The hustle and bustle of the office is something that can often make the day go quicker, and many of us hankered for it during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Whilst chatter, typing, the whir of the copier and those constant notification pings can be the marker of a lively office environment, have you considered that these layers of sound could be affecting your employees?

In this article we’ll look at the ways noise in the office could be affecting your employees, and what you can do to reduce this.

How does office noise affect employees?

Productivity

Noise can cause an unwanted distraction and creates an environment that’s not exactly conducive to focused work. In fact, Tech Radar reported that noisy open plan offices can reduce productivity by 66%! Not only does this obviously impact the speed and potentially the quality of work produced, but it can cause a sense of frustration in the employee and reduce their job satisfaction.

Employee welfare

Background noise has previously been found to negatively affect blood pressure, mental wellbeing and even sleep, raising stress levels in many cases too. Excessive office noise could be contributing to some or all of these issues for an employee, and considering they could be spending 6-9 hours per day within this environment, it should be a concern for employers.

Office attendance

With hybrid or even fully remote working available in many workplaces up and down the country employees can choose where they spend their working day. The benefits of getting together as a team regularly or even semi regularly are evident for both the business and the wellbeing of employees, but a noisy office isn’t appealing for many who want to get their head down and work in peace.

Colleague communication

Whether it’s simply too much to shout above the noise, or because more people are working from home as mentioned above, communication between colleagues can break down because of excessive office noise.

Good ideas, a team spirit, and a reduction in miscommunication can all be attributed to a colleague’s ability to connect with their colleagues – and quite often a Teams message won’t cut it!

What can I do about office noise?

First things first, we’re not suggesting an end to the open plan office; they provide a fantastic opportunity for interdepartmental working relationships and collaboration. However, there are ways in which the noise produced can be reduced. Cleverly partitioning an office can keep the space light, bright and airy, but also keep noise to a minimum – that’s where we come in here at Komfort.

Beautifully designed as well as functional, our acoustic office partitioning can keep the peace without closing off the space. This leaves you with an office the flows, in which employees can have a calm and productive day. Get in touch with us for a chat about our knowledge and expertise could help you transform your office.