Shh! Noisy, open-plan offices are distracting your employees

Trying to get work done while people are chatting, phones are ringing, and printers are buzzing can be a major challenge for the workforce – but executives don’t understand the extent of the problem these distractions cause.

Research from Plantronics has found that only one per cent of employees (down from 20% in 2015) say they are able to block out distractions and concentrate without taking extra steps in the office.

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However, while 54% of executives believe their employees have the tools they need to mitigate noise and distraction in the office, only 29% of employees agree. And to make matters worse, 63% of employees say they lack quiet space for focused work, which has a negative effect on their productivity, satisfaction and well-being.

The research suggests that the best-performing companies take noise and distraction into consideration. More than three-quarters of top performers (defined as those with revenue growth above ten per cent and less turnover) report that office design and noise mitigation are important to financial performance and are proactively addressing the noise epidemic in their offices. They are also more likely to provide workers with tools to block out noise and quiet space to focus, and less likely to say some employees find a noisy environment energizing (28% versus 50% of others).