work at-home workforce benchmark

8/14/2019 Work At-Home Workforce Benchmark

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The At-Home Workforce

Survey Results Reported September 15, 2009


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Use of At-Home Agents

Since respondents were registrants for an at-home webinar, numbers are higher than reported in generalindustry reports. From a similar survey in April, 45% were using at-home agents, and 35% consideringso there has been some increase in interest.


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Overqualified Agents

Estimate the percentage of your agents in each category who are overqualified

At-Home Agents

21%24%

In-Center Agents

Given the typically reported demographics of at-home agents, this is somewhat surprising, butoverqualified is subjective.


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Retention Potential

The retention aspects of employing at-home agents seems to be reflected in respondents answers asalmost 79% of at-home agents are likely or extremely likely to stay as compared to about 53% of in-

center agents.


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Agent Demographics

Demographic differences were less pronounced than other studies report. This is in part due to many ofthe respondents moving existing agents home rather than hiring for at-home. About 50% who answered apoll question said that was their method. Professional experience has the most variation between the two

groups.


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Challenges to Scale

What is the primary challenge to scaling at-home agent programs?

(Write-ins categorized as follows)

Cultivating

loyalty andculture

DeployingNew Hire

Training toW@H Infrastructure

Cost

35%

PeopleProcess

Technology Other

35% 13% 17%

Scaling appears to have different primary challenges than ramping up (as shown on slide 11). Peoplefactors were given as the most vexing problem with maintaining and growing an at-home workforce at

this stage of the game.


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Work At Home Training

At-home work is recognized as a much different environment, and the majority of respondents reportpreparing their agents formally for that.


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Job Expectations

Again, this might not be surprising if we factor in that 50% of the at-home agents used by theserespondents were moved from the center to at-home.


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Ramp Up Time

In regards to ramp-up time between deciding to use at home agents and going live with a program,

please select the timeframe that best matches what your organization was able to do or plans to

do. From decision to go li ve:

These results were extremely surprising. In most large organizations, especially in a recessionaryeconomy, very few projects can go live in 3 months. In a poll question, the majority of respondentsindicated their business case was based on a 10-30% cost reduction. That may be the mystery catalyst

in these decisions.


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Ramp Up Challenges

In reference to the question above, which element of ramping up took thelongest?

Effectivelymanage

employees

Training

close to 14weeks

Solvingtechnical

issues Developingtraining

materials

6%

PeopleProcess

Technology Other

47% 41% 6%

(Write-ins categorized as follows)

Process and technology take the spotlight in ramping up a program, in contrast to the answers to thechallenges of scaling (slide 6), which had a lot to do with people issues.


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Whats Happening At Home Survey

Webinar related to these results:

A Shortcut Home: How a Non-Profit is

Changing the At-Home Agent Game

Contact Debbie Dockery for more info:

[email protected]

More Resources on At-Home Agents

Request freewhite paper:
http://www.knowlagent.com/resource_center/Benchmark%20Reports/whats-happening-at-home-survey.pdfhttp://www.knowlagent.com/resource_center/webinar-shortcut-home.asphttp://www2.knowlagent.com/l/334/2009-08-27/EQ05V/35951_Building_Blocks_for_a_Solid_At_Home_Agent_Program.pdfhttp://www2.knowlagent.com/l/334/2009-08-27/EQ05V/35951_Building_Blocks_for_a_Solid_At_Home_Agent_Program.pdfhttp://www2.knowlagent.com/l/334/2009-08-27/EQ05V/35951_Building_Blocks_for_a_Solid_At_Home_Agent_Program.pdfhttp://www.knowlagent.com/resource_center/webinar-shortcut-home.asphttp://www.knowlagent.com/resource_center/Benchmark%20Reports/whats-happening-at-home-survey.pdfhttp://www2.knowlagent.com/l/334/2009-08-27/EQ05V/35951_Building_Blocks_for_a_Solid_At_Home_Agent_Program.pdf


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About the Survey

At-Home Webinar registrants asked toparticipate

Online survey

Results originally shared duringwebinar 9/15/09

135 participants across industries

work at-home workforce benchmark

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