Remote Working Trends of 2021 in the BPO Industry
The past year has brought about so many changes for every industry. While some have suffered, others have learned to pivot and adapt to survive and even thrive during this pandemic. The BPO industry is one such industry that was able to leave behind archaic thoughts about remote working and accept it completely to function during the times of lockdown across the globe. The BPO companies that were able to move their workforce to remote locations by offering work from home to their employees were able to continue performing for their clients and were able to avoid lying off employees. This brought some challenges as well because according to a report, 77% of leaders say they had never managed a remote team before. Now that we have seen the dawn of 2021, this trend of remote working continues to be key in these still uncertain times. In this post, we will discuss the various trends in remote working that will be the highlight of the outsourcing sector this year.
Remote Working is here to Stay If there is one positive thing that this pandemic has done for the business world, it is to make business leaders realize that remote working can be done successfully while reducing the overhead costs for the business. Many leading IT companies have declared that a major percentage of their workforce will be permanently working from home. While others have given their staff the option to work remotely for the next few months while Covid19 vaccines are being rolled out. Below are some more remote work trends that are expected to catch on in the BPO industry: a) Flexible work hours Apart from giving employees the facility to work from home, some BPOs and KPOs are allowing their employees to work in flexible shifts as per their convenience. This is allowed in processes where there are no strict guidelines from clients regarding timings or processes that do not require communicating with customers in real-time. This allows the staff members to complete their tasks in a manner that suits their lifestyle and helps them maintain a healthy work-life balance, which is tough to manage during work from home. b) Rise of freelancers and contract workers With work from home getting more acceptance from IT companies across the world, there will be a broadening of opinion regarding hiring contractbased employees or freelancers situated anywhere in the world. These employees would not be eligible for insurance or other benefits that fulltime workers would be.
This would reduce costs for the business owners which are a boon for any company struggling to make profits. It will also give employment opportunities to those involved in the gig economy. c) More Functions Outsourced to Remote Teams It is not just customer support outsourcing functions that are given to remote teams working from home. As a variety of different companies are outsourcing their different functions to BPO companies, those services are also moved to various remote teams. Leading the charge in outsourcing these functions are some of the leading social media apps and short video app companies. These companies outsource their content moderation services to BPO companies which are assigning these services to their remote teams. Functions like video moderation, image moderation, comment moderation, social media moderation are just a few examples of diverse services handled by remote BPO teams.
Conclusion The future of the BPO industry and remote working will evolve even further this year. We will see the trend shifting from work from home in the lockdown to work from anywhere even after the world opens up completely. BPO employees would be able to work around the clock from their home, in cafes, or while traveling. Virtual team meetings will continue to play a very crucial role in keeping the staff engaged as well as touching base with team members and proving any training if required. Remote work is now going to be a permanent part of every BPO’s strategy to keep it running no matter what external factors may impact the industry. Original Source: https://www.theoctopustech.com/remote-working-trendsof-2021-in-the-bpo-industry/