Four Smart Reasons To Offer Remote Work In Your Contact Center

Here’s an alarming statistic: More than half (56%) of contact center agents say they’d think about leaving their jobs if they couldn’t work remotely.

Our research study of contact center agents and managers has revealed a significant conflict: While most agents strongly prefer remote work, nearly half of the contact centers plan to bring employees back to the office this year. This conflict underscores the need to consider the benefits of remote work for agents, such as increased job satisfaction and improved work-life balance.

6 Smart Reasons to Offer Remote Work in Your Contact Center offer remote work

You’ve worked hard to build a team of great agents, in which remote work has helped to provide a comfortable work-life balance — and they’re not ready to give it up yet. To keep your team, you must explore ways to continue remote work. We’ve got seven reasons you should give it a try.

1. Remote Agents Have More Job Satisfaction

More than 85% of the agents in our study say their job satisfaction has greatly or somewhat increased with remote roles.

Agents cite various reasons for preferring remote work. Still, the most popular reason cited is saving money: 91% say they appreciate not paying for transportation, eating meals out, or buying suitable office attire. Seventy-six (76%) say they prefer having more time control.

Lindsey J., a pharmaceutical company agent who works remotely the entire work week, is a testament to the success of remote work. She is more productive because she no longer spends time commuting to an office and finds working at home less stressful. Her words echo the sentiments of many remote workers: “I never want to return to an office.”

2. Offering Remote Work Helps You Retain Your Agents

Our study revealed a significant impact on agent retention. More than 40% of managers reported that offering remote job opportunities has significantly or somewhat reduced their resignation rates. This reassuring statistic in the face of the Great Resignation has hit nearly every industry hard.

However, employees’ reasons for leaving are more manageable than you might think. The Pew Research Center shares that 48% of employees who quit in 2021 left because of childcare issues, 45% because of the lack of flexibility, and 35% because they wanted to relocate.

Agents in our study felt even stronger about flexibility. Seventy-six (76%) cite having more control over their time as an essential benefit of remote work, while 57% value the flexibility to move to another location.

3. Remote Work is a Powerful Recruitment Tool

In the past year, 49% of managers in our study have offered prospective agents remote work options, which is an intelligent approach when battling low unemployment rates and labor shortages.

You’re not alone if hiring is tough right now. TechTarget shares that 35% of customer experience leaders need help finding agents with the necessary skills. If you need help finding suitable agents for your contact center, offering a remote or hybrid work environment will let you expand your pool of candidates to include those who live outside your area.

4. New Approaches can Keep You Connected to Your Team

As a contact center leader, remote work can present challenges. But your agents need you to make the effort to stay engaged.

Agents in our study report their contact centers are doing several things well regarding remote work arrangements. Offering creative team-building events, such as online concerts or birthday celebrations, receives positive, enthusiastic feedback from employees. Agents value daily one-on-one chats with their supervisors as well. They also shared other positive feedback:

“They clearly lay out expectations for work.”
“They initiate effective communication via Slack.”
“My manager gives us the freedom to get our work done and doesn’t micromanage.”
“They offer the option to work remotely and are flexible with the shifts worked from home.”
“They do a good job with engaging employees and offering training.”

But there’s also room for improvement, according to agents — especially regarding communication. Suggestions we heard from agents on how managers could improve include:

“Our manager needs to check in with us more often, including daily touch points.”
“My previous company offered happy hours and made sure the remote team was included in office events as much as possible. They even sent remote workers gift cards for food.”
“Managers need to be more available. At an in-person contact center, management is much easier to get hold of.”
“Offer more engagement and opportunities for collaboration”

5. A Solid Remote Work Policy is Important

Take a strategic approach with the right policies, plans, and technologies to avoid these pitfalls and keep your team connected.

First, ensure you have a solid remote work policy. Forty-two (42%) of the companies in our study need one. Your policy should include any requirements you have around:

The performance standards agents must meet when working remotely
The work environment required, including appropriate space, equipment, noise levels, and internet access
The minimum distance from the office to be considered fully remote
The number of days per week, month, or quarter agents must come into the office, if any

Next, ensure you have the proper solutions to make managing, training, and motivating your agents easier for you and them. Support center managers told us they used collaboration and video conferencing software like Slack and Zoom last year to improve communication.

To manage performance even when they’re not in the same building as their team, support leaders said they deployed solutions for workforce management (29%) and quality management (26%).

6. Training for Remote Workers Offers Creative Learning Opportunities

Being paired with another CSR ranked as the top way agents in our study wanted training. On the other hand, managers ranked instructor-led learning as their preferred way for their team to learn.

While there’s room for both these techniques, remote agent training at your contact center team can also benefit from online learning. Multimedia learning lets new agents learn the ropes and helps experienced agents improve their skills anytime — wherever they are. Look for a solution that enables you to track agents’ training progress and customize learning paths for each agent based on their needs.

To keep everyone engaged, many of the same methods of motivating agents that work when they are in the office are still effective when they are outside it. However, agents have a clear favorite: When we asked about their preferences for motivational techniques, they ranked the option to work remotely right at the top.

Give Agents What They Want

There’s no mistaking it — agents don’t want to come back to the office. So, it’s time to take action — offering remote work opportunities will help you keep your team happy and help you bring on new agents. With the right technology services and practices in place, remote work can work for everyone on your contact center team.

Learn more about how agents feel about remote work — and how other contact center leaders handle it — in our eBook, The Contact Center Conflict: Remote Work vs. Return to the Office.