Hi David,

Is remote agents an effective alternative for better agent productivity? (I am referring to Virtual call centres where intelligent call router is used)
Vedula

Vedula

My honest and short answer is "I have no experience of this on a large scale commercial level so cannot comment objectively."

For what it's worth though I have some personal experiences, feelings and observations which I do not mind sharing.

1 - I know from personal experience that when working from home, unless you are particularly disiplined it is difficult to focus solely on the work related issues - i.e. difficult not be sidetracked by domesticity - especially initially.

2 - As a man working from home I found my non-working (only in a commercial sense!) female partner was never really able to get her head around that fact that I 'really' was working and therefore could not stop and chat at the drop of a hat.

3 - Whilst I personally felt quite effective - despite the above - I did miss both the social interaction and additional 'input' that other like minded (from a business perspective) people provide when you get stuck.

4 - What i also discovered was that it ended up becoming very difficult to 'shut off' at the designated time.

What does this all mean then?

For me, if you do work from home you have to have a completely seperate and fuly equipped space to work in away from distractions of any kind. You have to continually send messages to the family that working from home is 'serious' and not just an unofficial day off.

For me, the social and personal interaction of an office environment, properly configured and controlled, can add to productivity levels.

The fact that I could not switch off became a burden and reduced my productivity ultimately as I never rested or escaped. It has been proven that if you spend your time travelling to and from work inpreperation and debriefing yourself of work related issues your productivity rises and negative cayyover from work to home life is minimised.

All in all, I'd say for my personality and business type it would not work. I guess what one has to do is assess each case on its merits and if that is the route chosen recruit and monitor VERY VERY carefully.

David

Hi all,

I think one major key needs to be taken into account here and that is what is the industry this would be used for?

I personally find in my experience different industries require levels of handling and some simply would not be good to be handled from home.

I agree with the earlier comments as well that self discipline (calm down the lot of you!) plays a very large part for the very reasons mentioned. I theink we are a social bunch of animals and therefore we need to connect, when I have spent a while working on my own it has been nice but then I have need the interaction and the 'bouncing' off others to recharge before starting again.

Regards
Craig

Hi all,

I think one major key needs to be taken into account here and that is what is the industry this would be used for?

I personally find in my experience different industries require levels of handling and some simply would not be good to be handled from home.

I agree with the earlier comments as well that self discipline (calm down the lot of you!) plays a very large part for the very reasons mentioned. I theink we are a social bunch of animals and therefore we need to connect, when I have spent a while working on my own it has been nice but then I have need the interaction and the 'bouncing' off others to recharge before starting again.

Regards
Craig

Hi guys,

Although I have never had the supposed luxury of working from home, a close friend of mine did for many years - his policy was to get up in the morning and 'go to work.' This involved wearing proper business attire and going to a designated office in the house and working from there. I got the impression that the discipline for this is difficult to maintain and may not be for everybody.

I guess that doesn't help much but I'll put my two penn'orth in anyway.

James

Technically you can keep tally on the agent productivity. So it becomes a lesser of the problem. You can also coach and manage agents that way.

The issue is that sometimes the right atmosphere and the lack of at home distractions may foster theelements an agent needs to be more productive.

There are exceptions to the case. Parents, for instance.

Hi folks,

Interesting topic. I personally have spent a fair amount of time working in isolation (not necessarily always at home) on various projects over the last few years, and have a few points I'd like to add.

Distraction is a real danger in the home, as is motivation. One of the key tricks I have learnt is that it's always a good idea to have some kind of divider between home and home-office - both in a physical and practical sense.

Working from a dedicated room or office is useful, as it means that the normal distractive elements such as the TV or stereo aren't present. If you should choose to add these, then fair enough, but that has to be a conscious decision to add those to the home office, and the distinction between home-relaxing and office-working must be maintained.

On the note of practical distinction between home and home-office, there are many solutions that can be used. One of these is to ensure that work-clothes are worn, another is to have some kind of activity which is performed between 'home' and 'working' states (I went for a jog every other morning, or had a nice coffee in the garden).

Other things to think about include your regime (ensuring you are at your desk at a particular time, as you would in a real office) and ensuring you get out of the house for lunches as often as possible.

Working from home (in my case, as a development consultant) was liberating and slightly scary (in the sense that isolation creepsup on you and it's possible to go a whole day without speaking to anyone - scary!). However, the sense of control and responsibility one gets from this sort of approach makes it all worthwhile, in my opinion.

Hope this helps,

John

I rented an office space when I started the business in 1993. Finished out the one year lease and moved the whole kit and kaboodle home. Glad the initial creative process occurred in a separate location, but also happy to have had the priviledge of working in my home environ for the past 7 years.

Also, I've had employees working as 'remote agents' (they would have known how cool they were if we'd had that tag then). Some of them were quite efficient and some were just 'no way' when it came tocutting out work time in their day. Those who could do it truly loved it.

A laminated sign saying, "Woman Working - do not disturb- 8-5" on the door helped keep friends from coming over for two hour coffees. Phone calls were another issue, but by now, most everyone knows not to call unless it is brief and/or important. Remember having to get quite militant with a few folks who didn't 'get it' that they were robbing me of my livlihood as well as my time.

The isolation can be an issue. Also, breaking suction with the house seemed a real challenge after a while. Important to associate with other entreprenuers. My next step is an outside office with a part time secretary. Yahoo!

Hi Everyone,

I have worked out of my home as a National Account Manager for the past 8 years, prior to that I worked in a large office. I would absolutely HATE going back into an office--I love working out of my home.

Now, it is very important that you have a "designated office" and that not only immediate family understand that you are "at work", but friends and neighbors also, because people do tend to thnk they can drop in and chat because you are at home. However, everyone certainly understands my rules now.

As far as the isolation, I am on the phone, or IM with co-workers everday--it's fine. I do also travel quite often and that helps, because I believe you do need the socialization. However,the productivity I gain byworking at home is fantastic, you do have to be careful to remember to "leave" the office at a respectable hour each day--overworking is a definite danger.

Hi Jeannie,

You said: "I would absolutely HATE going back into an office--I love working out of my home" and I'd have to agree - there's something very liberating about working from home, as you are both in control of your surroundings and free from that whole 'corporate' office thing.

That said, a good, well staffed and friendly office can be an invigorating place to work and do business. Especially if it's a small team of like-minded and devoted individuals working on something that everyone is interested and passionate about...

John

Of course, more often than not it's down to the nature of the work and in my experience it's rare to find an organisation which is so 'into' what they are doing. Those that are tend to be the lowest paying organisations as well.

You just can't win... :-)

John