Future of call centre work spaces at TELUS

Future of call centre work spaces at TELUS

Our Work Styles program has enabled team members to work from home for the last decade, however, our call centres have remained office-centric. As we step into the future of work, this will evolve and the majority of our frontline agents will be working remotely – coming into the office quarterly to train, collaborate, and socialize with their team. When we take a look at our real estate portfolio, the vacancy that this shift brings is apparent; however, this doesn’t mean we’re removing the space all together. Instead, we’re rightsizing and investing in the space to ensure that when our agents do work from the office, their experience is memorable and worthwhile.

When thinking about the future of a call centre floor, we wanted to make sure that we heard from the stakeholder group themselves – by conducting leader and team member interviews and focus groups to deep dive into their operations, needs and wants. These sessions enabled us to hear directly from the users of the space, giving us the best opportunity to design the space for the highest level of satisfaction.

Here are a few tips based on our experience

Include spaces that enable memorable team experiences. Imagine an onboarding room where new hires become acquainted with team norms and traditions – a room that’s symbolic of starting at the company, where any agent can look back and remember their first day. These are spaces that are embedded in the call centre culture and shouldn’t be overlooked, but rather deliberately planned for. The cultural return on investment is priceless.

Training rooms are key. With large classes and frequent onboarding, training rooms are a critical requirement. We wanted to expand our horizon, so we’ve started to integrate multi-purpose training rooms to ensure our spaces are being fully utilized. Hackable furniture and cutting-edge technologies enable these rooms to be functional even when there isn’t formal training taking place. 

On demand desk space is necessary. Although the agent's primary work point will be at home, the office must be fully equipped to support ad-hoc on site presence. Drop-in workstations, equipped with the latest technology, are a requirement to ensure that no matter where the agents are working, they have a plug and play set-up to be productive for the day.

Prioritize site privacy and acoustics. If you’ve ever worked in a call centre environment, you know it can get noisy. Multiple conversations happening at the same time can pose a challenge when you’re looking to get some focus work done, so it’s important to take note of the space acoustics. It’s also important to provide privacy-on-demand rooms for confidential conversations when you need them. 

Provide Google-powered collaboration. With agents working both from home and from the office, collaboration tools are more important than ever. That’s why we’ve enabled all our team members with the full G-Suite offering. From seamless video conferencing, to online document sharing and collaboration, just because our agents are disconnected from the office does not mean they are disconnected from each other. 

Connect through plug and play technology, anywhere. Agents  rely on technology to keep them online and connected. That’s why we’ve invested in their technology offering. Whether they are working from home or in the office, they have what they need to be productive for the day. To ensure simplicity between their home and office workpoints, the bundle is easily transportable and offers a plug and play solution.

For more information on how TELUS can support your workplace strategy, reach out to [email protected]