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What is the future of remote working for charities?
17 Sep 2020by Aidan Paterson
We examine how the last few months of remote working have brought charity service delivery in line with people’s wider experience of digital services - and how the pandemic will shape the future of charity service delivery
This article is sponsored by Olive – experts in scalable and agile cloud communications
The last few months have seen many charities rapidly digitise their services in order to survive. Initially, these changes were born out of necessity. Faced with an unprecedented lockdown, charities had to move service delivery, fundraising and other operations online - with many small charities taking the first steps on their digital journey.
But several months down the line, most of these changes look like they are here to stay. Charities have been able to increase their reach and their impact - with virtual events and digital service delivery removing barriers to accessibility and helping organisations expand their base beyond their immediate geographic areas.
Much of this change has been driven by remote working. What has been thrust upon the sector as a short-term necessity has begun to look like a long-term solution. The flexibility of remote working offers benefits for both charity workers and service users.
’Organisations have been able to prove that their staff can operate remotely. Moving forward, it’s going to be more of a case of charities looking to further digitise their workforce and being able to provide them with the right technologies to operate regardless of device or location. I think that will just become the norm.
There’s still value, obviously, in seeing people face to face, it’s just likely to be more of a blended approach with much more flexibility than before.
- James Scotton - Strategic Acquisitions Director at Olive
So how will this affect charities moving forward?
As charity digital leaders strive to integrate the lessons of COVID-19 into their longer-term digital strategy, they must consider the future of remote working in their organisation.
How remote working is benefiting charity workers
Charity workers may benefit more from remote working than commercial employees.
With a high percentage of charity workers having family commitments, remote working offers greater flexibility and an opportunity to achieve a work/life balance. Recent figures suggest that only 13% of working parents want to return to the ‘old normal.’ The option of remote working could help charities retain key talent. With charity salaries often not matching those available for similar roles in the private sector, benefits like flexible working are a valuable incentive. Specialist recruitment firm TPP says: “Offering greater flexibility at work could be the tool that charities need to compete in recruiting the best talent.”
Remote working also has a lot to offer volunteers. With the ‘furlonteer’ initiative picking up steam among those unable to work during the pandemic, there has never been a better time for charities to benefit from skills-based volunteering.
‘People like the idea of being able to support a charity. But in reality, they’ve got their own normal job to work around, perhaps also a family to consider. They’ve got commitments and trying to carve out a full day within a seven-day week may be really difficult for someone.
Remote volunteering may mean setting out your own hours to work around other commitments. Maybe between seven and nine PM a few days a week when the kids are in bed. Being able to access the same technology, the same collaborative tools means the ability to communicate with the public in exactly the same way [as if I was in the office].
- Ben Neo - Head of UK Charity Sector, Mitel
Digital volunteering is a great way to make a difference and doesn’t have some of the associated risks that could prevent a person with underlying health conditions participating in other voluntary work.
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How remote working is benefiting charity service users
This flexibility also benefits charity service users. With an easier path to volunteering and flexible hours, digital frontline support staff can better cover phones, chat functions and social media platforms. This means that service users will be able to speak to someone more quickly.
We have seen examples of charities moving quickly when it became apparent the crisis was escalating in severity. In order to effectively implement their COVID-19 national support line, the British Red Cross required a resilient, agile, and intuitive contact centre platform that allowed their volunteers to answer calls quickly and simply from their remote working home environments.
The platform required a simple, user-friendly and easy-to-understand interface in order to maximise the potential of a force of over 100 volunteers of varying levels of technical ability.
“British Red Cross have always had a strong reputation for providing support through a crisis, and the coronavirus pandemic is no different. We needed to rapidly deploy a solution that allowed our volunteers to answer calls without delay, regardless of location, without any compromise on voice quality.”
- Andrew Finlay, Head of Service Delivery at the British Red Cross
British Red Cross made the decision to implement a Mitel contact centre environment, delivered on Olive’s Cloud Managed Service Platform, allowing volunteers to access the call centre environment from their mobile devices. The service design, approval, and implementation was agreed and fully functional within 7 days. This included a full private cloud infrastructure, and voice recording in place for the protection of the volunteers, as well as the caller.
The contact centre platform is readily accessible via a mobile device, with calls directly routed to the volunteer’s home phone or mobile when their presence setting is switched to ‘available’. The team consists of 100 agents that can handle up to 2,000 calls a day, with the ability to rapidly scale up if required.
‘We’re finding that charities are looking to embrace more digital means of communication avenues, as opposed to relying on legacy or, old-school ways of engaging... Digital messenger platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are being explored further. Choice of communication platform becomes more important based on the demographic of the people that they’re speaking with and it’s fair to say has become more of an expectation.
- James Scotton - Strategic Acquisitions Director at Olive
Many charities are now exploring omnichannel communications for the first time. While a number of organisations adopted these channels as a necessity, some have reported that by offering a range of channels and allowing people to interact with charity services on a platform that they’re comfortable with, they have been able to reach people who otherwise would not have felt comfortable getting in touch.
‘Some people are hesitant to pick up the phone, finding a digital message more convenient, especially when it comes to sensitive and emotional topics. Online chat, for example, may give an individual the means to open up and be honest about their circumstances, as opposed to having to voice it to a stranger. Digital communication opens up a whole new level of comfort, particularly for a generation who have spent their lives communicating behind a smartphone.’
- James Scotton - Strategic Acquisitions Director at Olive
A number of charitable organisations, such as addiction services or mutual aid support groups that traditionally meet in person faced critical interruptions in the face of lockdown. Providing a range of communications tools has been critical for charities working with sensitive issues or culturally-stigmatised communities.
‘The omnichannel contact centre services that we’re working with at the moment are introducing features like video into the contact centre. The ability to be able to have volunteers based from home for video consultations can also now be supported. It’s all about choice for the user.
- James Scotton - Strategic Acquisitions Director at Olive
These methods of remote working also help to build a more personalised experience. Service users and supporters that enjoy long-standing relationships with charities will have more opportunities to liaise with a preferred point of contact. This personalised experience will make donation easier and more appealing, resulting in higher potential for fundraising campaigns.
‘People expect instant communication. That’s the world that we live in now. Charities have the opportunity now to get behind it. They have to be able to support that, quick, direct communication. Creating better connections with potential supporters through digital means can only be a positive outcome.
- James Scotton - Strategic Acquisitions Director at Olive
A change in expectations
One of the most profound changes driven by the shift to remote working and service delivery is the change in supporter expectations. Before COVID-19, many people still had their primary interactions with a charity in a physical setting. Today, whether people are engaging with a charity as supporters, donors or beneficiaries, this interaction is primarily digital.
This has taken place simultaneously with increased use of digital in all parts of people’s lives. With more and more of us working from home, we are interacting with more digital media than ever before: Netflix binges replacing cinema trips, video calls replacing in-person visits to friends and relatives, virtual events replacing physical gatherings.
As we increase our interactions with digital services, we learn what we like and what we don’t like. We find services that suit us, and we expect others to measure up to this. This breaks down some of the traditional distinctions between how people interact with charities and corporate organisations. If we access charity services in the same way we do private ones (through a phone or laptop) we expect a similar experience.
‘It’s irrelevant if it’s a charity or not. There’s a level of impatience now. The on-demand impact has extended its reach from digital media to brand engagement. The option to support a charitable campaign through a few clicks on social media is powerful. If you’re relying solely on traditional methods, it’s likely you are missing out on a huge proportion of digitally savvy people with the means to make ad-hoc donations based on digital messaging – so long as it’s a quick process.
- Ben Neo - Head of UK Charity Sector, Mitel
What does this mean for the future of charity remote working?
‘Not just charities, but all organisations are much more open to remote and flexible working. Now is not the time to revert back to fixed office locations at maximum capacity. Not only does this still pose a public health risk, but it is inefficient. Can you imagine the talent pool which opens up purely by the recruitment process not being restricted by proximity to the office?’
- James Scotton - Strategic Acquisitions Director at Olive
The future is likely to incorporate elements of remote working and traditional office-based organisations - creating a hybrid model known as ‘blended working’.
Before the pandemic, this sort of work was on the rise. A number of charities had found flexible or agile methods of working to be a good fit. This is because they remove a number of barriers to accessibility - helping charities to benefit from a wide range of talent, including parents of young families, people with disabilities, or other staff members who prefer a less traditional working environment.
The appetite the public has shown for digital service delivery will not go away once a vaccine is found. Neither will the increased expectations now placed on charity services. The pandemic’s long-lasting legacy in the sector will be as a driver of change, and the beginning of a new era of more people-centric charity operations.
Learn More
To better understand how a digitally agile approach to technology could support your charitable cause and drive improved engagement with service users, beneficiaries, and supporters, watch Olive’s on-demand webinar from Digital Leadership Day - or if you’re ready to talk then contact their team of specialists today.
Aidan Paterson
Aidan Paterson
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