Homeshoring Brings Legitimate Work At Home Jobs to American Homes

By: Melissa Brewer

Imagine a commute that is just down the hallway, a few minutes from your favorite gourmet coffeepot and the Monday
morning news. You plug in your headset to the phone, boot your computer, and begin taking calls for your client. After
30 minutes of call time, you move on to a scheduled break to tend to a few errands around the house. You get another
cup of coffee, finish a few small household tasks, and return to your desk to begin taking calls again. Your schedule is
flexible, and you can have all the breaks you need from the comfort of your own home. You’re paid anywhere from
$7.00 to $30.00 an hour, and you work not just the hours – but the minutes – that you choose.

Sound like another work from home scam? Or simply too good to be true? Think again. The rise of homeshoring
employers has paved the way to legitimate work-from-home careers that allow flexibility for a whole new workforce –
including work at home moms and dads, caretakers, military spouses, people with unique medical needs and the
differently abled.

So, what is homeshoring, exactly?

Homeshoring, in its simplest form, is the use of home-based employees by businesses, big and small, to handle their
call center functions effectively with the use of home-based workers. Homeshoring companies have made the decision
to keep their call centers virtual – but within their own parameters, country and control.
Homeshoring moves jobs out of high-overhead call centers and into the homes of US workers, rather than out of the
country. Homeshoring cuts costs, but not corners, when it comes to saving money and creating valuable contacts with
customers.

So who hires home-based workers for their call centers?

Homeshoring companies range from outsourcing partners (such as Convergys and LiveOps) to large corporations
looking to save operating costs for their call center components. Companies such as JetBlue send their workers home
and have an added benefit when weather problems force call overflows – they can call on their home-based workers
to pick up the slack. Other companies outsource their calls to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO’s) firms such as
Alpine Access or LiveOps. Office Depot and Virginia Atlantic outsource their customer service needs to virtual agent
call-center firms, which are often small or midsize businesses. The call centers then hire home-based workers or
create independent contractor agreements. Some virtual call centers only hire home-based contractors with their own
business set-up, so that their workers can operate under their own small corporations or LLC’s.
Homeshoring also provides a flexible and adjustable workforce for companies that often are sent into chaos with call
overflow. The flexibility work for employees, too. Often, a homeshoring agent can schedule work shifts in time periods
as short as 15 minutes.

According to the Gartner group, 10% of all call centers in the US plan on employing home-based agents in the near
future. There are currently 112,000 home-based agents in the U.S., according to IDC. By 2010, there 330,000
home-based workers are expected to be working in the US alone. Homeshoring is here to stay and is expected to
become a standard practice for companies that need to find new ways to retain excellent employees at a fraction of
the cost of maintaining a brick and mortar call center.
A search online can uncover dozens of companies that hire homeshoring workers, but the top homeshoring (and most
competitive) employers are listed below:

• Alpine Access, www.alpineaccess.com
• Arise, www.arise.com
• LiveOps, www.liveops.com
• Convergys Corp., http://www.convergysworkathome.com/Convergys/HAP/re_agent.nsf/webform?OpenForm
• West Corp., http://www.westathome.com/
• InfoCision Management Corp., http://www.infocision.com/Careers/Pages/WorkFromHome.aspx
• Working Solutions, www.workingsolutions.com

About The Author:

Melissa Brewer is the author of The Little White eBook of Homeshoring Jobs. Want to learn more about virtual opportunities? The Little White eBook of Homeshoring Jobs profiles 180+ companies that regular hire home-based workers for inbound and outbound callers, customer care, and tech support – complete with salary information, typical schedules, and the tools you’ll need to get the virtual job you want. All of our readers get free updates for life.