The hidden cost of noise: why audio inclusivity is becoming a workplace wellbeing priority

Workplace wellbeing has long been framed around what organisations add in: benefits, initiatives, leadership behaviours and culture. But a growing body of insight is challenging that assumption, pointing instead to what the workplace itself is doing to people.

In this context, sound is emerging as one of the most overlooked drivers of employee health, performance and inclusion.

New thinking from Sownd Affects is bringing renewed attention to acoustics, not as a design afterthought, but as a core component of how people think, feel and function at work. For employers, this represents a shift in perspective. The question is no longer just how to support employees, but whether the environment they are placed in is actively working against them.

This shift is now being formalised through the launch of Sownd Certification, an independent standard for audio-inclusive buildings announced in London on 29 April 2026. The framework, designed to sit alongside existing standards such as BREEAM and WELL, gives architects and employers a way to specify and measure acoustic performance from the earliest stages of design. It comes as new analysis estimates around 30 million UK adults are negatively affected by their sound environment, with the impact costing UK businesses at least £40 billion a year in lost productivity and turnover.

Marion Marincat, co-founder of Sownd Affects, says the issue stems from a fundamental mismatch between design intent and human experience.

“I’d already built hearing clinics across London and worked in global hearing policy, but I kept seeing the same problem: spaces that looked beautiful, but felt exhausting to be in. Restaurants where conversation was impossible. Workplaces where people were drained due to noise induced fatigue by 3pm. Events that excluded 30% of the population without even realising it.”

That insight led to the creation of Sownd Affects in 2024, with a focus on closing the gap between how spaces are built and how they are actually experienced by the people using them.

“I created Sownd Affects to bridge that gap – between businesses investing in acoustics and the people who desperately need environments that work for their nervous systems. We don’t just talk about ‘good sound.’ We measure it, formalise it and certify it. Our goal is not to kill the atmosphere and create silence – it’s to enable connection and audio inclusion for all.”

At the centre of this approach is the concept of audio inclusivity. While still relatively new, it is quickly gaining relevance within workplace wellbeing and inclusion strategies.

“Audio inclusive means you can hold a conversation in a space, participate and engage, whether or not your ears work perfectly or you’re sensitive to sound. It’s a sonic environment that suits the people using it. One in three UK adults live with some form of hearing difference or noise sensitivity. When we design for them, everyone else benefits too.”

This reframes acoustics from a technical consideration into a people issue. It also highlights a broader challenge within workplace wellbeing: the tendency to prioritise visible interventions over invisible ones.

“Sound is invisible. You can photograph a beautiful room. You can’t photograph a good-sounding room. Designers get briefed on mood and lighting, and acoustics show up at the end of the project when the budget is gone.”

The result is environments that may look high quality but function poorly from a human perspective.

For employers, this has direct implications for both wellbeing and performance. Noise is not simply a distraction. It is a persistent cognitive load that reduces focus, increases fatigue and limits participation.

“For users, a noisy space is exclusion dressed up as atmosphere. People leave and don’t come back.”

The commercial impact is significant.

“For businesses, noise costs UK employers around £40 billion a year in lost productivity and higher staff turnover. 78% of office workers wear headphones just to try and focus and ‘cope’ with their surroundings. Calling that a wellbeing perk misses the point.”

This is where the link to workplace health becomes more explicit. Headphones are often positioned as a solution, but in reality they are a coping mechanism. They signal that the environment itself is not fit for purpose.

The impact is also more widespread than many organisations assume.

“They look and behave like everyone else. Some have diagnosed hearing loss. Others have tinnitus, ADHD, autism, misophonia, auditory processing differences, menopause symptoms that amplify sensitivity, or nothing you’d pin down on a form. The common experience is hearing but struggling to understand or ability to focus due to noise.”

This invisibility creates risk. Employees affected by noise sensitivity are often not identified, and their behaviours can be misinterpreted.

“In a noisy restaurant they stop following the conversation. In an open-plan office they go home more tired than they should due to noise induced fatigue, and often can’t explain why.”

In workplace settings, this can manifest as disengagement, reduced contribution and withdrawal from collaboration, all of which sit at the centre of current wellbeing and inclusion priorities.

“All three, usually without anyone realising. Two-thirds of workers say they’re less productive in noisy spaces. Happiness takes a hit because nobody can focus or properly unwind. Inclusivity breaks because the one in three people who are noise-sensitive quietly stop participating. They leave meetings early. They work from home whenever they can. The symptoms look like disengagement. The cause is often the room.”

This is a critical point. Many organisations are investing heavily in engagement strategies, leadership development and inclusion programmes, while overlooking the physical conditions shaping employee behaviour day to day.

In response, Sownd Affects has developed a certification model designed to make acoustics visible, measurable and actionable.

“Sownd Certification is an independent, three-tier accreditation for how a space sounds, not just how it’s built. Think of it like BREEAM for sustainability or WELL for wellbeing, focused specifically on acoustics and audio inclusivity.”

The model challenges traditional approaches, where acoustic performance is often hidden within technical documentation rather than experienced outcomes.

“Traditional acoustic standards live as compliance documents buried in a project file. Sownd Certification is built to be visible. It’s a mark the people using the space can see and trust.” Adds Marion

Importantly, it focuses on real-world usability rather than theoretical standards.

He continues: “We don’t measure whether sound is ‘good’. We measure whether the space is fit for what happens in it. Can you hold a conversation in a restaurant when it’s full? Can someone in an open-plan office focus without headphones?”

For employers, this brings acoustics into the same category as other measurable wellbeing drivers, linking environmental design directly to performance outcomes.

“Customers stay longer and spend more in spaces where they can hear each other. Staff produce more when they’re not battling their own environment. Landlords let at a premium when the space has been designed for the widest possible audience.” He says.

There are also clear implications for talent retention and workplace experience.

Marion adds: “In offices, people stop finding excuses to work from home. Retention improves because the thing workers complain about most in every workplace survey is noise. Fix the noise and you remove one of the big silent reasons people leave.”

As with many workplace shifts, the trajectory mirrors previous changes in environmental health.

“Think about smoking in buildings. Twenty years ago, nobody believed that ban was possible. Restaurants said they’d go under. Offices said productivity would collapse. It happened anyway, and now it’s unthinkable to light up indoors.”

He adds: “The same shift is coming with noise. It looks impossible until it isn’t. Sownd Certification exists because sound is the next environmental health factor we need to address.”

For UK employers, the key takeaway here should be not whether noise matters, but why it has taken so long to be treated as a risk. As workplace wellbeing matures, the focus is shifting from adding support to removing friction. From offering solutions to eliminating the conditions that create problems in the first place.

In that context, acoustics sits in a different category. It is not a benefit. It is infrastructure.

Organisations that continue to invest in wellbeing without addressing the environments people work in may find themselves solving the same problems repeatedly. Those that reframe sound as a core operational and health variable, not a design detail, have an opportunity to reduce cognitive load at scale, unlock performance and create workplaces that are not just attractive, but sustainable for the people inside them.