Business

What Are Coworking Spaces

By Christy Bella | June 20, 2020

What should a coworking space have?

Ever heard of coworking spaces? Or have friends who work in such areas but not too sure about what these coworking spaces are exactly? Let us share more about them with you and how it has affected how people see the traditional office and facility spaces.

Since 2019, the coworking industry has been increasingly changing the way people work. This is mainly because the presence of coworking spaces has proven to be a conducive space that allows for innovation, collaboration, and increased productivity.

If you were to get the chance to visit one of these coworking spaces, you would realize that it looks nothing like your ordinary offices. Instead, you would be greeted with the aroma of fresh coffee alongside excited and enthusiastic people in the office. The overall layout is also very different from what you would normally see in a traditional office. Here, there is a mixture of sharing tables and smaller desks for those who wish to sit alone and concentrate on their work. The culture here is one that feels more easygoing and giving. So if you’re looking for a private office space singapore, look no further than a coworking space.

How do coworking spaces work?

Coworking spaces work on a membership program. This means that different types of people work within the same space. Most of the members are freelancers, remote workers, and independent professionals. The reason for this is usually because coworking memberships are priced at a rather affordable price which allows workers to escape the isolation they’d normally get from working place at home or in a cafe. There are many different membership plans for them to choose from. For example, the decision to pay fees either by day or by month. What’s more, there are no high costs and commitments that usually come with a traditional office lease.

These coworking spaces also provide members with a wide range of amenities such as coffee, kitchen, private meeting rooms, and hot desks. This gives them the flexibility to choose where they would like to work and what they can do within that space as well.

Not to mention, the coworking space provides a strong sense of community. This is something that is heavily worked on and many of the managers of these coworking spaces take the time to organize activities such as social networking or skills development classes to allow the members to get to know one another. With this interaction, it would mean that they can get more help from other teams within the coworking space. This opens up new ideas and opportunities while fostering new business relationships.

What makes coworking spaces so wonderful then?

Research has shown that coworking spaces are thriving more than traditional offices. This is because coworking spaces give the workers more sense of freedom. For example, they can choose when to start work or if they would like to leave early for personal reasons. No questions asked! Additionally, the mix of members helps to strengthen one’s identity in their work. This is especially so when they are introducing themselves to others and sharing their project. This gives them a greater sense of uniqueness and pride in their work. What’s more, the decision to work alone at a corner or in groups helps to improve productivity as each person’s work style is different. Unlike the traditional officer where they are assigned to a seat, this freedom of choosing their own workspace provides more benefit to the individual’s productivity.

With this in mind, many large organizations have decided to learn a few things from coworking spaces and implement some similar measures into their own company. Quite a number of larger organizations have started making use of coworking spaces to provide their workers with more space to work in. One such company that is trying to attract more large organizations to coworking is WeWork. One such organization would be KPMG. This is a very smart move as the KPMG employees who are at WeWork help other start-ups within the space by providing them with business advice.

Large organizations will also benefit from the freedom and mobility that coworking spaces provide for their employees. As mentioned earlier, these spaces provide people with the opportunity to mingle and meet new people. That means that ideas can be shared and organic collaborations and conversations will start. The wide variety of people with differing skills allows for greater innovation when they work together.

Another thing that can be learned from coworking spaces would be the interior design of the office. There should be space for both individual work and collaboration. There should also be ample opportunities for employees to connect with others from different departments as it would allow for more ideas. One organization to learn from would be Menlo Innovations. They added around seven thousand square feet of coworking space to their office. Not only that, but they also invited startups and entrepreneurs to work together with them. This is a great idea as it provides the startups with not only an affordable place to work in, but gives them the opportunity to learn more from the bigger organization while sharing ideas to create more innovation opportunities.

Conclusion

An increasing number of young people are interested in taking up freelance jobs. This would then increase the relevance and presence of coworking spaces around the world. Coworking spaces are very beneficial, especially for small startups. This helps them to save costs on rental while giving them the opportunity to work with many other people to gain new insight to help them come up with better ideas. Additionally, big companies can also benefit from this as they provide their employees with more space to work while giving them additional freedom to choose how they would like to work.

Lastly, larger organizations can learn from these coworking spaces. Switch up your design and culture to ensure that more ideas will flow. Don’t separate your employees into different departments for too long, but instead provide them with the chance to interact as well. Working together with a stronger sense of autonomy and decision making will help your company and do better!