For complaints, phone home

ST. PAUL -- Kathleen Hughes moved from Florida to rural Minnesota last year. She cringed when she had to get in the car in snowy weather and make a 40-mile drive to her job in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The commute got old very quickly. ''That's what really pushed me over the edge to work at home," she said.

Working from home isn't new, but Hughes has tapped into a more recent adaptation: the virtual call center.

Hughes, 25, is part of a growing legion of so-called cyberagents, the ranks of which are expected to grow more than 20 percent annually as companies continue to move work away from traditional brick-and-mortar call centers to lower-cost options that tap into workers' homes.

Using telecommunications software that allows workers in Minnesota or California to work together as smoothly as those who sit in adjacent cubicles, vendors are landing contracts with companies such as Sears, 1-800-Flowers, Office Depot, Verizon, J. Crew, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, and the AAA auto club.

These workers toil in the comfort of their homes, logging sales orders, processing transactions, taking travel reservations, or perhaps explaining the ins and outs of health plans.

In many cases, the pay is better than you'll find in a typical call center. But there is a cost. Benefits are rare and workers for some firms are expected to train on their own time or even pay for the privilege.

Today, an estimated 112,000 home-based agents work in the United States. IDC, an information technology consulting firm in Framingham, Mass., predicts the number will almost triple by 2010.

Tougher commutes make working at home more desirable for many people, and innovations in technology make it easier for people to work from home.

Outsourcing firm Alpine Access, based in Golden, Colo., operates with 7,500 home-based agents in five states and plans to start recruiting in Minnesota in the next few months as part of its goal to add up to 8,000 more workers by year-end.

Willow CSN, a similar outsourcing company based in Miramar, Fla., operates with 3,000 agents in 37 states.

''We expect to be six times the size that we are today in three years," said Angie Selden, Willow's chief executive. ''That's the demand we are seeing."

She estimates that about 15 percent of the call center work in corporate America is outsourced. ''A lot of companies still view this as a risky proposition."

The growth comes as workers such as Hughes look for alternatives to the daily grind. They represent an untapped labor force of educated, mature professionals who don't work because of family obligations or limited job opportunities close to home.

Hughes has a college degree in early childhood education. Her preschool teaching career came to a screeching halt last year when she moved with her husband from Florida to northern Minnesota, where attractive jobs are scarce. The best she could find was a gig waiting tables that was close to an hour's drive each way.

Working at home, she said, offers her peace of mind.

Carol Cook, 34, has worked out of her farm home 20 miles from Little Falls, Minn., for about three years. The arrangement fits her schedule. She works while her two daughters are at elementary school and she finishes in time for after-school activities.

Cook often works in blocks of 30 minutes or an hour, perhaps helping out with farm chores or running errands in between.

Another perk: ''I can sit in my pajamas and nobody knows," she said.

At West Corp., an Omaha-based call center company, many agents are stay-at-home moms between ages 35 and 45. Eighty percent have some college education versus 30 percent in the call centers.

''Our whole model surrounding this is based on the quality of individual we are able to put on the phone," said Mark Frei, a senior vice president for West.

In most cases, the agents operate as independent contractors. They provide their own computer, a dedicated phone line, high-speed Internet connection and cover the cost of their training.

At some companies, that cost can be as high as $300 to learn each new client's pitch.

Though some companies offer group rates for medical coverage, contractors pay for their own insurance. Pay typically runs from $7 to $15 per hour.

In a brick-and-mortar operation, the average cost per employee when you factor in overhead is $31 per hour versus $21 per hour for a home agent, according to IDC.

Offshoring to countries with low-cost labor such as the Philippines or India is the cheapest alternative. Still, more companies are bringing back the work, or a portion of it, after having problems related to quality and cultural differences, outsourcing firms say.