Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Recruitment & retentionFlexible working

Half of contact centres still discount home working

by Personnel Today 11 Apr 2008
by Personnel Today 11 Apr 2008

Despite the wide spread availability of high speed broadband and the advances in technology, home working is still not in the top 5 options being used to create flexibility in contact centres.

Even more astonishing is that over 50% of centres have either discounted home working or not even considered it as a viable option, according to recent research conducted by the Professional Planning Forum.

“This just released research forms part of the Flexible Working stream we are developing, to support the demands of employees, businesses and government legislation on flexibility,” explains Steve Woosey, Membership Director of The Professional Planning Forum.

The 2008 Flexible Working Survey shows that improving efficiency is still the main reason for flexible working but delivering a work/life balance to employees is now nearly as important.

It also shows that part time staff is still the main tool used by many centres to deliver flexibility in their staffing with 63% of centres having between 20-40% part time employees in their centres.

However whilst part time workers do deliver flexibility they also bring a lot of challenges. Just look at some of the comments from the survey:-

“Spans of control for Team Managers are lower so cost is higher”

“Often people accept part time hours and then ask to change them in the first 6 months”

“Long time to fully train”

“Requests for hours within the “school run”, poor evening cover delivered”

Looking at home working more closely, the research revealed a number of differences between expected and realised benefits.

For example, those implementing homeworking expect to see most benefit in employee work/life balance and reduced absence.

However, centres already using home workers have also seen big improvements in coverage of opening hours and improved service to customers.

Enabling home working, therefore, has many more benefits than centres might expect.

Additionally, the challenges faced by the centres with homeworkers and the challenges expected by centres implementing home working do not always match.

For instance, remoteness of workers is a bigger issue for those with homeworkers whilst those implementing see communication and investment as the big challenges – but which in turn, are not experienced by those already with homeworkers.

IT infrastructure, however, remains the top challenge for both.

Dave Vernon from the Professional Planning Forum sums up the findings, “Home working is on the cusp of moving from the fringes of flexibility options to the mainstream. While the perceived main benefits of improved attrition and better work/life balance are being delivered, associated benefits such as improved coverage of hours and improved customer satisfaction are also being realised by those companies at the forefront of this working solution”.

“The main blockage still remains around IT Infrastructure and is a stumbling block for many.  However, with technology progressing all the time and the number of companies moving down this road, this final blockage is all but remedied”, He continued.

The benchmark survey analyses results from respondents from all industry sectors and was conducted during early 2008.

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
NHS urged to take tougher stance against violence against staff
next post
Coastguard bosses’ refusal to negotiate over pay is ‘putting lives at risk’

You may also like

Hiring talent overseas with simple HR compliance (webinar)

4 Dec 2023

2024 HR trends: ‘Hybrid work backlash could damage...

30 Nov 2023

‘It’s not fair’: How HR can tackle hybrid...

30 Nov 2023

RAD Awards 2024 shortlist unveiled

29 Nov 2023

What will it mean to be an HR...

28 Nov 2023

Does the four-day week align with flexibility and...

28 Nov 2023

Women over 40 will draw state pension before...

22 Nov 2023

Virgin Media O2 scoops 2023 Early Careers Award

21 Nov 2023

HSBC UK gets the balance right with 2023...

21 Nov 2023

HCA Healthcare carries off Innovation in Recruitment Award...

21 Nov 2023

  • BetterMe for Business: How to Build Wellness Culture at Work PROMOTED | Ever encountered a...Read more
  • Global growth with simple HR compliance (webinar) WEBINAR | In an increasingly global marketplace...Read more
  • Talent acquisition: How AI can complement a ‘back to basics’ approach PROMOTED | Artificial intelligence is now...Read more
  • What will it mean to be an HR professional in 2024? (webinar) WEBINAR | As we approach 2024...Read more
  • HR Budget Planning for 2024: Preparing your People Strategy PROMOTED | As organisations continue to adapt...Read more
  • Almost a fifth of UK workers feel undervalued – we need to solve this PROMOTED | A new report has found...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2023

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2023 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+