Big businesses are more likely to have a negative impact on your workplace wellbeing, a survey into noise at work has revealed.

The ‘Noise and Wellbeing at Work 2019’ survey, conducted by intelligent business solutions company The Remark Group, showed that 61% of employees within large companies say that noise is an issue at work, compared to just 37% of small business staff.

The same percentage (61%) say they are interrupted by noise at least five to ten times a day, higher than the national average of 55%.

With 61% of employees in large companies saying it takes an average of 11 minutes to get back into a task after being distracted by noise, that’s between 55 and 110 minutes a day wasted just from noise distractions.

In addition, a worrying 64% of employees in larger companies have felt anxious about being overheard in the work environment, which is over 20% more than small businesses (42%).

Lack of privacy is also a major concern, with 77% of employees from bigger companies saying being overheard is an issue, compared to a national average of 64%.

Seventy-six per cent of people who work for big companies have overheard a colleague being upset or distressed at work, higher than the national average of 69%.

Penelope Harrall of The Remark Group said: “With some employees in large companies losing up to an estimated two hours a day due to noise distractions, it is clear that not only is noise impacting on workplace wellbeing, but it is also having an effect on productivity in the office environment.

“Sound masking is a state of the art system which is effective in both open plan environments and private meeting spaces, reducing both general office noises and conversational distractions. The installation of this technology can help increase performance levels, eliminate distractions and enhance the overall wellbeing of employees.”

More findings from the ‘Noise and Wellbeing at Work 2019’ survey include:

  • 92% of people in large businesses say a work environment would have an impact on whether they’d accept a job offer or not, compared to a national average of 77%;
  • 82% of people in companies with 500+ employees say the work environment has an impact on whether they are more likely to stay in a position or not;
  • Nearly 80% of people who work for businesses with over 1,000 employees said their office would benefit from a private area at work;
  • Nearly 70% of employees in big businesses (66%) say their work environment impacts negatively on their motivation to work;
  • Nearly 70% of people in businesses of over 500 employees say that noise in their workplace impacts on their ability to complete work in an accurate and timely manner;
  • Sixty-seven per cent of employees in large companies have overhead confidential or sensitive information discussed at work;
  • Over half employees in bigger companies (58%) are unwilling to speak about something sensitive for fear of being overheard;
  • Nearly half of workers in big businesses feel that noise at work has a negative impact on their wellbeing, compared to just 21% of people in small businesses;
  • Forty-one per cent of employees in big businesses say their opinions on how to improve the workplace are not valued by their employers;
  • Nearly forty per cent of employees (39%) in big businesses said that their work environment and background noise was not healthy or conducive to the performing well at their jobs.