You can hardly drive down a street without seeing a "For Sale" sign posted…by owner no less. Many companies are shutting down and few can find their way out of the red and into the black. The economy has hit us all. Yet, that same economy still expects the same productivity regardless of the inevitable loss of workers.
You probably know that the average employee is unproductive more than 2 hours every day as a result of distractions. Not only are distracted employees unproductive, but their loss of concentration ushers in unnecessary stress and stress-related injuries (such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome). Thus, each unfocused hour adds up to the $700 billion lost last year because of distractions.
How do you get the same reuslts with fewer resources?
The answer is to maximize what you already have by reducing distractions. Endless noisy distractions may seem part and parcel to working in an office. You can’t exactly tell your employees to quit making phone calls or to wear rubber-soled shoes. But you can help your workers not to notice every sound. Similar to white noise, sound masking adds a low-level background noise that covers irritating noise.
In times like these, you just can’t afford not to take action.