• Corporate , General ,
• 30 Mar

Corporate/office sound issues:

• Unwanted noise in open-plan interiors can influence worker productivity, employee morale, corporate profits.
• Enclosed private offices clearly outperformed open-plan layouts in most aspects of IEQ (Indoor Environmental Quality), particularly in acoustics, privacy and the proxemics issues. Benefits of enhanced ‘ease of interaction’ were smaller than the penalties of increased noise level and decreased privacy.
• Nearly two-thirds of executives said employees are equipped to deal with distractions at work, but less than half of employees agreed.
• Savings gained from a reduction in staff turnover, for example, would allow an organization to recoup the higher investment required for the implementation of sound solutions.
• “And isn’t that the sad truth? Most people would rather work at home and or tolerate angry stares from the other patrons in a coffee shop (should one need to make a call) than try to get something done in an open-plan office.”
• Open-plan offices are both a productivity disaster and a false economy. The productivity drain more than offsets the savings in square footage.
• All of this social engineering has created endless distractions that draw employees’ eyes away from their own screens. Visual noise, the activity or movement around the edges of an employee’s field of vision, can erode concentration and disrupt analytical thinking or creativity.
• Forcing open-plan offices is not only ruining productivity but it’s actively driving good employees to avoid to coming into the office.
• We’re 15% less productive, we have immense trouble concentrating
  The truth is, we can’t multitask and small distractions can cause us to lose focus for upwards of 20 minutes.
• Our best work is done when we have total focus. We can work in a busy space, but the final product won’t be as good as if we are in a quiet locale.

Business / Manufacturing Industry:

• Businesses are developing and designing quieter products, and looking to have a quieter manufacturing/factory floor.
• Some of this is geared towards producing quieter products to sell, which may not translate into the soundproofing but does point towards the increasing trend of needing lower noise levels.