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Category: satellite offices
Setting up a satellite office is a major decision; there are many aspects to consider. With the rise of coworking spaces, these buildings may be the perfect location for you. Read on.
Not only is it often a costly one, but creating a satellite office can require:
- A rigorous hiring process
- The creation and transportation of a crew of employees to the new location
- The legwork of scouting for a good location
- Beginning negotiations on a lease, and getting started on stocking up on all the necessities of a basic office
Sometimes, the need to be present in a specific state or area is transient rather than permanent, making new offices far too expensive to justify (while still requiring a physical presence, often through frequent back-and-forth transport across state lines).
What is a Satellite Office?
A satellite office is an office located in a different location than the company’s main corporate location. They are used for many different reasons including:
- Expanding into new markets
- Opening a new branch
- To increase sales across many locations
- To benefit employees in terms of locations offered, commute, etc
- Create more local presence
While we live in a time of telecommunication and an increased reliance on outsourcing and cooperation between large companies and freelance contractors, it’s important not to understate the value of physical presence.
Satellite offices are necessary for expanding companies, especially when they choose to double or triple their operation by expanding to a new and underserved market. Yet for most startups and SMEs, the cost of doing so is simply prohibitive. This cuts into the potential of many companies, who feel constantly outdone by the better-funded competition.
But the ability to move into pre-made and managed flexible office spaces eliminates many of these problems. Coworking spaces have grown rapidly in the past few years, expanding across major cities all over the globe, giving smaller companies the chance to set up a physical presence across state lines and national borders in ways previously unimaginable, at a far lower cost.
There are a variety of reasons to start a building satellite office in coworking spaces:
1. It’s Much More Cost-Effective
Setting up a satellite office can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, yet necessary for many growing businesses wishing to take advantage of potential markets, partnerships, and opportunities only afforded to those physically present within certain locations across the country – or across the world.
Satellite offices are still easier than planning a mass migration – which is often a logistic nightmare – but they require the acquisition of an office, and the obligatory setup that follows.
Shared office buildings for a satellite office are far less expensive, and allow companies to not only reduce costs, but cut entire items off their list of potential costs, from cleaning services to utility costs, the acquisition and installation of new gear, and the upfront cost of a year-long lease.
2. Better Productivity for Satellite Office Workers
Studies and polls show that coworking spaces are boons for productivity, in comparison to traditional office spaces.
The lax environment, melded work culture, availability of amenities, and focus on providing a welcoming atmosphere. This is combined with the perks of interacting with workers from different industries focused on different projects. In turn, this helps in providing a further benefit to worker creativity, leading to better results.
Shared spaces allow companies (and satellite workers) to approach work in a new way – instead of enforcing their own office culture, the workers set the pace among themselves.
They become comfortable with their environment, which in turn helps them perform better.
3. A Chance at Cooperation
Having workers from different companies working under one roof might, in the eyes of some, further a more competitive and hostile environment – but the opposite has been true.
Regardless of what they’re working on or who they’re working for – and plenty happen to work for themselves – many who choose to come to coworking spaces to work tend to be more open to cooperation and socializing.
They enjoy broadening their horizons and sharing ideas in a way that is productive for everybody involved.
Fostering connections between people is something companies have learned not only to appreciate, but to take advantage of. All companies in these spaces enable the cooperation of workers through:
- Scheduled social events
- Networking events
- Training programs, and more
And all this has born fruit in the form of better results for the companies involved.
4. Coworking is a Growing Phenomenon
The numbers speak for themselves. Previously centralized in developed countries – particularly the US – coworking is becoming a global phenomenon.
By 2022, up to five million estimated workers will be working in coworking offices.
As the lines between life and work further blur, and as workers seek ways to minimize burnout, our idea of the workspace is constantly in flux.
It is undergoing rapid shifts as companies scramble to find ways to address the pressing questions brought about by:
- Digitalization
- Continuous urban sprawl
- High real estate costs
- Automation
With all that in mind, a fleeting look into a potential future grant us a vision of the world with a new way of thinking surrounding how and why we work, especially when it comes to the smaller, locally-based satellite office.
As more and more industries and jobs are using automation, companies, and ventures will go out of their way to either find:
- Workers who are willing to put their health and safety on the line for meager pay,
- Or, workers who put the time and effort into honing their individual abilities to come up with smarter and more efficient ways to contribute to their respective employers and partners.
It’s not just a matter of putting in the hours or devoting yourself to the leg work. You can’t clock in and expect to do well. There will be days when you’re feeling unproductive, and the need to recharge your ideas becomes critical.
Conclusion
Coworking offices are a prototype of this new working environment, where professionals gather to share ideas, inspire one another, create a welcoming and personable environment that remains conducive to productivity and creativity. Take advantage of this trend for your satellite office, it is not just a smart business move, but an eventuality.
The work culture of tomorrow has to emphasize creativity and adaptability, and flexible office spaces maximize both by bringing people together from various backgrounds to work on a variety of projects and potentially meld ideas in ways previously unexplored. There’s no way to know what exactly the future has in store for us, but coworking is a definite part of it.
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The pandemic is changing the working world more and more these days, including businesses turning to the hub and spoke model. So what does this mean exactly? Read further.
With the onset of COVID earlier this year came the need for a rapid shift towards dedensification and remote work for many – a shift that most companies were unprepared for. As it has become clear that the pandemic is here to stay for the foreseeable future, it has become a top priority for businesses all around the world to adapt to current conditions, and turn temporary workarounds into more permanent solutions.
This year has, above and beyond all else, hammered in the importance of flexibility and adaptability. And with that lesson comes the need for a brand-new design approach for companies looking to optimize the workplace for both productivity and safety.
While it’s clear that working from home brings along the least risk of exposure, it isn’t a permanent solution. And bringing everyone back to HQ without a long list of precautions and considerations may even border on negligence.
There are drawbacks to working from home permanently, including a greater risk of burnout. People need boundaries between work and life to function in the long-term, and any solution needs to address both the risks of COVID and the importance of defining some sort of workplace.
As a result, one of the more popular approaches has been the hub-and-spoke model, fashioned after similar concepts in logistics, transport, and healthcare. The hub, in this case, is company HQ. And the spokes are the various satellite offices and remote workplaces. The scope of the hub and spoke model is flexible, because of the nature of the internet – it’s a concept that scales to towns, cities, countries, and continents.
The Hub and Spoke Model
The hub and spoke model effectively swaps remote work for a work-from-anywhere policy, wherein the original headquarters of a business is made leaner and kept occupied by a (potentially rotating) skeleton crew of employees, while other workers operate from office spaces at home and in satellite offices all around the area.
Cost is a huge concern, especially in this market – but the hub-and-spoke model doesn’t presuppose that companies try and take out half a dozen leases. Instead, it operates on the assumption that companies repurpose their existing office space to act as a central hub, while utilizing coworking spaces and homes as safe and low-cost extensions of the workplace.
The entire network relies on different telecommunication and collaboration tools to function. Employees touch base with HQ, then report back after every major task.
The main reason for switching to a hub and spoke model over simply returning to the office is that it gives companies a way to utilize and populate their existing office space with a smaller number of employees and managers, while leveraging the growing and competitive coworking market (which has rapidly adapted to COVID workplace safety requirements).
The Benefit of Scattered Workplaces
These workplaces generally scale to single areas – for example, a city – where employees can have the option of staying at home, or biking/driving to a nearby satellite office while remaining in touch with the company’s central office.
The coworking market has emerged as a strong backbone to the hub and spoke model and scattered workplaces because it allows companies to subsidize the costs and stress of retrofitting offices to enable proper ventilation, cleaning, and social distancing protocols, while remaining entirely flexible by offering short-term leases and monthly or quarterly contracts, instead of long-term commitments.
We are still currently in a place where both the economy and the virus itself are volatile. Flexibility is important not only in the workplace, but as a general attitude towards the present and future.
There is currently no way of knowing what tomorrow brings. Staggered changes, such as a slow return to the office via the hub and spoke model, help improve morale and productivity and avoid burnouts without endangering workers and placing all of the burden on employees to stay safe in the office.
Defining the Hub
Dedensification is key in defining the hub. Headquarters should remain sparsely occupied during the pandemic, with employees maintaining large distances, cleaning as they go, and avoiding colliding foot traffic.
Staircases should be designated as one-way, additional cleaning crews should disinfect surfaces and critical areas such as doors and chairs several times a day, and offices are populated by one or two key employees each.
The hub acts as the central command for the company, coordinating with smaller teams and individual workers throughout the city, whether they’re at home or in another office.
A good metric is to cut the number of employees at HQ down to about half of what they were in pre-pandemic days, or less – while giving the rest the option to work from a place of their choosing, or a designated coworking location.
Defining the Spokes
Spokes are “everywhere else”, including additional offices (whether leased as commercial space solely for the company’s benefit, or more likely, a coworking space).
These don’t have to be in the city – some companies are looking at coworking locations in the suburbs, trying as best as possible to choose potential office space that minimizes the commute, and keeps their employees away from crowds.
When picking coworking spaces to expand your hub and spoke model, think about what lengths your workers would have to go through to get to work and back. Some workers who simply can’t make it to any office safely would likely have to continue to work from home until the situation develops in a different direction, but the majority will be able to benefit from a safe return to the office.
Working in a Pandemic World
Hub and spoke models are inherently adaptable, as they’re designed with short-term leases and commitments in mind, allowing companies to rapidly shift and pivot in response to new rules and regulations, changes in quarantine, outbreaks, and more.
While we still don’t know what role remote work will play in the long-term, it’s clear that more flexible workplace arrangements are not just a boon, but a necessity going forward.