With everything going on in the last years, we have seen how the pandemic has transformed the traditional contact center dynamics. Today’s employees expect nothing less than flexible shifts and a work-life balance environment.

The Work From Home (WFH) modality can increase workforce productivity, agent satisfaction, and flexibility. There are different work-from-home modalities, such as hybrid and 100% remote, but its full potential is when the agent is capable of self-scheduling their work, and there are many significant benefits along with it.

Let’s review the most outcoming advantages of the WFH modality in a contact center:

• Become a more attractive employer

You can become a more attractive employer if you let your people decide their shifts. That will really make a difference between a typical call center and one where they actually care about their agents. Besides, actual cost savings come up from a self-scheduled workforce. The requirement to schedule full-day shifts is no longer necessary, thanks to the WFH model.

• Employee enthusiasm

With a WFH and self-scheduling model, you will have more motivated agents working for you. Common call center concerns like schedule adherence, attendance, and agent retention improve considerably when employees are given the freedom to create their timetables. Faster and probably happier employees will be logging in to work every day.

• Better performance-driven contact center culture

Most contact centers are based on achieving quantifiable objectives, benchmarks, and service levels. Considering this, why not self-scheduling based on the accomplishment of important individual KPIs? To those high-achieving and top-performing agents, give them the opportunity to choose their schedules first as a reward. The result? A better performance-driven contact center culture.

• Reliable workforce forecasting and scheduling

Staff scheduling at contact centers is done using volume projections. These forecasts indicate the busiest days and hours and can also be used to identify hours of the day or night that are likely to need more or fewer agents; therefore, opening times for agent self-scheduling. More reliable forecasting will pop out thanks to the model.

Flexibility is the new norm, and work-from-home is here to stay. And not just because agents want it; but also because flexibility produces better results.

Agent self-scheduling allows a work-life balance in addition to employment and unleashes the untapped potential of both a contact center and an employee. Instead of the other way around, self-scheduling delivers work to the people.

Call Center Services International (CCSI) has expertise in staffing and deploying a Call Center Work-From-Home (WFH) model for our North American Clients. We created and developed technology platforms to make the WFH model plug-and-play, so you don't have to worry about how to set up a remote call center for your current operation. Our platform allows operational & security control and real-time monitoring of productivity & performance goals. Contact us today and learn more about this expertise.