Reducing Contact Centre Call Agents' Sitting Time

Summary

The study investigates whether a workplace intervention can encourage highly sedentary contact centre call agents to sit less and move more at work. The effect of the intervention will be assessed at 12 weeks and 9 months. The hypothesis is that the intervention will reduce workplace sitting and increase workplace standing and light walking.

Conditions

• Sedentary Lifestyle
• Physical Activity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Education and training sessions

Agents will be invited to attend sessions in intervention week 1, 3, 9, and month 6. Sessions will introduce (week 1) and reinforce (week 3, 9, month 6) the intervention aims, benefits of and ways to move more and sit less, with emphasis on active breaks. Feedback from baseline assessment will be provided and discussed in week 3 (health data) and 9 (activity data) and month 6 (health and activity data from the 12-week assessment). Each session will include discussion of daily standing/walking goals set by the research team, with timers and a goal log provided to participants in week 1 to enable self-monitoring. The Stand Up champions, and their role to encourage daily movement and sitting reduction through modelling and verbal support, will be communicated and reinforced in each session.

BEHAVIORAL

Support emails

Agents will receive support emails weekly (weeks 1-12) then monthly (months 4-9) across the intervention. Each email includes an infographic that encourages moving more and sitting less at work.

BEHAVIORAL

Team leader training

Team leaders in the participating organisation will be invited to attend a training session before the intervention starts. The training aims to enhance team leader's capabilities to demonstrate positive movement and sitting behaviours at work and promote call agents to sit less and move more at work. Team leaders will be asked to include the intervention as an agenda item in their weekly team meetings with their call agents and their 1:1 sessions with call agents. Team leaders will be encouraged to incorporate walking into their 1:1 meetings with call agents.

DEVICE

Height-adjustable workstation

After baseline, agents in the SLAMM+ arm will have a height-adjustable workstation installed on their existing workplace desk. This will enable work in a seated or standing position, with flexibility to alternate between postures. Desk installation will occur with support from the onsite organisation health and safety team. The research team will brief participants on safe and effective workstation use. A laminated sheet will be fixed to each workstation to remind participants of safe and effective use.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Liverpool

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Leicester

  collaborator OTHER

• The University of Queensland

  collaborator OTHER

• Liverpool John Moores University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lee EF Graves, PhD · Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom, L3 2AT

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-07-11

Primary Completion

2019-06-28

Completion

2019-08-09

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations