Co-working spaces are in vogue now. Particularly after the days of working from home, some of the startup employees feel burnt out. Co-working spaces are shared office spaces where companies doing various businesses operate collaboratively. It has a wholesome work environment where everything is available—a modern workspace, cafeteria, canteens, security, Wifi, etc. The coworking space is of two types – Managed office and Serviced office.
The Managed office has the basic amenities, but the companies are provided with a workspace where they can ask for any and all sort of customisations with respect to the accent furniture and environment of the workspace. The Serviced office is more like a plug-and-play type. Here all the amenities are available including furniture. The companies can set shop from day 1. Both are different from just plain office space on rent. In this case, even the basic amenities like Wifi, security, etc, have to be planned well by the tenant only.
Co-working spaces are useful for startups in the growth phase, entrepreneurs, freelancers, remote employees of an organization, etc. This Co-working space industry is growing at a rate of 21.3% from 2021 onwards says a report. This means that the industry is growing at a rampant pace. With the growth of startups, this is bound to grow further.
Moving into a Co-working space has to be planned by keeping in mind constraints like – the budget, the time available, the team size, the location, and the services which are essential. Each of them has to be evaluated with the purpose and goal of the overall organization. For example, if the organization just got funding and the team size is going to triple. Does it make sense to go for alternate A vs alternate B are the questions that organizations must seek answers to?
1. Budget
It is wise to plan the location based on budget. An organization has this trade-off between the location of the workspace in the city and the rent for the space. If the workspace is located slightly outside the city premises, then the rental might be cheaper. Hence, every organization must freeze the budget with the available working capital first. Scouting must be carried out after this only. This can give alternatives on the location that the organizations can consider.
2. Time available
Time available to move to the new workspace might be the other thing. If an organization has a lot of new joiners and there isn’t enough time then the organization can go for the Serviced office rather than the Managed office. This has an impact on the budget. But, the organization must try to optimize with this constraint.
3. Team size
If the team size is less then the Serviced Office makes sense. The organization needn’t hire a team for administration. If there are a lot of new joiners then the organization can try out different techniques like hybrid work to minimize the cost without compromising comfort.
4. Location
It is a good exercise to check the employees and the areas they are housed. This can give the organization cues as to which area to focus more on keeping in mind the budget. Organizations that minimize the travel time for employees as many intangible benefits. The first is that it keeps the employees free from the issues they face while traveling, especially with the traffic. Organizations can also plan for the places where the metro is available. This can minimize troubles faced by employees while commuting to the office daily.
5. Essential services
Some organizations scout for talent who are exemplary in their academics. The modern office workspace has an impact on getting that talent to work for the organization. The often looked out facilities are gyms, play arenas, cafeterias, etc. The organization must evaluate spaces with the facilities they offer. Again, the budget must be kept in mind.
Depending on the constraints organizations can have a budget range and operate between them. This level of thoughtful decision-making can help in getting the workspace that can help the organizations grow. Having said all these, there are a lot of pros and cons of the co-working space. Let’s discuss all of them now.
Pros
- For smaller organizations where the overall budget available for rent & other administration expenses is low, the Co-working space is more suitable than just leasing out space.
- It beats home office setups in the areas of collaboration. An environment that fosters people to interact with other people helps the employees both develop as a professional and also generate ideas.
- Numerous amenities are available that help in employee engagement. Some of the new joiners today expect a swanky workspace. They would want places to hang out, work out, etc. It is no more traditional office space in that sense. Amenities help build communities that help in building the culture of the organization. Employees after a serious discussion would love to hang out by playing table tennis or foosball. It is essential in this day and age to have arrangements like this to boost employee self-service retention.
- Employees get to interact within and outside organizations. Over a period, this helps build a sense of community that learns and grows together. When community thrives, culture thrives. When culture thrives, the organization thrives.
- Sometimes the organizations might get lucky in finding out a vendor or a supplier for them. The setup helps in building synergy and probably a peek into what the other businesses offer.
- Sometimes organizations can imbibe best practices from another organization. This can help organizations mutually grow.
Cons
- It can tempt you with premium facilities like gyms, a play arena, a beer room, etc. It is always essential to keep the budget in mind.
- There can be distractions too, especially when something requires focus time. Hence, organizations need to choose a place that limits these distractions as well. This is one such con that makes home office setup advantageous so that you can manage stress also.
- There could be a lot of restrictions for an organization inside a co-working space as well. Outsiders may not be entertained, meeting rooms could be hard to get, and operational timing might be strict. These restrictions are kind of hard on employees. Although on the other side if we look at it, the co-working space needs to ensure a secure place. But still, this could often be taxing for employees to follow the restrictions.
- The space is limited in a few cases. Hence, it is like only a small area that an employee can access. This kind of space over a period feels taxing. Especially, for employees who work in creative fields. This restricts employees from thinking creatively. Also, only a small space available for employees to spend ~8-10 hours a day makes it hard as well.
- If someone is a freelancer, it is hard for them to find the places that they want. Especially, when there is enough crowd, it becomes difficult to find places of their liking.
- There is also this lack of privacy, that organizations need to be aware of. Hence, proprietary documents, research findings, etc. need to be kept safe from others accessing them.
There is no one size fits all kind of strategy. It’s the organization’s objective that can help make decisions. Organizations that keep in mind all the constraints and carefully evaluate the pros & cons make an informed decision in this regard.
Author’s Bio:
Parth Shah, a Co-Founder, COO of DevX accelerator has 10 years of experience in operations and training. Parth is a go-to person for his team and even a multitude of growing start-ups.
