Instead of hiring a company masseuse, a few effective ergonomic adjustments could be made. (Although a masseuse would be nice....)

Some common reasons for lack of productivity are  distractions. In fact, studies have shown that distractions cause up to 2 hours a day of lost productivity which costs  companies $759 billion a year. So, one of the ways that would (hopefully) make a noticeable difference is to cut down on those distractions.

Ask your workers what is distracting them and then think of ways to help them overcome those. Is office noise and conversations constantly breaking their train of thought? Installing sound masking could help with that. Are constant emails and new email notifications a problem? Some software that minimizes that would help. Perhaps by the end of the day your employees shoulders and wrists are aching from sitting in front of the computer all day. A few ergonomic adjustments could go a long way in solving that and allowing them to focus on their working instead of tight muscles.

You won’t know how to implement effective solutions unless you know what the problem is. So, go ahead, ask your employees how you can help them work better and with less stress.

What lengths would you go to to deal with office noise?

I work in an open-plan office which is shared by several disparate teams. What the team on the other side of my partition actually do[es] I know not, other than that it appears to be something hilarious as their conversations are frequently punctuated by loud laughter that reverberates around the entire floorplace. I’ve tried looking daggers at them whenever a particularly noisy guffaw interrupts my train of concentration, but I am tempted to ask of them: “If there’s a joke, let’s all share it!” Can you suggest an alternative approach?
Louisa Radice, Exeter

Stunning Stentor! Lord of the loud-mouths. Red ear-plugs, as worn by tractor drivers? Wax from the chemist? To work in open-plan one has to cultivate an invisible carapace that cuts out extraneous noise. It is the job of the manager to cut out stentorian uproar that distracts others from their work. For Puck’s sake do not look daggers. You will make your neighbours laugh louder, and get yourself a reputation as a spoilsport and a prude.

I have to agree.  While the complaint is noteworthy, the response is dead-on: It is the job of the manager to cut out stentorian uproar that distracts others from their work.

Attention, all managers!

Did you know that your employees look to you to solve office noise issues?  The average employee loses more than 2 hours every day because of distractions like the one described above.  Interestingly, most employees do not appreciate this loss.  Your job is to keep your workers focused- not by micro-managing, but through reasonable means, such as sound masking.  Sound masking is the use of white noise to help your employees tune out irritating distracting noises so they can focus on their work.  Many sound masking systems can be installed directly in the ceiling tiles themselves, so while highly effective, they are practically invisible.

Distractions cost businesses over $500 billion every year, possibly as much as $700 billion.  What do you want to bet your company has a piece of that?

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.

According to this article, the Top 10 Office Distractions are:

1. Email
2. Telephone
3. Paper
4. Visitors
5. Environment
6. Noise
7. Meetings
8. Lists
9. Expectations
10. You

Whether you manage 1 or 100 employees, they each struggle with those internal and external distractions (and so do you!).  They might rank them differently, but each distraction costs them a valuable chunk of time.  In fact, many studies suggest that the average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day!  Two hours times every employee is a staggering loss of productivity.

Rewarding and Protecting Their Time

Just to be clear: you're shooting for happy workers, not ecstatic.

You can’t control for everything, but as a manager, it’s your job to step in and help relieve your employees from the stress of not getting their work done.  It’s easy to assume that the average worker doesn’t mind being distracted at work.   On the contrary, most employees report that they are irritated by distractions and just want a place to do distraction-free solo work.  Sure, there are probably a handful of office slackers who are just fine with less work, but most of your employees are frustrated with  the loss of productivity- for many, it means nights and weekends, and for others, it’s lower commission levels.  According to Frank C. Barnett, a marketing expert, “ownership of the job is huge“, which is why he is trying to reward mastery of a task/job not just with money, but also with something more internal- the feel of success and the knowledge of a job well-done, even the controversial ability to build their own brand on the company’s dime and with their reputation.

In addition to building a great incentive plan, you still need to provide a great work environment.  The biggest time suck at work is conversational distraction.  Whether 2 employees are chatting it up themselves or several are unwitting recipients of sales calls, there is no reason with today’s technology, such as sound masking,  that any office worker should fall prey to noisy distractions.  By covering unwanted noise with low-level white noise, you keep everyone focused on their own work.

By protecting and rewarding your worker’s time, you increase productivity and decrease stress levels- everybody’s happy.

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?

What caused them?

The study found that most people suffered from both internal and external interruptions.  While most managers are primarily victims of external interruptions, the average worker distracts him/herself almost as much as others do!

How many were there?

The average worker had an interruptions/distraction every 3 minutes. Yikes.

How long did it take to get back on task?

When you’re interrupted, you don’t immediately go back to the task you were doing before you were interrupted. There are about two intervening tasks before you go back to your original task, so it takes more effort to reorient back to the original task. Also, interruptions change the physical environment. For example, someone has asked you for information and you have opened new windows on your desktop, or people have given you papers that are now arranged on your desk. So often the physical layout of your environment has changed, and it’s harder to reconstruct where you were. So there’s a cognitive cost to an interruption.

Interruptions are sometimes necessary, but they always derail productivity for the interrupted party.

As a manager, that may not be the best of news on any front. The bottom line is that Average Worker is surrounded by interruptions caused by others and by self.  It’s difficult to control for internal interruptions, such as email checking, but you can control for external interruptions.  It’s not inevitable that your employees have to be held captive by others and their noise.  A more recent development has been the use of office sound masking, the use of low-level white noise to cover office noise (i.e. unnecessary interruptions and distractions).  The result is less distraction, more focus, fewer errors, and lower stress levels.

An effective manager doesn’t micromanage every detail.  On the other hand, (s)he does provide a productivity-friendly environment.  You don’t need to worry about every moment lost to interruptions- in fact, some of them are quite necessary to every day productivity (such as an employee seeking advice/help from his/her manager).  But you can guard against unnecessary distraction.

Office noise is continuing to be a problem on many fronts.  The first and foremost issue that has arisen is employee distraction with conversational distraction in the lead for what keeps your workers off-task and unfocused.  Thus, many offices have looked into acoustic treatments, such as sound masking, to cover intruding noise so that employees can be more productive.

An overheard conversation can be more than a distraction- it can be a deal-breaker...literally.

More than just a distraction

Interestingly, though, we often overlook the obvious when we state that conversations are the most frequently reported distractions.  For some businesses, office noise may just be an inconvenient distraction that doesn’t allow for maximum productivity.   For others, though, it means that workers overhear each other’s business and personal conversations, which may include private and confidential matters.  If other workers can overhear specific business deals and trade secrets, for example, they can also leak that information or use it unwisely.  This may be a deal-breaker for your company. A simple solution is to raise the background ambient sound just enough to cover conversations and phone calls so that the privacy index

Whether you’re looking for ways to increase productivity or you’re trying to safeguard your business and your own employees’ private information, sound masking is an effective solution that can achieve both.  There is a wide variety of options, and it’s worth your time to find the best solution for your business’s needs.

It is believed that El Nino may have contributed to the 1993 Mississippi and 1995 California floods, drought conditions in South America, Africa and Australia. It is also believed that El Nino contributed to the lack of serious storms such as hurricanes in the North Atlantic which spared states like Florida from serious storm related damage.

Akin to every storm attributed to El Nino, every loss in the business world is lamented as the latest prey of the wretched economy.

Ebb & Flow

It’s easy to blame the economy for less than ideal profits.  And, similar to weather patterns, the economy does seem to have a sort of natural (and inevitable) ebb and flow.  It is futile to resist it.  However, that does not mean that your business has to ebb and flow accordingly.  Desperate times call for creative measures.  You may not have as many resources as you’d ideally like, but every company has the same amount of one invaluable resource: time.  No one has figured out how to get more than 24 hours from a day. Unfortunately, most employees have figured out a way to get even less time on the job: distractions.  Whether it was technology (emails, phones, cells, texts, messaging services) conversations, or good old fashioned interruptions, in 2008 an estimated $600 billion were lost to distractions.

Make a change

If you’re not okay with that number or your business’s contribution to it, consider cutting back on company-wide distractions.  Whether it’s restructuring the office (saying farewell to cubicles) or alternative solutions such as sound masking, it’s time to be productive again.   Don’t be another victim- be proactive.

Who knew this simple machine could be such a challenge?

I have recently noticed an interesting trend in my family  Actually, I am not sure “trend” is really the right word.  It’s more a difference in personality types.

• For example, we moved to the UK last year.  I noticed that our vacuum was not really that helpful.  It liked to grab the pieces of dirt and hair and just move them around to a new spot on the carpet.  Since I had heard several American friends comment on theirs doing the same thing, I just assumed, “Oh, I guess UK vacuums just aren’t as efficient as what I’m used to.”
• Similar thing happened with our washing machine.  Having never operated a UK washer before, I just assumed that all of them took the entire day (and most of the night) to run a cycle.
• I also assumed that the washers just weren’t very good at dispensing the fabric softener (a must-have when you are sans dryer) since I kept seeing blue spots on various lighter garments.

I could go on…but long story short, my husband ran the vacuum and the washer just once and immediately deduced that there was a problem.  It truly never occurred to me to say anything or wonder if there was a problem- suck it up, right?  With a few tweaks and creative ideas, the vacuum actually picked up dirt (I couldn’t believe it!), the washer was replaced due to obvious malfunction, and I was shown exactly which of the three sections fabric softener was meant to go in (the one with a flower, by the way).

My point is this- sometimes we’re so used to a problem that it doesn’t even register as a problem anymore.  We assume we have to live with it the way it is, and there’s nothing we can do except try to have a good attitude about it.  As you think about your business, it may seem as if office noise, especially conversational distraction, is just a part of working in an office.  You may or may not be aware that the average office worker is distracted more than 2 hours very day and that an estimated $600 billion was lost in 2008 to distractions such as these.  It may never occur to you that while office noise is the norm, it is also a problem that can be easily resolved through acoustic treatments.  In fact, there are a few things you need to know about treating office noise.  Commonly referred to as the ABCs of sound masking, you have three options for how you treat intruding sound:

• absorb- through carpet and panels
• block- with walls
• cover- sound masking

Many managers are hesitant to change the aesthetic of the work place or add what could be an allergen, which would be inevitable with absorption techniques.  Similarly, the addition of walls certainly changes the look of an open office (by closing it), as well as drastically reduces collaborative work and the number of workers in a specific area.   That leaves us with covering distractions, or what is known as sound masking.  Sound masking is the corporate super-version of white noise.  Simply put, sound masking provides low-level background noise that drowns competing, intrusive noises.  The most effective sound masking system  is installed directly in the ceiling, providing the most direct, uniform, and precise coverage possible.  While there is an initial investment (the same would be true of absorption and blocking techniques), sound masking is a one-time (meaning no maintenance) solution that enables your employees to tune out the hustle and bustle so typical in an open office, while still maintaining the feel of an open office.

Don’t be like me- when you see a problem, identify it, fix it, and enjoy the benefits- in this case, the benefits would be happier, less stressed, and more productive workers.

Have you ever watched “The Office”? Between pranks, personal calls, and inter-office dysfunctional dating, not a whole lot actually gets done. In a given work day, yes, a sale or two are made, but almost in spite of the workers and the distractions they both cause and fall victim to. It’s every worker’s dream and every manager’s nightmare. 

Even in a booming economy, loss of focus and attentiveness is never okay. Given our current economic crisis, hard work has never been more essential. So, how can you reclaim that invaluable time? 

You can’t control the stock market, but you can control how many distractions you allow your employees to face in a given day. Phone calls have to be made and machines have to run, but not every worker has to stop working to listen to it. By installing sound masking technology, you minimize the constant disturbances every office has so that your office doesn’t resemble “The Office.”