What is the future of remote working for charities?

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.