In April 2021, as many as 4 million workers quit their jobs, spurred on by pandemic burnout, labor shortages, employers calling their workforce back into the office, and a desire of individuals to manage their own life rather than accepting employer rules and mandates.
As this trend continues, some have dubbed it “The Great Resignation”, with companies struggling to retain around one-third of workers when they scrap their work-from-home models. People have made it clear that they want to continue to have a choice to work remotely, which means a boost in productivity and success for employers—if they can stick with it.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the advantages of offering work-from-home options in the customer experience (CX) industry, from the perspective of a fast-growing, successful SmartVirtal™ business.
Retaining Talent and Boosting Productivity
For companies like Activus Connect, which we founded as a 100% virtual company by design, ‘The Great Resignation’ has been a non-event. We’ve been fortunate enough to maintain an attrition rate of less than 4% per month in an industry that commonly struggles between 10% and 20%, even now, while people are quitting their jobs en masse.
Our employees, whom we call “Ambassadors”, sought out Activus Connect as an employer of choice to be a part of a community of motivated CX professionals doing work that matters from the convenience of their home office. Building a virtual career supports a balanced lifestyle with many potential benefits including, better physical and mental health, more control of non-work hours, all supported by earning competitive wages and having access to career growth opportunities.
By working from home with Activus Connect, our Ambassadors don’t have to struggle with difficult commutes to the office. They also have more time for family, friends, and personal interests. Plus, we treat them with the respect and dignity that everyone deserves, no matter their job title. All of this contributes to happier employees, productive employees, satisfied clients, and a successful and growing business.
Since taking this approach from the inception of the company, our positive reputation has spread throughout the industry as a leader reinventing service delivery with an exclusive work-from-home workforce. We’ve not had to deal with any difficulty hiring and onboarding talent as a result. Our Ambassadors choose Activus Connect over many of our virtual and hybrid/in-office competitors, and we’re happy to welcome them into our community.
Opportunity to Serve the Greater Good
Businesses that prioritize work-from-home can reap a lot of benefits, from lower rent and utility bills to minimizing insurance liability risks and a reduction in furniture and equipment costs, to name a few. When you add all these sunk costs up, companies can save a substantial sum of money to re-invest into their employees, communities, and causes aligned with their values.
At Activus Connect, our limited overhead enables us to provide our Ambassadors with guaranteed paid time off, medical insurance, life insurance, 401K, and additional paid time off to volunteer in their local communities. We’re also committed to supporting the communities in which we operate by contributing a percentage of our monthly profits to worthy causes, intending to enrich the lives of those around us.
Since day one, we’ve stuck by our commitment to donate 10% of our net profit to employees, charities, and communities, and we’ve been able to achieve that by maintaining our status as a 100% SmartVirtual™ company. Equally, by encouraging our Ambassadors to embrace our social responsibility practices, people have been able to foster rewarding careers that represent the personal and professional values they hold close.
Attracting Partners that Strengthen Your Brand
As businesses look to normalize their CX operations, many are making plans for the return of their workforce to a physical contact center, harming employee motivation and productivity along the way. If this trend continues, attrition and business costs are almost certain to continue to rise.
On the flip side, many client organizations do understand the value of work-from-home from an employee perspective, especially since the pandemic forced them to quickly adopt these practices themselves while navigating office shut-downs and numerous business uncertainties.
By operating as an exclusive work-from-home business, Activus Connect continues to attract brands and partners that our Ambassadors align to culturally. Due to their preference for working from home, our teams can do work that matters to them across a range of public and private projects. As a result, our Ambassadors are empowered champions on behalf of the brands they represent. As soon as you stop treating employees like expendable, replaceable parts in a CX machine, you can build teams of talented, forward-thinking problem-solvers that contribute to everyone’s success.
To wrap this up, when set up correctly with a trusted like-minded service delivery partner, work-from-home CX careers result in numerous benefits. A business can profit from lowering expenses while improving service capabilities, allowing for more investment into the expansion of core products and services. In a time when people would prefer to quit their jobs over being forced to work in an office, it only makes good business sense to partner with a premium provider that offers opportunities for CX professionals to build a career from their office location of choice, their home.