BCO conference 2016: The poor design of open-plan offices can lead to a 66% drop in productivity, experts have told the audience at the British Council for Offices conference in Amsterdam.
Noise is the number one complaint about open-plan offices, said Julian Treasure, founder of the Sound Agency.
“Open plan has become the de facto of office design,” Treasure told the audience. “Offices are designed for appearance but they should be designed for experience.”
Other people’s conversations and ringing phones were singled out as the two most distracting sounds.
“Things we have no control over that make us stressed, angry and less productive,” Treasure said.
He added that avoiding parallel hard surfaces by installing wall panels, rubber slides on the feet of chairs sitting on hard surfaces, sound-absorbing carpets and mixing collaborative space with enclosed, private areas could counteract the problem.
But Treasure warned that an overly quiet office could be just as disruptive to productivity, as silence can create a stressful environment.
Katrina Kostic Samen, managing partner of KKS Strategy, said developers and designers should also think about extroverts and introverts when designing open plan offices.
“Extroverts hate having anything hidden away,” said Kostic Samen. “They want reception areas in full view, they want to be able to talk, share ideas, discuss thoughts and be loud. Introverts like privacy, their own space. They like to be able to choose when to engage. We need to create offices that offer space that will keep both of these groups of people happy.”
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