NEWS > Help with the Home Work
Published: Thursday, 09 Dec, 2010
A unique project aimed at supporting home working in the North East had smashed its targets to create more than 360 new jobs by 06 December 2010. Launched in November 2009, the project was still only part way through with another 10 months to run and is still open to new applicants looking to create home based jobs in the region.
A unique project aimed at supporting home working in the North East had smashed its targets to create more than 360 new jobs by 06 December 2010. Launched in November 2009, the project was still only part way through with another 10 months to run and is still open to new applicants looking to create home based jobs in the region. Funded by Regional Development Agency, One North East, the programme offers up to GBP3,000 per job created. This can support both skills development and training for new employees and the capital investment required to set up remote workers.
The latest companies to be accepted onto the scheme include a growing travel business, a rapidly expanding energy saving company, and two specialist call and contact centres. David Thorley, Sales and Marketing Director of outsourcer, Sensee, said, "Obviously the flexibility of our dynamic model benefits our clients greatly by enabling massive resourcing cost reductions, but what primarily attracted us to the Home Working Fund was the quality of the North East resource pool. Quality is a big focus for us, and the caliber of the staff that we have gained since adding the North East as a hub is impressive. During the past 12 years we have successfully developed teams of Home Agents based in other parts of the UK. We know from this that the list of benefits from having home workers is endless. Our tried and tested approach not only delivers direct overhead reductions, but perhaps more importantly, provides our clients with the
flexibility and agent quality that cannot necessarily be realised with traditional call and contact centre models.”
SalCallCentre Director, Susan Lane, has recently established a virtual call centre to deliver customer services for large retail outlets. “A flexible workforce gives us an edge in tendering for new business. Working from home suits a wide range of individuals whose skills and knowledge might otherwise remain untapped. As part of our social ethos, we aim to get unemployed people into full time employment. The Home Working Fund will enable us to grow the business faster and provide additional job opportunities at a quicker rate than we could otherwise have achieved.”
As a business at the forefront of energy efficiencies, Home Heating Solutions Ltd knows that eliminating the need for staff to travel to work not only reduces CO2 emissions and minimises carbon footprint, but also has an extremely positive effect on people. Philip Marley, Managing Director, states, “Due to working hours being completely flexible and people being able to carry out work from the comfort of their home, there is also a hugely positive impact on morale which in turn increases productivity. The Home Working Fund provides the assistance we require to keep up with the unprecedented demand we are experiencing.”
Staff loyalty and motivation are at the heart of Beach People’s plans for the introduction of home workers. Director, Nick Jackson, said, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to take part in this exciting project. When establishing the business, we were very conscious that high quality, highly trained and motivated staff would be the key to our success. Part of our USP is having the flexibility to offer home working positions to all staff that we recruit and employ. '5 to 9' working is a vital part of our service offer and enables us to stand out from High Street based competitors.”
Applicants to the Home Working Fund can benefit from advice on eligibility, guidance on how to make home working a reality, and the substantial funding to support general training and resources required such as computers, software, hardware or telephony. Interested businesses should contact Sarah Belton at Entrust on 0191 244 4008 or email homeworkingfund@entrust.co.uk to request an application pack or to arrange a one to one meeting.
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