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Stuffed

November 27, 2009 By

You’ve eaten your turkey and pumpkin pie and are appropriately stuffed.  It’s less than a month until Christmas.  The holidays should be a time of thanksgiving, celebration, and joy.  Instead you are stressed, looking for ways to improve your bottom line in a tough economy.  You have fewer workers but the same- if not higher- expectations for a brighter new year.  It’s can feel daunting when you look to the future.

Interestingly, you’re not alone in your stress.  Besides the inevitable tension a declining economy ushers in, your employees are distracted and stressed in their distraction.  You probably already know that most workers are unfocused at times during the work day.  What you might not know is that:

  • the average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day
  • most workers feel stress as a result of that distraction

In fact, disengaged workers:

  • are 18% less productive
  • have 27% higher rates of absenteeism
  • are 20-40% more likely to seek employment elsewhere
  • make 40% fewer attempts at problem-solving
  • experience more stress-related injuries as a result of not making ergonomic adjustments

Your company cannot afford loss of productivity, in addition to high rates of turn-over.  On the other hand, you can afford an ideal solution.  Sound masking is the addition of low-level background sound to reduce the impact of ambient noise.  Employees in treated areas feel less stress and are noticably more engaged and therefore more productive.  Tough times call for creative measures.  Give us a try.

 

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Back in the black

November 24, 2009 By

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.

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Free association with noise

November 16, 2009 By

Connotation

What do you think of when you hear the word noise?  Here are a few online definitions of "noise:"

Noise (noun): noiz

  • sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound); "he enjoyed the street noises"; "they heard indistinct noises of people talking …
  • the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience; "modern music is just noise to me"
  • electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb communication
  • a loud outcry of protest or complaint; "the announcement of the election recount caused a lot of noise"; "whatever it was he didn’t like it and he was going to let them know by making as loud a noise as he could"
  • incomprehensibility resulting from irrelevant information or meaningless facts or remarks; "all the noise in his speech concealed the fact that he didn’t have anything to say"
  • make noise: emit a noise
  • randomness: the quality of lacking any predictable order or plan
  • any unwanted sound and in both analog and digital electronics, noise is an unwanted random addition to a wanted signal. 

It’s interesting that noise actually is a neutral term- it really is just a sound of any kind.  Yet, the first connotation most people have when they think of noise is that of being irritated or distracted by it.  That’sbecause most people associate noise with not being able to relax or concentrate.  So, whether it’s trying to fall asleep or attempting to be productive at work, noise is not a friendly interruption.  In fact, the average worker finds herself distracted more than 2 hours a day.  In a tough economy 2 hours day per worker is not a welcome sacrifice for any business. 

Sound masking

Your company doesn’t have to lose productivity to distractions in the work place.  A simple and easy solution is sound masking.  You can’t rid your office of distracting noise, but you can cover it with a low-level background sound similar to white noise.  By camoflaging irritating and distracting noise, you and your employees can reclaim those lost hours of unprodictivity. 

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Cutting costs doesn’t mean cutting corners

November 10, 2009 By


Businesses have fewer resources but clients who demand better service.  Every manager is looking for ways to cut costs and somehow not cut corners.  How can you get more from less? 

Maximizing the resource you have

Let’s face it, in an open office sound carries.  As one Cornell study found, “as sound levels increase, the complexity of the task one can complete generally decreases.”  In addition, they found that high levels of noise generally lead to higher levels of fatigue and irritability.  So, you get less or at least worse work from tired and stressed employees. 

The same Cornell study also stated that the best way to contend with excessive noise is by using a sound-masking system.  Sound-masking provides a uniform and low-level background noise to cancel out unwanted distractions, thus enabling your workers to produce higher-quality work in less time.

Without hiring any new staff, you can increase your company’s productivity exponentially by reclaiming the time lost due to unnecessary distractions. Don’t you think it’s worth maximizing your workers’ time? 

Mardex, Justin. (2004) Auditory, visual, and physical distractions in the workplace.  Retrieved August 17, 2009 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/13038258/Auditory-visual-and-physical-distractions-in-the-workplace

 

Filed Under: Blog, Business, office noise, Sound Masking Tagged With: , , , ,

Everybody’s doing it

November 5, 2009 By

Distractions may not seem like a big problem.  Maybe your employees shoot off a few unnecessary texts or answer a couple personal calls.  Everybody does, right?  That’s the problem.  Everybody does, which means that the average worker loses more than two hours every day to distractions.  In fact, the work place, and open offices in general, have become so distracting that more than 70% of surveyed workers said that their productivity would be increased if their work place were less noisy.

How do you conduct business with less sound? 

While you can try to ban personal calls, you can’t keep people from making business calls, closing doors and flushing toilets.  That’s the cost of doing business.  But you can minimize the distraction level with sound masking.  Sound masking functions like white noise, cancelling out unwanted and distracting noise.  Unlike white noise, however, sound masking can be distributed uniformly and at the lowest volume necessary for maximum productivity.  That way, you’re not trading one problem for another. 

Contact us for more information on how to keep your employees focused on what really counts: work.

 

Malachowski, Dan.  Wasting Time at Work Costing Companies Billions.  Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www.davidsonstaffing.com/articles/salary/wasted-time/.

Mardex, Justin. (2004) Auditory, visual, and physical distractions in the workplace.  Retrieved August 17, 2009 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/13038258/Auditory-visual-and-physical-distractions-in-the-workplace

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October 30, 2009 By

Open office distractions

In this precarious economy, time has never been more important. You need your employees to give their best every minute of every hour of the work day. However, due to the open office environment, many employees (yours included) find their attention focused on what’s going on in the office rather than on their desks. Whether it’s water cooler gossip, whirring machines, slamming doors, dinging elevators, or loud accessories, work just isn’t at the center of attention.

How can you return work to its rightful place?

Most people are familiar with white noise- the idea of blocking out unwanted noise (crying babies, barking dogs, honking cars, etc.) with a soothing, consistent hum. What you may not know is that there is a corporate solution to unwanted distractions: sound masking. The idea is the same, just much more precise and peaceful. Our direct-field technology delivers uniform engineered sound to each treated area in order to create a work environment conducive to focused work. Plus, once installed, you will not need to allow for maintenance costs. For more information on how to increase your productivity, contact us here.

Filed Under: Blog, office noise, Sound Masking Tagged With: , , , ,
October 27, 2009 By

The sounds heard round the office

Whether intentionally or not, the average employee spends more than two hours of her work day distracted.  She starts a task and hears a phone ring.  She wonders who it is and whether it is a personal call.  She refocuses, only to hear the elevator ding.  She tries again and hears the copier start, so she leaves her desk to chat with her co-worker making copies.  Regardless of good intentions, this employee doesn’t stand a chance of being productive for more than a few minutes at a time.

Business must go on

We are in the worst recession in decades, yet deadlines and quotas must be met- all with less resources than you’ve ever had.  Getting work done with fewer staff in the same eight-hour day seems impossible.  Fortunately it isn’t.  Many companies like yours have turned to sound masking as a solution for office distractions.  Similar to the concept of white noise, treated areas are immune to the noisy interruptions that every open office inevitably has.  And, with direct-field technology, our system is precise and uniform, resulting in a quieter and more productive work environment for your employees. 

When resources are scarce, turn to a solution that is precise and no-maintenance.

Malachowski, Dan.  Wasting Time at Work Costing Companies Billions.  Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www.davidsonstaffing.com/articles/salary/wasted-time/.

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October 21, 2009 By

Speech is Silver, Silence is Golden

If the average worker is distracted, it usually takes almost half an hour to get back to his work or task.  At least there aren’t that many distractions, right?  Wrong.  Today’s employees feel frazzled by how often they are interrupted by co-workers’ conversations, phone calls, machinery noise, and slamming doors.  In fact, the average worker loses more than two hours of his work day as a result of such unwanted distractions. 

Sound masking is the new “silence” 

It’s not that your employees actually need silence even.  Rather it’s that they need a work environment conducive to concentration and cohesive thought.   Sound masking provides that by cancelling unwelcome distractions with a uniform, not to mention pleasant, sound.  Plus, our pre-tuned technology is designed for easy installation and no maintenance.   

You simply can’t afford to have your employees distracted by everyday occurrences such as these.  Contact us to find out more about what you can afford for your employees’ productivity.

Filed Under: Blog, office noise, Sound Masking Tagged With: , ,

Listen to your office

October 14, 2009 By

Listen to your office

Sales are in progress, orders are given, phones are answered.  Throw in the copier and bathroom noise, not to mention the AC switching on and off and various cell phones buzzing with missed calls, voicemails, and unreturned texts and you have a virtual sound symphony.  As interesting as the current gossip may be, a critical problem arises when your workers can’t hear themselves think as a result of all the noise floating around them. 

Sound masking…the solution for open offices

Office managers have realized that fewer doors mean more noise.  Rather than accept that this is an inevitable sign of the times, there is something you can do for your office.  A Cornell study stated that “the most prevalent way of dealing with excessive noise is through the introduction of an artificial masking noise.”  With our direct-field technology, you’ll have the advantages of pre-tuned, uniform sound masking that will cancel unwelcome noise.  The result is that your employees feel less stressed and more able to focus on their work.  And with this economy, more than ever, it’s crucial to be productive.   

Mardex, Justin. (2004) Auditory, visual, and physical distractions in the workplace.  Retrieved August 17, 2009 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/13038258/Auditory-visual-and-physical-distractions-in-the-workplace

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Co-mingling leads to co-ringing

October 12, 2009 By

Co-mingling and co-ringing

There’s a reason dating a co-worker is frowned upon in most work places- it’s not that you don’t want your employees to experience a great relationship with someone in your office, it’s that you don’t want them constantly distracted when they should be working. 

Along the same lines, modern technology in open offices presents similar distractions.  Rather than concentrating on their work and meeting their deadlines, most employees find it challenging to keep their mind on the task at hand.  As soon as they do begin to focus, someone’s phone rings or the workers three cubicles down congregate to share a laugh about the weekend’s antics.  Who could ignore that?

Tuning it out

You’ve probably figured out that you can hardly ask, much less force, your employees to tune out noisy distractions.  But you can help them not become distracted by them in the first place by implementing a sound masking system.  Instead of random and sharp distractions, a sound masking system delivers a uniform and peaceful background hum that enables workers to…well, work.  And who could pass that up?

Filed Under: Blog, Business, office noise, Sound Masking Tagged With: , ,
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