Home working

The Canterbury City Council Contact Centre was faced with the challenge of meeting staff needs by providing flexible working patterns. This ensures we can achieve a work/life balance and at the same time meet customer and business needs by handling calls during the peak periods.

Data analysis highlighted a requirement to have split shift patterns, which would be impractical to implement with office based staff. Following a consultation exercise the project team focused on developing a pilot for home working with contact centre staff.

As the pilot produced a very positive outcome in terms of improved productivity, efficiency and motivation, the project was fully adopted and rolled out at the beginning of 2007. Now 20 of the 47 contact centre staff regularly work from home at different times according to needs and requirements.

Benefits

• Three members of staff have been retained through this initiative.
• There has been an improvement in sick absence by 4% from those staff who work from home.
• Ongoing productivity gains from staff that work from home consistently shows that they are between 14 - 16% more productive.

Find out more

Visit Canterbury City Council's website to read their press release about flexible working.