Posted by Kerry Engle on Fri, Jun 05, 2009 @ 05:24 PM
I have recently had several conversations with people who have already instituted At- Home Work Programs. During the course of the conversation one question that usually comes up related to supervisors is whether or not there were any differences in the skills needed to manage at home agents vs. brick and mortar?
The two key points that seem to come up consistently in conversations and the subsequent inferences from these points all relate around the agent profiles. For example, several people quote the following research:
- The average age of an at- home agent is between 30-55 - for a brick and mortar agent it is 18-28
- 80% of the at- home agents have a college degree- the number is 35% for brick and mortar agents
The following assumptions usually follow:
- Since it is not the at- home agent's first job, they bring to the job some basic business understanding.
- The type of management style needed to manage "new to the workplace" people is different then the skills needed to manage "experienced" people. For example, the brick and mortar type agent, due to age, needs much more leadership and guidance (i.e., direction and "hand holding") then the at- home agents. And that requires more face to face/someone is watching you, associated with the brick and mortar center since many employees are "learning" how to work and behave in a corporate setting.
- In contrast, it was felt that at home agents required less of the "control" management style and more of a focus on what they need to do to get better. This focus may be due to the fact that in most of these centers, if an at- home agent drops their performance below goal over several consecutive time periods, they will be asked to come back and work in the center.