Here are some of the things sound masking can’t do.

• Sound masking  does not mean sound cancellation.You will still be able to hear noises, especially loud noises. You will still be able to hear that a nearby conversation is going on, but you probably won’t be able to distinguish what is actually being said.

• Sound masking does not absorb noise. For that you would need special ceiling tiles or acoustic wall panels.
• Sound masking does not block noise. That is done by physical structures, i.e. walls, partitions, windows, etc.
• Sound masking will not make all your employees get along. They may however, get along better, since they (hopefully) will not be interacting as much due to not being so distracted by each other.
• Sound masking will not stop ALL distractions. The internet and cell phones will still exist after your sound masking system has been installed.
• Sound masking will not do your paperwork for you. However, it will make it easier for you to do it, as you will not have as many conversational distractions to keep you from focusing.
• Sound masking will not make your coffee for you. You’re on your own for that one.

What sound masking will do for you

Sound masking is used to cover noise. It “fills in” the sound spectrum around you with barely noticeable “unstructured” noise (“structured” noise would be noiese such as someone speaking or music that have patterns and convey information). Your brain will tune out unstructured noise as it searches for the structured variety. Studies have shown that offices with even small acoustical treatments (i.e. sound masking)

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

So while there are some things that sound masking can’t do (like make your coffee) that is a LOT that it can do. What could sound masking do for your company and its employees?

2 hours a day adds up quickly to lots of days of lost time.

The other day, my mom and I were talking about blogging.  I mentioned that I had noticed that there are significantly fewer views on a weekend than during the week, which led me to advise her to blog frequently during the week and take a much-needed break on the weekend (who wants to lose traffic and their own weekend at the same time?).  She was curious as to why the weekend readership waned so dramatically- that’s simple, I said.  People like to pass time by playing on the internet during work, but they have plenty to do on the weekend to keep them otherwise occupied.  She marveled at this revelation and asked me a fantastically funny question, “Emily, doesn’t that make you wonder how much time people waste at work?”  This is actually a great question- the only reason it’s funny is that that very question is my job- I blog about it every week.  So, let me give you a few stats:

• -The average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day
• -In other words, he is interrupted more than 70 times a day
• -Many estimate that it takes a solid half-hour to get back in the zone after being disrupted

So, no, I don’t wonder how much time people waste at work- I know, and I seek to offer possible solutions.  If you’ve read this blog for long, you’ll know that I lean towards acoustic treatments, such as sound masking.  While I wholeheartedly believe that the individual worker can make acoustic and ergonomic adjustments on his or her own, I also suspect that not many actually take matters into their own hands.  They chalk it up to working in an open office and assume there is no long-term solution.  Or they try ear plugs or headphones, only to miss important phone calls or jam to their favorite song.

Office Sound Masking

That’s why I urge at the managerial level to take action on behalf of your employees.  Even simple acoustic adjustments, such as sound masking systems enable your workers to stay focused and therefore improve productivity.  That’s great for your business, but it’s also good news at the employee-level, as well.   When annoying distractions are properly dealt with, even stress levels improve.  Consider the following improvements from improved speech privacy levels:

1. -Focus: the ability of office workers to focus on their tasks improved by 48%
2. -Distractions: “conversational distractions” decreased by 51%
3. -Error-rates: performance of standard “information-worker” tasks (measured in terms of accuracy [error-rates] and short-term memory) improved by 10%
4. -Stress: when measured in terms of the actual physical symptoms of stress, stress was reduced by 27%

As always, I’ll leave you with this- consider the value of productivity and happy, less-stressed workers.  What is that worth to you?

What are other people hearing?

In that specific situation, I was hit with the stark reality that medical (and what I always assumed was private) information obtained on the phone or in the office is not at all private.  When I pour my postnatal hormonal feelings out in my doctor’s office, I want the comfort on knowing she was the only one who heard me.  I don’t want to look over my shoulder, wondering if anyone in the waiting room or adjacent office heard me.

HIPAA is in place to safeguard such information, but it doesn’t force doctors to implement any acoustic treatments like sound masking to further guard our medical records.  However, I love my doctor and would like to keep seeing her.  I just wish she would value me as much as I value her.

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.