With a few exceptions, customer service representatives are often social animals. This also makes them powerful in their function, where the work consists mainly of helping customers and speaking to people. Due to the social character of the employees, it is always a pleasant get-together in the customer department at SalesQ. But what if employees find themselves in a situation in which they all have to work from home (for long periods of time)?

How do you ensure that employees stay on their feet, even in the absence of physical social contact? We speak to Mijet Harinck - operational manager at SalesQ – about this topic.

Mijet: “At first you notice that if you give your employees the responsibility of working from home, they also take it. They feel involved and special. Working from home is special if you haven't done this often. But there are employees who, if they are at home for three weeks, don't like it so much anymore. At a certain point it becomes quite normal and at that moment it is crucial that they also stay motivated from home. If they're inside alone all day and evening.”

The key to motivation

A key to motivating home workers is to maintain social contact. “As SalesQ  we have online training courses and quizzes on the schedule. This way, employees can participate and give live answers,” says Mijet. “We are also intensifying coaching by video chatting one-on-one with our employees.”

Online contact options

Slack also offers opportunities to intensify social contact at a distance: “What you can introduce via Slack is a kind of day start. At one point in the day we all log in and update each other about our work. Everyone can have a chat with each other that way.”

“In addition, it is possible to find out via Slack how the employees are doing during their day. Are they energetic? Did they sleep well? Sometimes it is difficult to give real words to this in a conversation. Slack offers the possibility  to express the current state of mind with colors in your name, for example. This can also easily be supplemented with a telephone call,” says Mijet. “And to use the right channels for the right things, we just make simple agreements. For example, clear guidelines about when and how our managers can be called with questions, so that they are not inundated with phone calls.”

In-person visits

Ultimately, it is also important to remain flexible towards your employees. “We are immensely proud of how our employees (at home) function. It also doesn't matter if they are a little less productive when they work from home. We do, however, keep an eye on things. For example, in addition to video calling, we also think it is very important to visit our employees at home once in a while. To check how they are doing, to motivate them. Because we certainly won't forget them."

The employees of SalesQ can work from home without any problems. They still ensure that we strengthen your company. Curious what SalesQ can do for you? Please contact us directly on +31 23 7113200.