The Sustainable Work-From-Home Contact Center: Engage Agents with Online Learning & Development

FROM THE JUNE 2021 ISSUE

The following Q&A is part of a series on creating a sustainable work-from-home contact center. Each post examines a vital technology that supports contact centers in the transition to a permanent remote-work model. Below, Playvox’s Jennifer Waite discusses how learning has evolved in the modern workplace. She discusses the work-from-home (WFH) challenges that online learning & development solves, along with key features, how to get the most out of the technology, and valuable advice on making a successful transition to a permanent WFH model


JENNIFER WAITE
Vice President, Product Marketing, Playvox
Playvox Learning

 

Q. What WFH challenge(s) does it solve?

Deploying a learning platform for your operation enables your ability to deliver a variety of courses to your employees; some can be focused on the programs they are scheduled for, and others can be more holistic; for example, ways to manage work time from home, or how to create a “no interruption zone” with your family to ensure you can concentrate on your work. Playvox Learning solves for problems that commonly plague contacts, such as how to automate continuous improvement for your entire team and utilizing non-productive time within your schedule for skill development.

Key Features

Playvox Learning is focused on a workplace that is changing quickly. With work-from-home and hybrid workplaces being the topic of conversations within many companies, you have to find ways to meet your employees where they want to work and where they expect you to be.

Traditional learning in the contact center was conducted in a classroom environment, which doesn’t allow for customized employee plans. Learning courses shouldn’t be focused on slideware or documents for your agents to read. Playvox Learning allows you to create video-based learning that balances the needs of your organization with the way your agents learn.

Q. How does it add value for end customers?

Selecting a platform that offers a full complement of workforce engagement management solutions provides the ability to start with a quality evaluation and have that lead into the workforce management system scheduling coaching and learning as needed from the findings of the evaluations that have been completed.

August Home, a home-entry automation company, deployed the Playvox Quality Management suite to expand their processes beyond just having a quality evaluation program. Implementing our integrated Quality, Coaching and Learning products created an environment to coach agents, provide recognition to motivate agents, and the ability to train and continually develop the skills of their team. One outcome they realized was the ability to deliver 800 hours of training based on 20 customized learning courses, with an average achievement of 88.69%.

Q. Tips for getting the most out of this tool?

Start by creating a group of standard learning sessions that can be scheduled for every new-hire to go through as a reinforcement to the skills they were taught during their onboarding training. The content you create should be useful for an extended period of time, so make a list of all of the topics you want to cover, arrange them in order of what will impact the most people, and use this as your roadmap for what to create.

Q. Advice for making a successful transition to a permanent WFH model?

I think that the best piece of advice that we can all strive to achieve would be to deliver a workplace that provides fairness in the tools and systems that you extend to your team, regardless of where they are located (at home, in a company-sponsored office or even a digital nomad). It shouldn’t matter where someone sits while they are working for you; the way that they access your systems and receive feedback and coaching should be the same for all team members.

Next up in the WFH tech series: Visual contact scenarios and guidance