from the Portland Press Herald
UnumProvident is expanding the concept of allowing employees to work from home by freeing call center employees from the shackles of an anonymous cubicle for the less constricting environs of a home office.
The company currently has 87 employees of what it prefers to call “contact centers” working from home. There are a total of about 190 workers with a formal telecommunity relationship companywide, and others are in the process of making the transition from the office to the den or spare bedroom, a spokeswoman said.
Amanda Green has worked for the company from her North Gorham home for nearly two years. She said she can’t imagine going back to an office job.
“I’m much more productive at home because of the lack of distractions at home,” said Green, who has worked for UnumProvident for 7 1/2 years. “I don’t have a co-worker next to me, carrying on a conversation.”
UnumProvident officials said the arrangement requires some relatively inexpensive call-switching technology, which allows the insurer to route incoming customer calls to specialists who are working at home. The effort pays off with high productivity and increased worker retention, the company said.
It also means the contact center can continue operating during snowstorms and solves the problem of staffing the customer line evenings from 8 to 11 p.m.
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