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Global trends on increasing productivity in your workspace.

Are you getting distracted by colleagues talking on the phone or having a conversation across the office?! If you are in an open plan office, more than three quarters (78%) will feel the same way.

As part of World Productivity Day this year, Jabra revealed the top workplace productivity trends. These were based on a survey amongst business professionals in the UK, US, Germany and France.

The top global trends revealed:

Hindering factors: Noise is still considered the number one deterrent to workplace productivity. The type of noise that annoys office workers most in all countries is colleagues talking to each other in their direct vicinity.

Workspace: Home is where the productivity is: four times more employees in 2018 perceive working from home to be the most productive option compared to 2015.

Mobility: The workforce has become more mobile between 2015 and 2018.

Meetings: Office workers see lack of preparation (38%), decision making (30%) and attendees coming in late for a meeting (30%) as the key obstacles to productive meetings.

Efforts to improve workplace productivity have long remained a constant battle for businesses.

In a world where businesses are striving for every possible efficiency and productivity gain, there is an imperative to resolve the age-old conflict between collaboration and concentration.

What is noise in an office?

It is not so much that open office spaces are necessarily very loud places. But the sound you do find in open office spaces is conversation. In fact, it seems to be the very premise for choosing an open plan solution at times; that co-workers can share their knowledge more easily. It just so happens that conversation is one of the most disturbing types of sound there is.  Why you ask? Because conversations unlike other types of noise are intelligible we can make sense of it, and that is why it is so disturbing.

It’s very difficult to tune out conversation, and it is the conversations that are one of the main sources of interruptions for workers in their open plan offices.  Research has shown that on average employees are distracted at work every 3 minutes and it can take us as long as 25 minutes to refocus. So if we can reduce the number of interruptions and noise in the office, we can increase our productivity (and wellbeing).

What can we do about noise in the office?

There are many ways to improve the quality of sound in the office, including choosing soft furnishings, area rugs, partitions and acoustic solutions. These solutions prevent the noise from travelling too far and a great step towards a better sound environment in the office.

Using headphones with noise cancellation when doing concentrated work can cancel out noise and to signal that you are unavailable is also a widely used tool in open plan offices.

Another way business professionals choose to block out noise is by listening to music. Most employees listen to music at work to focus better. Music creates both a concentration zone and functions as a tool to relax and recharge. Employers must recognise that employees use music to lower their stress levels and work more productively.

Jabras range of headsets can help

Evolve 75 Headset

Professional wireless headset with superior Active Noise Cancellation and integrated busy light to enhance productivity in the open office. Allowing you to block out noise and interruptions in the open plan office and stay focused on your tasks.

Evolve75e Headset

Engineered to be the worlds first professional UC-certified wireless earbuds. Incredible Active Noise Cancellation and a wearing style popular with mobile office workers. Delivers calls and music that lasts as long as you need it. All day long.

To order visit the shop or speak to your account manager.