Convergys Corp., a call center company was reported to have achieved success in letting its employees work from home. Will home-based call center programs be the solution to the high turnover rates of customer support companies? Here's Convergys feat.

Benefits for Convergys, which offers customer service and billing services for companies nationwide, include better-performing employees and growth potential without more facilities.

Logan was chosen last July as a pilot site for the company's home-access program, which provides employees with the equipment they need to work from home. The site was one of the first to test the technology, and its success led other locations to follow suit. A home-access program was started in Ogden in December, and Convergys would like to expand its other sites in Utah to include the program, as well.

Home-access employees are still required to come into the center once a week, and after a certain performance level is reached, they have the option of coming in once a month. Most employees, said Gualtier, don't mind coming in once a week.

Steve Short, the director of operations for Convergys in Logan, said he has noticed more benefits than just the lack of a commute. Among them are more accommodations for employees with disabilities or children, flexible work schedules and higher productivity.

"In many of the areas, my home agents far outperform the employees at the site," he said.

Overall employee well-being has increased, as well, Short said.

"Employees have reported healthier eating habits. They can fix something in their own kitchens instead of eating fast food or vending-machine food. And they don't have to share headsets."

Logan resident Shelli Rivera has a 16-year-old daughter with a kidney disease, and working from home enables her to respond to her daughter when needed.

"If I have to run off to the doctor, I can. I don't have to wait for a phone call to get to me," she said.

When Rivera joined the home-access program with Convergys, she was understandably nervous. A Convergys employee for four years, she experienced a big transition, from sharing a space with many other colleagues to being alone in her basement office. "I was very scared at first, because if I had any questions, I couldn't get up and ask someone," she said. "But that quickly went away."

Gualtier, who was the first to volunteer for the Logan home-access program, agreed.

"We have a great support system when we work at home. We have team leaders available to us through e-mail, live chat or phone," she said. "I have a sigh of relief when we

get the live chat going in the morning. It's like, OK, now I have this support."

The distractions of working from home aren't an issue for Rivera.

"My family knows that even though I'm at home, I am at work, and they don't talk to me unless there is an emergency. My office is in the basement, so most of the time I can't even hear them walking around."

Although workers at the Logan site have had a few months to observe the program's benefits, the experience is a relatively new one at the Ogden site. Yet Lana Smith, senior human resources manager in Ogden, said employees love the flexibility.

"We've noticed lower attrition on that program," she said.

Smith estimates that there are about 80 employees in the program, with a waiting list for those who want to join.

via SLTRIB