Is office noise a problem in your building?
If you answered no, then you are in a small minority indeed. The fact of the matter is that national averages show that between $500 and $700 billion are lost each year as a result of office distractions, such as a noisy environment. Office noise may be as simple as whirring machines or as complicated as intermittent conversations and sales calls. And while much office noise can be contributed to the employees themselves, most employees do complain about it because it keeps them from completing their tasks quickly or effectively. In fact, many employees lose their evenings and weekends due to unfinished work.
What can you do about office noise? You can’t exactly ban sales calls or unplug crucial machinery to provide a silent office. Actually, most workers find that silence is even deadlier than too much noise. (Can you imagine what the loss to productivity would be if it’s even worse than the $500-$700 billion problem of distraction??) It may seem as if it’s a catch 22 and nothing will work. That’s where you are (happily) wrong!
White Noise and Sound Masking
Rather than silence noisy distractions, why not cover them? That way workers are focused on their tasks without feeling nervous about a sterile environment. I offer you 2 simple solutions.
- Sound Masking. Sound masking is the emission of white noise through speakers mounted within the ceiling tiles. This white noise (like all white noise) is loud enough to cover distractions and even provide greater privacy levels. You could treat as many areas as you like with no aesthetic change since the speakers are practically invisible.
- However, if office-wide coverage is not in your budget (though with billions of dollars of loss, it may need to be), it might be time to consider individual white noise systems, such as the Sonet. The Sonet System is also highly effective, but on an individualized basis.
To determine what you need, you might want to take a day to spend in the common office area(s). Check out how much noise there really is, where’s it’s coming from, and how distracting it is. As you survey your noise problem, you’ll know whether you need a larger or smaller system.
