Steps forward by “Grid shpk”, the communications revolution
Home office
Now you can stay home while you work. This new possibility has been introduced to Albania by “Grid Albania”, the call center company, which has hired more than 70 young people to do their job… while sitting on the living room couch.
Did you ever imagine, tired and stressed out at the office in front of your computer, that one day you’d be working on a laptop, comfortably stretched out on the sofa?
Sure you did! But you probably thought it was just another of those escape fantasies that arise when fatigue sets in. Actually, this dream isn’t so impossible, if we consider how web technology is moving ahead, and the advantages it offers.
The 21st century is rightly considered the internet century, and the Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, has often promised to bring these benefits to Albania. Today, Albanians tend to use modern means of communication more and more frequently, and social networks, like Facebook, are increasingly popular among young people.
Put simply, the web makes it all possible, even working at home. A significant step in this direction was taken recently in Albania by a “Call Center” company, the first to offer young Albanians a real job opportunity through the world’s most popular social network, Facebook. A job that can also be done at home.
Fabrizio Simonetti, CEO of “Grid Albania” – which has been doing business in Albania since 2005 and is part of the “Alchimia Spa” group, one of Italy’s largest 220 holding companies, active in textiles and apparel, market research and surveys, real estate and finance – says that the overall results of the initiative have been even better than expected.
“We were optimistic, fresh from the success of our new “Homeshoring” campaign, in March 2010″ -he adds. But what does “Homeshoring” mean, and how does it work? In brief, it means “working at home”, and for many of the world’s companies in this sector, it has proven a successful model of youth employment.
“Grid Albania” has become a leader in the call center and communications sector partly thanks to this new model. “Homeshoring” is a brand-new application for call center services, based on a special ADSL broadband connection that makes it possible for operators to access all the call center’s systems from their homes.
In fact, operators work from their homes as if they were in the company’s offices. But the work they do is monitored by the central operators, in those offices, who communicate with their colleagues at home whenever necessary using “Skype”. “The supervisor is expected to monitor the performance of the Homeshoring staff, assisting them when needed, improving service quality and building their professional skills”, explains Simonetti.
Now an established fact, this new work model was introduced in March 2010 by “Grid shpk”, which conducted a recruitment campaign in the city of Scutari, which was later extended to other Albanian cities, such as Elbasan, Ourazzo and Valona, where Facebook was first used for recruitment purposes. It was no stroke of genius: success was practically guaranteed, given that a majority of young Albanians are assiduous users of the social network. Initially, users were asked to click on a link with a banner reading: “Would you like to work from home?”. Once the user entered the home page, s/he learned what Homeshoring was and how it worked, and above all, there was an application form for those who wanted to work at home, without having to go to the office every day.
“The response was amazing. We tallied 45 thousand hits in a month, with 800 applications from all over Albania: 500 to our e-mail address and 300 people who came directly to our offices to apply. The new strategy was based on the social network that young people use so frequently”, said the CEO of Grid Shpk. All the applicants underwent a free training course, at the end of which over 70 young workers were hired. In addition, Simonetti points out that this new model of work for young people has increased the number of web users, one of the Albanian government’s declared objectives.
Most of the new hires did not own a computer or have a web connection: thanks to Grid, they now have both and use them to work every day. Also, with the Albanian call center services sector in constant expansion, Grid’s success in using the social networks for recruitment purposes has not been lost on its competitors, who have also begun to post job offerings on the social networks. This is a real boost for all of Albania: young people, most of them students, gain access to the web and the social networks free of charge.
This can help to bring about a significant change for the positive. A job market that targets young people while offering them a broader range of choices, with more information and more chances of finding the job they want.
Since 2005, when “Grid Albania” first opened for business in the country, more than 300 workers have been hired. At the same time, the service offering grew and improved in quality. Today, this call center company offers about 10 different services, with the range including market research studies and opinion surveys, providing personalized real-time solutions for businesses and institutions, and a 24 hour information service, year round, covering all of Italy.
This service includes telephone numbers, names, addresses, restaurants, hotels, train schedules and any other information users might need. Another interesting addition is the telemarketing service, offering clients a reliable appointment management service designed for sales managers and telemarketers.
“Grid Shpk” specializes in Business to Business appointment scheduling. In addition, the toll-free number (Italian) transforms every phone call into a business opportunity for client companies, with Grid answering incoming calls on the clients’ behalf.
But all these services can be delivered by employees working in their homes, just like their colleagues at the office. Our couch potato workers with their laptops, whose dream of making a living without leaving their homes has come true!