Contact Centers in 2022: Plugging Into the Gig Economy
Contact centers are plugging into the gig economy, the megatrend reshaping work. In this article, Paul Noone, vice president, go-to-market strategy, intelligent interviewing practice, Verint, discusses how workforce management technology is helping contact centers effectively manage the growing gig workforce.
The gig economy is flourishing and coming to contact centers at breakneck speed. While gig-based apps such as Uber, InstaCart, and DoorDash have contributed to the surge in gig work, the shift to the remote-work reality accelerated by the pandemic has made staffing with gig workers more practical. For the customer service realm that often struggles with high turnover, gig economy employment offers greater autonomy and satisfaction, allowing an individual to select their own hours and opt-in options for jobs that match their skills, values, and lifestyle.
In the gig economy, gone are the traditional “9 to 5” workdays. Now people can design their job profile that best fits their needs and maximizes their earnings. On the same day, a person can split shifts as a customer service agent during the hours when their home is most quiet, run Grubhub food deliveries in between, and drive for Lyft during peak hours.
See More: How Contact Center Teams Can Deliver Superior Customer Experience Irrespective of Agent Location
According to a new report from Future Forum, in a survey of 10,000 knowledge workers, 93% said they want flexible hours, and 76% of workers desire location flexibility. Furthermore, Intuit says an overwhelming majority (80%) of large corporations plan to increase their use of a flexible workforce substantially, and a MetLife survey found that nearly half (40%) of millennials will leave their full-time jobs in favor of independent work.
Gig work is more than work-life flexibility; it’s transforming work as we know it. Prioritizing employee experience is critical as employers navigate new workforce challenges, chief among these being the Great Resignation.
One forward-thinking company is transforming the gig economy from the ground up by empowering independent employees with a service platform for gig workers to forge profitable partnerships through inspired and empowering work opportunities. Pioneering the free agent space, Work Entropy provides a gig platform that helps skill-based freelancers across 30+ countries find profitable and meaningful work. At the same time, the company is giving businesses access to a service platform to crowdsource candidates available and certified to perform the job.
By reverse-engineering the traditional talent recruitment and acquisition process, Work Entropy uses intelligent hiring solutions to assess knowledge gaps and identify opportunities to learn new skills while tapping into each individual’s mindset to understand how they personally work best. This allows for matching the individual with jobs that bring joyful and profitable work for a more prosperous living.
Gig work in the contact center provides a wide range of benefits for both employee and employer. Within the contact center space, working as a customer-facing service representative presents a unique opportunity to develop strong, effective communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills. It’s often a chance for individuals to hone their professional abilities and set themselves up on a career path to be anything they want.
Plugging into the gig economy workforce helps contact centers maximize staffing during peak hours, manage unexpected surges in call volume, and accommodate for geographic dislocation and continuous follow-the-sun operation, to name a few of the many key benefits.
Workforce Management Is Evolving To Support Gig Workers
Workforce management (WFM) solutions with flexible scheduling tools promote anywhere, anytime, “any kind” work models, a major perk helping employers win today’s talent war. But different jobs require different skills and capabilities. For example, a gig worker takes on tremendously more depth and responsibility in a customer service role.
Innovations in workforce management platforms with tools for real-time forecasting and performance-based flex scheduling are helping companies optimize staffing requirements while giving employees more work-life balance. It improves the customer experience by ensuring the department is staffed with the correct number of resources with the needed skills while freeing agents to take on other non-contact-center work when interaction volume is low. It’s becoming a win-win for employees and employers to meet in the middle, with positive outcomes for all.
For contact centers, the key to accessing the gig economy workforce is to pre-identify and pre-qualify skilled workers proficient in delivering excellent customer service and who can manage customer engagement across multiple channels right from the start.
Intelligent hiring solutions are becoming fundamental to talent acquisition strategies. Using advanced AI and analytics, these tools help pre-assess the skills needed and promote engagement with candidates earlier in the pre-hiring process to gauge aptitude to ensure job success and satisfaction. This is critically important to contact centers that require language proficiency, engagement, enthusiasm, empathy, and alertness, among other “soft” skills, to deliver exceptional customer experience.
Enhanced intelligent interviewing solutions can now track applicant journeys from the moment they apply through the interviewing process and beyond. The insights gained from this data can demystify the hiring process, improve the hiring experience, and ultimately match the right people with the right jobs. The ability to opt into a schedule that works best for the employee is squarely the future of (gig) work.
See More: Top 4 Reasons To Consider Contact Center as a Service
Embracing the New Mentality, and the New Reality of Gig Work
For contact centers, tapping into the gig work paradigm is an operational and philosophical advantage that can positively transform both employee and customer experience initiatives. It is a savvy customer service strategy to boost the odds for success to attract and retain highly engaged workers — ones that are committed to taking pride and ownership in delivering exceptional customer experience on demand. Industry leaders will adopt a gig work mentality and the tools to effectively manage the new reality of the gig economy workforce.
How are you using the evolving workforce management solutions to manage the growing gig workforce? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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