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While the idea of coworking spaces has been around for quite some time now, it has been making its presence felt with an eye-grabbing pace in the last decade or so. The latest research report published by Statista reveals the number of coworking spaces worldwide in 2021 was nearly 24,000 and is projected to touch the mark of 41,975 by the end of 2024.
Source: Statista Research Department
Rightfully known as a citadel for freelancers and budding start-ups, coworking spaces have been a breather for independent workers in recent times. They offer the convenience of forgoing rental places and the freedom to work in adaptable surroundings.
But coworking spaces are not created just for start-ups.
In fact, a broader range of businesses, including SMEs, MNCs, and corporates, have started to tap into the emerging trends of the coworking industry. For most of them, the reasons to embrace the agile workspace trend go beyond cost savings. Instead, they seem to love the advantages that coworking office spaces offer in view of employee satisfaction, flexibility, productivity, and innovation.
A coworking space is basically a shared office space with essential operational facilities available for independent consultants, start-up enthusiasts, freelancers, and company professionals.
In exchange for membership fees, occupants belonging to the same or diverse fields can operate individually and in collaboration in the shared space.
However, these plug-and-play office spaces are anything but regular offices.
They truly represent a flexible future of work where anyone can access the top-notch office amenities without investing in them. Being well-equipped premises, coworking spaces are available for use as a typical workspace and a lot more such as meeting rooms, social spaces, conference call facilities, bean bags, cafeteria, creative interiors, etc.
For small start-ups, it is incredibly impossible to offer their employees such well-established premises and high-end working essentials without scaling up their budgets.
Moreover, looking at the current scenario, the coworking space model couldn’t be any more relevant. Struck by the pandemic, as we navigate 2022, many organizations are still struggling with uncertainty. A good deal of companies are indefinitely sticking to flexible hours and working from home. Amidst such a situation, coworking office space facilities seem to be kindling a work culture that meets the needs of both the organizations and employees.
Now let’s see how coworking spaces play a big part in shaping the future of work.
Unlike the traditional offices and WFH, where you are inside the box, coworking spaces thrive by the philosophy of collaboration.
No wonder when you have goal-oriented people from varied industries who work under the same roof and whom you otherwise would not meet, discussing new ideas, finding solutions, finding a potential employee or employee, creating new work opportunities take no time.
The high-octane and vibrant ambiance nurtures social interaction, skill development, and teamwork and offers countless networking and collaborative opportunities that can be extremely beneficial for business growth.
Nonetheless, socializing is not forced. Since not everyone finds the highly interactive engagement with others relevant to their nature of work, they prefer solitude to avoid distraction. For them, the coworking spaces have the arrangement to share out a more private work-spot too.
Employees spend a large part of their time in the workplace. Yet, traditional office designs often overlook the needs of employees, rather force their employees to fit the design. All the same, many forward-thinking organizations are slowly creating a positive difference by incorporating ergonomic designs in the workplace.
But when it comes to innovative and fun interior designs, boring cubicle offices are far from measuring up to the modern-day coworking spaces.
Leading coworking space players like The Address successfully curate designs that are warm, appealing, inviting, and comfortable — designs that inspire people to want to return to a workplace, and designs that appeal to both extroverts and introverts.
These spaces are rapidly becoming a one-stop solution for the millennial workforce thanks to their modern aesthetics, top-notch acoustics, roof terrace, versatile seating arrangements, splashes of colors, areas lit with natural light, hanging plant works, reading corner, gaming zone, a wellness and yoga room, and much more.
With such a creative and vibrant landscape, coworking space facilities are indisputably leading the way to futuristic work culture and augmented employee productivity.
Talking about productivity brings us to one of the most employee-centric attributes of shared office spaces- recreational zones. In fact, they now seem to be a normal part of the majority of coworking models.
An increasingly large number of coworking spaces are delighting their clients with innovative and uber-cool recreational facilities such as gaming zones, phone booths, cafes, nap rooms, patios, meditation rooms, community lounges, etc.
It gives folks a chance to remain engaged, reboots their mind, derives more job satisfaction, improves concentration, enhances efficiency, and creates networking opportunities.
Losing touch with emerging industry trends can be very easy for independent workers like freelancers and solopreneurs who work from a confined place of home. But due to shared office spaces, they can be a part of a larger community and are exposed to key business insights and breakthrough industry benchmarks.
As for organizations, coworking is quickly becoming a part of a company’s strategy that helps both the people and business thrive in changing times.
The free-flowing nature of coworking comes as a relief for many with its ability to offer much-needed space, resources, and support to grow businesses. It also encourages enterprises to attract and retain cross-border talent for pivoting quickly in uncertain times.
In turn, employees benefit from the flexible workplace and work time that coworking spaces offer. They often look up to shared workspace for guidance, training programs, social events, and networking events. All these perks while still maintaining a substantial level of autonomy!
The result will naturally be a more committed workforce who see their work in the light of purpose and meaning. And this enables them to bring their best energy to their workplace.
The contemporary business landscape, booming start-up ecosystem, and post-pandemic economic challenges mean that entrepreneurs, enterprises, and freelancers around the world need to embrace rapidly changing work culture and workforce fluidity.
Coworking spaces are emerging as key disruptors in revamping the future of work. By encouraging a flexible and collaborative work culture, they not only empower employees with ample room to evolve but also help organizations take a huge step towards business growth.
