Did you know that JetBlue employs dozens of stay-at-home moms in Utah? They work from the comforts of the couch booking flights for JetBlue callers. The entire call center is not a center. It's a network of home offices and happy, smiling ladies!

On the way to Nashville and back on Friday I listened to the incredible audio book:

The World Is Flat [Further Updated and Expanded; Release 3.0]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman (Hardcover - Aug 7, 2007)
5 new from $24.08 8 used from $15.27
3.8 out of 5 stars (1,264)
 
This has really got me rethinking the whole open an office in Memphis and spend thousands of dollars on rent, upkeep, utilities, etc. We could employ more moms if we let them stay home and work. So…we are now considering the advantages of homesourcing the records dept. in addition to the counseling program. We've developed a great system, I think, of having homeschool moms answer calls and emails as they work in the capacity of a guidance counselor. Lynn, Lani, Karen, Calente, Toni, and now Ana, all work well from home and bring an incredible level of professional and personal service to HLA. In all honesty Toni really works more closely with the records department now anyway. She just sort of grew into the position of being our first homesourced homeschool mom, and has provided a key example of where we could take this. Way to go Toni!
 
With our growing problem of space and staff in the records department Ken and I and others have talked around the idea of opening an office back in the Memphis area. But after listening to the above book and reading more about homesourcing the advantages of doing it the Homesource way seem to be too many to ignore. Here is what Wikipedia says about homesourcing:

Homesourcing

Homesourcing also known as homeshoring is "the transfer of service industry employment from offices to home-based employees with appropriate telephone and Internet facilities".[1] Homesourcing is best thought of as a combination of outsourcing and telecommuting.

Homesourcing refers to hiring employees or engaging independent contractors. Homesourced workers are sometimes required to come to an office for training from time-to-time.

Advantages of homesourcing

  • Worker preference – homesourced workers often need to work from home or strongly prefer to work from home. They appreciate this opportunity, and therefore are loyal.
  • Reduced costs for the employer as homesourced workers often provide their own telephone equipment and computer systems. Employer also saves on cost of office space.
  • Using homesourced workers that are local to the area where they are calling precludes the prejudice that is sometimes created from regional accents, mannerisms and rates of speech.
  • Possible tax advantages for the worker using part of their home for business purposes.
  • It provides the employer the ability to provide work to individuals who through disability are unable to travel to a workplace.

With the technology now available there's no reason why we cannot take advantage of this within HLA. The key is going ot be getting everything digital, including complete school records. But Tyler is already working on solutions for this as well. More on that in subsequent posts. For now, let's pray about homescourcing and see where it takes us. david