1                                                                                                                                                                          ©  Plantronics  2015.  All  Rights  Reserved.  

The Challenge Of Noise In Your Open Office

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More than 50% of workers report dissatisfaction with the

open office.1!

Our people have never been closer. And it sounds like it.

!Open office noises are a distraction and is becoming an issue which has: !!•  Caused trouble for employees to concentrate2 !•  Affected collaboration to go down2!•  Employees feeling inhibited2!!As a result, the collaboration that was expected in the open office plan hasn't met expectations — it’s gone down.3!!How can we solve noise in the open office? Is all noise bad? How can you bring balance and focus back into the open office? !!

“In general, people do not like the acoustics in open offices.”4

– John Goins, Center for the Built Environment, UC Berkeley

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Open Offices Create Challenges Focusing!

Open offices designed for collaboration have had the unintended consequence of decreasing the ability to focus. And ironically, as the open office has grown in popularity, collaboration has become less likely: the past five years have seen collaboration decrease by 20 percent, and workers find they’re less able to focus.5!

“Office commotion impairs workers’ ability to recall information, and even to do basic arithmetic."6!!-The New Yorker!

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As speech intelligibility !rises, productivity falls.!

A common complaint in the open office is noise. But the culprit isn’t merely noise, it’s bad noise — speech intelligibility, or the ability for the brain to store the words it hears. For example, when there’s a one-sided conversation from the too-loud talker the next desk over, your brain can’t stop trying to finish his sentences. So it is not noise itself — it is the most disturbing kind, speech, that must be addressed.!

“Noise is the most serious problem in the open-plan office, and speech is the most disturbing type of sound because it is directly understood in the brain’s working memory.” 7!!— Valtteri Hongisto, Institute of Occupational Health, Finland !

 

“Workplace design that supports the ability to focus and the ability to collaborate is an essential framework on which employee engagement and business success can be built.”!– Gensler  

Workers whose companies allow them to control their space by choosing when, where, and how they work were more likely be satisfied with their jobs and performed better. 11 !!The solution lies in providing your employees with choice in how and where they work in the office — with spaces both for concentration and for collaboration.13

Ideally this includes not only rooms for focus and areas for teamwork but also the technology that enables mobility and confidence as your workers move through various !spaces.

Let the choice be theirs.!Employees perform better when they can control their space.11!

   

Workers who are given a choice in the workplace are 12 percent more satisfied, perform higher, and are more likely to regard their company as innovative.15!

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Technology choices for a crowded room.!Four ways to increase productivity!

!!Speaking Confidently!!Can workers conduct a conversation confidently in an open office?!

Plantronics headsets equipped with noise-canceling technology automatically adjusts the volume of incoming calls to the noise level around a worker. Its wideband HD voice provides natural- sounding calls. And it prevents noise and echo from entering the conversation.! !In-Office Mobility!!Are workers able to move to a private space while staying!on a call? Are they able to leave their desk and continue the conversation? Yes. Plantronics has a range of wireless headset solutions, including DECT™ devices that enable hundreds of users within a single site as well as Bluetooth® technology for less robust applications.!

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Technology choices !for a crowded room.!Letting your people work wherever the call takes them!

Compatibility with Unified Communications (UC)!!Can your workers use their laptop or smartphone as a communication device throughout the open office?!!UC integrates telephony, audioconferencing and videoconferencing, and more into one system accessible on mobile, desk phone, and PC. !

Any Room is a Conference Room!!Can a conference call take place anywhere? !!Conference calls can take place with a portable Bluetooth® device that can convert a laptop or mobile phone into a speakerphone. The open office requires flexibility, and permanent speakerphones get in the way of worker mobility.!Impromptu conference calls are happening more and more. !

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Implement smart changes that bring the open office back into balance, mask the distractions, give your workers choices that fit their work, and empower them with the technology to hear, be heard, and leave the noise behind.!!Plantronics products can help with these smart changes for workers to have the ability to concentrate and collaborate more effectively. !!!

Get your open office working again.!

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!1, 4, 8. Center for the Built Environment, University of California, Berkeley. Quoted in The New York Times. May 19, 2012.!2. Georgia Collins, Managing Director, CBRE Workplace Strategy. Presentation Given at Symposium on the High Performance Workplace. April 21, 2010.!3, 5, 12, 15. Gensler. 2013 US Workplace Survey. July 15, 2013.!6. "The Open-Office Trap" The New Yorker. January 7, 2014.!

7, 10. Valtteri Hongisto, Acoustician, Institute of Occupational Health, Finland. Quoted in The New York Times. May 19, 2012.!

9. Evan Benway; Plantronics, Inc.!11. Diane Hoskins "Employees Perform Better When They Can Control Their Space" Quoted in Harvard Business Review, 2014.!

13. “Is Your Office Making You Unproductive?” The Wall Street Journal. June 24, 2013.!

14. Dan Pink. “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” New York. Riverhead Books. 2009.!

Sources Cited!  

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