Working from home a good call
Disruption brings unexpected benefits as staff find they prefer remote working. Esther Taunton reports.
Like many companies, call centre operator Telnet had to act fast to adapt to doing business at coronavirus alert level 4. But unlike many others, it’s poised to come out of the pandemic stronger and more efficient, chief executive John Chetwynd says.
New Zealand’s largest locally-owned contact centre operator employs about 150 staff across two centres in Auckland.
It provides call centre services to several essential companies, including Z Energy, Vector and 2Degrees, handling up to 4000 calls a day.
The nature of its business meant Telnet could continue to operate at Alert level 4. However, most staff began working from home in late March, Chetwynd said.
‘‘We had a pandemic plan in place so the transition was relatively straightforward, there weren’t too many teething problems.
‘‘What did surprise us was how happy everyone’s been to make the change and how many of them are now saying they’d prefer to keep working this way,’’ he said.
The latest survey of staff found about 70 per cent were likely to continue working from home if given the choice, giving Telnet the opportunity to close one of its call centres.
‘‘We’re actively looking at that possibility now,’’ Chetwynd said.
‘‘Our leases still have a bit of time to run, and we’d have to make sure it would work, but it’s certainly an option that’s on the table.’’
It’s a massive shift for the company he founded more than 20 years ago but Telnet has adapted to tough conditions before.
Set up as a 100 per cent outbound call centre, it struggled to find clients in a market dominated by inbound demand.
While outbound centres call customers on behalf of a business or client, inbound centres handle calls from customers.
‘‘We really didn’t know what we were doing then. We were outbound telemarketers trying to get into the inbound market,’’ he said.
Telnet’s first real break came when Chetwynd landed a direct marketing contract for financial services group ING.
Although Chetwynd said he ‘‘made a bit of a mess of that’’, Telnet did go on to work with ING again.
However, even with the inbound work it managed to secure, the company was still struggling to pay salaries on time.
‘‘You’d do a campaign for a client, then it stops. And then you don’t have a job so you have to find a way to retain staff. Stop, go. Stop, go.
‘‘The reason a lot of little companies don’t grow is because they spend their time looking for work, just to keep their staff employed. And we were going through that.
‘‘The first $1 million turnover was really hard to get.’’
The next break came with the Auckland power crisis in 1998 when, ‘‘by sheer luck’’, electricity supply to the Telnet office continued while others around it were plunged into darkness.
‘‘So we were able to help Mercury Energy when people were calling. We did a really good job for them,’’ Chetwynd said.
When deregulation occurred and Vector split from Mercury, Telnet successfully bid for the Vector contract.
‘‘[The Vector manager] said something like, ‘You screw this up, your life will become unbearable. You do it right and your business will grow’.’’
And grow it did. With a 24/7 contract, Telnet was able to stabilise and expanded rapidly.
Overcoming those early challenges put the company in a strong position to roll with the punches delivered by the coronavirus pandemic.
In fact, key indicators show the business is performing better during lockdown.
‘‘Our typical measurement standard is to answer all calls within 20 seconds and have less than 5 per cent of calls abandoned,’’ Chetwynd said.
‘‘In February, we had an 82 per cent answer rate and 4.9 per cent abandon rate. In the last three weeks under lockdown, it’s been 90 per cent and 2.9 per cent.’’
Telnet customer service representative Sioana Taliauli said pinpointing any downsides to working from home is difficult but the benefits are obvious.
As well as saving money on transport and work lunches, the change has given her back precious time with family. ‘‘It’s hours a day so it would add up to a lot over a year,’’ she said.
‘‘If I start work in the office at midday, I have to catch the 11am bus. If I’m working from home, I just have to walk to my desk.’’
Taliauli said support and communication from her coworkers and managers had made the switch easier.
‘‘They’re constantly checking in to see if everyone’s OK and if we need anything.
‘‘It’s not the same as being face-to-face but I don’t feel isolated, apart from being in my ‘bubble’ like everyone else.’’
Inbound manager Kelly Moloney said feedback from the staff she manages has been positive and although some were missing the face-to-face interaction of the office, most preferred the flexibility of working from home.
‘‘That goes both ways, too. The business has a lot more flexibility with rostering when people don’t have to come into the office.
‘‘If we have a sudden burst of calls, we can send a message out to see who’s available and keen to pick up a few more hours,’’ she said.
‘‘There is no pressure on anyone who’s on a rostered day off to suddenly be available for work but we’ve already found people have been quite willing to pitch in.’’
Employment experts say many businesses will be reassessing how they operate post-lockdown.
Dr Paula O’Kane, senior lecturer in human resource management at the University of Otago Business School, said the unplanned social experiment on working from home could lead to permanent changes for many.
‘‘Organisations shouldn’t automatically go back to their status quo based on the premise that ‘workers will only be productive if they are front of me at all times’,’’ she said.
‘‘Rather, build on this new model that starts with the stance that work can be flexible and then figure out together how to manage work successfully for each individual.
‘‘Many have realised that where and when you work does not matter, as long as the job is done, and results achieved.’’
O’Kane said many highly successful organisations share this ‘‘outcomes-based’’ view of work.
It requires trust in employees and strong leadership but can make businesses attractive to new employees and increase motivation and commitment.
For staff, it can present new job opportunities and the chance to increase their skills and career prospects, she said.
Chetwynd said although a few employees had been working from home for a number of years, the system hadn’t gained real traction, partly due to several clients having security and privacy concerns.
‘‘We deal with large national companies and government agencies and it’s understandable that they would have concerns,’’ he said.
‘‘Often when we raised the idea, we’d hear, ‘That sounds OK, but we’ll need to look at the security and that’s not a priority’.
‘‘Along comes Covid-19 and that becomes, ‘What are the barriers and what do you need from us’?’’
Chetwynd said Telnet had worked with clients to allay those fears, allowing intensive security and privacy checks on its systems and extending twofactor authentication requirements across the business.
‘‘All of our customers agreed and it’s been running smoothly, everyone seems happy,’’ he said.
‘‘We really like what’s going on and if our customers like it and our staff like it, we’re keen to carry on.’’
‘‘We really like what’s going on and if our customers like it and our staff like it, we’re keen to carry on.’’ Telnet chief executive John Chetwynd