Sutherland Global Services is a global BPO and technology-enabled services company offering an integrated set of back-office and customer facing front-office services that support the entire customer lifecycle. It is one of the largest, independent BPO companies in the world, serving marquee clients in major industry verticals.

CloudSource, the work at home division of Sutherland Global Services, employs customer service consultants from all 48 contiguous states to support industry leaders in the cable/Internet service, retail, software, and gaming console industries.

One of the most sought after qualities in a remote worker is that of independence, being able to thrive without face to face interaction.  This quality is an intangible one to be sure, so one that the recruiter is trying to discern during the interview process.

We utilize recorded interviews through a third party vendor as more of a pre-screening tool.  We then conduct live, over the phone interviews between the candidate and a member of our talent acquisition team.

We try to stress the qualities we are looking for in our candidates in our job descriptions and through our ad placements, partnering with companies that attract the candidates we are looking to hire.

(Answering these with the customer consultant position in mind) After an applicant has applied for a remote position, we will send them an email with a link to perform tests on their personal computer as well as their Internet Service Provider.  We need to verify that they have the necessary technology to enable them to work for us.  We will then conduct a series of recorded interviews, assessments, and usually a live interview as well to help us evaluate candidates and make hiring decisions.

Yes, we use several.  We utilize a third party interview process at the beginning of the interview process.  Once a position has been offered and accepted, a background and/or credit check, as well as a drug screen will routinely be required.

Sensing everybody’s mood, level of motivation, identifying issues before they develop.  With an on-site team, you get to take advantage of facial expressions, body language, etc.  With the remote team, there are a lot of subtleties, often taken for granted, that are missing.  Managers really need to be good listeners and learn to “read between the lines”.

This varies based on roles.  For our customer consultants, they need to provide their own high speed Internet service, headset, and a personal computer for most of our programs.  A few of our programs supply all necessary equipment (except Internet).  For our staff level roles, Sutherland provides their computer and phone (in my case, a laptop and iPhone).  Internet service is provided by the employee.

Employees earn paid time off.  Consultant level employees begin to accrue PTO after 6 months of employment at the rate of 80 hours per year, thru year two.  Salaried employees earn PTO from the very beginning of their employment.

I have a designated office (which morphs into a “family room” in the evening) which is a bonus room over our garage.  It’s spacious, colorful – I love art and have mementos from family trips, favorite concerts, children’s artwork, etc. decorating my workspace.  

Poorly 🙂  Just joking, as I’m working at 9 p.m. on this blog post submission!  I love the fact that although we have core hours when we are expected to be available for meetings, to chat online, etc., if we have family commitments, school events, etc. we are able to make provisions to attend to other priorities.  I think of it as a give/take scenario.  Once you’ve established a level of trust with your manager and team, and they have confidence that you will get the job done, the actual schedule of your work day has room for variance.  I love that benefit.

“Twitter for Dummies” –  ha ha 🙂  Just kidding, although it is pretty informative!  You’ve caught me here, I much prefer novels over business related reading materials.  But I have recently started and am enjoying, “Crucial Conversations – Tools for Talking When Stakes are High “.  And I have a teenager, so may prove to be a helpful read for the home front as well.  

I heard this on a conference call a few years ago and thought it was brilliant.  If it takes less than 10 minutes to complete, do it immediately!

Best – I love the occasional quiet morning in a local coffee shop, Port City Java, if I can get away and am not required to be on the telephone.  Worst – haven’t found it yet! 🙂