There’s no denying that when you have a large number of people within one office, it’s never going to be the quietest of spaces.
Chatter between employees, telephone conversations, phones ringing, printers making a noise, collaborative discussions and visitors walking in and out, these are commonplace within a regular open plan office. With that in mind, you would think that open plan offices are always distracting and therefore far less productive places to work.
This isn’t necessarily the case, and it can be that by being clever with your office design, you can overcome challenges and ensure that productivity remains high, whilst stress remains low.
For sure, open plan offices help you to save money, because you have several people within one space, therefore cutting down on the need to heat and light several smaller offices. Distractions do appear almost automatically, however. Here are a few furniture hacks you can use to help cut down on open plan office problems.
Use Office Screens
Office screens can be a useful privacy tool for employees in open plan offices and can help to cut down on minor annoyances that are going on in close proximity. For instance, if you have two desks facing one another, a partial or low office screen can be used to create a small barrier. This can be enough to reduce distractions and also a small amount of noise too.
You might also like to think about space dividers, which are movable, larger partitions which can help to create smaller spaces within a large office.
Place Desks Sideways on
It’s not a good idea to have desks facing the door, because this is an instant distraction, but it’s not a good idea to have employees with their backs to the door either, both for confidentiality and professionalism reasons. Instead, have desks sideways on. This means that when people walk into the office, it won’t be an instant distraction, but employees can deal with visitors who need help also.
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Make Use of Office Booths
Booths are a good idea for small collaborative sessions and anyone who needs a quick time out or somewhere quiet to work. Booths can be small enough for one person, or they can be a little larger and can fit around people inside. Assess the size of your office and work out how many booths you can accommodate and what size.
Have Separate Working Zones
You could arrange your office into zones. That means those who want to concentrate on quiet work can sit in the quiet zone, perhaps making use of office screens and maybe even noise-cancelling headphones and those who need to collaborate or brainstorm can use the collaborative area and speak without worrying that they’re annoying or distracting someone.
This type of office design falls into the agile workspace model and it’s a very useful way to make an open plan office more productive overall.
Consider Acoustic Panels
Having stand-alone or wall-mounted acoustic panels help to absorb white noise and therefore make the office a quieter and more productive place to work. You could easily use these panels between quiet areas and collaborative areas, or you can simply have them dotted around, allowing them to pick up on areas where noise might be at its highest.
These 5 quick and easy furniture hacks allow you to arrange your office desks and office chairs in a way which helps to cut down on excessive noise and also ensures productivity throughout. The office will also have a high-quality appearance, which is ideal for impressing visitors to your space.
At the end of the day, you’re never going to completely cut out distractions within an office which has several people within it. People make noise when they’re working quite naturally, and whilst it’s not meant to distract anyone, it sometimes does. Perhaps being mindful of the amount of noise you’re making when you’re working at your designer office desk will help to cut down on noise and distractions for others, but arranging your office in a specific way can certainly help too.