how office noise is draining UK business performance

Costing billions in lost productivity each year and damaging the health of employees, office noise has become one of the most overlooked threats to UK business performance. That’s the takeaway from our latest research.

That’s why we were really proud that our headquarters was showcased as an exemplar of great office design in The Sunday Times, with our considered approach to our team’s acoustic comfort outlined in detail.

What’s shocking is that we’re an outlier, as Hannah Prevett in her article states, “Noise has become one of the defining complaints of the post-pandemic workplace. Employees who became used to the relative calm of the spare room are struggling with the distractions of open-plan offices.”

This sentiment is underlined by our recent study, which found that almost half of UK office workers (44%) cite noise-related issues as their single biggest barrier to productivity, losing an average of 26 minutes of productive time every day. Across a workforce, that adds up to billions of pounds drained from the UK economy each year.

• 26 minutes of productivity lost per worker per day due to noise
• 62% report experiencing noise-related fatigue in a typical month
• 54% report noise-related stress or anxiety

a noise-related wellbeing crisis?

The damage goes beyond output. According to our survey findings, the toll on health and wellbeing has reached a point where almost half of office workers are now actively considering leaving their job.

The full report unpacks the data in detail. It explores how poor acoustic design is harming productivity, wellbeing and workplace culture across UK businesses, as well as what employers, architects and asset owners can do about it.