Lunch Breaks for Agents

[dbessette]

I am wondering if any of you have thoughts regarding lunch breaks and how long you provide the lunch break for. I am considering moving from a 60 minute lunch to a 30 minute lunch for all call center employees. Our peak call volume is between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm and have always struggled with coverage during this time.

[Martijn]

We have 30 minute lunches, with lunches of an hour we would have a significant dip in SL during our lunchtime 11:30-13:30.

Right now with half an hour lunches and a good planning we can deal with the lunchperiod without any significant dip in SL.

[Sandeep Bhoraskar]

We in India provide Lunch Break for 30 Min.

[Milliardo]

Really, it will all depend on how your agents would feel about it. Agents, especially the new ones, might still be adjusting to call center life (never easy when the usual time for a call center agent would be the time he's supposed to be sleeping), so a longer break would be helpful in having them recharge for another round of work.

[ullyeus]

In my experience the new ones would adapt quicker to this change. The current ones would be looking at it as a form of punishement.

Make sure you explain to them why you are doing that

[Ricky Perez]

Hi dbessette,

The negative HR consequences of this change have been well documented in this post. So, I will not belabor the point: with this one exception - Do you have dining facilities to handle quicker service on premises? If not, then there will be hungry and moody people on your phones.

Have you tried some of these alternatives: Hire P/T for the lunch period. . . Staggered shift starts - this is an excellent way to overcome peak hours, but tends to be most useful in a CC with 10+ hours of open time (e.g. open from 8am-6PM). . . ?

I might also suggest going to 50 min. lunches, that way you'll be able to correct for 'employee adjustments' i.e. going to & from lunch. This can help make intra-day spikes slightly (& automatically) more manageable.

If your CC does make the change to a 30 min. lunch, be prepared to hire more than normal in the short term - otherwise the CC's numbers will suffer.

[Ricky Perez]

Hi again,

I reread your original posting and I have some baseline lunchtime info. that may interest you:

2 Outsourcing CC companies: 30 min. lunch both with staggered arrival (1 OCC open 15 hours 7 days / 1 OCC open 24/7) - 1 OCC with P/T shifts

5 Inhouse CC: 45 min. - 1 hr. lunch 1 CC w/out P/T or staggered shifts

The long-term labour market in your area needs to be considered - because to be compet. you will need to have emp. bene's somewhat in line with other companies (not just other CC). Otherwise, you may end-up 'dumbing down' your labour pool - and that can be a costly error!

Good Luck - -