For those old timers they may recognize this question as it has been asked before. but considering it's over 5 years old I thought we could revisit this.

I am working for an excellent company that is planning to drastically ramp up the number of remote agents they have currently. It's possible that a majority of the staff may be working remotely.

What pro's and con's do you expect will happen with this system? Do you currently work in a centre with a large amount of remote agents?

Only at the agent level.

also, does anyone have any guidelines that they would provide an agent working from home?

Providing your technology provides you with all the statistics that you would normally have in Call Centre, so that you can monitor activity, Barge-in, call record, provide CTI and CRM integration etc, the only concerns will be of a Health and Safety nature - work station set up in accordance with the Visual Display regulations. You will know whether the agent is logged in or wrapping up in the same way, but you have no control over his desk at home unless you send your own H&S officers round to look at Workstation.

You also have to decide whether you are prepared to have details of a client displayed on a screen and therefore on the hard disc of an employee at home. You may wish to provide Company Laptops which are used in the home setting so that when the agent leaves your employ, you retain all information.

Log in times are easily viewed in stats and so you can tell how long he is on the telephone for during a work period etc.

Hope this helps

Jeremy

Initial workstation setup by an H&S officer is essential, but training agents and monitoring how they're doing in H&S terms is done most efficiently across the net. Computer-based safety training provides a point of reference, available on demand, as to what's expected in terms of good practice. And the integrated assessment provides legally indispensable evidence of the presence or the absence of problems, along with an audit trail of action taken. That enables H&S officers to focus entirely on dealing with problems that arise, rather than constantly having to find out if there are any.

Space is an issue, and laptops need conventional peripherals if they are going to be used for any length of time - periods of an hour or more - so they can't, themselves, save space.

I simply meant that when the agent leaves the employ of the Comapny, it is easier to get a laptop back than a box, monitor etc - and regain possession of information. No question that space is much the same.

Jeremy

it is easier to get a laptop back than a box, monitor etc - and regain possession of information.


I'd think

a) That a laptop was much more desirable...which may hinder it being returned as quickly.

b) Since it's cost would be 2-3x (approx) that of a desktop setup the loss would sting you a lot more

Certainly with our health and safety training / assessment software, all the information generated locally goes off to the central database at the end of each session.
Even where the hardware used is the homeworker's own, in any employment relationship between company and agent, it's the employer's obligation to ensure that it's fit for the purpose, that the agent is trained to use it safely, has the means to do so and that there's also a feedback loop.