30/03/2020
ResQ contact centre staff praise their employer for adapting to the coronavirus situation and enabling almost 1,000 sales agents to work from the safety of their own homes.
The outsourcer began their preparations almost a month ago when the government announced their social distancing guidelines. The company’s quick thinking and agility paid off and they now have the majority of their sales agents working safely and successfully from home.
ResQ is the third largest private employer in Hull with sites in Hull city centre and Seaham.
The contact centre service provider will have closed their Hull office by the end of next week but already have 90% of all staff working from home. 100 agents will remain working from the Seaham office in a key worker capacity providing inbound customer care services for consumers.
The homeworking solution was developed in house by ResQ’s IT team in just 10 days. The innovative cloud-based tech solution is currently enabling almost 1,000 agents to dial from their own homes.
Going above and beyond to ensure staff had everything they needed to enable homeworking, senior managers, including Nic Marshall CEO, personally delivered over 300 PCs to agents homes this week.
“The way we have pulled together and responded to this challenge amazes me and I have never been more proud of our team at ResQ.
"As an outsourcer we are used to handling the unexpected, our agility is one of the things that has made us successful over the years and it hasn’t let us down now.
"The wellbeing of our staff has been our number one priority throughout this I am proud that we have been able to protect their physical health and their livelihoods
What’s even more amazing is that our agents have maintained if not exceeded their performance and levels of service. I want to personally thank every single member of our team for their hard work and commitment to ResQ.”
ResQ are famed for their employee engagement and fun atmosphere and one of the company’s biggest challenges is how they replicate that whilst all their staff work from home. The team have come up with a number of incentive schemes to keep their staff motivated including the opportunity to win a takeaway and shopping vouchers.
Many staff commented that whilst they missed their colleagues and the office atmosphere they were keeping in touch closely through messaging apps and the intranet and despite the distance felt supported and cared for by their colleagues and managers.
“It’s going really well. We’ve been provided with everything we need and everything is working exactly as it would do in the office. As with anything it takes some getting used to but it’s been great."
Sam expressed that his main concern when he first heard the news about coronavirus was ensuring he could provide for his family.
“I wasn’t nervous as such because the senior leadership team gave a briefing very early on and explained they were working on a homeworking solution and I was reassured that they were going to support us.”
“When Gill and Nic (ResQ COO and CEO) gave a full floor briefing about a month ago and said there was a possibility we might all have to work from home, we all kind of laughed it off. I’m just so thankful for the opportunity now.”
Harry was one of the first at ResQ to begin working from home and said he has had no issues and that it’s been great.
“I’ve worked for them for three years and even before this, they were always there for us. What they’ve done is amazing; they’ve protected us financially and mentally we’re completely worry-free now and I can’t thank them enough.”
“We knew about this before the Prime Minister even talked about the lockdown. ResQ pre-empted it and made preparations for us and that’s why they’re such a great company to work for.”
“I have a young baby at home and I am just grateful that I’m now safe and working from home and I’m able to keep my family safe too.”
“Working from home has been really good and easy just like being at work. They provided us with everything we needed and step-by-step guides to get us set up, and team leaders are always on hand to help if we’re struggling.
"I’m really glad to have been given the opportunity to work from home as many companies have just shut up shop so I’m glad we’re still able to work and earn money.”
“has been on par with when we’re in the office. That’s because we’re in constant communication with the rest of the team and the morning briefings really lift morale.”
“The first day I was a bit on edge worried about how it was all going to work but I’ve literally had no issues! I’m grateful to be able to earn a living and commission whilst working from home despite the situation the world’s in at the minute.”
“The way ResQ have come together over the past week really is like a family. Everyone has been jumping at the opportunity to help out. You don’t see that a lot in call centres. It’s been a real eye-opener for me to see how much the people I work with and for care. ResQ has supported the staff so well through this.”