Office acoustics impact on productivity

Did you know that working in an acoustically-comfortable workspace produces higher-quality work?

Returning to your office environment is something to celebrate! Working from home for the last two years was fun to start with and a novelty which soon wore off. With most people finding they were working longer hours as they worked through their commute time, getting square eyes and intense screen fatigue on endless video calls, it’s refreshing to get back into the office and see real people again.

Undoubtedly the office configuration will have changed; lots of businesses have taken out some desk space to keep social distancing in play, whereas others will have a reduced number of staff in at any one time and may have moved to a rota system split between office and home working.

One thing that happens when you empty or reduce the furniture quantities in any room is the acoustics change. The space becomes more ‘echo-y’ as the sound reverberates around the room.

Here at Diamond Office Furniture, we have the ideal solution when it comes to recreating great workspaces and ways to overcome and eliminate noise.

Some of the most popular questions we get asked are:

• How can we control reverberation in a specific room?
• How can we improve noise privacy and confidentiality when we have meetings?
• Which acoustic products are best suited to our work space?

Booths, meeting pods, and sound-absorbing panels, which can be both wall and ceiling mounted, are all perfect solutions. Our acoustic furniture range is created with innovative design using specific fabrics for noise reduction, heightens privacy, increases higher-quality work, and promotes better employee focus and wellbeing.

As much as sound can be a wonderful thing, in the wrong environment sound can have a very negative impact. Considering acoustics is vital in creating comfortable work spaces and acoustic wall panels are an excellent way to control sound and reduce reverberation. They are also a great way to brighten up your office space as they come in a range of shapes, sizes and colours and can often be mistaken for wall art as they fit seamlessly into the work environment.

You can also separate space into working zones with these panels, all the while reducing noise and reverberation in a stylish way. You can create breakout areas, additional meeting pods or a quiet zone allowing for mobility, flexibility and space optimisation.

If you don’t have enough wall space for wall mounted acoustic panels, then our ceiling mounted acoustic panels are a great alternative. Again, available in a range of colours and styles, these make a great addition to any office space giving style and vibrancy whilst absorbing sounds on all sides making them extremely effective. Our ceiling range can hang at different heights to create improved sound dampening. If you’ve ever been to the Royal Albert Hall and seen their wonderful array of  ‘mushrooms’ which are really fibreglass acoustic diffusers, then you’ll understand what we mean. The venue used to suffer badly with echo because of its domed ceiling and they’ve been using these acoustic aides since the 1960s, creating better sound quality for its millions of visitors.

If you need to improve your office acoustics, talk to our friendly team today who will be happy to find the right solution for your space.