We’ve just conducted the world’s largest experiment into home working due to Covid-19, and found that where it works, it generally works very well. For many people, the satisfaction levels of working within their home office is greater than when they are working from their company office. However, these averages hide huge variability in the level of satisfaction and productivity for call centres.

Leesman’s large-scale survey into home working made for an interesting read on what the future of call centre workspace could look like. Working from a home office is great when you have a dedicated room or a dedicated space (i.e. a desk within a room), but satisfaction levels are far lower if you don’t have either of these. On a broad office population, only 28% have a dedicated space and 33% don’t have dedicated work area at all – working from ad-hoc spaces such as sofa, ironing board, or kitchen table. As call centre work is predominantly carried out by those who are either still building their skill set or looking for a certain level of work-life balance, most wages tend be on the lower end of the spectrum. It is likely that call centre workers will not have the luxury of dedicated rooms or workspaces at homes, and this could lead them to be more distracted, less productive, and potentially prone to burnout.

Findings from Red Recruitment’s recent survey into call centre should therefore come as no surprise. It reveals that, while 32% of employees would be happy to work from home permanently, 68% want a return to the office for some days per week. Many call centre employees enjoy the camaraderie of the office and use call with their team to build their personal knowledge base and provide better service.

With the health of employees as a main priority, we can’t just rush back to the office. So how should this be approached? Join Tim Oldman, Founder and CEO of the Leesman Index, Katy Forsyth, Owner of Red Recruitment and Director of the South West call Centre Forum, and myself, from Poly, on a webinar to discuss how companies across the UK and Europe are approaching the return to the call centre.