What are some work from home companies like Arise?

@Edashh2399 @LilPrincess

A lot of people work at, or from, home as employees; others as self-employed; but looking at the Ratracerebellion site as an example it was not at all clear to me what any of the brightly-advertised posts entails, nor how the companies for whom it is an agent ensures the applicant's knowledge and experience of the trade.

How do you work in "customer service" unless you understand the product or service being sold by whoever is employing you?

I suspect most of the posts advertised are for home-based sales people acting merely as virtual counter-staff. You are serving customers who know exactly what they want, but how would you deal with a difficult technical or financial enquiry - apart from the usual false promise to "pass it on" to some office you know is very likely to ignore the question, even if you do ask?

I smell one very big pestilential rodent with such agencies.

The agency itself is only that: an agency. It takes its cut from acting for companies who want not only to minimise their physical (premises, etc) and direct-labour costs; but also to avoid or evade any employee-protection legislation by recruiting people to work as remote self-employed contractors. Contractors probably paid on commission, too, as well as responsible for arranging their own employment tax and pensions contributions.

(We've seen that happen in the UK with delivery companies recruiting van owner/drivers to work as contractors rather than employees, on punishingly tight delivery-rounds and minimum pay.)

......

One of the class of opportunities advertised by Rat... is not that of sales but of administrative assistants to senior managers. How do the agency and client confirm the applicant's suitability for the role? Not just ability to understand what he or she is typing on a computer, or to organise meetings; but also intangible qualities like loyalty and probity?

If I were a director of a large company I would not touch such agencies.

If I were looking for work I would not touch them either. I would want direct employment, on proper pay and conditions.

@ArishMell Yes, I definitely hear what you’re saying. You are very much correct. One thing I am a bit wary of is that these companies work to evade whatever strict laws your state may have. If the state laws are too rigid for them to operate their business, they will withdraw their services from that state almost entirely. That does make me a bit concerned, I do wonder exactly what it is they are trying to avoid.

I have reached thus far in my journey with a work on home platform tho, so I can speak on what I’ve experienced. For the hiring processes with most of these companies, you will engage in a series of assessments to test your skills and knowledge on any particular subject. You may not proceed if you are not able to score high enough. It’s very similar to most employment processes these days.

And as for the actual work, you can register on the platform as your own freelance business if you are able to obtain an EIN, and then promote yourself and your own services.
However, I did not choose this option. If you do it that way you will have to pay hefty sums of money to participate in any client opportunity. I joined the platform under a company who takes care of all that. The company owner is not very warm or friendly, but I do have a good understanding of what I signed up for so I decide to deal with it. She helps me just enough, and I accept it. I am simply and strictly there for the money there is to be made on platforms like these not for the ethics and hospitality of either of these companies. Also, opportunities are presented to me through my IBO from big name companies, such as Home Depot and Godaddy. The platform I deal with right now is a pretty reputable business. The only catch is you have to provide your own equipment. And also, the pay is very low, but I tend to tell myself there are states that still have $7.50/hr as min wage. Most of these wages on these sites are well above that, typically starting around $12/hr.

I am not certain how this process goes for positions that do not involve customer service. The candidate may just have to pay for a more exhaustive background check to include their credentials and experience, but I really don’t know.

I totally understand the skepticism though.

@Edashh2399 Well,Good Luck with it, anyway!

@Heavenlywarrior Most of my experience is in customer service, do they focus on that at all?

@Edashh2399 that’s what I was doing at the time and yeah they do