In part 4 of our blog series on remote talent assessment strategies, we look at various issues to consider when moving to a remote agent model. For a more detailed discussion on talent assessment strategies in the home agent model, view our white paper .
Important odds and ends considerations for the remote agent model include:
Employee or Independent Contractor?
Most employee agent programs use an employee only model for many reasons, but primarily because directly employing remote agents solves many potential problems. In fact, several independent contractor models are now being challenged with lawsuits.
Choose a State or Province
With 50 states, the United States offers mini-labs on employment laws, costs, etc. Frankly, some states, like California, are almost universally avoided by virtual home agent models because of the costs to employ someone in that state. Make sure to understand the costs and regulations associated with each state so you can focus your sourcing spend on the most attractive markets.
Recruiting Tactic
One interesting recruiting strategy is to set-up a Google Alert for call centers or contact centers so that you are notified of contact centers that are closing. With a virtual model, you can then reach out to that organization’s Human Resources team to potentially source and select those employees into your remote agent program.
Provide a Computer or Not
Determine your company policy on providing a computer to the new hire or requiring them to purchase or use their existing computer. This has a number of technical and financial implications including compensations and tax benefits.
Work Shift Trends
According to survey data from the 2012 Remote Agent Summit and Michele Rowan of At Home Customer Contacts, an emerging trend is increased utilization of split and staggered work shifts at home (often several a day), attracting high-caliber employees to customer contact positions, while sharply matching arrival patterns of voice and non-voice work in very targeted increments. The results are labor cost savings and material and facilities reductions for many organizations.
Topics: Work at Home