How Acoustic Pods for Offices Benefit Both Open and Closed Office Space Layouts

Both closed office space layouts and open plan offices have their advantages and disadvantages in creating a fully effective workspace. Productivity and collaboration are key considerations that employers make in deciding a suitable office layout. Enter acoustic pods for offices, which are designed for both open and closed office space layouts to boost employees’ focus and productivity while allowing employees to still work closely with one another when needed. 

The key reason for why organisations may opt for open office space layouts is to encourage cooperation. They can come in many forms, such as a big space with tables for groups of employees to work on, or there could be low-level cubicles. The open office space boosts team spirit because discussions are encouraged, in the hopes of boosting productivity. 

Yet, the main gripe that employees have about open offices is that there are too many distractions since there are less private spaces. This can be a big issue because noise, as found by a study from the British Journal of psychology, is one of the biggest killers of productivity.

Workers can be up to 66% less productive when exposed to just one nearby conversation. The head of The Sound Agency, Julian Treasure said that the most destructive of all is other people’s conversations. He says that the bandwidth of humans is roughly 1.6 conversations so if one can hear another’s conversation even unintentionally, they would only have 0.6 left to listen to themselves.

A study conducted by ICBEN using simulated office noise shows that greater speech intelligibility can be detrimental to employees’ performance. The study took place in three types of office conditions, an office cubicle, an open office with acoustic panels and a completely open office. It found that in spaces with good speech intelligibility, employees performed worse. Their memory and complex cognitive functions suffered.

Think about how many more employees could have been a lot more productive with a phone booth or a work pod in the office to block out the noise around them? Silence can really make a big difference. To add on, the acoustic pods for offices, which function also as modular phone booths will reduce the need for employees to book an entire meeting room just to make a phone call or to have a Zoom meeting with clients. 

Closed office space layouts on the other hand, typically consist of private cabinets, cubicles and panels which act as a physical and a mental separation from the rest of the team. Therefore, it helps employees to have better focus because there are fewer distractions. More privacy could also mean improved employee wellbeing compared to open office spaces layouts. However, closed office spaces have their disadvantages too. Being in their own private spaces could mean that teams have less communication within them, which could hinder team building and slow down productivity. Installing individual panels for each cubicle can be very expensive too.

Having work pods or acoustic pods for offices can help relieve the concern of cost because they are relatively cheaper and can be moved around whenever it may be needed. Also, modular phone booths do not take up much space and can be located in the hallways or lobbies as a quiet retreat for the employees, from the hustle and bustle in the office. Employees who wish to have focused brainstorming sessions can do so in the work pods which are soundproof, ensuring that there would be little to no distractions. 

All in all, the mental well-being and the productivity of employees is highly dependent on the office atmosphere, whether it is conducive for work while facilitating discussions. The office privacy pod brings together nicely the benefits of open office space layouts and close office space layouts by ensuring privacy and focus due to its soundproofing ability and it being an isolated space from the rest of the office, without having to commit to major renovation works in the office. In short, office privacy pods provide the perfect balance between productivity and collaboration.

Contact us here at InstaPods if you have any enquiries, and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.