Square Meals for Call Center Agents

To feed oneself and their family is the reason why people work. Food indeed is the most fundamental and recurring need of humans. People work hard to earn their living, only so that they or their family should never go hungry. But once a person begins to work, whether in a job or business, they often end up eating bad food, or missing meals because of work-pressure. A crucial meeting, an important deadline, urgent trouble-shooting, all these become an excuse for working professionals to skip lunch or dinner. If the stomach growling gets louder, then people munch on snacks like chips or junk food like burgers etc. which is rather unhealthy.

In call centers, where each single second counts, it is a challenge to ensure that all employees have eaten an adequately nutritious diet. The neglect of health invites diseases and the performance of agents in the longer run. Therefore it is in the interest of the company to ensure that all their employees eat timely and have a nutritious well.

Many call centers do so by offering free meals to their employees. The leading offshore call centers like Bluechip Callcenter that have employees working in the night shift as well have to take special care to feed their employees the right things at the right time. Other best practices followed in the contact center industry, to ensure health of its employees, are:

1. Schedule a Fixed Time for Lunch and Dinner
Like there is a set time and schedule for everything else, similarly call center should allocate a specific time for ‘lunch/ dinner’ to the employees. In a call center it is important to have critical number of people on the floor to ensure inbound call center continues its operations unhindered. Therefore the agents are usually given a rotational break. So if any employee doesn’t comply with the given break schedule, then it disturbs the agent schedule also. Therefore the company must enforce compliance to the scheduled break-time for lunch/ dinner.

2. Have a Wholesome and Nutritious Diet Chart
Most companies will simply outsource to a vendor who might make the food delicious enough. But the meals also ought to be also nutritious. Therefore the company provides with a schedule in advance, in which the menu is decided in advance for the entire month. The diet plan includes seasonal vegetables, salads and fibre-rich food, which the caterer prepares.

3. Make Water Easily Available
Drinking 2-3 liters of water daily is advised to maintain a hydrated system and glowing skin. But a lot of people simply forget to drink water because they are too occupied with work. The call center agents cannot afford to leave their desk and go to the water cooler again and again, especially when the call volume is high. Therefore the call center should arrange for a facility to serve bottled water to their agents. If the bottle is made available right on their desk, then the agents can comfortably sip water between two calls.

By implementing these three simple best practices, an organization can ensure that their employees live healthier and perform better!