Coworking or working in shared office spaces is gaining popularity across the globe. Even large tech companies like Apple are allocating part of their personnel in shared office spaces away from their corporate centers. Coworking can make your employees happier, drive creativity, and even save your company a little bit of money. However, is your company ready for coworking?
The Basics
If you’re considering coworking for your employees, you need to have software for managing and scheduling tasks. For example, you can use Cloud-scheduling software if you don’t want direct access to your company servers. A managing software allows you to assign tasks, schedule deadlines, give feedback, and receive output from your coworking employees in an orderly manner. Most companies only use coworking for their more creative employees and their marketing divisions, but essential personnel usually stay in the corporate centers. Your company can lease a coworking space (or part of one) and allow employees to work in a less formal and less stressful environment. Shared office space can house a whole division of your company, or you can have individual employees working in different shared office spaces.
The Pros
Allocating part of your staff in coworking spaces allows your company to expand without having to acquire additional office space. Using coworking spaces is also less expensive than leasing entire floors. Further expenses like security, maintenance, and utility use are all covered by coworking spaces. Employees working in shared offices have been shown to work faster and perform better compared to their colleagues languishing in standard office settings. The lack of monitoring and non-existent hierarchal system in shared office space settings give workers more freedom to focus on work. Social interactions are also more controlled, especially with no higher-ups to please or butter up to. Coworking spaces also allow your employees to work closer to home and in a less informal setting. Dress codes and social interactions don’t really matter as much since the output is the only factor that matters.
The Cons
Security, privacy, and control are some of the things you might be sacrificing if you opt to use coworking spaces. Away from the corporate center, your company can only rely on the coworking space’s own personnel for the security of your employees. Privacy is not as tight, and multiple people from different companies will be interacting with your employees. Larger companies might also find problems leasing large coworking spaces for whole teams as the growth of coworking spaces is slower than the demand of companies wanting to use them. Coworking companies also lose a sense of company identity and cohesion that often dictates a unifying company culture. Still, this is actually a good thing. Coworking promotes independent thinking, which is somewhat repressed in a company with homogenized views.
Coworking can create great benefits for any company—if done correctly. Coworking employees are happier and more inspired. You have the freedom to work as you please and expose yourself to different people. All these things spark creativity that would otherwise be hard to come by in a regular office setting.
