The effect of indoor thermal environment on productivity by a year-long survey of a call centre

Abstract

A year-long field survey of a call centre was conducted to evaluate the effect of thermal environment on performance through seasonal and year-round analyses. The survey covered 134 days, and 13,169 call data were collected. The relationship between indoor air temperature and call response rate differ from season to season. In spring and winter, increase of the air temperature resulted in the decrement of call response rate, while there was no significant change in call response rate related to the air temperature in summer. From the regression model of indoor air temperature and call response rate, the increase in air temperature by 1.0°C was related to the decrease in call response rate by 0.15calls/h. In particular, raising indoor air temperature by 1.0°C from 25.0 to 26.0°C would lead to the decrement in performance by 1.9%. Physical measurements on thermal environment from the survey were mostly within the range of the comfort zone. However, the effects and changes on performance were observed in the comfort zone, and the possibility of improvement in productivity was implied even within this range.