Open Space office

Open space office brings everyone together. The old concept of traditional executive offices has overturned with wall-less office which is determined to break down traditional hierarchical barriers thus will improve communication, collaboration and increase productivity.

As the company has just bought one level of office building at Menara KRY to accommodate our future expansion, the paper is to propose the implementation of Open Space Office; a departure of our existing office arrangement at Plaza CTR. Comparison table for your reference in regards to space allocation & capacity is described below:

Location Office Space* (m2) Allocation for working space** (m2) Capacity

Plaza CTR 691 415 50 staff desk

14 private offices

Menara KRY 1,400 840 168 staff desk

23 manager desk

* : include reception area, meeting rooms, dining room, common room, etc.

** : assuming 60% area of total office space

Comparison table above reflects that the capacity of our new office is three time higher than Plaza CTR while the increase of working space is only around 102%. The data indicates that we can have more spaces if we use open space arrangement instead of the traditional model where executives work in private offices.

The concept of an open office space arrangement has many advantages. First, it enables the optimal use of available space, the easy adjustment of the number of workstations and the use of spatial designs that synergize with the specific nature of our life insurance business. Additionally, a space arranged in this way is more comfortable as it is larger and allows for more lights and greater airflow in the office. Based on the comparison of space allocation above it is obvious that we will be able to maximize the available space at the new office that will benefit the employees. Instead of building many private offices for executives, open office concept enable us to create more conference rooms, meeting rooms, more spacious customer service corner, larger dining area and common room where staffs can congregate and collaborate.

When everyone is in the same room, employees find it easier to approach managers with operational questions. This has a two-fold benefit: first, employees are able to learn their jobs faster and will increase their job performance because they have more frequent interaction with management; second, managers themselves become more involved in the front-line activities of the company. An open-space office automatically eliminates the psychological distance between the various levels of a company. This can energize employees, making them feel like important parts of the overall operations of a company.

Open space office increase interaction between co-workers and managers; private office doesn't create a team environment and it costs more. When the marketing people can just walk a few steps to the underwriters desk to discuss about a sub-standard case after an agent called and give a hard complain; when an actuarial staff overhears the investment manager that one of the fund price keeps going down, when an admin staff could see the bancassurance manager on the phone with a tough customer to close a big case, the underwriter, actuarial and admin staff would not just sit there and do nothing. They would feel that they have to do their part because they have an instant sense that