We recently interviewed Nick Barber from Sigma Relocation about his experience with sound masking in his call center. His business has benefited from it greatly. He mentioned a positive change that occurred during the course of the interview that I found interesting because I hadn’t thought about it before. Perhaps you haven’t either.
Nick noticed that his employees were not socializing as much during working hours. Because conversations could not be heard more than 10 to 15 feet away (unlike before, when they could be heard all the way across the 4500 square foot call center), people were not getting into so many conversations, and were consequently experiencing less distraction and able to work more. Nick had several employees tell him they feel they are now more focused and efficient during the work day. “I think we’re covering up the noise that’s there, but I think there’s less noise to begin with because people aren’t talking quite as much.”
So not only does white noise reduce distraction by taking away a lot of the common things that distract people, but it also lowered the overall volume of the call center because people were not talking and interacting as much since they were working. People working more with less distraction? Sounds like sound masking was effective here.
Could you use sound masking in your space to help your employees focus and work better?