Resting Time Activeness Determines Team Performance in Call Centers

Improving team performance has long been a great concern of leaders and managers. Recent progress in wearable sensor technologies has given them a strong means of grasping their team conditions. Studies using such technologies have shown, for example, that the cohesion of a face-to-face network, as measured using wearable sensors, correlates with performance. However, causality between face-to-face communication and performance has remained unclear. We investigated, in a call center environment, the relationships between a team's activity levels while working and while resting and its performance. We found that the activity level while working does not correlate with team performance whereas that while resting does. Furthermore, we found that improving face-to-face communication leads to increased activity levels and to better team performance. Our results demonstrate that team performance can be improved by managing workplace activity levels.