Office Acoustics Solutions
Creating Happy, Healthy WorkplacesAcoustic Systems for Offices
Office acoustics refers to the level of noise within the workplace. Disruptive noise is everywhere in the office from loud telephone calls, office chatter, noise from printers and scanners to doors slamming.
More and more companies are choosing to adopt an open plan office and a more agile way of working, this is great for collaboration and communication but the core challenge for designers is to resolve the office noise distractions whilst maintaining a collaborative and creative environment.
Book a Demonstration Speech Privacy Systems Is Sound Masking Just Suitable for Office Spaces?
The Stats
In 2019 we conducted a survey that looked at the effect noise has on workers wellbeing, the ‘Noise and Wellbeing at Work’ survey gained over 1,000 responses allowing us to look into what kind of impact noise has on employees.
We found that sudden bursts of noise are the most irritating to workers, with the most distracting being:
- 58% telephone ringtones
- 56% Doors Slamming
- 40% Music
- 74% Telephone Conversations
- 65% Personal Conversations
- 62% Sudden Laugher
Why are Office Acoustics Important?
It is no hidden secret that noise has an impact on employee’s wellbeing and productivity. In our research we found that almost half of UK offices workers reported that noise has a negative impact on their workplace wellbeing. It was also found that one in four workers say that their working environment is not conducive to productive working.
When office acoustics are engineered with employees in mind, it has profound benefits on their wellbeing and productivity.
A well-designed workplace will have acoustics as its core, with the aim of achieving an optimum sound level. The ideal level for an office is between 30 – 40 decibels (dB), however many open-plan environments can often reach 70dB.
Audio masking system is a great addition to the workplace to ensure a healthy acoustic level is achieved. By emitting a low level, unobtrusive sound into the environment it sets a base level for the acoustics to adhere to, creating a comfortable environment where productivity and wellbeing levels are high.
Noise Pollution
Noise pollution at work can do more harm than just to your wellbeing. Prolonged exposure to loud noises can damage peoples hearing, spikes in high blood pressure and increased anxiety.
It is important that employers provide solutions to tackle noise pollution and enhance office acoustics to ensure the mental and physical wellbeing of their employees.
Modern open-plan offices are generally designed without any partitions or cubicles. This exposes workers to nearby noises and impacts on their productivity and wellbeing. Sound masking is the ideal solution for a noisy open-plan office, it diffuses the noises in the office and helps to create a well-balanced workplace.
Just like noisy offices can affect a worker’s wellbeing and productivity, so can incredibly quiet workplaces. Sudden noises are more prominent in a quiet office, this can lead to spikes in blood pressure and anxiety in workers.
In our ‘Noise and Wellbeing at Work’ survey we found that 64% of people have overheard a confidential or sensitive conversation in the workplace, because of this almost half of people are reluctant to discuss a private or sensitive issue themselves.
Meeting Rooms & Conferencing Rooms
Creating a balance between meeting room design and privacy is important to ensure a productive and confidential meeting space.
Sound masking for meeting rooms is a great addition to ensure 100% confidentiality in those all-important meetings. Remark Group can provide an easy-to-use control interface, to allow the sound masking intensity to be controlled as per the user’s requirements for each individual meeting.
Without changing the design of the meeting space, Remark Group can work with your company to provide a bespoke sound masking solution to help you achieve 100% privacy.
What Remark Offer
- Consultation: We will work with you and have an initial discussion to explore customer needs
- Demonstration: We provide an optional system demonstration in our client demonstration area to satisfy client understanding
- Design: Client to send over floor plan of ‘problem’ areas or a site survey to identify specific system requirements. We will then provide a bespoke installation design covering emitter and controller locations
- Installation: Installation by highly experienced sound masking technicians, we will then provide a handover to ensure the customer knows how to use the system.
- Commissioning: We will always perform a commissioning visit to ensure that the system is working at optimum performance and provide ongoing maintenance and technical support
