Working from Home businesses is gaining prominence due to increased reliance of the the Companies to outsource their work in order to make their business cost effective and rightsized as far as the staffing is concerned.

2. To this extent the Multi National Companies especially in the United States of America have started outsourcing the customer service component to India . This has begun in the late 90s and gathered momentum in the first half of this century.A typical call centre comprises of a floor with ten to fifty terminals manned by newly passed out graduates / undergraduates answering to the queries of the customers around the world.

Aim.

3. The aim is to generate a write up on work from home ` with reference to call centre.

Preview.

4. The write up is divided into the following subparts :-

(a) Introduction.

(b) Flexible work timings.

(c) Win Win situation for the employer as well as the employee.

(d) Conclusion.

Flexible work timings:Home call centre.

3. It is becoming necessary as proffessionals / graduates want independence from an overly supervised kind of an work environment which tends to stress them due to the pressure to meet deadlines.Though some time bound targets are to be met but they are not as strenous and demanding as so many corporate jobs are these days . They are also free to work at any time of the day or night from the comforts of their home as per their choice.

4. Some call centres have started to create a reserve pool of volunteers who can work for their call centres from their homes.This option is being generated in the Caucasian countries like Lithunia.Incidently Lithunia is most likely to be a strong competitor to India in the Business Process Outsourcing Industry. Though this trend has not really got going in India , the future is likely to witness more and more of such trends in our country also.

5. Though the culture of working from home has not caught on in India as much as in the United States of America , future projections indicate that we are firmly moving in that direction.Options are now available to the housewives and retired peronnel to use their free time more productively.This is only aided by the fact that Call centre is a 24 hour industry.The only requirement will be for the individuals to own a PC with a telephone with internet connection; apart from the fact that they will have to undergo a training on the requirement of the assignment that they will physically handle.

6. Students pursuing higher studies will also be able to gainfully use their liesure time to generate extra income for their scholarly pursuits.Some call centres are even accepting Higher secondary passouts to do their work.Indeed this is an excellent option for them to earn their pocket money from their summer vacation and at the same time getting a proffessional exposure.Since the call centre are accepting volunteers more often than not from the vicinity of their geographical location , this works out as a disadvantage as they are not tapping the full array of the talent pool that is available;whereas on the flip side it can be said that a physical link up between the remote employee and the employer environment lends a kind of a credibility to the business; which can be construed as an advantage.

Win Win situation for the employer as well as the employee.

7. Though the employer will require varied proffessionals like Customer care executives,technical support executives , process specific trainers(technical and non technical),communication and culture trainers and last but not the least the team leaders ; they will only be able to ask volunteers for customer care executives working on flexible time plan.But this is the appointment in the call centre which views the maximum volatility.Hence a owner of a call centre is invariably sweating to fill up these vacancies.

8. But these days you have a lot of students / housewives and retired / old people who are volunteering to do such task as the call centres are paying an handsome amount for the work put in . The work put in gets perceived to be lighter/less as the volunteers work from the comfort of thier homes on flexible timings of their choice.Hence it can be said that it is a Win Win situation for the employer as well as the employee.

Prompt payments by the employer : motivating factor.

9. Call centres and companies have maintained thier credibility by promptly remitting payments to the employee as per their terms and conditions which are agreed upon by the contracting parties.This is a major motivating factor for the volunteers to keep working.It can be concluded that this is the factor which will keep this industry alive and all efforts must be taken to ensure the same.

10. As brought out earlier this industry / working culture is to witness tremendous growth in the future and hence all necessary safeguards need to be taken by the controlling organisations to ensure that no fraudulent trends creep into the industry .If needed the laws to these effects should be framed and if already existing should be made more strict . This will deter any potential law breaker to refrain from using illegal means/unfair trade practises.Since such laws are better evolved in the western countries,a study group could be constituted by the industry as a proactive measure to ensure their businessess survive the century.

3 Conclusion.

11. In the end it can be seen that the culture of Home bussiness is yet to take off inour country the way it has done in the west.It is obvious that this trend is sensitive to the needs of the time and is indeed a win win situation to everyone.

12. To ensure that the industry also thrives the way it has done in the western countries all measures should be taken by all concerned to ensure the same.