An open office encourages collaboration, communication, and the steady flow of ideas. These are all great ways to grow a company and promote change and inter-department camaraderie.

Sitting by the people you work with on a daily basis can build a stronger relationship in a few ways:

• It's easy to chat and build rapport during breaks or downtime 
• Employees can help each other out when questions arise, when they need support on calls, etc. 
• Having a quick meeting or brainstorm session with your team is much easier with everyone nearby
• Everyone has the same common goal

Communication

When communication becomes an issue, a change must be made. How can an open workspace improve your company's communication and input sessions?

• Casual environment to discuss new ideas and improve employee engagement 
• The right people are accessible to fix an issue instead of needing a meeting to troubleshoot
• Everyone is working side by side to accomplish tasks and there's no "closed door" policy 
  

Productivity

Watch your team's productivity soar with an open workspace for a few reasons:

• More people available to bounce ideas off quickly
• Develop habits and patterns from successful team members (monkey see, monkey do) 
• Get questions answered quickly during work time 

Creativity

We believe that cubicles are where dreams go to die. There is no fostering of creativity in a place where you're surrounded by mundane white walls, feeling smothered. We have found that an open workspace with great design fuels creativity for ALL departments, not just the obvious ones like Marketing and Sales. 

Concerns with open workspace

• Where will employees find privacy? 
  
  • Designate separate areas for trainings, phone calls, and meetings that should be behind doors.
• How do we handle employees who can't stay focused without the cubicle setup?
  • Not everyone will adjust right away. Give them time and plenty of coaching on when an appropriate time to talk is, and set expectations on being distracting to other team members.