While policies are not part of the contact center triad (people, processes, and technology), they are vital elements in contact center operations. Because virtual contact centers add a series of new variables into the equation they require a new set of policies or at a minimum an upgrade to your current policies. But, there is something about policies that can be frustrating. While they are necessary, they sometimes can be inflexible and restrict the path to excellent customer service. Moreover, no matter how clear and clean cut your policies may be, there is always going to be someone trying to interpret them differently. Policies relating to your virtual contact center are no exception. In fact, being new, these policies may be tested more, at least in the beginning.
As stated in a previous article of this series, Creating a virtual contact center -- Step 2: gathering help, your HR department needs to be part of the visioning process and you should meet with your HR representatives early and often in the process. They will be invaluable helping you weave through the complex labyrinth of local, state, and federal employee law, as well as any company policies.
First step in developing your virtual contact center policies is to make the reason you are going virtual very clear. Agents and supervisors need to know what is expected of them. Is your vision of a virtual contact center a business-centered vision or an agent-centered vision? That is, is the reason you are establishing a virtual contact center for business purposes or is it to enhance the agent experience or both? The answer to that question sets the foundation for the rest of your policies. If the vision of a business focused vision, then the agents’ opportunities to work from home can be more easily defined as a privilege and thus be modified or revoked if needed. However, if the vision is an agent based vision, then it becomes more difficult to define working remotely as a privilege and therefore more difficult to modify. Making the purpose crystal clear to the agents and having it “on paper” will make establishing the rest of the policies easier as well as simplify future modifications (and there will be modifications).
Once you have established the foundation, turn to the agent’s work area. In addition to the technical requirements (if any) you specify, agents should have a quiet place to work, free from “normal” home noises such as barking dogs, noisy cats, and excessive mechanical noises. Keep in mind that there may be additional requirements imposed by OSHA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and other regulatory vehicles with regards to work-at-home employees. One rule of thumb is that if you provide special technologies or furniture to an employee in the office, your will need to supply the same or equal facilities to the agent in their home office. Denying work-at-home privileges when others are granted the same privilege because of the special technology requirements is a likely path to a complaint or even a law suit. Your HR and IT departments can help you determine and implement these requirements. Other of discussion points regarding agent’s workspace may include:
- Hoteling and sharing in-house work spaces
- Violation of the quiet workspace policy
- Policies if the agent does not have a quiet workspace at home in a 100% virtual vision.
In a normal year, contact centers workforce managers spend a lot of energy dealing with agents who need to take time to deal with a sick child. The current outbreak of the H1N1 virus has made that processes even more difficult with schools experiencing upward to 20% of a school population suffering from the H1N1 flu. Some contact centers allow agents to work from home while caring for a sick child believing it is better to have a part time agent than none at all. Others require agents to take paid-time-off when they need to stay home with a sick child. What about when an agent is sick themselves? If the agent has a bad cold but otherwise able to work, do you risk them infecting the rest of the staff or do you have him or her to work from home? While most agents are honest and will work within the rules, some will try to take advantage of the situation. In your vision of a virtual contact center you need to determine how flexible your policies will be with regards to using at-home privileges as a substitute for paid-time-off.
Although you should have completed a through technology review (refer to Creating a virtual contact center -- Step 3: Reviewing Technology) and have a good understanding of the points of failure, problems will still occur. Moreover, agents in virtual contact centers have been known to use technical problems (such as a problem with a cable modem or VPN) at their home or in the cloud as a convenient excuse for not working. You need to establish a policy in case of technical problems. How long will the agent be out of commission before he or she must come into the office (in the case where there is a convenient office) or take paid time off? How often is too often? How will you verify that the agent is actually having technical problems?
Not all agents are suited for working from home, whether for personal, technical, or environmental reasons. A percentage of agents who flourish emotionally in a traditional contact center setting may flounder in a virtual environment because they need human contact. The solution for this in a part-time virtual contact center is to bring the agent back into the traditional setting. But what will you do if the center is 100% virtual? What training, coaching, and possibly counseling will be available for the agent to better handle working alone? Keeping an eye on performance and keeping in constant contact with at-home agent is critical finding these at-risk agents and rectifying the issues early.
In this article I have focused mainly on policies for at-agents. But there are really no reasons managers, team leads, and supervisors cannot also work virtually. Given today’s contact center solutions, managers can have the same access to data, reports, and displays as when they are in the office. But, because a large part of a manager’s job is communicating with agent, experts, and peers, your policy should reflect the new communication paradigms. Your policies should spell out how 1-on-1 meetings and team meetings will be held as well as how the agent will escalate issues to management and to experts. Procedures for escalating issued and requests for assistance may also change and the policies need to reflect that fact. Please refer to my article, Managing in a virtual contact center: Part 1, reaching out of tips and technology explanations.
Contract employees pose some additional policy challenges in a virtual environment. Contract employees are beneficial when you expect additional call volume or decreased number full time employees (i.e. during a flu epidemic, summer vacation season). A thorough review of contractor policies with your HR department is essential before utilizing contractors in a virtual environment. If you operate a part-time virtual contact center, the solution may be not allowing contractors to work from home. But, that decreases the business continuity impact and increases real estate overhead. By law and function, contract employees are different from corporate employees any solution utilizing contract employees will require specific policies.
Having your policies in place before sending agents home to work is as important as having the proper technology in place. Your policies should be flexible enough to change as new situations arise, but not vague or burdensome. It is a fine line to walk but with proper policies in place, going virtual can be seamless and flow smoothly.
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