Why Businesses Perform Better in Coworking Spaces

Around 70% of the workforce works remotely at least once a week; 53% work remotely half of the week. This is transforming the 9-to-5 workplace and workday—when, where, and how work takes place. It is being driven by demographic changes and digital technologies that close the gap between work performed in a physical office versus work done from a virtual office.

The Rise of Coworking Spaces

While a measurable portion of the virtual workforce performs remote work from their home offices, others either work from coworking spaces and/or day offices. Certainly, the move toward coworking space is gaining traction in the marketplace. Some businesses are shutting their permanent offices and moving into coworking spaces. Others are simply opting for coworking space right out of the gate. And these trends are gaining faster and faster momentum.

Growth in coworking space corroborates these changes. The number of working spaces, for example, more than doubled between 2015 and 2018, and they are expected to expand around 70% between now and 2022—to almost 26,000 worldwide.

Why Businesses Perform Better in Coworking Spaces

So, why are businesses—and it is more than just small businesses—flocking to embrace coworking space that can be reserved through office and meeting room providers like Davinci Meeting Rooms?

• Lower cost.

Businesses certainly acknowledge the realities and advantages of leveraging a remote workforce. It starts with capital expenditures (CapEx); physical office space is expensive and requires long-term contractual commitments. Virtual office space—assuming coworking or day offices—can save a small business hundreds of thousands of dollars in lease payments, utilities, and other fixed costs. Further, in some locations such as New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, it is difficult to find permanent office space. And if a business can do so, it is likely to find the leases that are skyrocketing and space that is far from compelling.

• Work flexibility.

Today’s workforce does not work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or even embrace the five-day workweek. Work is not compartmentalized into an eight-hour window that occurs five days a week. Instead, with the proliferation in digital technologies and demographic changes in the workforce, workers want flexible workplace schedules.

• Business scalability.

Permanent offices require long-term leases. Coworking space gives businesses the ability to add and retract new locations month to month. It also enables businesses to expand into new regions by simply adding a virtual office address and workers in a coworking space.

• Operational productivity.

Permanent offices come with operational expenditures (OpEx) and the time it requires to manage those—internet, utilities, printer, fax, office supplies, and more. Coworking spaces come with all those services. Thus, as an example, rather than worrying about running out of printer paper or ink, a business can focus on evolving its offerings and serving customers.

• Community collaboration.

The chance to be surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs and other businesses can stimulate innovation as well as collaboration. This is an opportunity that neither a permanent office space nor home office affords.

• Lobby greeter.

For small businesses or even regional offices of large enterprises, lobby greeters and administrative support are not feasible. But with coworking space, workers, customers, and partners are typically greeted by a lobby receptionist who can answer questions about parking, room reservations, availability of office supplies, and other business-related issues.

• Administrative support.

The same is true when it comes to administrative staff; it normally is not feasible for a small business or regional office of a large enterprise to have available administrative staff. But in a coworking space, administrative support is typically an offered service.

• Better customer and partner meetings.

Meeting space is not always a foregone conclusion when it comes to permanent office space. Specifically, cramped unprofessional office space is the last place where businesses want to meet with customers or partners. As rented meeting rooms such as Davinci Meeting Rooms often comprise part of the office where a coworking space is located, businesses can reserve those for customer and partner meetings. These meeting rooms come with presentation tools, lobby greeters, professional addresses that impress, catering services, and more.

• Engaged workers.

Workers typically prefer coworking spaces—shorter commutes, hybrid workplace models, etc. 71% of coworking members report their workspaces positively impact the ways they engage their work.

• Recruiting and retaining workers.

Research shows businesses with virtual office options experience 25% lower turnover and can recruit new workers 33% faster. These data points make sense considering that most workers want flexible workspace approaches—citing everything from work-life balance, to shorter commutes, to the ability to focus better. Coworking spaces certainly align with those objectives.

About Patrick Spencer

Patrick Spencer (Ph.D.) is the President and Founder of TIRO Communications that helps companies develop, build, and manage content, customer, advocacy, and demand-gen programs. Included in its offerings is TIRO Cognition Insights, a data analytics tool that enables B2C and B2B businesses to pinpoint what their customers and competitors’ customers are saying and to identify corresponding actionable product, services, competitive, sales, and marketing intelligence. LinkedIn Profile: LinkedIn Website: www.tirocommunications.com