By Erin Robinson, SBA Loan Administrator, Core Bank Loan Production Office talking about workspaces and their impact on communication, community and collaboration.
There seems to be a lot of chatter these days about open workspaces. What I found after working in an open space with no dividing walls between coworkers was that I surprisingly liked it. I didn’t necessarily like having to walk out to the hallway to schedule a doctor’s appointment or take a call from my son. But what I found is that an open workspace was beneficial to getting things done.
Communication
Wow! Being able to hear what is going on in a different department regarding a client I work with was so beneficial. Instead of having to call or email a coworker about an issue, we were able to talk openly as we sat at our desks. When someone had an announcement or a question, we were all in the same room hearing the same information. Priceless!
Sense of Community
Sweet! I’m usually a very private person and don’t enjoy a lot of small talk. But I have to say, it was nice getting to know my coworkers better by listening to and even participating in short conversations about family and our home life. It was also simpler to plan a potluck day when we were all in the same room!
Collaboration
Nice! It was easy to resolve issues and come up with solutions when everyone was involved in the discussion. This may not scale in a bigger workplace, but our staff size was in the single digits. It was a good time to get the policies and procedures established for our new department.
Things have changed. We recently moved into our permanent space and now have the cubicle walls and offices. But I think (and hope) that all the good that came from the open workspace concept will carry on to our new space. Workspaces may change, addresses may change, but good communication, community and collaboration will be foundational for our team.