With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Business Process Outsourcing providers were asked to deploy work-from-home arrangements – to protect employees, continue to serve clients and customers, and, of course, sustain the BPO sector’s tremendous contribution to the Philippine economy.
For BPO in general and contact centers in particular, people are the primary asset. Inspiro, specifically, greatly values diversity, individuality, and malasakit – the Filipino value of not just care and concern, but empathy.
Given all that, we sought not only to make our people our top priority – no more than standard operating procedure, for Inspiro – but to really understand how they were doing and what they needed and wanted, to stay healthy, happy, comfortable, and committed throughout the lockdown.
To accomplish this, we conducted an employee survey to help identify plans, activities, and priorities during the pandemic. We learned that:
- 23% of employees prefer working from home.
- 30% prefer working onsite, favoring the comfortable office environment, despite the difficulties of getting there.
- 47% are neutral and can work either onsite or from home.
- Regarding their physical well-being, employees feel physically fit, with enough sleep and no more stress from commuting and traffic.
- Regarding their mental well-being, those working from home find it sometimes difficult to concentrate on work because of distractions.
- Regarding their social well-being, employees have experienced an increasing feeling of loneliness, due to the prolonged lockdown.
With this feedback, our Support teams proactively set up programs, and the entire organization worked together to address our people’s needs – promoting their general welfare, fostering collaboration and productivity, and keeping our community connected. Among many efforts, we hold games, celebrations, and town hall meetings online, to really keep everyone engaged and enthusiastic, despite being physically dispersed.
Perhaps surprisingly and certainly satisfyingly, we have found, in the last few months, that our effective remote working solution has actually resulted in better productivity. With the new, flexible business structure, comfort factor, and elimination of the need to commute, the WFH model creates a loyal workforce that builds better relationships with customers, providing a positive experience that drives customer loyalty.
And because malasakit is ingrained in Inspiro as an organization, we’ve noted an extra focus on making a difference. For us, each call is not a mere transaction; it can be a lifeline that holds people together in this time of uncertainty.
For our airline accounts, it’s about helping stranded passengers get home safely. For our telecommunication clients, it’s about enabling and restoring internet connectivity, knowing the importance of staying connected. For media and entertainment, it’s about facilitating new subscriptions and solving service disruptions, so people stuck at home can continue to access a wide variety of content.
Inspiro agents take great, justifiable pride in the things we do. Our clients and their customers feel the difference, and all the compliments pouring in make all our people’s sacrifices worth it.
By truly connecting with our people, we’ve helped them keep connecting with our clients and their customers. Inspiro is focused on providing meaningful, memorable, positive experiences – and, in these troubled times, that’s a value that goes far beyond the bottom line.
For more info, check out our webinar: Scale an Agile Workforce During Massive Disruption: How to Successfully Prioritize agent needs in unprecedented times, now available on watch on-demand.
