What Is Speech Privacy And Why Is It Important In The Workplace?

Speech privacy is a listener’s inability to distinguish what another person is saying. It’s a simple concept, but one which matters a great deal to most businesses.

Why? Well, in an office environment, not everything that’s spoken about is intended to be heard by everybody. Chances are that, if you’ve worked in an office for a number of years, you’ll have accidentally overheard something you weren’t meant to; it can leave you feeling very uncomfortable and, at times, put you in a bit of a moral difficulty.

This is a situation nobody ever wants to find themselves in, and thanks to modern technology like Sound Masking, speech privacy can be restored. But before we get into that, let’s cover some other reasons why speech privacy matters.

• If your meeting room isn’t well insulated and the main office is quiet, employees could overhear confidential news, or developments relating to the company that you’re not ready to share.
• Private conversations with clients should remain that way; you may have one client visiting while one of your employees is on the phone to another, which could come across as unprofessional if their words are easily audible.
• If meetings are taking place between directors or managers and the level of speech privacy isn’t adequate, employees could potentially hear parts of the conversation - even if they’re not supposed to.
• Performance reviews are private matters, too - you don’t want employees to overhear details about their colleagues’ performance.
• GDPR here in the UK means there are certain legal obligations to provide speech privacy, particularly in call centres, healthcare facilities and law firms.

So, how do you resolve this issue and introduce a much-needed cloak of privacy to your office meeting rooms? You could soundproof the entire workspace, but that’s very pricey and isn’t always entirely effective. Modern offices are typically constructed using thin partition walls and suspended ceilings, neither of which are conducive to privacy; you could spend a fortune on soundproofing only to find that conversations are still easily audible.

The alternative is Sound Masking. It works by producing subtle ambient sounds that are engineered to match the frequency of human speech. This means it can work effectively in any office environment, even introducing an impressive degree of speech privacy in open-plan offices. Plus, it creates a feeling of comfort, aiding productivity as well as privacy.

The best way to understand how Sound Masking works is to experience it for yourself. To book a demonstration at Remark Group's Peterborough headquarters - which is easy to reach from a number of major cities, including London and with good transport links to the North - contact a member of our team today.