With the pandemic came a greater focus on the needs and wellbeing of employees in workplaces across the nation. The heart and soul of SD&A has always been about people, so in the context of our society’s recent discussions about, and reevaluations of, the nature of work, SD&A has prioritized and promoted a company-wide focus on the following areas over the past year and a half:
SAFETY AND FLEXIBILITY
The implementation of our new cloud-based calling platform was a gamechanger for SD&A and its frontline calling agents. With the ability to run telemarketing and telefundraising campaigns from practically anywhere, we were able to give our callers the option of working from home during the recent omicron surge.
Happy Staffers from SD&A’s Center Theatre Group campaign: Star caller Linda Kreis with assistant campaign manager Mark Kanga attend a performance of “To Grandmother’s House We Go”, a play directed by Kreis for The Group Rep in Los Angeles.
And there have been other benefits as well. Being able to work from home has given our calling agents greater flexibility in building their weekly, and even daily, work schedules. Working from home has also provided them with savings on transportation, parking, and meals, as well as the time they would have otherwise spent commuting to and from the office.
When calling from home, our agents use only SD&A-supplied, PCI-compliant hardware and software, with stringent security protocols in place to ensure the highest level of protection for our clients’ data and their patrons’ credit card information. Here are some of the other operational advantages of at-home calling with SD&A:
• Even though our campaign managers are not in the same room as our callers, they can still listen to all our agents’ conversations with your patrons to ensure quality
• Company-issued, PCI-compliant laptops prevent agents from accessing any other programs other than the dialing software
• SD&A’s support team is constantly spot-checking agent work environments and sales to ensure we are conducting business in a secure way
• All calls are recorded and can be used for training purposes
• Agents train with our compliance officer
TEAMBUILDING, UNITY AND BELONGING
Our calling agents and staff members live and work in different cities across the country. To keep us connected, and to build a stronger SD&A community, we have instituted:
• Weekly, company-wide agent meetings with games and prizes to boost morale
• Agent newsletters and updates
• Additional trainings to help callers build and sharpen their skills
• More open doors to our home office so that we can receive feedback and disperse goals, information, and guidance directly from SD&A senior leadership
• A stronger focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, guided by a statement of principles
• And, of course, more frequent Zoom meetings with you, our clients
FAIR COMPENSATION
SD&A is committed to fair pay above the minimum wage. As calling agents returned to work throughout the pandemic, we made sure to offer wages that were higher than the subsidized unemployment payments.
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN FOR YOU, OUR PARTNERS?
SD&A has honed its staffing practices, logistics, and methodology to ensure that we are amply staffed for the year ahead, offering clients a strong, nationwide pool of talented agents who are skilled at calling on all types of campaigns. Additionally:
• Happier agents make for more productive agents
• A better company culture means we can recruit through referrals
• High morale fosters a greater commitment to the work we do on behalf of our clients
For more information or a proposal, contact Mary Jane Avans at mjavans@sdatel.com or (678) 904-1583
