KEY POINTS:
The shortage of people available to work in call centres is causing some firms to outsource and others to allow staff to work from home.
It is opening up a whole new level of untapped staff - people with youngsters or family commitment who can't travel into an office or who live too far away to make commuting worthwhile - are able to work from the comfort of their home.
Donna Bloomingdale works for Mayer Consultants cold calling business owners during the day. She has been doing the job for two years and says it can be tough, especially when people are rude to her. But the flexibility of working between five and 20 hours a week from home suits her lifestyle.
"The job has its good and bad points," she says. "It is good because I have a family so I can work around my family commitments. So if my son has something on at school, or is ill, then I know I can make my calls at any time between 8.30am and 5pm
"If I have an appointment in the afternoon I'll do three hours in the morning. Whereas if I was going into an office I would probably have set hours and all the travelling on top. Working from home means I have no travelling, I don't have to get dressed up and I can wear T-shirts and shorts if it's hot."
However, Bloomingdale says the main downside for her is that she is on her own and is unable to bounce ideas off people or share her frustrations with colleagues over the rude people she sometimes ends up calling.
"When I have a bad day my husband gets the brunt of it when he gets home," she says.
"It can be pretty boring just sitting alone on the phone. A lot of people are anti-telemarketers. But what they seem to forget is that we are just people trying to do a job.
"They are going to get sales people contacting them from somewhere - and this is just one of those areas."
Bloomingdale aims to complete 20 calls an hour, with names and telephone numbers supplied by her employer.
"And, out of those calls, you may only get one possible lead. We don't close the sales, we just get the confirmed leads for sales staff to follow up later."
She says call centre staff who work from home need to have two phone lines or a broadband internet connection. Sometimes, she uses her computer to log into her employer's network to get phone numbers and information. But, at other times, she is sent a simple spreadsheet of names and numbers to work from.
Bloomingdale had never worked in a call centre before taking the contract position with Mayer Consultants but she had worked in sales roles.
"There is staff training where people are invited to the office but, because I live so far away, I do my training online and over the phone," says Bloomingdale.
"We just did the training step by step and it all worked out fine - it is a pretty basic system.
"If you know anything about computers then it is pretty easy to figure it out. And then it took a week or two to get a bit faster with it. And your boss is pretty much available 24/7 - so there is always help when you need it."
Bloomingdale says her job requires plenty of self-discipline so that she completes each assignment within the allotted time.
"You can't put off calling people," she says. "You have to split the assignment up so you spend the same number of hours on the phone each day. If you don't, you suddenly discover it is Friday and there is not enough time left."
Where possible, Bloomingdale completes her calls by Wednesday afternoon, leaving her with Thursday and Friday free. Every couple of weeks she invoices for the hours she has done. But being self-employed means she has to set aside some of her income to pay taxes at the end of the financial year.
Bloomingdale's employer is not alone in employing people to work from home. A survey out last year shows more contact centre companies are taking on staff to do so.
The survey by callcentres.net in Australia shows a significant jump in the number of contact centres allowing their staff to telework - up from 4 per cent in 2006 to 10 per cent last year. This is expected to rise to 19 per cent this year, says the report.
"Working from home is not something I'd want to do forever," says Bloomingdale. "As contractors, we don't get sick pay or holiday pay. But it is relatively easy work."
* Contact Steve Hart via his website at www.stevehart.co.nz
