Ten top telephony tips for more effective flexible working

London, England. September 2006

Flexible working delivers business benefits in many different shapes and forms. For small, specialist businesses, the benefits may be very specific. For major blue chips, the benefits can be extensive.

BT, one of the most advanced companies in the UK in terms of its adoption of flexible working, has put figures to many of these benefits. It estimates that, since adopting flexible working in various parts of its organisation, productivity has increased 31% and customer satisfaction 8%. It further claims that property costs have fallen by £180m, absenteeism by 63%, fuel costs by £10m and that 99% of BT employees now return following maternity leave. A happier workforce means employee satisfaction has increased by 14% and staff attrition amongst flexible workers is at a lowly 3-4% per annum.

So what are the secrets of successful flexible working? According to Peter Knowles, Workstyle Business Development Director at BT, it’s a case of making better use of people, buildings and IT. "HR, IT, Facilities Management and other personnel must work to a common set of objectives to deliver the right environment for flexible working" he explains. "It's rather like creating a bonfire. To build a bonfire you need oxygen, a flame, and an inflammable material. Take one away, and you don't have a fire. Ignore one of the key cornerstones of flexible working and it won’t work."

When it comes to technology, Teamphone offers the following tips to organisations looking to deliver effective and appropriate voice solutions for flexible workers:

1. Give flexible workers a single contact number: There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to contact someone when you don’t know whether they’re in the office, at home, in a meeting, or in the car. At the heart of good communications in a flexible working environment is the single number – ensuring calls always reach workers, wherever they are ¹
2. Deliver calls to landlines whenever possible: An estimated 30% of mobile calls are received by office workers as they sit at their desks. It wastes money, and call quality can be impaired in areas of poor mobile reception. If it’s possible to deliver a call to a flexible worker on a traditional landline, or across an IP connection, then that should always be the preferred option
3. Pick an appropriate call tariff: Should a 'single number' carry an 0800 number, an 0844 number, an 0845 or a regional number (such as an 0207) tariff? The answer often depends on what role individuals perform within your organisation. Premium Customer Care Advisors, for example, will often be given an 0800 number; while an 0844 or 0845 tariff maybe more appropriate for a sales executive that travels extensively. Your 'single number' doesn't need to turn into another business expense. Using a service such as BT SmartNumbers on the low cost 0844 tariff, for example, means free call delivery to any UK landline - or delivery to any UK mobile for just 10p per minute ²
4. Group flexible workers into functional teams: With modern flexible working solutions, organisations can group flexible workers into functional teams so that calls can be answered by other team members if individuals are unavailable. Virtual Contact Centres are a prime example. With Virtual Contact Centres, calls can be intelligently routed to appropriately-skilled customer service advisors, wherever they are located, and receive a premier level of service
5. Enable flexible workers to change settings on-the-fly: Enable flexible workers to make changes to their call and presence settings instantly, wherever they are, and using whatever device they have to hand. The flexible worker shouldn't have to switch on a computer, or load a complicated software program to change settings. Changing settings should be as easy as using an automated telephone (i.e. IVR) interface or using a device that supports a web interface – and shouldn't disrupt other daily business processes.
6. Consider your business continuity options: If your technology resources are tied into a single location, then if that location fails (for example in the event of a terrorist act or a power failure), then your technology services will fail too. By using 'hosted' technology services, this problem can be overcome. Hosted voice and flexible working services, such as BT SmartNumbers, are delivered using technology resources embedded in the public network – not within a customer's own premises. Such fully redundant services present customers with the reassurance that services are available 24/7, even in the event of a location failing
7. Centralise presence and directory entries: There's nothing more frustrating than having to switch between databases and directories in order to identify the right contact person and their contact details. Modern flexible working solutions support centralised directories for publishing presence information, contact details etc. ensuring that individuals can be contacted wherever they are – and if they're unavailable, that colleagues' details are provided as a back-up
8. A single set of business rules across your entire organisation: Just because your workforce is geographically dispersed and not in one central location doesn't mean that the way you do business should change. Flexible working voice services should support a single set of business rules across your entire organisation, ensuring that customers phoning for customer service or specialist services receive a consistent experience
9. Build business agility into your business processes: Business agility is all about finding better ways to connect people, processes, applications and information within your organisation. Giving employees the ability to access all their phone and email messages from a single inbox (unified messaging) is a good example. Using technology more intelligently is absolutely key to creating a modern, agile business – and voice services is still the most important business communications tool of all. It is therefore the key to business agility
10. Aim to deliver consistent service, however callers connect: Callers shouldn't have to put up with inconsistent voice quality dependent on how they connect. Look for solutions that are system agnostic and network agnostic – and can therefore deliver the same high level of functionality regardless of what type of phone your employees use

Editor’s Notes

1. 'Duty of Care' responsibilities: organisations should provide a ‘firewall’ between themselves and their flexible workers to comply with Duty of Care obligations. Flexible workers should be discouraged, for example, from giving out their home numbers as their single contact numbers
2. Excludes Hutchinson’s "3" network