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More stress, fewer solutions…that’s not good

December 27, 2009 By

More stress, less problem-solving, and fewer ergonomic adjustments does not inspire creative, efficient work.

A Cornell study found the following to be true (emphasis mine):

The environmental psychologists found that the workers in the noisy office experienced significantly higher levels of stress (as measured by urinary epinephrine), made 40 percent fewer attempts to solve an unsolvable puzzle and made only half as many ergonomic adjustments to their workstations as did their colleagues in quiet offices. Typing performance, however, was not affected.

With a cut-throat economy and the need for creative solutions, now is not the time to increase stress, while simultaneously decreasing the ability to problem-solve and make needed adjustments to one’s workspace.  If you need your employees just to type, then you don’t need to worry about acoustic treatments, so that’s good news.  Otherwise, you might want to consider making acoustic adjustments so your employees can make the adjustments necessary to get their work done.  Interestingly, the same study reported (emphasis mine):

“In terms of practice, our findings are potentially important, because if worker motivation is lower under open-office noise because of its uncontrollability, various design options could be adopted. For example, when concentration is required, workers might use a quiet, enclosed room or sound-making devices that they would control. These kinds of measures might help alleviate the harmful effects of open-office noise on workers.”

There are a variety of sound masking units and systems currently available on the market.  Some can be installed office-wide and others can be installed for individual use and adjustment.  Either way, sound masking is a relatively simple and cost effective measure to take for you and your employees to get the most out of each work day.

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That’s it! I’m off to Starbuck’s

December 23, 2009 By

I’ll take a mocha frappucino and 2 more productive hours, please

Did you know that some workers have to actually leave work to be productive?  They find that leaving all the office distractions behind and working from home or even at Starbuck’s.  Phenomenal- having to escape work to actually work.  Now why is that?  Well, the average worker in an open-style office:

  • Is distracted more than 2 hours a day
  • Gets interrupted more than 70 times per day
  • Struggles to stay focused more than 30 minutes at a time
  • Suffers from stress and fatigue
  • Experience high levels of stress
  • Made 40 percent fewer attempts to solve difficult problems
  • Make only half as many ergonomic adjustments to their workstations as did their colleagues in quiet offices, resulting in an increase in repetitive strain injuries (such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) and workers’ comp claims.

Go figure they’d have to leave the cramped, not to mention distracting, quarters of the cubicle farm to be productive.

So what can you do about it?

Your job as a manager is to minimize distractions so your employees can maximize their work.  You have several options: the quiet game, addition of walls and sound-absorbing paneling, or covering sound with sound masking.  I think we can agree that the quiet game is out, though always a fun choice.  Adding walls and paneling is expensive, doesn’t always line up with design aesthetics, and also contributes to VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) and/or the collection of dust mites or allergens.  That leaves us with sound masking- an invisible noise solution (like white noise) tucked away in the ceiling.  Most sound masking systems are easy to install and very low-maintenance.

In times like these, every hour counts.  Survey your options and help your employees return to work.

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The economy stinks…get over it.

December 17, 2009 By

If your business is struggling, you’re not alone.  Many companies are laying off up to a third of their employees.  So, yeah, the economy stinks, but it doesn’t have to kill your business.  So, whether you have a huge or tiny work force, you need to be efficient because it’s the efficient companies that thrive. Here is one way to look at being efficient as it interplays with being effective:

"Efficient" is defined as working without waste or using a minimum of time, effort and expense. But, the definition is silent about the goals of the operation. A person can be very efficient at what they are doing but still not get to where they want to be because they aren’t doing the right things. That’s where "effective" comes in. "Effective" means "having the desired result". Once the desired overall result is defined, the tasks leading to the result can be isolated and these tasks can then be completed efficiently….

So, while your business’s specific goals will determine how to be effective, being efficient is a little more universal.  In fact, the average worker wastes 2 or more hours  a day because he is distracted by conversations, ringing and/or buzzing phones, and who knows what else…A loss of 2 hours per employee is not exactly efficient.  One option might be sound masking.  Most people can’t work in ceaseless clamor, but at the same time, they can’t be productive in silence either.  Sound masking is like white noise in that it provides a low-level "hum" that can help workers to tune out irritating distractions that keep them from being productive. Many companies and small businesses have found that plugging the leak of conversational distractions is more than worth the initial investment.

 

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Budget Cuts

December 15, 2009 By


If you’re like many managers, you’ve had to cut your staff this year.  It’s easy to assume that you can’t maintain, much less increase, productivity with the staff you have left after lay offs.  So, if time is money, then you need more time.  Sound impossible?  What if you could reclaim hours of lost time? 

  • The average employee is distracted more than 2 hours every day
  • That same employee is interrupted more than 70 times per day
  • 80% of surveyed employees said that these distractions limited their ability to focus

It’s no wonder that being distracted that often curbs productivity.  What is shocking is that only 20% of managers were aware of the reported distractions and their effects. 

How can you increase your productivity?

If your employees are distracted hours on end, then might be time to consider un-distracting them.  You probably can’t ban cell phones or loud shoes, but you can reduce the effect these annoying distractions have on your workers.  One option is sound masking.  It’s like "white noise" in that it adds low-level background sound to reduce the intelligibility of surrounding noises.  The result is that most workers are able to tune out distractions and focus on work.

Times are tough.  There’s no question about that.  The problem is that a struggling economy simply does not allow for less productivity.  Your clients still expect your very best- and if you can’t give them your best, they’ll go to someone who can. 

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The disengaged worker

December 11, 2009 By

Distraction=Disengagement

In one study of 11 surveyed buildings, 80% of workers felt that the noise levels distracted them to the point of not being able to get their work done.  Thus, it comes as no surprise that the average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day, thus making him a disengaged employee.  A study by the Towers-Perrin Group found a 52% gap in one-year operating income, when comparing companies with highly engaged employees versus companies with disengaged employees. High engagement companies improved 19.2% while low engagement companies declined 32.7% in operating income over the study period.  Furthermore, according to an American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) study, workers in offices with even small acoustic treatments:

  • Were 48% more focused on their work
  • 51% less distracted, resulting in
  • 10% fewer errors and a
  • 27% decrease in worker stress

While it’s understandable that office distractions drastically reduce a worker’s ability to concentrate and work attentively, it’s your job to find a way around them.  By implementing sound masking technology, you have the ability to override those noisy distractions in order to enable each worker to realize his or her potential every hour of every day. 

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Inevitable, but solvable

December 9, 2009 By

Distractions at work are an all-too-familiar occurrence.  In fact, our beloved best friend and infamous distractor, the Internet, provides many helpful tips for dealing with distractions, most of which are based on the fact that distractions are inevitable.  One wesbite did suggest that there are 3 options for dealing with distractions:

·         Running

·         Hiding

·         Fighting

While distractions may indeed be an inevitable part of an open office, your employees do not have to accept them as timewasters.  Let’s take a look at that thrid option: fighting.  The best way to fight distraction is to tune it out with sound masking.  With the gentle swoosh like that of an HVAC system, sound masking allows your workers to do just that- work- instead of getting caught up in distractions more than 2 hours every day.  The best thing about sound masking is that it covers noise, yet is barely perceptible itself.

If you’d like to improve your bottom line, give sound masking a chance.

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Takin’ care of business

December 5, 2009 By

Do you remember Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase waits to whole movie for his Christmas bonus?  He dreams of what his bonus will bring, like a swimming pool- complete with a gorgeous girl, no less.  Sadly, as you surely remember, the Griswolds don’t get a new pool- they get enrolled in a jelly of the month club. 

How do improve your bottom line, but with fewer resources than ever?

Unfortunately, that’s what this economy has done this Christmas season- except you don’t even get jelly out of it.  You have to maximize the resources you do have: your employees.  The heart of your productivity lies with your workers.  Whether you have a staff of 1 or 100, each of your workers could be more productive.  They say that the average worker is not working due to distractions for more than 2 hours a day, which resulted in an estimated loss of $600 billion last year.  That’s a lot of money to lose over an easily-resolved, but obviously all too common problem.

Takin’ care of business

You can reclaim your chunk of the $600 billion with a simple solution: sound masking.  Not unlike white noise, sound masking is the addition of low-level background noise to enable your employees to do what they came for- work.  You might be surprised how much more focused workers are with fewer distractions, not to mention less stressed. 

If more productive and less stressed workers sound good this Christmas season, sound masking might be the best option for your company.

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Sustainability

December 3, 2009 By


Sustainability is the word of the day.  Even shows like Top Chef show a concern for sustainability when they ask competing chefs to cook with "sustainable" products- those that are environmentally-friendly, as well as renewable. 

In the business world, you might not think sustainability applies to you.  You’re not exactly cutting down trees or catching salmon.  However, you do have to put forth a product that meets you current and future needs without depleting the resources you already have.  For you, sustainability is using what you have without squandering it. 

So, what do you have?

Your resources are your employees and their time spent working.  And, if you’re like most companies these days, you have already lost quite a few of your workers to a cut-throat economy.  That means your second resource- their work time- is even more crucial.  Thus, it might be horrifying to discover that Average Worker loses more than 2 hours of work day to distractions, namely conversational ones.

Sound masking

Rather than throwing your employees’ cell phones out the window (they’re not exactly biodegradable) or banning personal conversations, you might consider sound masking.  Similar to white noise, sound masking provides low level background noise to render intruding speech and noises less intelligible.  It’s not that your workers need silence (in fact, most complain that silence is even more distracting!), they just need an environment that doesn’t lend itself to unintentional eavesdropping.  Let’s be honest- it’s hard to focus on work when the latest gossip is right inside your grasp. 

In this economy, every minute counts.  Don’t lose another to an easily-resolved problem.

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