In many
businesses, the greatest decreases in productivity are not caused by workers
who are playing computer games or doing personal chores instead of working but
instead from staff members who are suffering from the distractions caused by
office noise. It is especially the discussions between other employees which
don't relate to any work activities which are disruptive to the focus and
concentration of their co-workers.Have a look at What is sound masking for more info on this.
In most offices
there isn't enough soundproofing for employees to have phone or interpersonal
conversations without being overheard by other employees. This causes
distractions which can become a big issue, as low cubicle walls and closely
placed work areas contribute to an ever increasing level of office noise in a
decreasing amount of space.
If there is a
lot of noise in the office and this problem continues to go unchecked, there
will be consequences that can result in costs to the company. Office noise can
distract other employees or cause them to stop working for a variety of
reasons, which will lower productivity. It might not seem like much at the time
of any particular incident, but constant interruptions in workflow can result
in a large monetary cost over time.In order to
prevent productivity loss, a number of companies are addressing office noise
issues by implementing office sound masking systems. These systems work to mask
any distracting noises by creating unstructured sounds in the background,
resulting in a dramatic increase of speech privacy within the office. It has
been shown that acoustic privacy allows almost any worker to be more productive
by some degree.
In regard to
coping with the inescapable office noise that goes along with discussions
between colleagues or between workers and clients, a speech privacy system can
be utilized to allow staff members to converse without disturbing other people
trying to concentrate in the workplace.
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