Being a call center agent is one of the most unhealthy occupations a person can have. Call center agents have to sit in front of computers for hours and hours – and because they have to handle a constant flow of incoming phone calls, Web chats and emails from customers, they rarely have the opportunity to step away from their desks.

Sitting in one position for long periods of time, day in and day out, causes one’s muscles to atrophy, circulation to decrease and metabolism to slow, resulting in a wide range of health problems, including obesity and heart disease.

In addition, the high amount of keyboard and mouse use associated with the agent position can result in a variety of musculoskeletal disorders including wrist pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and back and neck pain. As a result, companies with call centers are seeing an increasing number of worker’s compensation claims.

In order to reduce the number of these claims – as well as to improve the performance of their agents – many companies are investing in ergonomically designed chairs and workstations for their call centers. Many of them are finding that by spending a little more on ergonomically designed call center furniture, they can significantly reduce the number of work-related injuries.

This pays off not only in reduced workman’s comp claims but also by mitigating the impact of losing agents to injuries: Each time an agent is injured and can no longer do his or her job, the organization must then go out and find a replacement for that agent, resulting in additional recruiting, hiring and training costs. So, in terms of costs, it’s like a double-whammy every time an agent gets hurt.

 

Up until a few years ago, the mainstream thought on proper ergonomic position­ing was that a static sitting position with the body in 90° angles was best.

Recent research, however, shows that any fixed position will increase muscle fatigue -- and that one key component of proper ergonomics is movement.

 

By adjusting a chair or backrest; stretching fingers, hands, arms, and torso; looking away from the monitor; periodically standing up to walk around for a few minutes; and/or switching between a sitting and standing position, agents can avoid the injuries that are so common in the industry.

The most “ergonomically correct” workstations are easy to adjust and encourage individuals to change posi­tions frequently. In addition the mechanical elements of the chair or workstation have to be extremely durable.

In most call centers, different agents share the same workstation -- and, as we all know, people come in all different heights, sizes and shapes. A call center could, in theory, have an agent who is 5’2” and 125 pounds sharing a cube with an agent who is 6’2” and 300 pounds. That means each time there is a shift change, one of the agents is going to need to change the position of the chair, keyboard and/or monitor. This results in increased wear and tear on the mechanical parts that allow for adjustment.

For this reason, when companies select call center furniture with ergonomics in mind, durability becomes an even more important consideration. Because all the elements of an ergonomic workstation need to work together in unison in order to be effective, just one broken knob on a chair or keyboard tray can render a workstation useless.

 

“Regarding chairs, the best way to go for a multi-shift environment is to upgrade to a heavy duty chair -- or it can be called a ‘multi-shift upgrade,’” explains Jennifer Way, marketing manager for Interior Concepts, a leading manufacturer of call center furniture. “The upgraded chairs will include larger casters with more weight capacity, steel reinforcement, and a heavy duty gas lift. These chairs will hold up better over time for multi-shift environments or for heavier employees.”

Way points out that while a heavier duty chair might cost more than a regular one, “think about the time it takes to repair chairs, or go out and purchase new chairs, and the embarrassment for heavier employees when they break chairs. Chairs built specifically for multi-shift environments or for heavier employees will result in fewer headaches down the road.”

Getting back to the topic of ergonomics -- and the need to have agents move around and change positions during their shifts -- Interior Concepts offers “sit-to-stand” workstations that enable agents to work at their computers in either a sitting or standing position. These workstations include an adjustable chair, adjustable keyboard mechanism, adjustable height monitor and adjustable task lighting. With the use of certain adjustable height keyboard mechanisms and adjustable height monitors, a sit-to-stand workstation can be created for minimal cost.

“We have a keyboard mechanism and monitor arm with enough adjustability to accommodate 95 percent of the population in both a sitting and standing position,” Way said. “In the past the only way to accomplish this was with expensive mechanisms that moved the entire work surface up and down.”

 

As Way explained, having the entire workstation move up and down with either a crank or push button power mechanism results in several problems, not the least of which is that it is too expensive. For one thing, it can be time consuming and difficult to adjust the height of a workstation, which means that the majority of people will not take the time to adjust it. In addition, other components of the station may not have the capability of being adjusted independently of one another.

Incorporating sit-to-stand workstations in the call center gives agents more options for comfortable working positions and can do much to help stave-off work-related injuries. The key thing to keep in mind when selecting such call center furnishings, however, is that they will need to be adjusted frequently – which means they need to be highly-durable so as to reduce the possibility of mechanical malfunction.

For more information about Interior Concepts’ sit-to-stand workstations and the importance of ergonomics in the call center, click here.