When it comes to acoustics in the workplace, there is no one-size-fits-all. Some employees work better in silence, others work better with a little background noise, and there’s a few who work best in louder environments. With the rise in open spaces offices since the 1960’s, there is an increase in sound in the office. Providing the necessary extensions to offices and different acoustical settings can provide each employee with space to be as productive as possible.
In a survey by Oscar’s Acoustics, four out of ten employees said that poor acoustics were affecting their concentration, and one in three employees reported that they were either late with a project or turned in poor quality due to noise in the office. The goal of going into an office is to get your work done as efficiently as possible with minimal distractions, so why should background noises hinder your daily work productivity? One of the biggest culprits of bad acoustics is a lot of hard surfaces with not a lot of soft surfaces to absorb the sound. There are many solutions to this, such as implementing acoustical panels, carpeting, doubling the layer of the walls, installing acoustic ceilings with materials like fiberglass, and so much more.
“While aesthetics are important, you also have to consider how people work and ensure that there are spaces for collaboration, concentration and connection. Noise may seem a minor irritant, but not addressing this could hurt your business’s bottom line and put your employee’s health at risk.” – Joanna Watchman from workinmind
by Joanna Watchman, Workinmind
LVN Studio recommends having an acoustic consultant on site to ensure any specific questions can be answered. As an interior design firm, we can assume what surfaces should be implemented in order to minimize unwanted sound, but we cannot always know for sure. Questions like how many walls should be acoustic? Should certain walls be double layers so sound is minimized? What rooms should we add carpeting to? can all be confidently answered with an acoustical consultant on site. We should be making our offices inclusive and considerate, not distracting.
“During a few previous projects, clients wouldn’t take the acoustics seriously and then would come back to us a year or two later and ask to implement certain changes. This is why we really push clients to think about how they want their office to sound from the get-go.” – Talby Tal
Articles: workinmind
