Flexible and Coworking Spaces Will Hold More Importance in Coming Times
With the Covid-19 pandemic upending the traditional ways of working, even conventional office spaces lost their essence as a greater number of people worked from home. Modern workspaces are looking to simplify their operations to the largest extent possible, making them highly flexible. The present-day business landscape demands that operations become more streamlined and workspaces are developed barrier-free which not only start-ups and small-sized enterprises, but even major corporates can use to fulfil their requirements.
The workforce of the digital age expects a work culture that is highly diverse and inclusive. In order to attract and retain good talent, it’s become imperative to provide a sense of community and a healthy work culture. Flexible workspaces accord its members the advantage of networking and collaboration. Some of the most incredible business ideas occur over a conversation, when one feels motivated in a beautiful workspace that lets their ideas flow freely. In addition, located in different parts of every city, flexible workspaces help expand the talent pool as businesses can hire from anywhere and retain that talent successfully.
Companies dealing in flexible workspaces are revamping their operations and also scaling to reach newer marketplaces and territories, thus offering their customers multi-global locations and international business reach. In the nimble workspace market, the big players are primarily focusing all their creative and innovative efforts on carving out a niche in an effort to make themselves distinct from the competing brands in terms of the services they offer.
Benefits of Flexible Workspaces
1. Well-Equipped Amenities
Flexible business suites come well-equipped with their own set of amenities such as office reception, community events, mail handling, or even concierge services. Many of them also provide everyday meals to essential stationary supplies. The opulent state-of-the-art services, spacious and airy lobbies as well as the hi-tech conference and meeting rooms make it worthwhile to work out of these spaces. The valuable complimentary services of fully-managed offices are cherry on the cake.
2. Heightened Creativity = Better Business Strategy
When a team comprising people from all walks of life comes together, there emerge fresh and out-of-the-box perspectives and solutions to problems. In these unusual times when businesses are propelled to re-engineer their processes and rework their models and strategies, brainstorming sessions and whiteboard discussions prove to be highly valuable. Working in a diversified team fuels innovation, improves teamwork, and challenges people to question their presumptions and thinking. This healthy conflict brings the best versions of talent to the fore.
3. Swift Problem Solving
Cognitively-diverse teams of individuals approach problems much faster owing to novel ways of thinking. Usually, in organizations, leaders and managers tend to unconsciously gravitate towards hiring those people who are like-minded. When such teams face complicated issues or unforeseen circumstances, they are unable to innovate and come up with disruptive solutions. This shortcoming can be fixed by hiring individuals from varied backgrounds and cultures. Flexible workspaces provide such a common platform to network and collaborate.
4. Fostering Engagement
Affiliation with colleagues and engagement opportunities are two important factors that make people crave to return to the office. Flexible workspaces accord these opportunities to individuals. The primary driver that fosters and encourages engagement is the feeling of being included – people want to be included in conversations as well as decisions that matter. Workplace inclusion creates a positive office aura, helps improve productivity and enhances overall employee well-being, apart from scaling up engagement. It further boosts employee morale by extending psychological safety in an environment where every person feels valued. Hence, improved engagement is a direct outcome of diversity and inclusion.
5. Employee Retention and Attraction
Flexible workspaces are becoming a magnet for top talent hailing from different backgrounds. Happy and engaged employees become loyalists of the employer's brand within the wider ecosystem, and help in creating a reputation for the company as being an employer of choice. By being a part of a workforce that’s highly diverse helps in gaining unique and deep insights about an organization’s customer base, and ultimately contributes towards building customer empathy and experience, along with improving company performance.
Summing Up
Flexible workspaces are the new cult of office spaces and surpass the traditional offices in every sense. It’s only natural and a given that the demands for them are rising and will continue to rise in the future. Businesses need to reckon with them, invest in them and reap the long-term benefits they offer.
(The article is authored by Atul Gupta, Founder and CEO, CoFynd)
