Acoustic Partitioning – Boost Focus and Productivity in Modern Workspaces
Although open-plan offices have increased in popularity over recent years, many workers and employers are noticing a dip in productivity. This is due to prolonged exposure to background noise that can reduce concentration and increase stress, leading to overall lower productivity. In this blog, we’ll discuss how to reverse the impact of open-plan offices to help boost focus and productivity in modern workplaces.
How Are Open-Plan Spaces Affecting Productivity?
Open-plan offices create large spaces for the sound of chatter, ringing phones, and other office-related noises to bounce around and disrupt workers. A study found that moving from private offices to open-plan environments significantly increased distraction, reduced privacy, and doubled self-rated losses in work performance due to noise. However, there are solutions available.
What is Acoustic Partitioning?
Acoustic partitioning is a specialised system designed to minimise sound transmission and control noise. While traditional offices use solid panels, modern acoustic partitions can include glazed panels and acoustic glass to allow light to flow through the office while still reducing sound. For example, double-glazed partitions help reduce noise transmission without feeling closed-off.
Benefits of Acoustic Partitioning for Productivity in the Workplace
There are many benefits of acoustic partitioning that directly affect focus and productivity in the workplace.
Enhanced Focus
Reducing background noise allows employees to concentrate on tasks rather than getting distracted by chatter, conversations, machinery, and other office distractions. This can be achieved using glazed acoustic panels to create semi-private areas or quiet zones.
Improved Collaboration
Acoustic partitions can be used to create meeting rooms or zones that don’t disrupt nearby teams. This allows productive conversations to happen when needed without distracting or being distracted.
Health and Wellbeing
Less noise = lower cortisol levels = improved mood and engagement. By reducing noise, you are actively supporting workers’ mental health by giving them control over their environment. Offer quiet zones for focused working and meeting rooms for productive discussions. Trying to do all elements of someone’s job in one noisy open space can be detrimental to their wellbeing at work. Glazed partitions offer this privacy and concentration whilst still creating an open-style office.
Flexibility of Space
Glazed acoustic partitioning allows open-plan offices to have quiet zones, collaborative spaces, and private offices. Ensuring adaptable solutions for dynamic working.
How Can Acoustic Partitioning be Used in the Office to Enhance Productivity
Acoustic partitioning is completely flexible and offers endless opportunities to enhance productivity. Rather than enforcing a one-size-fits-all layout, it allows offices to support different working styles and focus on collaboration, productivity, and overall wellbeing of employees.
Breakout Areas
Breakout spaces are designed to encourage collaboration, creativity, and social interaction away from the main office area. However, without acoustic control, they can become a major distraction. Glazed acoustic partitioning ensures breakout areas remain open while controlling the spread of sound and reduce noises from nearby.
Creating breakout areas with acoustic panels allows employees to collaborate freely while the wider office stays focused.
Boardrooms and Meeting Rooms
Meetings need clarity, privacy, and no background noise in order to be productive. Acoustic partitioning ensures conversations stay contained to the meeting room while the outside noise stays out. Acoustic partitions can be used to:
- Prevent confidential discussions from being overheard
- Reduce echo and improve speech clarity
- Create adaptable meeting rooms that can be reconfigured as needs change
By using glazed acoustic panels, you can ensure shorter, clearer, and more effective meetings.
Hot Desk Areas
Hot desking offers employees flexibility, but there’s always a risk that it will increase noise and reduce a sense of personal space – both of which can affect concentration and productivity.
By adding acoustic partitions between desks, you can:
- Reduce background noise and speech distraction
- Provide visual separation without isolating employees
- Create a sense of ownership and comfort in shared spaces
This solution can help employees settle into hot desks more easily, focus faster, and feel less put off by surrounding noise.
Quiet Zones
Sometimes, employees need deep concentration when carrying out tasks like analysis, writing, or problem-solving. Quiet zones created with acoustic partitioning can create enclosed or semi-enclosed areas dedicated to focused work without building permanent walls.
Having quiet zones allows employees to choose the right environment for the task at hand, or for what type of space they need for their productivity levels on the day.
Transform Noise Into Productivity
Acoustic partitions are critical for open-plan offices if you want to keep productivity levels high. These panels maintain comfort in the workplace, enabling workers to do their job to the fullest. They are a cost-effective, flexible solution with plenty of styles and features to align with your needs and brand.
If you’re looking to transform your workplace through acoustic comfort, contact Komfort today. We have a range of glazed and double-glazed acoustic partitioning solutions to create a workplace that works for everyone.
Choosing Your Partition Type
Ultimately, your choice between moveable, demountable, and relocatable partitions will come down to your long-term needs and anticipated frequency of change.
If you anticipate changing your office layout on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis, moveable walls are going to be your best friend. Meanwhile, if you need a flexible wall system that can be easily removed or reconfigured and you don’t anticipate frequent, exact re-use of the parts themselves, a demountable system is an excellent choice. On the other hand, if you expect to regularly reconfigure your office space while preserving the materials and reducing costs and waste, a relocatable system is a perfect option.
As manufacturers and design partners in glass solutions, we believe it’s crucial to work with designers as early as possible in the project lifecycle to truly understand your spatial requirements, aesthetic vision, and anticipated future needs. Early collaboration ensures that the most suitable system is specified from the outset, leading to optimal performance, cost-effectiveness, and maximum flexibility for your office environment.
