3 AV Tips For Corporate Offices With Open Floor Plans 

The open corporate office floor plan has become incredibly popular in recent years, well-loved for its clean aesthetics, flexibility, and the way it makes communication between coworkers easier. But this type of setup also can have its drawbacks, especially in terms of workspace privacy and productivity. The good news is, that you can get the most from this floor plan without sacrificing these important elements. Here is how to use corporate AV systems to do so.

Make Privacy A Priority

One of the biggest issues that employees have with open office floor plans is the lack of privacy. Team members deserve to have confidence that their conversations won’t be overheard by curious coworkers and that their work will not be interrupted by the distractions of overhearing others’.

One way to solve this issue and increase privacy is to use sound masking solutions. Not only can this keep one employee from listening in on another, but it can also create appealing white noise that spurs productivity.

Plan For Sound & Silence

In addition to privacy, it can be helpful to think through how you use both sound and silence in your open corporate office floor plan. Do you pipe in music? If so, is it subtle and soothing enough that the majority of employees in the building will either not notice it or will appreciate its calming effect? Is it a volume that is pleasing and not distracting? Make sure that the sound can be drowned out by wearing noise-canceling earbuds or headphones, just in case a team member prefers not to hear it.

It’s also useful to plan for silence in certain areas of your building. Not only does this give your employees a break from the constant stimuli, but it also allows for dedicated areas suited for phone calls. Today’s microphones can be very sensitive, picking up background music and chatter easily, so employees will appreciate the option to make calls from a generally silent area.

Dedicate Space For Wellness

No matter how gentle the music you pipe in or how respectful other colleagues are, working in an open office floor plan can be draining for some people. Because of this, it is important to designate a discrete area where employees may retreat when they need a break from the bullpen area and a few minutes of peace.

Many companies are converting small rooms into wellness (or resiliency) rooms, which use a variety of AV solutions to soothe the senses. For example, one such space might use an ocean scene in its display art, coupled with the subdued sounds of rolling waves piped in, and a massage chair. The only concern here is that the area might become too popular, but you can always manage its usage with a sign-in sheet. However you handle it, using AV in peaceful ways in a setting that is away from the open floor plan is always a wise idea.

Creating a wellness room, making privacy a priority, and planning for sound and silence will go a long way in keeping employees refreshed, productive, and satisfied. Interested in learning more? We would love to help.