Best Call Centre Workstation Design: Sizes, Panels, Cables

A call centre workstation does one job for eight or more hours a shift, often for a different agent every shift. Small mistakes repeat across the whole floor: a desk 100 mm too shallow, a panel too low, a socket in the wrong place. Most search results for this topic are furniture catalogues; this guide covers the decisions behind them.

It is written for operations, facilities and IT leads planning a contact centre in Malaysia.

CTN Interior Solutions has designed and built offices in Malaysia since 2001. Modelled figures are labelled, and public data links to its source.

The short video below is from Mayo Clinic. A certified ergonomist walks through nine simple adjustments for screen-based work.

1. What Makes the Best Call Centre Workstation Design?

Quick Answer: The best call centre workstation design fits the agent, the equipment and the shift pattern. It gives enough desk depth for screens at a safe distance, panels that cut speech noise between neighbours, quick adjustment for shared seats, and power and data that can be changed without tools or downtime.

Call centre desks are used harder than almost any other office furniture. A good one passes five tests:

• Fit: screens and keyboard sit at safe reach and viewing distance.
• Quiet: the agent next door is heard as a murmur, not a conversation.
• Shareable: chair, screen arm and storage adjust in seconds at shift change.
• Serviceable: IT can swap a PC without crawling under a desk.
• Efficient: the footprint fits the seat count at a rent you can carry.

Our complete guide to office interior design in Malaysia covers the wider planning steps; this article goes inside the workstation itself.

2. What Size Should a Call Centre Workstation Be?

Quick Answer: Most contact centres use desks between 1,200 and 1,500 mm wide and 600 to 750 mm deep. In our model, moving from a 1,200 mm bench to a 1,500 mm pod adds about 15 sq ft per seat, which is roughly RM1,240 a year in rent per seat at Kuala Lumpur’s average rent.

Desk size drives seat count, and seat count drives rent. The model compares five common sizes on the same assumptions.

The cheapest seat is not always the best one:

• Depth matters as much as width: a 600 mm desk forces dual screens too close to the eyes.
• Cubicles cost space: keep them for supervisors and complex work.

On a 24/7 site seats are shared, so a larger desk costs less per agent. Our guide to BPO office interior design in Malaysia models seats by shift pattern.

3. What Ergonomic Dimensions Matter for Call Centre Agents?

Quick Answer: Four dimensions matter most: screen distance, screen height, legroom and side-to-side viewing angle. OSHA guidance puts the screen 50 to 100 cm from the eyes, centred 15 to 20 degrees below eye level, with 50 to 72 cm of leg clearance under the desk.

These figures come from US Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidance, a useful public benchmark for briefing suppliers.

Two rows cause most complaints: a 600 mm desk with two monitors on stands puts screens nearer than 50 cm, and a cable tray under the front edge eats legroom.

Write these dimensions into the drawings, not just the furniture order. Our guide to the work an office floor plan designer should deliver explains what a proper drawing set includes.

4. How High Should Call Centre Workstation Panels Be?

Quick Answer: It depends on the work. Low desk screens around 1,050 to 1,200 mm from the floor keep sightlines open for supervisors. Seated-head-height panels of about 1,524 to 1,651 mm block far more speech, and they suit agents handling sensitive calls or working in long, dense rows.

Research at Canada’s National Research Council found that ceiling absorption, panel height and workstation size (Bradley, 2003) are the most important design factors for speech privacy in open offices. The panel is the one you choose when you buy the workstation.

Bradley also found that acceptable privacy needs all the main factors near their best values. In practice:

• An absorbent ceiling: a high panel under a hard, exposed slab still bounces speech over the top.
• Absorbent panel faces: fabric or felt faces soak up sound; glass and laminate reflect it.
• Enough spacing: agents facing across a low screen hear every word.

For the wider layout question of rows, clusters and pods, see our guide to call centre layout design.

5. How Can Workstation Design Reduce Headset Noise?

Quick Answer: Agents turn their headsets up when the floor is loud, so a quieter floor protects hearing. Malaysia’s noise regulations treat daily exposure above 82 dB(A) as excessive and set the limit at 85 dB(A). Panels, absorbent finishes and spacing all help keep headset volume down.

The Occupational Safety and Health (Noise Exposure) Regulations 2019 cover all workplaces, and a headset is a noise source held against the ear. The key thresholds are:

A normal office floor will not reach these levels, but headset exposure adds up over a shift. Help agents keep the volume low:

• Absorbent panels and ceilings: less background chatter to talk over.
• Quiet rooms: escalation calls move off the main floor.

Our guide to office design solutions for common workplace problems covers other recurring floor complaints.

6. How Much Power Does Each Call Centre Seat Need?

Quick Answer: In our illustrative model, a single-screen seat draws about 62 watts and a dual-screen desktop seat about 117 watts. On a 200-seat floor that is 12 to 25 kW, all of which becomes heat the air-conditioning must remove.

The bars stack typical equipment loads for three setups. They are planning figures; your electrical engineer sizes circuits from the real equipment list.

The numbers shape three design decisions:

• Sockets: two to three power outlets and at least two data ports per seat.
• Cooling: 25 kW of equipment heat is a real load; tell the services engineer early.
• UPS size: leave chargers and task lights on normal power.

7. How Should Cables Be Routed in Call Centre Workstations?

Quick Answer: Route cables in three stages: from the building into the workstation spine, along a tray under the desk, and up to the desk top through a grommet or flip-up box. Keep power and data apart, keep everything out of the knee zone, and label every port to its seat number.

Messy cabling slows IT changes and creates trip hazards. Three main ways bring services to a row:

Inside the workstation, insist on:

• A continuous tray or spine: one per row, so cables never hang loose.
• Separate power and data paths: keeps interference and repair work apart.
• Labels that match the floor plan: every port tagged to its seat number.

Global clients often bring their own cabling standards; see our guide to MNC office design in Malaysia.

8. Benches, Pods or Cubicles: Which Workstation Type Suits Your Floor?

Quick Answer: Benches give the most seats and the best sightlines, pods balance density with privacy, and cubicles give the most privacy at the highest space cost. Most contact centres mix them: benches or pods for agents, cubicles or small rooms for team leaders and quality staff.

The right mix depends on each team’s work:

A test-fit shows how many seats each mix holds once columns, cores and fire routes are drawn in. See our guide to test-fits before you lease.

9. How Do You Specify Call Centre Workstations Step by Step?

Quick Answer: Start from the work: list teams, screens and shift patterns. Then set desk sizes, panel heights and the cable route, and count the power load. Build one sample workstation, let agents and IT test it, and only then order furniture for the whole floor.

Six steps take the design from paper to a floor that works on day one:

1. List teams and equipment: Record each team’s screens, phone type and whether seats are shared.
2. Set desk sizes: Choose width and depth per team, checking screen distance and seat count.
3. Choose panel heights: Pick sightline or privacy panels per team, matched to the ceiling and finishes.
4. Plan power, data and cable routes: Count the load per seat, fix sockets and route cables to the desk top.
5. Build and test a sample: Set up one workstation for agents and IT to test before ordering.
6. Order, install and label: Install, label every port and check each seat before go-live.

Furniture often has the longest lead time, so fix the sample early; our week-by-week office fit-out timeline shows where it sits. For wider back offices, see our guide to shared services office setup.

10. Conclusion: Design the Seat Before You Fill the Floor

Quick Answer: The best call centre workstation design starts with the agent’s work and equipment. Size desks for safe screen distance, choose panel heights team by team, keep the floor quiet so headsets stay low, and plan power and cables from the building to the desk top before any furniture is ordered.

A contact centre repeats one workstation hundreds of times. Get one seat right, test it, and the rest of the floor follows.

11. Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the standard size of a call centre workstation?

Usually 1,200 to 1,500 mm wide and 600 to 750 mm deep. Dual screens need about 1,400 mm width and 700 mm depth.

2. How high should call centre partitions be?

Desk screens of about 1,050 to 1,200 mm from the floor keep sightlines open. For strong speech privacy, panels should reach seated head height, about 1,524 to 1,651 mm.

3. How many power points does each call centre seat need?

Plan two to three power outlets and at least two data ports per seat.

4. Do noise regulations apply to call centre headsets in Malaysia?

Yes. The Occupational Safety and Health (Noise Exposure) Regulations 2019 apply to all workplaces, with excessive noise defined above 82 dB(A) daily exposure.