How rethinking your Office Layout could Improve Productivity

A recent Harvard Business Review study has found that noise level and sound privacy are two of the most important factors for job satisfaction. Contact centres by nature are noisy, busy environments and often the need for support staff such as floor-walkers and the team manager to remain mobile and involved with the team means that an open plan is usually first choice.

Traditionally contact centre have been set out for space efficiency; with little thought put into the environmental effect on the agent. An example of such layout can be seen below:

Such lay-outs can leave employees feeling isolated and thus further enhancing the stress caused by the lack of privacy and noisiness within a contact centre.

One effective solution to this problem is to arrange employee work-stations so that they face each other. This enhances the bonds within the team as it creates a more intimate environment between team members; More importantly this layout provides agents with a sense of privacy away from those that they do not necessarily know very well.

This layout works best within teams that work well together (something dancing lion can help improve). If there is one thing that this new study reveals it’s that perhaps it is time to start looking at how your contact centre is set up and how it can be improved. A little innovation can boost the way your contact centre performs, enhance communication and raise morale of team members.

If you want to find out more check out the article here:

http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/research-cubicles-are-the-absolute-worst/