City development company Creative Sheffield is hoping to offer contact centre services from a legion of employees’ homes in a homeshoring project.

The Digital Home Working initiative will give individuals the opportunity to set up their own call handling companies, by supporting them with business investment, start-up advice and skills training

The scheme will begin with a pilot of 50 people, before a two-year programme begins with 1,000 individuals.

John Hudson, director of enterprise and skills at Creative Sheffield, said: “The customer service sector is continually looking for increased flexibility and greater efficiencies to overcome some of the difficulties which in-house operations commonly experience.”

“The home working model is more flexible and readily accommodates the graveyard shifts and weekends. Improving the working environment for people leads to increased reliability and greater productivity.”