Acoustics in Offices:
— A Major Element for Health, Wellbeing and Productivity of Staff
Typical Business Operation Cost (Source: http://www.worldgbc.org)
Recently, a new report from the World Green Building Council (WGBC) finds “overwhelming evidence” that office design significantly impacts the health, wellbeing and productivity of staff.
Staff costs typically accounts for 90% of business operating costs. A study in 1998 found that there was up to a 66% drop in performance for a ’memory for prose’ task when participants were exposed to different types of background noise. A follow-up study by the same authors in 2005 found that 99% of people surveyed reported that their concentration was impaired by office noise such as unanswered phones and background speech.
Background sound levels need to drown out unwanted distraction, but not be too loud to cause stress, therefore a background sound level of 45dBA is recommended in open plan offices. In private or cellular offices the background sound levels can be reduced to 40dBA. In both cases, any higher and that background sound itself risks becoming a distraction.
For more details about the report, it is kindly suggested to visit the link below.
http://www.worldgbc.org/activities/health-wellbeing-productivity-offices .