Barnes cited lower pricing, less agent attrition, high rates of agent satisfaction, the ability to appropriately culturally align service and brand and rapid ramp up capacity as some of the benefits of using home based agents. "Ultimately, it means clients can source the best possible agents from anywhere in the country and not be constrained by the local availability of talent," he said. "This is important at a time when increasing numbers of skilled knowledge workers are choosing to leave the corporate and public sectors in favor of becoming Independent Professionals (IPros), contracting their skills into the market."

Organizations are increasingly looking to innovative schemes when it comes to dealing with skills shortages. One example is in the United States where prisoners are being used to fill help desk and contact center positions.

For example, the Colorado Department of Corrections has been using female inmates on the agency's IT help desk since 2005. Corrections officials came up with the idea in the face of planned IT cutbacks.

"We were trying to support 6,500 staff with very few of us at the [IT] support center," according to Karen Danley, support center manager for the agency. Danley and her team screened, interviewed and picked a handful of female inmates who were then trained as "first responders" for the agency's IT help desk.

Logistically, the arrangement worked out well. The female correctional facility is located just two miles from the IT support center, so female inmates who work on the help desk are picked up and dropped off after each six-hour shift.