Has Remote Work Increased Agent Productivity?

Call center professionals love acronyms. KPIs such as FCR (First Call Resolution), ACR (Automatic Content Recognition), CCR (Customer Churn Rate), among others, trace the productivity of an agent. And, most importantly, it can increase or decrease the success of a company.

So, within an industry that is very focused on measurable results, such as call centers, how has remote work impacted agent productivity?

And now that telecommuting is here to stay, do agents who work from home perform better than in the office or do they maintain acceptable levels of productivity?

In recent months, we have seen a notable increase in the focus that call centers are putting on the productivity of telecommuters. To this end, organizations have purchased and developed various solutions that help them monitor remote employee activity.

Still, while these visibility and control tools have tremendous benefits, the work-at-home environment itself is the primary driver of increased productivity. Just look at the statistics that we will present below.

What Are the Benefits of Remote Work?

Working from home has been beneficial for productivity since long before COVID-19. In 2015, Stanford University studied 16,000 remote contact center workers over a nine-month period and found that working from home increases agent productivity by 13%.

After the start of the pandemic, similar numbers began to appear in new studies. In a 2020 survey by FlexJobs, the company found that workers who expected their productivity to increase when working from home were absolutely right.

Just over half (51%) of those surveyed reported increased productivity when they began telecommuting during the pandemic, citing fewer interruptions and quieter work environments as notable reasons for the improvement.

Working from home during the lockdown also helped workers focus on more important tasks, according to a Harvard Business Review study. Respondents spent 12% less time in long meetings and 9% more time interacting with clients or external partners. Likewise, the researchers also found that employees who worked from home did 50% more work by personal choice.

In the same HBR study, respondents revealed that they valued their tasks more when working remotely. In a similar study from 2013, 27% of respondents found their tasks tedious. This statistic dropped to 12% at the end of 2020.

These increases in job satisfaction and productivity aren’t the only benefits of remote work. Each of them has a positive knock-on effect on churn rates, which the contact center industry has been trying to improve for decades.

According to Global Workplace Analytics, 72% of companies say that remote work has a high impact on employee retention, and 90% of them report an increase in morale when offered work flexibility.

How Does Remote Work Boost Productivity?

The first reason is employee satisfaction. Ask.com found that 86% of employees prefer to work remotely alone, as the lack of distractions allows them to maximize their productivity.

Several studies have also shown that telecommuting results in fewer long breaks and fewer sick days, directly improving calls per minute as agents spend more time in their workspace.

Without the need to commute to the office, people have even more extra time to exercise, which improves their mental and physical health, along with their productivity. A survey by Airtasker found that workers save an average of 8.5 hours a week of free time by not going to the office. There are 408 hours a year to invest in aspects that influence your well-being.

What Does the Future Hold for Remote Work?

It’s hard to ignore the productivity benefits of working from home, particularly when so many studies put numbers on the successes of remote work.

When the right candidates are given the freedom and flexibility to get their work done from home, employees are happier, stay on task longer, and do a better job overall, leading to a huge increase in customer satisfaction.