The health and safety of our members is the UWEBC’s top priority. UW–Madison is monitoring the COVID-19 situation in collaboration with local, state and federal agencies. Based on campus' guidance, this meeting will be held via web only to allow our members a convenient and safe way to attend.

The COVID-19 crisis prompted many customer care organizations to pivot to having all or most of their team members work from home to ensure employee safety and business continuity. For many, this was the first foray into a fully-distributed workforce model – and was implemented very quickly out of necessity. In addition to the connectivity and technology infrastructure needed by frontline associates and managers to enable working remotely, an effective and sustainable work-at-home (WAH) model requires new approaches to employment policies and expectations, on-boarding, training, internal communication and supervision.

The good news is, with the right tools, rules and practices in place, WAH can work very well for many customer care organizations while delivering benefits of lower operating costs, increased flexibility and an expanded labor pool.

Eleven months into the pandemic – and with increased utilization of remote employees looking to become a permanent fixture for a significant number of organizations even after the crisis is behind us, what have we learned about what it takes to succeed with WAH?

Join us for this interactive virtual forum during which you'll have an opportunity to learn about approaches, methods and tools for enabling an effective WAH model for customer care. The first part of the morning will feature presentations from UWEBC members about their plans for enabling a WAH strategy after the pandemic crisis recedes. Following the presentations – and for most of our time together, you'll have an opportunity to participate in breakout discussions with peers to share and discuss experiences with particular aspects of WAH of interest to you (you'll get to choose two topic discussions in which to participate). So come prepared to share and discuss your organization's approach and experience with WAH in small group conversations with industry peers!