How much could you and your company save through telecommuting? As an employee, besides the obvious cost of gas, there is also the money saved on car maintenance and, hours of productivity gained that otherwise would have been spent in traffic. Overall, studies also show that companies save money from reduced real estate expenses, reduced commuting stress in their employees, lower absenteeism, lower attrition and higher degrees of job satisfaction. This translates into higher CSAT scores and increased bottom line revenue.
Telecommuting calculators show that both employers and employees could save thousands by having employees work from home.
These new calculators, as discussed in Michael Coren’s recent Co.EXIST article, are quickly changing the conversation about telecommuting from one that focuses on high level employee and employer benefits to one that uses concrete numbers to show the advantage for both employers and employees.
The results are astounding. A new calculator from GovLoop uses the miles driven, days a week telecommuting, and time spent commuting to calculate savings for employees. For an employee in a midsize sedan traveling 15 miles, 45 minutes each way, the total savings is over $4,000 annually if the employee teleworks 3 days a week. Move that number up to 5 days a week and you’ll see savings closer to $7,000. Govloop also estimates that employers could save on average $10,000 annually per employee just on energy and real estate related expenses, not to mention a 16 percent reduction in overall operational costs and a 20-30 percent improvement in service levels if telecommuting was encouraged .
Advances in technology are making telecommuting a viable and appealing option for companies.
Innovations in unified communication and workforce management software are enabling managers to more closely monitor and communicate with remote employees. Companies using these systems can even increase productivity while saving significant location costs. Alaska Airlines is a great example of how a company deployed and manages a virtual workforce. By using Aspect Workforce Management, , they reduced overall operational costs, increased employee morale, and retained more of their highly skilled agents. Aspect Workforce Management is uniquely aligned to support this growing trend toward at-home contact center agents by providing integrated time-saving and productivity-enhancing capabilities for scheduling, management, usability, and deployment.
What opportunities would telecommuting open up for your company? Register today for our November 20 webinar, Making Customer Service Soa: Optimizing a Virtual Workforce, to learn how companies like Alaska Airlines are using Aspect Workforce Management 7.5 to meet the challenges of an increasingly virtual workforce with ease and flexibility.
Hope to see you there!
Kathleen Schroeder, Product Marketing Specialist, has over 25 years’ experience representing the voice of the customer through global event presentations, webinars and integrated multi-national campaigns for numerous verticals ranging from education to transportation and tourism to telecommunications. As a member of Aspect’s Product Marketing team, Kathleen creates customer-facing programs and content to bring the value of next generation customer contact solutions to various market segments, while developing global customer initiatives, helping to launch new analytical solutions, and helping our customers deliver on the promise of excellent customer service.
Read more on Workforce Management:
- Top 5 Reasons to Implement (or Avoid) An At-Home Contact Center
- Why Alaska Airlines Agents Field 4.9 Percent More Calls
- Increasing Contact Center Performance Part 3: Controling Personnel Costs with Workforce Management
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