The gig economy has transformed many industries, and contact centres have experimented with external gig platforms to solve the eternal problem of matching staffing to variable demand. But there’s a compelling alternative that’s often overlooked: creating an internal gig economy by giving existing staff more flexibility to pick up additional hours.
The Staffing Flexibility Problem
Contact centre demand is inherently variable. Monday mornings are different from Tuesday afternoons. The post-holiday surge is different from the summer trough. Unexpected events — weather, service outages, product launches — can double or triple call volume with little warning.
Traditional solutions to this variability involve one of two approaches: overstaffing to handle peaks (expensive) or understaffing and accepting longer wait times during peak periods (damaging to customer experience). Neither is satisfactory.
The Internal Gig Solution
At Telnet, we’ve developed a model where trained agents can opt in to additional hours through our scheduling platform. When volume forecasts suggest a peak is coming, we offer additional shifts to our existing workforce before looking to external solutions.
This approach has several advantages over external gig platforms. Our internal agents know our systems, processes, and clients. They’re trained and trusted. They don’t require onboarding. And they’re motivated — the additional income is voluntary, which means people who take it are generally engaged and ready to perform.
The Technology Requirement
This model works because of the technology infrastructure we’ve built. Cloud-based telephony and CRM means agents can work from anywhere, at any time, on any device. Our scheduling system makes it easy to offer and accept shifts. Our quality assurance tools ensure consistent performance regardless of when or where an agent is working.
The internal gig economy isn’t a replacement for good workforce management — it’s a complement to it. But it’s proving to be a genuinely useful tool in the flexibility toolkit.
