Earlier this year we wrote a post about the myth of open office productivity.

As we pointed out, there are several studies that show open offices tend to make employees more distracted and reduce overall productivity.

For our current and future clients, these findings bring up an important question: How do you transition an office from an open concept to cubicles?

The answer to this question may seem formidable but it’s a lot simpler than you think. Open offices utilize desks and those desks can be transitioned from open to private via several different types of extensions, all of which can be installed within minutes to avoid costly labor shutdowns.

Desk & Table Mount Privacy Panels

If your current open office layout includes desks that have absolutely no separation between workspaces, then OBEX desk and table mount privacy panels are the most effective solution for reducing noise pollution and increasing privacy for your employees.

These privacy panels are integrated onto your existing desks with very little effort. Each panel comes with everything needed to install them. The panel clamps fit desk thicknesses between 0.75 inches and 2.75 inches.

Offices with high noise levels are a good fit for acoustical tiles, which come in 25 different styles. These panels are industry-rated to reduce more than 50% of the noise traveling into a workspace.

These panels hit all the key factors in the transition from an open office to a cubicle system: low cost, easy installation and effective sound reduction.

This photo shows you an acoustical tile privacy panel installation:

Desk Split Screens

These types of panels are a great choice if you have a lot of desks in a room and want to provide private work spaces that also serve as modesty screens.

The big advantage over desk and table mount panels is that these panels extend below the desk surface.

Like the desk/table privacy panels, you have multiple options for colors and material, including noise-reducing acoustical panels.

Free-Standing Privacy Panels

The final option we’ll mention here is our free-standing privacy panels. Unlike the previous two choices we mentioned, our free-standing privacy panels don’t bolt down onto a table.

What we like about these is that they come in the same sizes as other panels (24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 60, 66 and 72 inches), offering you mobile privacy for just about any situation.

Another perk to this option is that they’ll come in handy if you have a long-term plan for office reorganization, but want an immediate change from open to cubicles.

These panels meet that short-term need and, when it comes time to reorganize your desks and sections, you simply lift the panels off the old desk and place them on the new ones.

An Overview of What Makes Panel Extenders and Privacy Screens an Excellent Open Office Transition Choice

Making a move from an open-office layout to cubicles doesn’t have to be the fiasco you’re probably envisioning.

Our panel extenders are meant to be an elegant and simple solution to increasing privacy in an office where there’s really no time to shut down operations for rerouting cables, moving desks and installing dozens of heavy, clunky cubicles.

As we mentioned earlier, our panel extenders can be installed in a matter of minutes without disrupting your productivity. Think about it like this: We can install one noise-reducing panel extender in the amount of time it takes for an employee to go to the break room and brew a pot of coffee.

Consider this, too: Our panels come with a 10-year non-transferrable warranty that covers defects in materials and craftsmanship when incurred during normal use.

Our website has an extensive gallery of various types of panel installations that we think will help you visualize how our panels would look in your office.

Our gallery is a good way to view the various style and function combinations we have, too, as our frames and panels employ multiple materials.

Call us at 888-351-4197 or contact us through our website if you would like to learn more about what we have to offer.