There are many benefits to an open-plan office space. Studies show agile workspaces enhance collaboration, innovation and productivity.

Freedom to move around has been shown to increase creativity, and for health and wellbeing, changing posture and position throughout the day are important… But quiet focus is one of the casualties.

Despite all the benefits, agile workspaces are also noisy, disruptive and often lack solo space for concentrated work tasks.

According to the 2018 Oxford Economics study 63% of employees lack quiet space for focused work. 75% need to take walks outside to focus, and 32% use headphones to block out distraction.

Employees in the noisiest office environments are more likely to consider leaving their job before 2019. Noise negatively effects their productivity, satisfaction and well-being… the very opposite of what open shared spaces are supposed to do!

But despite all that, only 40% of executives recognise the problem and of those only 6% report having equipped their office with noise mitigating features. According to a study in the Wall Street Journal, the average time for a worker to regain concentration on a task after being distracted is 23 minutes! That’s a pretty big productivity loss.

How can we, as employers and business owners, retain the benefits of agile spaces while reducing the noise pollution that comes with them?

Don’t be one of the 6% for a start.

Ideally, you should seek the help of an acoustics expert to validate the overall impact. They will take into consideration the layout, flooring materials, walls, ceiling and the furniture.

Sounds like Ergonomic Design doesn’t it? And for good reason. There are a few things that we can do to reduce noise in the shared space, starting with designating specific spaces for discussions, phone calls and quite focused work.

People are weird and wonderful and all different. Some like silence, some enjoy the quiet babble of many voices, some like music and some like whale song…Remember Amazon and the waterfall? According to neuroscience, the sound of a loud phone call can cause measurable stress in working human beings.

Overheard “halfversations,” are even more distracting because our brains automatically try to guess the other half. We can’t all install a private fountain in the foyer, but Ergostyle offers private phone booths and acoustically buffered spaces for activities like brainstorming and team-building exercises.

The clever people over at PLN Group have worked with NANO fibre upholstery to enhance their ABW range of acoustic work POD solutions. This fabric has a distinct advantage over traditional upholstery by utilising its incredibly tight weave to achieve superior acoustic ratings thus increasing its Sabine efficiency.

These ‘pods’ have a dual-function as they provide sound-dampening to the rest of the office as well!

If you have any question’s feel free to contact Ergostyle to discuss solutions for your workplace.