In an effort to cut costs, companies have been outsourcing their call center functions for the past decade to low-wage workers in India, the Philippines and other far-flung countries. But that trend is changing as call centers are coming home—and into the homes of free-agent workers in the United States.
Early adopters of the trend, which is sometimes referred to as “homeshoring,” include JetBlue Airways, Alpine Access, PHH Arval and LiveOps—companies that since about 1999 have rejected traditional employer squeamishness about managing a telecommuting workforce and have made at-home agents their central staffing model. Now other employers are following suit, and the trend toward using at-home workers is taking flight.
