How to Get Work from Home Facility for Your Call Centre

For a call center, there is a facility called OSP extended agent. It basically is a means to avail the work from home facility for the employee. Introduced back in 2008, there are more than 100 BPOs / Call Centres around India that provide this service.

Call centers employees tend to be quite involved with the job as they are supposed to. And why wouldn’t they be? They are in fact the foundation of a good call center. However, when it comes to client engagement, time can create a big issue. Therefore, certain BPOS provide the work from home facility to their employees. And you can start this facility right after you get OSP License in India to start the call center.

How to get work from home facility for your call centre? Well, this blog is dedicated to this very topic. Through this blog, you are going to do a world of favour for your employees so that they can serve you right from the ambience of their own homes, and be productive to your business.

How it all began?

As we have already stated, working in a call center is extremely involved. However, before 2008, there was no such facility to work from home. As a result, the number of employees was not that much. That being said, after the Department of Telecommunication allowed the work from home facility for the OSP, several BPOs and call centers sprung into action. Any OSP that can have INR 5 Crore bank guarantee was allowed to integrate work from home OSP facility.

However, at the time of this article been written, it has 11 years since then, and so, the bank guarantee condition has lowered. Now, only INR 1 Crore bank guarantee can guarantee you the Work from home facility. But why would you choose it? What are its benefits?

OSP work from Home Benefits

Although recently integrated into OSP, the work from home feature has shown a lot of benefits:

1. Low costs of operating: From the seating arrangements to the computers to the telephone lines, running an OSP is quite pricey. However, with the work from home facility, such prices are completely circumvented.
2. Increase in number of employees: The work from home facility frees your BPO from the confines of your building. As a result, you now have access to a larger employee count.
3. Increase in Revenue: Obviously, the more employees equates to more revenue. However, with the inclusion of work from home facility, the conversion rate also is accelerated.
4. Better work environment: When it comes down to it, there is no environment that is better than home.

How to start work from home facility for the OSP?

We now jump into the meet of the topic, how to get the work from home facility.  To allow work from home in call centre, an agreement has to be signed between company and the DOT. It is called Work from home agreement.

What are the terms and conditions to get Work from home facility?

Obviously, there are many caveats associated with terms and conditions for the OSP when work from home facility is required:

1. The validity of the work from home facility is 3 years. It is renewable after than
2. The agents who are operating from their homes are called OSP extended agent.
3. The DOT does not need to inform the OSP prior to inspection
4. The system logs should preserve information of at least 6 months.
5. The OSP registration and the work from home facility shall be canceled in the presence or suspicion of any wrongdoing. 
6. Violation of any terms by the OSP can cause its ban for three years.

Conclusion

You can obtain Work from home facility for your BPO. However, you would need to sign an agreement beforehand. There are terms and conditions to it. However, when all is said and done, the work from home facility is totally worth it.