Family-friendly outsourcing

On the topic of a family wage, Matt Festa alerts me to an outsourcing trend that may actually be empowering families to realize, at least partially, the child-friendly promise of a stay-at-home parent.  The Wall Street Journal (subscription only) reported last week that:

[W]orking at home is taking a leap forward -- in the customer-service arena. Instead of sending call-center work to India or the Philippines, a growing number of consumer-products and -services companies, from Office Depot and J. Crew to Wyndham Hotels and Sears Holdings, are outsourcing work to people in their homes here.

The development, driven by expanded broadband access to the Web, cheaper computer technology and improved call-routing systems, has opened the door to an entirely new group of at-home workers. Home-based call-center agents have tripled since 2000, estimates Art Schoeller, a senior analyst for research concern Yankee Group. A survey last August of 350 U.S. and Canadian call centers by Yankee Group found that 24% of agents, or 672,000 workers, are now based in their homes. IDC, a Framingham, Mass., research concern, sees the growth continuing, with home agents increasing at a rate of 24% each year from 2006 through 2010.

The pay for home agents is limited, and most jobs come through outsourcing firms and lack benefits. Also, the work -- such as taking telephone orders for things ranging from airline reservations to workout gear -- can be wearying, repetitive and stressful.

Nevertheless, such jobs are a potential boon for people who care for children or elderly family members at home. There's so much pent-up demand for home-based work that people who would never dream of taking a job in a brick-and-mortar call center are flocking to become home agents. Research firm Gartner Inc. says 70% to 80% of home-based agents have college degrees, compared with 30% to 40% of workers in call centers. Most are in their 30s or 40s, older than the average call-center employee, and they often have management experience, say outsourcing firms. Mark Frei, a senior vice president of West Corp., Omaha, Neb., which operates both home- and office-based call centers, says home-agent turnover is only about half the 40% to 100% attrition in traditional call centers.

Rob