News Article

Since its launch in November 2009, One North East’s ground-breaking pilot project, the Home Working Fund, has created 260 new jobs in the region and is well on the way to hitting its target of creating 360 new jobs in two years.

Three more companies from a variety of sectors have committed between them to create 140 new jobs – this comes on top of the 120 jobs announced in March.

Thanks to support from the Fund, a new inward investor has been attracted to the region; a local business can now accelerate its growth plans; and a major call and contact centre will trial home working for the first time.

Homesource UK, 2Touch, and Agile UK are the latest participants in this unique £1.1m scheme, managed by Entrust, which is aimed at helping companies establish home workers in the North East.

Bob Travers, Managing Director of Homesource UK, a home-based virtual call centre, comments, "With modern technology, our call handlers can operate anywhere irrespective of geography. Our future operating plans will require us to double our workforce and invest in a new hub to manage our expanding home working team.

“The North East leads the way in call and contact centre excellence - our research, and the number of people who apply to us from this region, demonstrates that this is an area that offers us a talent pool second to none.”

The availability of the Fund has also convinced leading Business contact centre, 2Touch, to test home workers for the first time.  Head of Recruitment, Tracy Taylor, said, “The Fund is invaluable for us to trial this type of approach. We have known for a while that we wanted to investigate how home working could fit within our overall business model. We wanted to identify certain roles that could be home based, thereby utilising an additional skilled workforce.   Accessing the Fund allowed us to accelerate and develop our growth plans.”

Agile UK is putting home working at the centre of its growth plans. Simon Scotchbrook, CEO, said, “The Home Working Fund will enable us to grow by being more eco-friendly and reducing our carbon impact. We believe that there is a significant contribution to be made to the financial growth of the business from employees working from home in terms of the employees being more efficient, having greater job satisfaction which increases customer satisfaction, which culminates in increased levels of business from each customer.

“The Home Working Fund will allow us to access the skilled workforce that is not currently engaged with the labour market - a more eclectic mix of people will drive a cultural change within the business, which we believe will have a positive effect on the culture of our business.”

One North East’s Director of Business and Industry, Ian Williams, said, “This is great progress and will help us to continue to work towards the necessary higher level skilled operatives that the call and contact centres sector in particular demands. 

“This unique initiative is helping employers in the region to fast track their growth plans. Research demonstrates that employers benefit from increased productivity from home workers and also reduced overheads. I would encourage all businesses out there, both large and small, who may be thinking of employing new home workers to give Entrust a call.”

Applicants to the Home Working Fund can benefit from advice on eligibility, guidance on how to make home working a reality, and the substantial funding to support general training and resources required such as computers, software, hardware or telephony.

Interested businesses should contact Sarah Belton at Entrust on 0191 244 4000 or email homeworkingfund@entrust.co.uk to request an application pack or to arrange a one-to-one meeting.

For more information visit www.entrust.co.uk/homeworkingfund.co.uk