Strategies for Streamlining Remote Agent Onboarding to Minimize Expenses and IT Challenges

Remote work rose to the forefront during the pandemic, but it has not faded away. A recent Customer Contact Week (CCW) Digital Market Study reveals that nearly 90% of contact center leaders believe agents will largely be working remotely by 2030. This “Second Remote Work Transformation”, following the first transformation that occurred during the pandemic, requires organizations to develop established strategies for managing remote work.

Today, 77% of organizations find it challenging to manage and protect customer data in a remote world, and approximately two thirds are having technological difficulties with remote connectivity. In this blog post, we list the considerations organizations should take for adopting remote work, as well as how to plan a remote work strategy and how to get started.

This blog post is based on the webinar “How to Overcome At-Home Agent Onboarding While Reducing Costs and IT Headaches”, with Brian Cantor, Principal Analyst at CCW Digital, and Dvir Shapira, Chief Product Officer at Venn, which you can watch here.

Remote Work Onboarding Requirements 

To successfully navigate the new remote work reality, organizations are required to find ways to maintain business continuity, while employees are working from home.

This means finding solutions that enable maintaining the same work processes as before remote work:

• Onboarding new employees to devices, systems, processes and the work culture
• Training employees on their new tasks and roles
• Securing connections while meeting company security standards and compliance requirements
• Managing work processes to maintain efficiency and productivity
• Providing quick technological solutions and support (without employees being able to walk to the IT department)
• Creating engagement with the company culture

And also providing solutions to new requirements that remote work has brought:

• Adhering to flexible employee schedules
• Accommodating the gig economy, meaning their employees might be working for the company brand and another brand, even on the same day
• Minimizing the impact of the physical divide
• Reducing the amount of hardware and devices employees have at their home office

How to Plan a Remote Work Strategy

Organizations that are forward-thinking will invest resources in planning a comprehensive remote work strategy. This will ensure their relevance in the future world of work. To do so, they should take into account three components:

1. Processes 
2. The technology strategy
3. Security exposures and compliance requirements

When planning each of these components, it’s important to address the employee experience and IT experience. Employee experience means creating engagement between the employee and the company and making them feel comfortable from their home office. Importantly, consider this  could be their bedroom, kitchen, or living room.

IT experience means simplifying the IT support process. This includes not subjecting them to endless Zoom or video conferencing calls, Slack and emails back and forths, or turning them into a shipping department for sending devices all over the country or globe, while also tracking down employees who haven’t sent them back after leaving the company.

Instead, organizations need a solution that is straightforward and simplified. One that reflects positively on the brand and creates excitement. This means it needs to allow remote employees from varied backgrounds and geographical locations to easily onboard and start using the systems, without frustration, losing patience or taking up lots of IT time and resources. When dealing with organizations with hundreds of employees with high turnover, like contact centers, this issue is exacerbated even further. 

Venn – Embrace the Second Transformation of Remote Work

The second transformation requires a transformative approach. Venn provides a patented technology for securing remote work through BYO-PC or BYOD. Venn is radically simplified compared to VDI or buying/shipping devices, making the experience engaging, convenient and user-friendly for both employees and IT. Onboarding (and offboarding) take minutes, employees can start working and communicating immediately, and connectivity is not disturbed by heavy VDI complexities.

To support employee privacy and modern flexibility and gig economy needs, work lives in a company-controlled Secure Enclave installed on the user’s own PC or Mac – visually indicated by the Blue Border™ – where business activity is isolated and protected from any personal use on the same computer.

Venn advantages:

1. Cost and Simplicity – Venn dramatically reduces or eliminates the expenses and complexities associated with purchasing, managing and distributing company-owned PCs and Macs, as well as the need for a VDI. It is simple to use for both IT and employees.
2. Security and Compliance – Tailored for organizations focused on security and compliance, Venn safeguards company data against unintended or deliberate exfiltration, compromise, or loss.
3. Rapid Onboarding – Venn facilitates the quick onboarding and offboarding of remote workers within minutes.
4. Control – Venn provides comprehensive administrative control over work applications and data, network access, peripheral use, and functionalities like copy-paste and remote wipe, all without necessitating a lockdown of the entire PC.
5. User Convenience and Privacy – Venn offers a seamless experience for users to work on a single device, maintaining a clear distinction between work and personal spaces.

Watch the entire webinar for more insights, here.