In a recent CCNG event, I spoke about the trends that I’m seeing globally in call centres. Many of the trends that my co-presenters spoke about are convergent (many people are moving to the same approach), the main example of that being the acceleration of cloud and home working driven by reactions to Covid-19. This acceleration of trends will continue through 2021
What’s happening at the agent level? We’re now seeing a move into cloud voice – moving away from the deskphone, into a laptop or desktop to use a softphone. A takeaway from this is to make sure people are comfortable with this, we must bring employees with us and ensure they are all comfortable with how to use this. Will employees buy their own technology? No, IT will continue to provide all the desktop equipment to ensure standards are met, particularly around voice quality.
One trend that is divergent is where employees will work in the coming years. Approximately 50% of employees worked from home in 2020 at height of pandemic, up from 2% in prior years. There is no convergence yet on whether 2021 and beyond will see a workforce that is pure office, pure home, or hybrid. Home worked well for some people – particularly when people had space to work in and no kids to look after. However, for those with no, or poor broadband, home working didn’t work well. The takeaway from this is for companies to plan for a hybrid workforce where employees choose where they want to work (home or office).
A final trend is to review how offices are laid out for this future hybrid workforce. Offices have been getting noisier and more distracting, this was cured somewhat by social distancing and part occupation to ensure social distancing. However we now need a long term approach that makes these offices a desirable place to work, ensuring employees want to stay with the organisation. The key takeaway is to plan the office around what people want to achieve – learning from their peers, and socialising.
Connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardk/ to let me know your feedback on these trends and on the webinar.
Richard Kenny is an 18 year veteran of the contact center industry, working as the Senior Product Marketing Manager, Contact Centre & Unified Communications for Poly (formerly Plantronics).
