This document discusses the potential for implementing a work from home program. It begins with the presenter sharing their experience with various companies implementing work from home. The presentation then outlines the agenda which includes discussing the costs and advantages of work from home, risks and mitigation strategies, and how to pitch work from home internally. Cost savings from real estate and lower attrition are highlighted. Risks like distractions and knowledge access are discussed along with mitigation strategies like strict schedules and improved knowledge bases. A three phase plan to assess, implement, and adjust a work from home program is proposed.

1. Work At Home:
Will this hot trend work for our operations?

2. 17 Jan 07 2
My work at home experience
• MCI ’90s – studied attempts to move agents at home
• Amazon ’99-01 – built Seattle telecommuters to 125; WTO
• Driva Solutions ’01- – supported numerous clients moving agents to
homes; authored articles (e.g. “A Double-Win”), addressed conferences
like HDP 2006 San Antonio
• Global Operations Council (GOC) ’02 - – chairing 29 leading US-based
companies sharing “best practices and worst experiences”, many with
agents at home
• Driva Automation ’06- -- building industry’s 1st database of contact
center tech vendors + 3rd-party outsourcing firms, 5 of which specialize
with their agents at home
• Today, I work from home, finally!

3. 17 Jan 07 3
Agenda this afternoon
Work At Home – Will this hot trend work for our operations?
1. Work at home costs and other advantages
2. Risks with mitigation
3. How to pitch work at home in your company

4. 17 Jan 07 4
What are your desired takeaways?
 __ Answers for my CEO who keeps talking about work at
home
 __ I do work from home now
 __ I want to work from home
 __ Had to get out of the office/home after all of this crazy
weather
OR . . .

5. 17 Jan 07 5
What are your desired takeaways?
 __ It’s getting too expensive to add more space
 __ My techs don’t want to commute as much anymore
 __ We need to cover more time zones

6. 17 Jan 07
6
Work at home factoids
• Jet Blue = “poster child” with all ~1200 reservation agents at home
• Many others moving part of workforce at home including IT help
desks, roadside assistance, nursing assistance
• Yankee Group, 8/05: 350 U.S. and Canadian call centers found that
24% of agents (672,000 workers) now based in their homes
• IDC: growth of home agents to increase 24% each year from 2006
through 2010
• Gartner: 70 to 80% of home-based agents have college degrees,
compared with 30 to 40% of workers in call centers; mostly older
than the average call center employee, often with management
experience
• Booz Allen Hamilton: 10% annual attrition vs. 50% call center
agents
• ITAC: $25K real estate savings for each work at home agent
• Herman Trend Alert: Americans average 100 hours/year commuting,
> vacations’ 80 hours/year

7. 17 Jan 07 7
1. Contact center cost index
North American brick & mortar operations
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
brick & mortar
labor telecom space systems
10% amortized ACD, IP servers, desktop PCs; licenses
10% buildings and buildout
10% telco access/egress, IP, routing/re-routing
70% agents, supervisors, management, support
staff, executives, dedicated/virtual teams in
IT/legal/other functions; base,
benefits, bonuses; hiring, training,
replacement hiring & training

8. 17 Jan 07 8
1. Contact center cost index
North American brick & mortar vs. work at home
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
brick & mortar work at home
labor telecom space systems
-26%
+20%
-90%
= 80 10%, flat – same systems
1% vs. 10% -- space only
for core management
12% vs. 10% -- telecom will
come down with VoIP
52% vs. 70% -- reduced
attrition, higher ratios
team leaders/techs, more
quality efforts

9. 17 Jan 07
9
1. Other advantages for work at home
• Greater focus, fewer distractions from cube-mates or classroom
training sessions
• Deliver solutions "through rain, snow, sleet, or hail, and the gloom
of night“
• Higher levels of productivity (proven +10%)
• Reduced absenteeism (but not zero!)
• Greater coverage by team leaders (typically 24-30:1 vs. 15-18:1)
• Greater satisfaction, translated (often) into higher quality
• Access (re)new(ed) work force, e.g. Moms or Dads at home,
handicapped, displaced call center agents
• Reduced turnover or attrition (some cases -80%)

10. 17 Jan 07 10
2. Risks and mitigations
Risks Mitigations
1. knowledge access, like from
savvy cube mate
1. solid KB (Wikis, even?), online
training
2. can’t see affected units or
systems
2. provide clear graphics, online
access to details
3. news and break room chats 3. streaming news, 1 day/week in
the office, traveling team leads
4. distractions from kids, dogs,
doorbells, TV
4. firm schedules, defined spaces
and rules
5. drop off after “1st blush” over,
reduced productivity
5. increased rewards &
recognition, monitoring & help

11. 17 Jan 07
11
3. How to pitch work at home in your company
• Create 3-phase plan (see next pages)
• Harness IT, Finance, HR
• Emphasize “fit” with trends, employee preferences, flexibility
and other benefits
• Check the plan
• Test with “best agents” (as reward, to seed early wins)

12. 17 Jan 07 12
 Define objectives and conduct needs analysis
 Prepare winning business case
 Perform detailed process mapping, systems review and costing
 Identify and implement improvement opportunities
 Determine outsourcing feasibility and approach
 Create requirements document in preparation for RFX, if
appropriate
3. Phase I: Assessment

13. 17 Jan 07 13
 Assign full-time PM (project manager), and possible
outside consulting assistance
 Complete outsourcing RFP if appropriate OR
 Profile 1st wave of agents for home (3rd-party tools/advice), new
team leader and training roles, real time metrics/reporting
 Prepare online training, remote monitoring, KB, streaming news,
alerts, etc
 Conduct home office inspections
 Start the program
3. Phase II: Implement work at home program

14. 17 Jan 07 14
 Coordinate implementation of detailed transition plan across all
departments (esp. HR, IT/telecom)
 After 30 days and 90 days, conduct performance satisfaction review
with agents + via c-sat surveys
 Assess progress real-time, daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly with
tight metrics
 Effect needed changes including bring-backs, growing, changing
scope/deal/roles
 Celebrate early successes!
3. Phase III: Adjust work at home program

15. 17 Jan 07 15
Agenda this morning
Work At Home – Will this hot trend work for my operations?
1. Work at home costs (-20%, maybe better) and other
advantages (increased quality, agent satisfaction)
2. Risks with mitigation (re distraction, knowledge access)
3. How to pitch work at home in your company (3-phase
plan + close cooperation)

16. For details and bookings contact:-
Parveen Kumar Chadha… THINK TANK
(Founder and C.E.O of Saxbee Consultants & Other-Mother
marketingandcommunicationconsultants.com)
Email :-saxbeeconsultants@gmail.com
Mobile No. +91-9818308353
Address:-First Floor G-20(A), Kirti Nagar, New Delhi India Postal
Code-110015