Increasing Collaboration, Creativity and Productivity: Open Office Vs. Remote Office

Guests: and Mark Guanya, CEO & Founder, Captivated Health Dr Dayton Robinson, VMBS Chief Human Resources Officer and Mark Guanya, CEO & Founder, Captivated Health Welcome to Your Business Matters, a podcast of EXIM Bank Jamaica where we bring thought leaders together on thought-provoking ideas and methods to help grow your business. COVID-19 has taught us the importance of pivoting and has changed the way we define productivity. Countries across the world, in an effort to protect their human resources have implemented the 'work from home' order which has employees carrying out their professional duties from the comfort of their own home. According to Apollotechnical.com, several studies have shown that working from home remotely versus being in the office space has seen persons spending 10 minutes less being unproductive, employees work one extra day per week and has a 47% overall increase in productivity. Open office space also has its place. The open office concept became a vastly growing trend since its inception in the 1960s. The idea behind the model was to increase collaboration and creativity among staff as employers found these phenomena hard to quantify.  Some employees have reported that they prefer the open office plan versus working from home as they find the setup to be less stressful while on the other hand, a survey done in 2019 according to fastcompany.com stated that many employees struggle to focus within open office spaces as there is increased distractions and therefore a fight for focus on day to day tasks.  Apart of working in a company is teamwork, it is the foundation on which a business is built. And as we know,  'a building is only as good as its foundation', the structure of companies going forward remains questionable.  Open office or Remote Office Some of what we discussed includes: What were your thoughts about remote work prior to COVID-19? What are some important skills for teamwork and collaboration? How to measure… How do you measure productivity and manage team members remotely? We also touched base with a member of our audience, Ciaron Walker who posed the questions of our guests. Connect with our guests: Connect with Mark Guanyja on LinkedIn and at Captivated Health.  Dr Dayton Robinson can be found at the Victoria Mutual Group. Thank you for joining us on Your Business Matters hosted by Heneka Watkis-Porter of the Entrepreneurial You podcast. Remember to join us next week for another exciting episode with our thought-provoking leaders as they debate thought-provoking ideas and methods to help grow your business and move closer to your goals. To stay in touch, you can connect with us on your favorite podcast platforms at ‘Your Business Matters’ where we bring the matters to the table, or visit eximbankja.com for further information and business resources. As you continue to mind your business, I leave with you this quote from Amy Freshman “It is about workplace flexibility. it is about giving our associates the opportunity to be who they are as an individual, whether that is a community member, a spouse or a parent, or anything in between."  Take care.