Month: April 2021

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Business Trends Work Environment

How to Develop and Enhance Your Coworking Community

How to Develop and Enhance Your Coworking Community - Collection

Business trends are evolving, especially after COVID-19. So what role does a coworking community play for business growth? Read below.

 

There can be no coworking space without a coworking community. A successful coworking space offers more than just an attractive selection of amenities, good rates, and a snazzy ambiance. Coworking spaces are defined by the people who decide to work in them, the connections fostered by those people, and the professional relationships that come to be.

 

It is in every coworking space’s interest to enable and foster those relationships and grow a true sense of community. This is especially important during COVID-19, where a true feeling of community can be hard to find.

 

What Defines a Coworking Community?

 

A coworking community is the social connective tissue within the coworking space – aside from the tenants, it’s the administrators, the designers, the managers, the rest of the staff, and the tools they use to create and maintain a feeling of connectedness throughout the working day.

 

From the creative opportunities enabled by a good coffee bar to the way a coworking space can continue to endure and exist online, the development and nurturing of a coworking community is as important for the marketing of a coworking space as it is for the wellbeing and creativity of those in it.

 

Coworking spaces are more than just square footage of office available for a short-term lease. Every month spent at a coworking space is another month spent collaborating and networking with professionals in different industries from different backgrounds, while reaping the benefits of a creative culture and brand identity that changes from space to space.

 

How is Coworking Surviving the Pandemic?

 

Businesses banked on the work-from-home model during the pandemic, to cut down on interpersonal contact and reduce the transmission of the coronavirus. Yet as more and more countries approach a critical level of immunization, large parts of the world are looking towards better alternatives to the home office without a complete return to the cluttered, densified closed offices of the past.

 

The modern workspace is flexible, open to the outdoors on good weather, with isolated private rooms, well-ventilated common areas, sparse seating, and roving cleaning crews.

 

Many coworking spaces have taken on drastic hygiene protocols to enable safe business and provide a professional refuge to employees who were unable to get anything done from home, and either needed a more suitable environment to get their work done, or just wanted some sense of being back in an office environment, even with social distancing and frequent handwashing.

 

Coworking spaces are an attractive alternative because they are:

 

  • Decentralizing large corporate offices.
  • Providing flexible pricing models for both SMEs and large corporations in a tumultuous economy.
  • Focused primarily on attracting tech talent.
  • Existing in a diverse and competitive market.

 

Coworking spaces have more than just survived COVID – they have proven to be a valuable resource in the process of defining a post-pandemic workplace model.

 

Growing a Coworking Community in 2021

 

Community building is important in drawing in tenants, helping employees relate to one another, and create a productive social environment. And because we aren’t in a post-pandemic world yet, safety remains paramount.

 

If a coworking space is simply hosting workers while providing them with nothing but isolated spaces and plastic covers on chairs, it is little more than an office center. The benefits of coworking come from a highly social environment and finding ways to enable that sense of community without endangering the members of the community is each coworking space’s greatest challenge in 2021.

 

Prioritizing the Workspace Experience

 

What is your coworking space all about? What are you offering to facilitate productive collaboration and safe social experiences? Also, what do you offer in amenities beyond the raw basics of a fully equipped modern workplace?

 

Coworking spaces compete for the affections of their tenants through qualitative amenities and a management staff that prides itself on running a tight ship. This means:

 

  • nap rooms
  • drinks and snacks
  • dedicated meeting spots
  • private concentration rooms
  • outdoor spaces
  • plenty of natural light
  • non-distracting plant life
  • art that helps define the workspace culture
  • a consistent design theme and brand identity
  • a prime location

 

Does Your Coworking Community Facilitate Open Communication?

 

There can be no community without communication. Make sure there are multiple accessible channels to communicate concerns and ideas with management and other staff, send in complaints or reviews, make suggestions, and keep the community up to date on management decisions, upcoming changes, and more.

 

This can be done through open chatrooms like Slack, space-specific to-do boards on Trello, a community manager account on Twitter and Facebook, a proprietary app for the coworking space, a mobile-friendly website with a blog and live chat function, and multiple other online avenues.

 

Create an Online Coworking Community for Your Space

 

Aside from basic interfacing, you can create and nurture an online community in the absence of community events and experiences, to help foster a sense of social interactivity and belonging in our pandemic world.

 

You can host opt-in virtual events such as game night via Zoom or on the premises, monthly introductory meetings to help newcomers feel welcome and get a sense for who’s who, and more.

 

Coworking spaces may fulfill a crucial role in the current climate as interactive workplace communities for those unable or unwilling to return to a typical office setting, either because of the lengthy commute, a lack of space, or the financial impact of the pandemic.

 

While some of us were immensely grateful for the opportunity to fully embrace the home office lifestyle, not everyone is set up or cut out for working from home. There are distinct disadvantages to being a completely self-reliant worker, and some struggle under the isolation and loneliness it breeds, while others have no space bereft from distraction due to their own personal circumstances.

 

Even a post-pandemic world is more likely to see a move towards work-from-anywhere policies than a move back to company headquarters.

 

Some employees thrive and are most productive while working from home, while others need the camaraderie of working with the rest of the team, and others yet like to collaborate with different professionals and soak in the professional-casual atmosphere of a coworking space, a happy medium.

 

Companies keen on maximizing the potential of their hires will want to offer multiple options to ensure that everyone doing their part can do so as effectively as possible.

 

Read More:

What is a Virtual Office and Why You Need It Today
Categories
Office Space

Why Create a Collaborative Workspace for Your Business?

No matter what, a collaborative workspace will always be useful for the growth of any business. To learn more about how to best create one now, read further on.

 

Flexible spaces, coworking spaces, and collaborative spaces were enjoying a meteoric rise before the onset of the pandemic. Is there a future for these workspace concepts during and after the coronavirus crisis? Are there ways to offset the risks of an office with a revolving crew? And do the benefits outweigh those risks?

 

In short, a collaborative workspace can and does still exist in a world with COVID-19. But just like any other workspace, collaborative workspaces need to be designed and organized with safety and hygiene measures in place that help protect employees and keep us safe, while benefiting from the agility, flexibility, improved creativity, and increased productivity of a collaborative workspace.

 

What is a Collaborative Workspace?

 

Collaborative workspaces are any kind of workspace hosting more than one company. They are usually structured so that each company has its own isolated and private space, but with a large common area where professionals can take breaks together, exchange experiences and information, and forge alliances.

 

Collaborative workspaces are often highlighted by their amenities as well, which are meant to provide reasons for professionals from different backgrounds to enjoy leisure activities together, or just take communal coffee breaks.

 

With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, social or shared spaces can continue to exist, but they need to continue to exist with safety in mind. This can mean outdoor common areas or balconies, better ventilation, greater spaces, more amenities that facilitate virtual collaboration and interaction (such as video game nights), and improved privacy between professionals and companies.

 

What are the Benefits to a Collaborative Workspace?

 

The advantages of a collaborative workspace include the financial freedom and flexibility afforded by a simplified short-term lease with a coworking space of flex space, the fact that collaborative workspaces are completely set up and require no additional investment to support a growing startup’s needed tech infrastructure, the access to prime locations that make commuting easier for employees while helping smaller companies gain access to the same spaces used by much larger potential partners in the industry, and much more. Some other benefits include:

 

  • Easy to scale to the needs and size of a growing startup.
  • Community-oriented management that helps integrate new companies and facilitate cooperation.
  • Specialized private and common workspaces designed to improve productivity, maximize comfort, and inspire.
  • Unique design choices and amenities to help companies find and reflect their own brand and culture on.
  • A workspace style that strengthens the bonds between employees and their company.

 

Essential Tips to Creating a Collaborative Workspace for Your Business

 

There is more to creating (or finding) a collaborative workspace than simply opening your doors to multiple commercial tenants. Some of the crucial elements that help build a collaborative workspace are centered around the creativity gains realized through healthy social interaction, and productive networking. Here are a few strong tips to help you create the right environment for collaboration during the pandemic.

 

1. Build a Collaborative Culture

 

Collaborative workspaces live and die by the atmosphere they create, and the culture they represent.

 

Each workspace is made unique by the design and management choices of the coworking staff, and any would-be collaborative space needs to orient itself along the lines of a shared and consistent company culture, one that attracts companies with similar values and aesthetics.

 

The music choice, the color scheme, the art elements on the walls, the plants chosen for both the interiors and the balconies or garden, the choice in amenities, the aesthetic of the furnishings – each element represents a conscious choice to embody a style or provide potential tenants with a feel for what it’s like to work there.

 

2. Prioritize Safe Private Spaces

 

There can be no safe collaborative workspace without frequently sanitized private offices and meeting rooms.

 

While the common area is where the collaborative spirit resides, it’s in the adjacent rooms and floors that the concentrated work happens, and it’s here where companies need their own spaces to discuss projects internally, securely share files and documentation, and safeguard both themselves and their data from other tenants in the building.

3. Leverage Collaborative Technologies

 

Collaborative spaces benefitted from the ability to communicate over-the-shoulder, but with the pandemic, some of the old habits will have to continue to be met with safer alternatives, such as sharing files and information through the cloud, organizing collaborative chat groups between cooperating professionals through Slack, keeping track of private company progress through programs like Trello, and so on.

 

4. Amenities are Important

 

Perhaps the most important element to enticing social interaction after months of lockdowns and tight quarantines is a large selection of amenities and safe social activities, from a spectrum of snacks and beverages to outdoor exercise installations, communal gardens, nap rooms, and the staff to facilitate and manage said amenities.

 

Collaboration During the Pandemic

 

The defining features of a safe collaborative space during the pandemic is one that provides a large common area and plenty of amenities and spaced seats, while still prioritizing separate, well-ventilated spaces for small groups to work together.

 

The open office took a large hit with the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean that the collaborative workspace model is no longer here to stay. The benefits of collaborative work for a company’s productivity and individual creativity cannot be overstated, and the cons of the open office as a vector for viral transmission can be addressed by preventing overcrowding, implementing frequent cleaning, open ventilation, and strict social distancing and frequent testing at work.

 

Even as thousands of Americans and millions of global citizens receive their vaccines with every passing day, we aren’t quite in the final sprint of this crisis.

 

As we continue to observe strict rules to stop and impede the transmission of the virus, we also need to embrace the benefits of in-person collaboration as a force for innovation, and a critical component to attracting and onboarding new talent.

 

Conclusion

 

Large spaces, safe distances, and adjunct meeting/planning rooms with frequent cleaning crews and open ventilation are just a few measures through which coworking spaces can continue to offer businesses the ability to benefit from the pros of having a creative commercial space of their own, without the costs and responsibilities.

 

Categories
Work Environment

9 Ways to Improve the Employee Experience

Prioritizing the different areas of the employee experience has definitely shifted since the start of the pandemic. Here are a few ways to continuously improve it.

 

The employee experience was once centered around creating a comfortable and productive workplace, conducive towards drawing out strengths and compensating for weaknesses. But with COVID-19, some of the priorities among both employers and employees have shifted towards better crisis management, greater decision-making in the hands of employees as company stakeholders, and better transparency between management and the workers – all alongside a culture of growth and safety.

 

As we seek to find ways to improve the employee experience in 2021 and beyond, we need to consider how our workers are any company’s greatest asset, and that managing teams and people must be about providing opportunities for growth, autonomy, and feedback, over control and workplace regulations. Here are nine ways companies can seek to improve the employee experience in a post-pandemic world.

 

1. Work from Anywhere Policies

 

COVID-19 has taught us that a whimsical approach to implementing work-from-home policies carries massive drawbacks, particularly to employees struggling to create healthy boundaries between work and home or tasked with caring for young children. Not everyone can successfully implement and reap the benefits of remote work through their living room or home office – but that doesn’t mean we need to go back to purely centralized office spaces and greater investments in expensive commercial real estate.

 

Instead, we should look towards the potential of work from anywhere policies, and the growing coworking market, as well as its potential to help companies form hub-and-spoke workplace arrangements that allow them to greatly expand their physical presence throughout a region or country while reducing the employee commute.

 

The ability to work from anywhere, be it the main office, the home office, a coworking space, or a local café, gives workers the autonomy they need to develop their own creative space and find an arrangement that allows them to be as productive as possible.

 

2. Establishing Trust in Leadership

 

Some companies have failed to instill a sense of trust in their employees throughout the pandemic, providing little to no information on how employees should protect themselves, or how the company is planning to respond to mandated lockdowns, social distancing rules, and other hygiene concepts.

 

Management and business leaders need to do better in taking charge in critical moments such as these, and training themselves and others to develop better communicative skills with employees, reach out to them on multiple channels in the event of an emergency or crisis, and provide clear instructions on how to proceed for everyone’s sake.

 

3. Open and Transparent Channels Between Management and Employees

 

The ability to freely communicate between employees and management is important – management can only truly receive effective feedback through transparent communication, and employees need to be empowered to honestly reflect on managerial decisions and weigh in on company policy, especially when it affects them.

 

This is critically important in a post-pandemic world, where employees want both job security, and the ability to feel safe in the workplace. The decision-making remains in the hands of those in charge, but better actionable feedback can help them make better decisions.

 

4. A Culture of Employee Advocacy

 

63 percent of employees do not trust their company’s leadership. Many feel that executives are perhaps self-serving, or don’t know how to do what’s best for their employees. Promoting spokespeople within teams and departments to collect and voice employee’s concerns and problems can go a long way towards fixing the rift existing in many companies between employers and employees.

 

In the absence of other forms of advocacy, companies need to give employees a platform to clearly communicate their demands and help them give input on the company’s direction. Without that, companies lose the trust of their workers.

 

5. Ample Opportunities for Growth and Development

 

The simplest individual motivator once an employee has reached an income level they’re happy with is the opportunity for self-improvement and professional development.

 

Companies should invest in skills labs, educational opportunities, and the chance for employees to become greater assets to the company through training and learning programs.

 

 

6. A Culture of Recognition

 

Making sure credit is given where credit is due is another important step towards improving the employee experience. Employees want to be appreciated for their hard work and are more likely to give more than the professional minimum when knowing that their efforts are being seen and rewarded.

 

7. A Clear and Actionable Company Vision

 

A company’s vision for itself and the future is definitive to that company’s culture and identity, and these are two important factors that greatly influence a worker’s relationship with the company they work for.

 

People want to feel like they are part of something greater, something meaningful, whether it is a business dedicated to world-class quality, promoting local talents and traditions, or simply shaking up and innovating in an old industry.

 

A stronger and clearer company vision also massively helps businesses who lack physical cohesion in the form of a single office, by helping a scattered group of professionals rally behind a shared dream.

 

8. Smaller, Autonomous Teams

 

Teams too large for a single manager often lead to professional waste, in the sense that time and resources aren’t funneled where they should be, certain accomplishments and efforts get overlooked, and employees who might otherwise become important assets look towards other opportunities where their skillsets might be better valued.

 

To that end, companies should consider allowing smaller teams to form within departments, autonomous and self-sufficient, given the responsibility of choosing and completing their own tasks and coordinating with the rest of the department on a regular basis to decide how tasks are best divided between each team.

 

This way, each group develops its own working dynamic and leadership, and isn’t dependent on the sole decision-making of a single overwhelmed manager.

 

9. Room for Slack and Rest

 

A company culture dedicated entirely to the hustle may bring in the most dedicated and hungry talent but is also prone to greater amounts of stress and burnout. Employees need time to recuperate physically and mentally and divorce themselves entirely from their work.

 

Make sure every worker understands the importance of having clear-cut boundaries that allow them to charge their batteries while away from the office and come back reinvigorated and reinspired. Promoting rest also helps turn workers into creatives, allowing them to contribute to a company in a more unique and innovative way.

 

Slack time is important, too. It helps employees recover between sprints of work on tight deadlines and demanding projects, ensuring that they’re ready for their next challenge after a few slower days at work.

 

Conclusion

 

The employee experience in a post-pandemic world prioritizes the communication between team members and team leaders, between workers and managers, and of course, between employers and employees.

 

Categories
Office Space

What is a Virtual Office and Why You Need It Today

What is a virtual office? It actually can be many different things! But what’s more important to think about is why you need it today. Read further for all the details.

 

For many companies, return-to-work plans are either already set in motion or have been drafted and prepared for the near future. Yet despite an optimistic outlook, many continue to be worried about the post-pandemic world we are striving towards – especially with regards to how far away that world really is.

 

Contingencies and future-proof office ideas have become more than just a luxury. Even as we begin to move away from what was once the “new normal,” it’s clear as ever that the office environment of the near future won’t be as it was just a year or two ago. Businesses will continue to trend towards hybrid setups or embrace remote work more than ever.

 

Yet not every business function can survive entirely over the internet, and there are still many processes we simply need an address and physical location for. That is where the virtual office enters the picture for largely remote businesses.

 

What is a Virtual Office?

 

A virtual office can easily be misunderstood as an office that only exists in the virtual space – i.e., the digital space – but this is not the case at all.

 

Instead, virtual offices serve as physical addresses and commercial spaces for companies that otherwise operate entirely within a remote workplace setting, utilizing said commercial space only for the bare necessities that require a real location.

 

These bare necessities can include having a landline to answer, an address to give out separate from an employee or manager’s home address, having a real commercial location to host important client meetings, process and onboard new hires, and receive and forward packages and mail.

 

Virtual offices are staffed by a skeleton of office support staff, who receive and redirect phone calls and messages, act as receptionists to surprise visitors, forward all incoming communications, and manage other essential tasks while the actual function of business occurs entirely remotely.

 

Some Processes Need an Address

 

Remote-only businesses are not a novel idea, and they’ve exploded in popularity since the coronavirus crisis began. However, there are certain things we can’t avoid when running a business, such as having face-to-face meetings with important clients and helping organize alternatives for employees who struggle to stay productive while working from home.

 

Getting an office of your own would defeat the purpose of a lightweight virtual office. That is where a coworking space comes into play.

 

Coworking spaces can act as an ideal virtual office to receive and forward packages, receive clients, provide a physical space for the onboarding process, and act as an address and phone number for clients to contact.

 

Coworking spaces offer short-term contracts that are easily canceled while providing all the amenities you would need to host and impress clients and new hires. In addition, they take away the busy work and stress of owning and managing your own commercial space, giving you an all-in-one package.

 

Geolocation and SEO

 

Another important reason to consider a virtual office is the benefit of existing in the real world, having a physical location for customers and clients to find and visit. Not only does that help inspire trust and give customers and clients the feeling that your business is tangible, but it also provides a tremendous boost in local clientele via simple search engine optimization.

 

Having a strong local presence, in the form of an address in a prime location and a local area code phone number, can greatly improve your chances of beating your competition to the punch when it comes to search engine rankings. Search engines like Google prioritize local results when suggesting businesses and services, which can give you the edge you need to outrank your competitors.

 

Separating the Professional from the Personal

 

Physical addresses are a must at some point – and giving out your own address to receive mail or packages isn’t always the safest or most professional option. A virtual office can act as a commercial and impersonal space to receive and forward packages, so your home address needn’t ever be revealed in conjunction with your work, letting you keep some much-needed privacy.

 

Virtual Offices for Onboarding and Client Meetings

 

The onboarding process can be done virtually, yet there are certain benefits to a face-to-face onboarding process that simply cannot be replicated over video calls and screen sharing. Making sure new hires are properly and personally received by the company is important when wanting to land a good first impression.

 

When you find and want to keep good talent, you need to make sure they understand they’re appreciated, and have become part of a real-life team that does exist, and even meets from time to time. Remote onboarding can work, but not as well as the real thing.

 

A virtual coworking office can act as both a space to receive clients and as a training room for new hires to be integrated into their workflow before they transition into remote work or continue from a space they are more comfortable with.

 

Package Receiving and Sending

 

Not to be understated is the simple benefit of having an address to receive and forward packages and mail, at a greater capacity than a simple P.O. Box. A virtual office gives the impression that your business has an established local presence and inspires greater trust in local clients.

 

Certain coworking spaces offer services such as package receiving and forwarding as part of their offering. This means you can set up a virtual office to host clients and new hires and rely on the coworking staff to receive and send packages to your home address. The benefits of staying remote, as well as the benefits of having a commercial address of your own.

 

The Benefits of a Virtual Office During COVID

 

The coronavirus crisis is an ongoing one, and as such, maintaining and visiting real office spaces isn’t in the cards for everyone.

 

By maintaining a skeleton crew, a virtual office can remain a safe space to work in for the staff dedicated to receiving and forwarding clients and communications, so you can rest easy knowing your business wouldn’t have to risk operating at the expense of anyone’s health or safety.

 

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