets up at a reasonable time, gets dressed, logs on to work, takes their breaks as scheduled, still has a headache from all listening they have done, but is able to log off a PC or close a laptop down at the end of their shift and be at home already.
What are the benefits though? Well for employers, you will suddenly go from a 15mile radius talent pool to a national talent pool! You will have employees who will have a better work life balance, you could have a lower absence rate (because, lets face it, when you are unwell half the battle is actually getting yourself into work!) and better engaged employees that could offer a much more flexible business solution to you and your customers.
It will of course come with its pitfalls, but do I really need to list them? Come on we all expect the normal back lash of “how do I know they will log on and do their own work” – well, you don’t but you have to trust your employees, like a teacher trusts the student with homework.
I think the bigger question here is, do we really need the large office spaces, or has COVID really shown us that the show can go on?
