Knight Ridder - December 1, 2005

New Homegrown Operations Challenge Offshoring Trend

“From her home office in the suburbs, Susan Smith is part of a growing movement that may help stem the flow of American jobs to low-cost Asia.

“…Today, from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., Smith takes sales calls for a distributor of public broadcasting DVDs. She's one of 3,000 home-based agents in 34 states working in a virtual call center operated by WillowCSN of Miramar, Fla.

“…Virtual call-center agents in the United States are generally 35 to 40 years old, work 20 to 30 hours a week and earn $10 to $16 an hour, plus bonuses. Some virtual call centers offer bare-bones health insurance; others don't.

“…Homeshoring also offers employee-retention rates of 85 percent or higher, where some traditional call centers have 100 percent annual turnover, said Angela Selden, chief executive officer of WillowCSN. Virtual call centers are manned by older, more reliable workers. With the baby-boom generation nearing retirement, more people will want part-time work.

"’The comfort level with technology has created a population of people who are ripe for work from some place other than the office,’ Selden said. ‘We now believe that the industry is credible, and the next three years, we believe, is a wave of explosive growth.’”