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How to Accommodate Employees Returning to the Office

To accommodate returning employees who have become accustomed to the acoustical separation afforded by a home office, facility managers and designers may decide to change the mix of open and closed rooms, to provide a greater quantity of “rooms of refuge” for workers who require a more private work environment, and where online meetings can be conducted without annoying colleagues in the open plan.

The following design elements are key acoustically: 

Teleconferencing technology 

In addition to creating more appropriate physical settings for the increased post-COVID use of online meetings, existing teleconferencing systems often require a professional assessment to optimize speech clarity. This is likely to focus primarily on the following: 

Some of these recommendations can be implemented by facility managers, while others may need the assistance of architects or interior designers working with acoustical and AV system experts. But making improvements like these will help ease occupants’ return to the office.  

Nicole Cuff, PE, LEED AP BD+C, is a Principal at Acentech. She has over 20 years of consulting experience managing all aspects of architectural acoustics including room acoustics, sound isolation, and MEP noise and vibration control, and environmental noise mitigation in communities.  

Thomas McGraw, LEED AP is a Principal and Corporate/Commercial Market Leader at Acentech. He has over 24 years of consulting experience and is responsible for the management of all project phases, from programming, schematic design, and specifications development to construction administration.