HFS Highlight: Concentrix is investing in global WAH at scale for the long term

The pandemic has pushed BPO providers and their clients to embrace a whole new level of flexibility as both its staff and clients have shifted to working at home (WAH) en-masse. But across the globe, a variety of legal, operational, infrastructure, security, and cultural barriers need to be considered before enterprises sustain these WAH levels long term. Concentrix, through a mixture of prior WAH experience and security investments such as its new SecureCX^TM platform, combined with replicating best practices and its culture at home, is aiming to show the new virtual world that it can endure as a leader in WAH migration and management.

Sixty percent (60%) of Concentrix’s staff are currently in WAH setups across 40 countries, and this new delivery model blend of WAH and traditional working in safe and secure contact centers are achieving quantifiably improved outcomes for clients through the extended COVID-19 period. Over 50% of Concentrix’s employees were moved to WAH in 6-7 weeks; this rapid move was enabled in part because of Concentrix’s existing experience in WAH setups. For enterprise clients not as well-versed in WAH, business continuity plans (BCP) were initially enacted, and those which did not approve BCP-WAH early on found negative consequences. Now that most BPO customers have been forced to consider diversifying their services delivery models, providers like Concentrix are investing in and fine tuning their capabilities for WAH and other emerging delivery models.

Although WAH has been a lifesaver for some companies, it is not just a short-term fix for most on two accounts: no one can predict even the near-future regulation changes, and many enterprises want to make WAH permanent after the proof of value so far.

WAH is measurably outperforming previous scenarios and now clients are moving towards permanent or “enterprise-grade” WAH, and Concentrix is seeing additional demand from new logos. Diversity and reach of talent are being improved and innovated upon allowing investment in new geographies. WAH is seeing better rates of employee attrition, attendance, and most metrics of productivity; year-on-year improvements of 4-5% are being achieved in some cases.

It’s not just about the tools; Concentrix is transferring its culture to WAH

Concentrix has placed an employee-focused culture at the heart of its strategy for years, and doubling down on its “fanatical” culture mission in 2019 with culture studios and workshops rolled out worldwide.   Rather than reinventing the wheel, Concentrix using what works well for traditional delivery and strategically applying and adapting these proven processes to WAH teams with tools, hiring, training, and leadership development (see Figure 1).   One of the highlights of this is the virtualization of Concentrix’ university academy, including 275+ specific training modules for both support and supervisor staff which enables continuous development in its various services from revenue generation to tech support.

Exhibit 1: Concentrix’s approach to recreating its culture for working at home.

Source: Concentrix, 2020

Some enterprises assume once you get BCP-WAH set up, it’s an easy transition to permanent WAH – but every country presents very different challenges based on geopolitics, legal constraints and labor laws, culture, IT infrastructure, and more…

Concentrix had western WAH capacity at scale before COVID-19, but now all 40 countries need it. Many think it’s easy to move to permanent WAH once the inertia of BCP has been overcome, but there’s much more under the surface.

• Legal: Is there a legal structure in the country that allows permanent WAH? The legislation is not clear in some countries – they allowed BCP but are not clear on the future moving forward; Concentrix knows changes are coming and had to be careful to ensure clients and itself are protected. Concentrix has since achieved 100% certifications for all 40 countries, to make sure permanent WAH can be stood up and be operational for clients’ needs.
• Home office: In which countries are employers required to cover the costs of power and broadband? Do employees have to bring their office home and link to a virtual desktop? Ergonomics rules are strict in some countries – where employers must provide desks and chairs, and some are required to do in-person inspections of working environments and potentially hire third-party auditors.
• Bandwidth and power infrastructure: Issues in parts of the world must be accounted for in enterprise-grade solutions. In some countries it’s only possible to focus on WAH in cities because of a lack of infrastructure. But even in certain cities, especially with massive demand increases, power to homes is also frequently interrupted – with some seeing daily outages.
• Culture: Consider also the social acceptance of permanent WAH – and would it limit the talent acquisition for permanent WAH employees?
• Security and BYOD: In some countries, bring (i.e. buying for your home) your own device (BYOD) is not possible economically. Security flags up in certain industries – Banking and financial services (BFS) and healthcare, for example, can be challenging due to the necessary security of data being shared outside of validated settings, and so the speed of moving to widespread WAH is somewhat slower due to risk aversion – but these industries are seeing huge investments in security, including from Concentrix…

Robust security is a lynchpin for long term WAH success

Concentrix is investing in new and improved security for itself and its clients.  The new SecureCX platform leverages facial biometrics, real-time tracking, analytics, and alerting to mitigate threats like fraud, data security, and employee behavior with the flexibility that geographically diverse regulations and operating constraints require. SecureCX’s biometrics allows for third-factor authentication i.e. employees login via a device, a password, and biometric identification. SecureCX allows the level of physical security you would expect in a contact center to be replicated at home, and as in a contact center 100% encrypted voice that’s also telephony agnostic. No prohibited devices can be used, and insider fraud and data theft are monitored via biometrics, analytics, and other technologies, with alerts available to employees and employers in real-time. Concentrix also provides ‘tiered’ WAH security offers, customized to the clients’ particular security requirements and preferences.

The Bottom Line: Concentrix is doubling down on WAH to ensure that it meets all the varied challenges facing all enterprise-scale working at home shifts.

Concentrix is not afraid to push the envelope with its delivery model advancements.  With an already robust WAH solution as well as its Solv^TM gig platform, which HFS covered in 2019, Concentrix came into the COVID-19 pivot well prepared to manage disruption.  Now the challenges will be maintaining this flexibility to the ongoing highly variable geographic dynamics all while impacting and improving EX and CX for itself and customers.