Equipping your office with a sound masking system can be enormously beneficial to your company, your employees, and your operations. Before we review the top four benefits of equipping your office with a sound masking system, let’s learn what sound masking is and how it works.
Sound masking is manufactured low-level ambient noise that’s continuously emitted in order to reduce distracting sounds. Sound masking doesn’t actually make a room quieter, but can make it feel that way. So how does it work? The ambient noise generated by sound masking systems is engineered to match the frequency of human speech. By raising the ambient noise level in a space and matching the ambient noise to the frequency of human speech, you can create a dampening effect that limits how far sound can travel.
Installing a sound masking system in a corporate office, especially in an open floor plan office, is highly beneficial. Let’s explore how!
Offices are constantly filled with sounds—friendly chitchat, client calls, coworkers clacking away at their keyboards, pens clicking, chips crunching during someone’s break time snack across the room. When you’re in an open office space, there’s very little to dampen those noises, which means every sound echoes throughout the entire room, making it audible to everyone in the vicinity. For many workers, this constant cacophony of background noise is disruptive. With a sound masking system in place, employees won’t be able to hear everyone’s noise and can consequently enjoy improved focus on their work.
Related to improved focus, another major benefit of sound masking is that it allows employees to be more productive. By eliminating distractions and improving worker focus, employees are able to generate higher-quality work at a faster pace. This increase in productivity levels can have far-reaching benefits for the company because of how improved productivity translates into increased profits and a superior customer service experience.
When you have a sound masking system in your office, it can do wonders for employee privacy. Without sound masking, two employees having a quiet conversation in a corner can be heard by everyone in the room; lunch hour phone calls made to family members can be easily overheard; management may try to discretely redirect an employee and accidentally embarrass them. Both professional and personal conversations happen in the workplace, and many are best when kept private. Sound masking helps to ensure that the people who hear what’s said are only the people who are supposed to hear.
Sound masking can make a surprisingly material difference to company culture and office relationship dynamics. Without each other’s every noise serving as a constant source of distraction, coworkers will have less cause for resentment or conflict. Staff will appreciate the greater level of privacy that the office sound masking system affords them. Improved productivity can be great for employee confidence, morale, and job satisfaction. On the whole, sound masking can materially improve culture and promote harmony.
Commercial Technology is a premier IT, AV, and security integrator with nearly 40 years of experience serving customers in the New York Metro Area. We install and service top-of-the-line sound masking devices and are available to install one in your office. For more information, please contact a member of our team.