Telecommuting: A Perspective by Tim Houlne, CEO, Working Solutions
In an opposing view to the decisions by Yahoo! and Best Buy to pull their virtual teams back to their offices, our company is built on multiple success stories for virtual work and telecommuting. Working Solutions pioneered the at-home agent model for call centers in 1996, and continues to be a leader in the virtual workforce platform leveraging call center cloud technology. Working with virtual teams is second-nature to us and we see the trend growing among our customers and partners.
We attract a highly educated, engaged agent community that excels at delivering exceptional customer experience because we’re not constrained by a specific geography or limited by a 20 minute commute to the office. This is a key competitive advantage and something that Yahoo! and Best Buy will most likely lose when they decide to pull all workers back to the cube.
I believe Yahoo! and Best Buy’s issues are due to a lack of appropriate management of their virtual teams. First and foremost, you must identify, recruit and hire the right individual with the right skill-sets, who have the ability to work in a virtual environment. Team members must be self-motivated and thrive at managing their own time, as well as juggling multiple priorities. Second, there has to be a solid virtual work strategy that encompasses these key factors:
· Manage the process and outcome, not the people.
· Virtual success is about empowerment, not control.
· Invest in cloud technology and tools to manage projects.
· Understand virtual collaboration both from a technology and a peer to peer communication standpoint in order to get the best ideas.
In my new book, The New World of Work: From the Cube to the Cloud, there are a multitude of success stories that prove virtual work is not only possible, but necessary to maintain a competitive advantage.
About Working Solutions
Working Solutions improves return on investment and controls costs for contact centers by providing groundbreaking results through the right people and technology delivered at the right time. Working Solutions’ services include Agents OnDemand®, experienced at-home agents; WS iNet®, a call center cloud technology platform; and PostQ, a comprehensive social media management and engagement tool. Founded in 1996, Working Solutions is now a leader in home-agent call centers and virtual call center technology that delivers first-class results that exceed those delivered in traditional in-house or outsourced call centers. For more information, visit www.workingsolutions.com. Click here to watch the news reel.
About The New World of Work: From the Cube to the Cloud
The New World of Work: From the Cube to the Cloud is the new, eye-opening book that underscores startling statistics about the global labor force. The New World of Work describes the transformation of virtual work platforms and talent-sourcing that is revolutionizing not just how and where work is performed, but the way business is being done. The book provides the knowledge to propel careers and businesses forward with a better understanding of next-generation work by explaining how to become a Virtualpreneur™ and highlighting how businesses can compete for virtual talent. Learn more by visiting www.newworldofwork.com.