Here’s why everyone in your contact center should stop fighting the afternoon yawns.
A 20-minute nap – instead of struggling with yawns – may actually boost morale and improve productivity, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers recently found.
Power naps rejuvenate people and improve reaction time and critical thinking skills for anyone who gets drowsy, says Dr. Alon Avidan.
And guess what? Nearly everyone has a dip in energy during the late afternoon. It’s just part of the human makeup, Dr. Avidan says.
You may not be ready to put a cot in the break room (although some early believers have done this), but a quiet room away from the contact center floor activity can help motivate and energize agents. Companies such as Google and Apple have even used them.
In the meantime, encourage agents to get away from it all in a quiet spot. Then regulate downtime by:
- giving agents a quiet room to use during their breaks or lunchtime for lounging if they’ve met productivity goals, and
- offering extra time in the quiet room as a reward to be used during off-peak hours.
