The Power of Audio in the Workplace

When degraded and interrupted audio affects the workplace, here is what we can do about it.

It was a few minutes past the hour when the rest of my team joined. Their faces appearing in a burst on the carousel at the bottom of my screen. A previous meeting had kept them too long, they claimed, and after trading a few Happy Mondays, our cheerful project manager called the meeting to order.

From the crackle and distortion of her voice, I assumed she was sitting in an echo friendly area, possibly in her car, or more likely, my own internet connection was as unstable as it had been all week. “Sorry for the background noise,” she said, disproving the latter before bustling along. A few minutes later, something that sounded like a kitchen blender cut her off mid-sentence. She called out, “Can whoever that is please go on mute?” Nothing but silence from the anonymous smoothie enthusiast, so she continued.

In my own makeshift office at home — only a laptop propped up on my bed — I had already drifted far away to my inbox and was finishing a mini crossword. The meeting had become no more than voices in the back of my head. What went wrong?

My own experience is not unlike what others across the remote workforce claim — a key frustration for remote work is maintaining focus and the limitations of technology have a lot to do with it.

In makeshift home offices around the world, workers are stumbling over each other, striving to collaborate and stay attentive in a landfill of technical glitches, unconventional disturbances, and degraded audio quality.

A loss of focus and new stress

IPSOS, a research firm, in a 2020 survey study done in partnership with EPOS, an audio brand, revealed that 95% of modern workers experience audio pain points. The extent of technical disturbances is just beginning to be understood because so much is silently endured by the employee. On the other hand, the correlation between audio and focus has been understood for some time. Researchers took aim at this target in a study on cognitive decline in the elderly. A medical study in 2013 summarized that when auditory perception is difficult when the elderly begin losing hearing, cognitive resources are diverted to perceptual processing to the determinant of other processes such as working memory. Audio pain points are also disruptive to our well-being. According to Erica Walker, a researcher at Boston University, noise disruption sets off a stress response, causing, among other things, increased blood pressure and increased heart rate. In the face of this evidence, one can belittle audio distractions as just a liveable trade-off we make to stay productive wherever we are. But I believe we misunderstand audio’s influence in the workplace.

Greater dangers

To not much surprise, what we hear plays a significant part in how we perceive those around us. Just how significant is the kicker. Nalini Ambaady, a psychologist, led a fascinating research study demonstrating that a sample audio clip revealing a surgeon’s tone of voice can reliably tell you whether that surgeon is more or less liable to be sued for malpractice in their career. It turns out people are less likely to sue their surgeon if they like them, and how surgeons speak to their patients has a great deal to do with that. Was their tone caring and attentive, or slightly dismissive? What we hear defines our impressions. When audio is inconsistent, not projecting the highs, lows, or inflections in our voices, it profoundly affects how we are perceived.

This has broad implications. Consider the results of a recent YouGov study which revealed that more than a third of those working from home have had their calls or video chats interrupted by Wi-Fi or technology challenges. More dramatically a survey study by the Atlanta Federal Reserve revealed that only 65% of Americans report having fast enough internet capacity to support workable video calls. An individual consistently interrupted by a bad connection will have a hard time conveying a point, let alone making a good impression through a steady voice. This problem is troublesome because connection and access break unevenly across socio-economic lines. Because of the importance of audio on how you are perceived, someone who has to work from their bedroom because they support a large, noisy family may be perceived as less intelligent or less motivated than a colleague with a cozy sound protected book-lined home office. By relying on a working environment where audio is leaned on so heavily, we risk the environment having unintended and sometimes uncontrollable effects on our impressions. This detracts from equality and diversity, and I believe innovation will suffer greatly as a result. So, where does that leave us?

Facing the problem head-on

The software that supports remote work can be improved. Companies have been quick to shift their staff to collaboration software like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, where VoIP (Voice over IP) is supported, a cheap and effective way to improve connectivity. Embracing video to augment audio is obviously beneficial. Software can always do more to provide a transparent environment. Could you imagine speaking to someone online and seeing a status that shows how many browsers are open or whether their eyes are on the screen? There are significant trade-offs in this space when it comes to privacy.

Hardware also can be a solution. Affordable headsets go a long way, and companies can standardize the equipment provided to staff.

The home office can also be looked at as a territory to improve as well. Unfortunately, work plays a more expanded role in homes, which is battleground territory for privacy and well-being trade-offs. At the very least, companies can provide coaching on setting up home offices to reduce echoing, set minimum requirements to participate while at home, and offer more support for those who have situations at home that would impede their success in this environment. These areas are notably a continuation of the advances made over the past year that should be applauded.

More creative solutions

There are also more indirect solutions. A starting point would be recognizing the power of the audio environment to change our impressions even in sometimes imperceptible ways.

With this in mind, collaborative work should be planned more carefully. There are many interactions and deviations in a virtual meeting to account for, so justifiably planning should be more rigorous. Audio should also be embraced for its unique strengths and not just used as a get-by. The meteoric rise of podcasts shows audio has a remarkable power to engage audiences, and on top of that can be taken on the go. A study in 2012 on the strength of radio demonstrated that the inclusion of descriptive sound effects increases mental imagery and attention on audio. Strengthening the power of audio in the workplace may involve being more creative in its output.

When predominantly white-collar staff was pushed into lockdown in March, companies were forced to lift and shift their ways of working. For the ensuing months, companies honed and improved their capabilities in a virtual sandbox to try new things. But as the world continues to recovers from this shock, there is a need to do more. Most would predict that the future of work post-pandemic will be more fluid than before. One cross-industry survey anticipates that the share of working days spent at home is expected to triple after the crisis, but with considerable variation across industries. Even as some return to the office, workers should still expect to engage with co-workers who choose to work remotely.

We stand on the shores of a sea of change, which cannot be overstated. Another piece of the puzzle will be 5G telecommunications technology, which has the potential to make virtual communications even more seamless by minimizing latency. If audio-related technology and a new culture around work can be leveraged so that social inequalities are not exacerbated and more daunting pain points are not introduced, they can power the next wave of innovation — whether that takes place in a bright cubicle or in a makeshift home office.