Distractions at work seems to be inevitable these days.  Open office floor plans lend themselves to a lot of noise and potential distractions, while some workers are their own worst enemies.  Regardless of the cause, distraction is costly and must be dealt with, which does mean pinpointing the specific cause.

That said, the number one contributor for loss of productivity is conversational distraction.  Whether workers get drawn into the conversation or annoyed by its persistent buzz, no one is as focused in its presence.  The end result is that not only are your workers distracted, they get frustrated and disengaged.  Sadly, disengaged workers are more stressed, less focused, more error-ridden, and less likely to make the ergonomic adjustments necessary for comfort and avoidance of injury.  Thus, when dealing with office noise and loss of productivity, it’s important to focus on two problems: the noise itself and how to make good ergonomic adjustments.

Tips for Improving Productivity

So, here are a few tips for sound masking and ergonomic adjustments.

Take advantage of sound masking. Today’s sound masking technology is very precise and floods the background with “white” noise that focused on the spectrum of human speech. Office-wide sound masking can lower distractions by up to 51 percent by covering the excess conversations and noise in an open floor plan. You can also try a personal sound machine, if you don’t have control over the sound quality in the office.

Limit distractions and interruptions. The average worker is interrupted more than 70 times each day. And most people suffer almost equally from self-distraction. Try establishing a “no-interruption” time of about an hour to focus on important tasks. Start by turning off all your self-distractions, like your phone and e-mail. Spend this time in focused concentration. Turn on a white noise machine to cover office noise. And post a sign indicating that you currently cannot be interrupted, and a time when you will next be available. You can repeat this focused time throughout the day to make the most of your time.

Improve your posture. Most people do not realize how much energy is wasted with poor posture. Good posture can boost productivity and energy. Start with a good, ergonomic chair and adjust it to properly fit you. First, adjust the height of the seat so that your feet are flat on the floor. Next, move the backrest on your chair to fit the curve of your spine. You should also add portable lumbar support if your chair does not fully support your lower back. Finally, move your arm rests low enough or out of the way while typing to allow free arm movement.

Making changes to your office set-up and your own habits can increase your productivity and efficiency. The most direct change you can make is to upgrade your office space with sound masking technology to block the distracting conversations and office noise that interrupt concentration.

Office noise is not only distracting, it is also stressful and unmotivating.  Interestingly, workers in loud offices even make fewer ergonomic adjustments than those in quieter offices.  The first problem may be obvious- noise levels.  Few people need silent officess but most need fewer distractions so they can stay focused and be productive.  An easy solution is either a sound masking system or individual sound machines for each distracted worker.  Either way, white noise covers conversational and other distractions so the brain can tune them out.

Once the mind is more settled, hopefully the workers will start making more ergonomic adjustments.  The most important ergonomic adjustments are just that: adjustments.  It’s important to adjust your work station so that it works for you specifically.  Here are a few tips:

• If your chair is adjustable, make sure you take advantage of it!  Your feet should be able to rest comfortably on the floor with your knees (also comfortable) under your desk.  Good ergonomic chairs also offer adjustable arm rests.  Your forearm should be able to rest in a straight line, angled down towards your keyboard.
• Speaking of your keyboard, it should be on the same surface as your mouse and they should be right next to each other.    A keyboard tray is a great investment for adjustable ease and proper placement of the keyboard and monitor.

• While your keyboard and monitor should be at arm level, your monitor, on the other hand, should be raised so it can be at eye level and about 20 inches away from your torso.  Ergonomic adjustable desks are great for keeping everything where it needs to go.

The combination of sound masking and ergonomic adjustments are proven to lessen stress and improve productivity.  It’s a good exchange.

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?

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.