Findings from 5th Talent’s 2020 Contact Center Industry Work-at-Home Study.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid and global shift of moving contact center agents and supervisors to a work-at-home model, giving rise to two central questions: How has this impacted performance; and is the traditional work-at-home model sustainable? Common industry wisdom favors a 100% work-at-home model as the best chance for sustainability, and that most of the agents who performed well in the center will not transition successfully to working at home. If only certain agents can excel working at home, then it seems that the only choice is to replace those agents who excelled in the center with those who are more suited to the challenges of the work-at-home model. This is a costly and potentially overwhelming challenge for most organizations.
To investigate these real concerns, in May 2020, 5th Talent International delivered a survey to more than 4,000 agents and supervisors across seven countries. The findings provide unexpected insight into the point of view of the work-at-home employee and suggests that there are more efficient and effective ways to successfully transition to and sustain a work-at-home model. However, it requires moving away from a strategy of changing your agents to fit your model, and instead, changing your model to fit the needs of your agents.
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