Independent Studies

Below are a few independent studies identifying the cost of ignoring acoustic speech privacy in office planning.

• ASID and L.C. Williams & Associates - (2000 ) Impact of Office Design on Recruiting and Retaining Employees The physical workplace ranks 2nd behind compensation and is tied with benefits on reasons why people accept or leave jobs. It usually takes one and on-half of a knowledge workers anuual salary to replace him or her.
Acoustic Speech Privacy was the highest ranked specific office design factor contributing to job satisfaction.

• Data Entry Management Association
Lack of acoustical speech privacy cuts productivity up to 40% and data entry errors increase by 27%.

• Steelcase / Louis Harris (1978) - "National Study of Office Environments"
Study found that the #1 factor that employees believed would increase job performance was the ability to concentrate without noise and other distractions.
62% of employees surveyed said privacy is very important for effective work.

• Michael Brill and BOSTI (1984) - " Using Office Design to Increase Productivity "
Identified office noise as a primary cause of bothersome distraction. Concluded "as noise gets worse, job satisfaction drops". Predicted increased future noise problems -
Given the growing popularity of Open-Plan, noise is likely to be an increasing source of stress in the workplace".

• BOMA Building Owners and Managers Association (1988) - Survey of 400 Corporate Managers
Identified noise reduction as the primary ongoing opportunity for increased workplace productivity.
Estimated an average 26% increase in productivity if noise problems were eliminated.

• Sundstrom,Town, Rice Osborne, Brill (1994) - "Environment and Behavior"
54% of 2,300 employees at 58 office sites said they were "often bothered by noise.
The primary sources of noise were conversations and ringing telephones.

• ASID / Yankelovich (1995) - Study of 1,000 Office Workers
Noise was the #1 complaint of workers
70% said they would be more productive if there were fewer noise distractions

• Heriot- Watt University - " Study on the effects of Background Speech and Masking Sound Upon Clerical Efficiency"
Found that the addition of intelligible, overheard conversations reduced work output by 10.3% and increased clerical errors by 12%

• Brill, Keable, and Fabinak (2000) - Second Generation Surveys of Workplace Qualities - "Top Ten Priorities"
#1 Priority is providing acoustic privacy. #6 Supporting undistracted groupwork (teamwork, needs acoustic and visual privacy). These rank even above #10 Accommodating technology in the workplace.