Next-Gen Cloud Tools Engage At-Home Workers

As the world has changed, so has the way we work. Ensuring that companies have the right tools in place for both employees and customers is crucial. Part of this is having one in which employees feel supported and trusted. Happy employees equal productive employees and ultimately provide better customer experiences. But with millions of employees now in the Work From Home environment, companies are seeking out new ways to generate that same culture when not tethered to a physical office.

A happy work culture is a priority at OneLink, and at the center of our culture are our agents, who we call “Incredybles.” We are thinking outside of the box to keep our Incredybles connected. Internal social media pages have played an important role, enabling us to host contests, cultural events, leisure activities, learning opportunities, classes and other online events. We have also incorporated new delivery and engagement opportunities as we reach out to our Incredybles at their homes to demonstrate our recognition and offer benefits like rewards programs.

Keeping Social in Work from Home

In order to connect existing employees, many companies are opting for bespoke or out of box internal social networks that function like traditional social media but are specific to the organization. This means that remote teams remain connected through constant team communication, interaction, and activities that keep them engaged and productive.

By mimicking known social media conventions there is a sense of familiarity and comfort, which also aids the building of a distributed community. In circumstances like the current situation, regular communication across a range of media means that not only can teams feel unified in their goals, but it can also often aid in maintaining or improving mental health as it keeps team members from feeling isolated.

Equally crucial though, is the right set of tools to support their continued success to achieve our clients‘ goals.  These in-house developed tools offer all of the necessary functionalities that improve employee engagement as well as provide the right mix of technology, analytics and agent support to optimize team performance and monitor their own performance.  Tools such as these should form unified packages that integrate across different functions.

“It’s always good to see how tools that we normally use for personal purposes help to shorten the distance between us and create a better work relationship,” explains Ricardo Vasquez, an Incredyble working in operations since August 2018.

As a result of this we created Partner, a platform focused on three principles:

1. Keeping our Incredybles engaged and connected.
2. Centralizing the coaching, quality, and virtual classes for learning and improvement.
3. Reducing administrative burdens: “One of the benefits of Partner is that our Incredybles can go to one place and know they will find what they are looking for,” says Andrea Ibarguen, CHRO for OneLink.

One-stop Internal Channel 

An Incredyble can login to Partner and instantly access work-related information such as promotional opportunities, development courses, vacation time off, schedule change requests, refer friends for employment, access personalized documentation, and more. Incredybles are kept up to speed with the most recent news, such as awards, new sites, and new tools. A chatbot embedded in the tool can provide real-time personalized answers for hundreds of questions specific to that individual.

Two other major modules within Partner are online classes and the coaching modules. Incredybles can review quality scorecards and sign off on all coaching sessions electronically.  Additionally, the corporate learning center provides online e-learning modules that any employee can take on their own time for self-improvement and promotional opportunities.  A wide catalog of virtual courses covering different specialties provides our Incredybles the foundation and knowledge for promotion and ensures that we have a ready bench strength to scale.

“Partner was created as a centralized solution to make the lives of Incredybles easier. It has a mix of work-related components as well as a social networking capability which allows our team members to remain connected,” says Andrea Ibarguen, CHRO.

“Our Incredybles become friends, share pictures, and celebrate birthdays and work achievements. We are continually adding functionalities to create new and better experiences for our Incredybles.”

Marco Peña, an Incredyble who joined OneLink in May 2019, agrees: “I love how even from home, technology and virtual tools can help us feel connected and involved in the Incredyble family.”

Cloud tools are likely to continue to develop at pace and offer new opportunities for companies to evolve the way they engage with customers and employees. Although the shift to home working has largely been motivated by Covid-19, it is unlikely that we will return to the old ways post-pandemic and businesses need responsive tools offered by partners who understand the challenges of an evolving way of working.