Despite their stated goal of worker productivity, offices can be a distracting place. Between all of the noise, people walking by and interruptions by coworkers, many workers struggle to focus on the task at hand. This can have a serious impact on productivity and also result lead to worker stress and reduced morale. That’s why dealing with this issue properly is so important.
Although workplace noise and distraction are a normal part of any workplace, there are things you can do to reduce its impact. Read our 5 strategies below.
Survey staff
The first thing you should do is survey staff, whether formally or informally, for how they feel about distractions in their office. Some people don’t mind being in a hectic part of the office or, because they work in sales and are on the phone so much for example, some are contributors to a noisy and distraction filled office environment. The key to an effective surveying of staff is to find the employees negatively affected by an office environment and create a plan to reduce its impact on.
Re-arrange Your Seating Plan
One of the best ways to make your office environment less distracting is through re-arranging your seating plan. There are so many ways this can help. For example, you can move staff who are on the phone a lot to a more secluded part of the office. Or, you can put two departments who regularly interact closer together to reduce foot traffic.
Create an Email Policy
Email is a major cause of distraction for many workers. It interrupts trains of thought for issues that often can be resolved at a later time. So to help counter this affect, consider creating some guidelines for use of email. It can involve having a few designated times per day to help reduce its impact, especially if staff don’t need to check their email right away for their role.
Promote Use of Noise Cancelling Headphones
To help workers reduce the impact of so many office distractions, you can offer up a pair of noise cancelling headphones or allow them to expense a pair they have purchased themselves. If office noise is an inevitable part of your business, this is likely your best option.
Create an Office Hours Policy
If you find your staff are constantly interrupted by constant communication with other employees, create an office hours’ policy. For example, designate a half in the morning and a half hour in the afternoon for employees to chat, share ideas and answer questions.
