What’s the Ideal Balance for Agent Break Times?

The factors impacting agent break times are influenced by terminal efficiency, scheduling policies, and peak operational demands.

It can be a balancing act, but how much say should agents have?

Amy asked our Community of industry professionals about this:

I have just become the supervisor of a small inbound contact centre with 8:45 to 18:00 working hours, and I did a feedback session to make sure my new team were getting on well and to highlight any problem areas.

The main thing that came up is that instead of a 45 minute lunch break in-between 12pm and 2:15pm, the agents want a 30 minute break between 12pm – 1:30pm, with a 15 minute break later in the afternoon.

They feel it would improve their performance later in the day. I am going to look into this to see if it is an option in terms call volumes throughout the day using the Erlang C Calculator.

Do any other contact centres have breaks spread out through the day like this?

Offer Split Breaks

It’s actually a good idea to split your breaks, one thing I would suggest you keep track of:

1. At any point of time not more than 50% of your workforce should be on break, this would ensure your customers are serviced even though they might spend a longer time in the queue (again this is dependent on your call volumes).
2. Have a reliable break tracking mechanism, impossible without relying on some kind of a software that can manage this.

With thanks to Steve

Ask for the Agents Preferences

My bottom line is that if this is what the agents would prefer and it has no negative impact on your business, then go for it.

On a standard 8 hour shift, I would always have a morning and afternoon break as well as a lunch break

With thanks to Scott

Give Agents Options

You may have a good opportunity to allow them to do either, as there will probably be a few who prefer their existing breaks. This should allow you to have less agents off at a time, which depending on your profile might be a good thing.

The other thing to consider is if they have two breaks, do they need to be lunch break first, then 15 minute break?

I have experience with some agents who only want a quick break to carry them over, until later in the shift when they have their main break. This apparently makes the day go faster.

If you get a nice mix of all three options you could find a real improvement in consistent staff levels. Where before you could only fit 3 back to back breaks between 12:00-14:15 you might not be able to get 7.

With thanks to Kevin

Have an Individual System for Agent’s Breaks

We have devised a quite individual system for agent’s breaks. For every hour of work there are 5 minutes of recreation time, 55 minutes of work.

Everybody can sum up their recreation time and either take it all at once or have five minutes after each hour to regain their concentration. As they log out of the system during their breaks, it is easy to monitor it.

With thanks to Mary

Offer Three Breaks

We allow 3 breaks

1. First break – 15 minutes starting 2hrs from the start of the shift
2. Second break (lunch) – 45 minutes starting 3hrs from the end of the first break
3. Third break – 30 minutes starting 2hrs from the end of the lunch break

An Example

A typical shift span with these breaks would look like this:

• 07:00 (start)
• 09:00 – 09:15 (1st break)
• 12:15 – 13:00 (lunch)
• 15:00 – 15:30 (2nd break)

The Erlang C is a pretty good base for identifying best times for breaks etc.

With thanks to Lucrecia

Stagger Agent Lunch Breaks

Our collectors have a 7.5hr day, and they have:

• 30mins for lunch between 12.30 – 13.00
• 15mins at 3pm

We stagger the lunch breaks and 15min breaks so that everyone isn’t off at the same time to make sure we have enough staff to maintain a good service.

I have found this works well and the staff enjoy having a break in the afternoon. I would suggest if your team are happy to split their break up that you could try it for a trial period of a couple of weeks and see if it has any adverse affects?

With thanks to Luna

Health and Safety Considerations

It makes sense on several levels and their are health and safety considerations.

Just as important, scheduling shorter breaks will help you managing peaks and valleys. If each of your employees has to have a 45 minute break in a relatively short timespan (say, between 12 and 2) you are likely to have quite a short staffing situation at that time.

By shortening the lunch to 30 minutes you gain quite a lot of resource during lunch, helping you meet service levels.

So, breaking up the lunch period would be a win / win.

With thanks to Alex

This article was made possible due to the great community of experts we have at Call Centre Helper, to get involved just join our LinkedIn Community and and if you aren’t already make sure you are following us on LinkedIn to see our latest content.

For more articles on agent break times, you should read these next:

• Is It Best to Schedule or Free-Style Agent Breaks?
• How to Create a Lunch Schedule for Your Contact Centre
• The Best Ways to Deal with Lunch and Tea Break Requests

Author: Jonty Pearce
Reviewed by: Megan Jones