The Continued rise of the remote workforce has created an interesting issue to tackle for employers.

April 4 2023

Businesses need an internal plan or, at the least, sufficiently prepared partners with the technology and know-how to ensure proper connectivity and the ability to engage their employees. The ever-growing segment of workers occupied by Millennials, Gen-Z, and even some in other older generation segments requires a new approach to recruiting and retention. You even see some “Gen Xers” sharing sentiment or jealousy of the younger generation’s push towards doing more with their time. The time and freedoms afforded by the flexibility of working remotely. This growing mentality of wanting a better work-life balance than before drives businesses to need the right partners or internal components in place.

Having the right technology and supporting HR department are critical components to attracting and retaining employees and getting them to deliver the best service possible.

When you have the right design in place, you can work hand in hand with the traditional model, where you reap the benefits of in-person interaction and engagement, along with the freedoms and potential increased productivity allowing employees to work remotely. Utilizing it as an easily implemented recruitment tool, not to mention a performance incentive. 

When Transparent BPO was founded, we saw the need in the market to be flexible and responsive to our client’s needs. There are many effective technology solutions to support the contact center market today, but it is an ever-changing space. Our philosophy around technology is that the technology should fit the business requirements; the technology should never dictate the conditions. We were in a unique position in philosophy and implementation that allowed us to effectively adapt to our clients and employees’ needs during the pandemic. 

“”People are different… Some are more efficient when working from home, and some are more efficient being around people in the office. Either way, the workforce is changing. Industries are changing, and if organisations are preventing people from working from home, they are missing out a valuable way to expand their profits, personnel, and organisational health.””

Naresh Khatri, Associate Professor of Health Management and Informatics in the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri.¹

The difference a generation (and global events) can make.

As a company, TBPO tries hard to prove the myth that GenZ (or any generation) are lazy and unproductive, showing it is just a myth. Instead, we’ve evaluated these new needs for engagement, culture, and their desire for a more rewarding work/life balance. We also recognize that due to the pandemic and other decentralizing pushes, many have never been in an in-person internship or stepped foot into a physical location to work. Employers need to realize that this generation has known nothing BUT flexibility and working from home.
TBPO has invested heavily in employee engagement to spot trends and ensure our employees are happy with their jobs. Partnering with an outside firm, our company conducts two yearly surveys to obtain honest employee feedback with precise, actionable data to drive initiatives to boost employee satisfaction and increase employee tenure. We focus on four key drivers of employee engagement:

• Credible Leadership
• Supportive Coworkers
• Employee Job / Career Satisfaction
• A High-Performing Organization

TBPO looks at working remotely as an earned reward; our employees can show they are both trusted and capable of being remote workers during training and their preliminary production period. While this is an available earned option, we hold them accountable: we can and will call them back to physical locations in case of certain events (performance, technical issues, or other reasons as necessary). Along with creating an environment favorable to our employees, with our WorkSecure Suite®  we can successfully deploy your agents to an industry-leading work-from-home model that includes secure monitoring and compliance-ensuring capabilities.

Countering the disconnect some see with a remote workforce with engagement

With a properly executed remote work setup, an employee that generally might get lost in the shuffle can be shown they are, in fact, cared about – that we are genuinely trying to engage and value them as employees. TBPO, as part of our engagement, and long-term career development plan, offers self-learning opportunities with Transparent BPO University (TBPOU). This program enables every employee to be enrolled in a program that affords additional opportunities, financial incentives, and recognition for their accomplishments. As part of our goal to ensure the proper balance between remote and on-site employees – we strive to eliminate the perceived proximity biases for those off-sites, build stronger bonds with coworkers on and off-site, and actively engage every one of our employees to do our part in countering stress, anger, and burnout before it impacts quality or attrition. 

Employee engagement is vital to us. Transparent BPO’s leadership continually works on communicating changes within the business as well as the successes and shortcomings of the company. Our initiatives vary from coaching sessions with clear goals and expectations to daily and weekly incentives to drive critical metrics. 

From employee transportation, affordable and easily used on-site food (snack and cookshops), an internal rewards card offering discounts from local merchants, calendar events including family day, and our annual holiday party. TBPO makes it a goal to create and foster happy employees and make a difference in the local communities we call home. We want to show our passion through our employees – and have them working for our clients as a job, but something they’re proud of and happy to do. 

Sources:

1. Khatri, N., et.al. (2022), “Guest editorial: Work from anywhere: implications for employees and organizations”, Personnel Review, Vol. 51 No. 8, pp. 1861-1866. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2022-913