Trends in Contact Center Floor Plan Design

As in all industries, the needs and trends of contact centers change. Keeping your center up to date on the latest design trends can make your contact center a more desirable place to work. Below a few trends are noted to help your design your center.

A few trends in bullpen cubicles design is that the most popular workstation width is now around 42” wide, though a 45” wide workstation is popular as well. Regarding panel heights, 42”-55” are generally the most popular. A panel height of 42" will typically keep the agents face visible to the supervisors. A panel height of 46” typically covers agent’s mouths, but not eyes, so this is the best height to see and still have a little acoustical value.

Ergonomics is consistently an issue in floorplan design. Since paperless work environments are becoming the norm, many contact centers are eliminating storage at each workstation and are instead investing in ergonomic keyboards. This allows centers to keep the cost of each workstation generally the same.

With the trend of smaller footprints for workstations, slight design changes have been made to give agents their own defined space. For example, a deeper worksurface is now used more often, such as a 27-30” deep worksurface, as opposed to a 24” deep worksurface. A concave worktop is also popular because it tucks agents into the workstation so that they can get the benefits of having their own defined space from the extending side panels.

Over the past few years there has been an increased interest in cluster workstations, also known as pods. The cluster workstation has a unique circular setup that allows agents to work in a team environment and more easily achieve the goals of the call center.  Read more in complementary white paper titled: Beyond the Cookie Cutter – Cluster Workstation Design.