Distraction always comes with a price tag. It may seem small, like a coworker interrupting your work flow to ask you a question. But repeated distractions add up over time, costing you and your company thousands of dollars each year. I give talks to businesses on a regular basis about the dangers of distraction. Today, I’m going to share with you three situations where distraction cost companies more than they bargained for.
Situation #1: Distraction Issues at Startups
Start-up companies have the opportunity to fix distraction issues at their root before they become ingrained in company workflow. A study done of three start-ups found that general office noises (people eating lunch, talking on the phone, walking right by work stations/cubicles) caused distracted employees.
Receiving phone calls during meetings was a major disruption, according to participants. Firstly, the phone distracts everyone when it starts to ring. And second, it pulls the person accepting the call away from their work, making it harder for them to return to their current task after the call.
Another common disruption are notifications from social media. Mature companies struggle with this problem just as much as start-ups! Although some workers have more self-restraint than others, anytime an employee checks a non-important notification, it can quickly lead them down a rabbit hole of lost time and productivity.
Situation #2: Frequent Interruptions for Senior Level Workers
Researcher Edward Sykes studied the effects of interruptions on different levels of employees at a midsize software development company in Ontario, Canada. He found that a senior level worker was interrupted 6 times higher than someone at the associate/staff level. Over the course of an 8-hour work day, a technical lead/senior developer was interrupted over 120 times. These interruptions translated to 71% of their daily activity spent dealing with distractions.
Sykes found a large number of interruptions occurred from colleagues walking up to their coworker’s office space and interrupting them. An open plan office environment was a large contributor to this problem. To address this issue, some employees wore headphones or earbuds to drown out background noise and conversation.
Situation #3: Protecting Speech Privacy for Nursing Office
Employees at the Oregon State Board of Nursing offices in Portland expressed concern over the lack of speech privacy in their office space. Management considered hanging panels from the ceiling to block out noise distractions as much as possible. They decided it wasn’t a practical solution after taking into account the number of cubicles in their 8000-square foot office space.
After some research, the company decided to try out a technological solution: sound masking. Sound masking is the process of introducing ambient noise at the same frequency of human speech to cancel out noise. The audiovisual company Biamp installed their trademarked sound masking system with small speakers hidden in the ceiling tiles throughout the space, covering work stations, corridors, and private offices. Returning employees reported a sizable decrease in distractions, and new employees didn’t notice the masking sound at all.
Looking for More Information?
We took a look at case studies today, but distraction is affecting millions of companies worldwide. In the age of technology, workplace interruptions are becoming accepted as the status quo. Leaders in the workplace need to realize the real cost of distraction to their employees. Our free infographic lists important statistics about distraction that will likely surprise you.