With an impressive resume of benefits including [but not limited to] cost efficiency and improved work life balance, coworking spaces are offering a way out of expensive, stuffy and stifling contracts.
If you’re looking to follow suit and reap the rewards on behalf of your business, employees and overall happiness, read on for 4 reasons why major corporations are choosing coworking spaces.
#1 It’s Cost Efficient
Like their smaller-scale counterparts, major corporations are always looking to cut costs. By reducing steep fees incurred through traditional leases, you can save money! For example, instead of channelling budget into an expensive office where you need to “Buy furniture, pay for utilities, buy office equipment, and provide coffee and snacks, corporations can just pay a monthly fee to the coworking company and notice savings.”
Did you know that big players including IBM and Microsoft use coworking spaces because they “offer a lower-cost, lower-commitment, flexible entry into a particular market”?
Here at Waterman, Leasing Executive Lauren Schwab confirmed this trend, noting that “Since COVID-19, we have received new levels of enquiries from larger corporations looking to dismantle their pre-COVID workplace. Large ASX listed companies are talking to us and exploring flexible workspace options that are closer to home for their teams.”
#2 Enjoy Proven Productivity
If you put aside the external factors that impact one’s own productivity – whether it be personal or an unplanned crisis like a pandemic – productivity is a proven benefit from embracing a coworking space.
Creativity forms a buzz that even the stagnant can benefit from and since joining Waterman, surveyed Members noted amazing benefits including:
- An uplift in morale (44%)
- Hot desks and communal area helping staff who need their own space (45%)
Thinking about your own personal experiences to date, we’re sure you can agree that although it’s all well and good to be home [tucked up in your comfy clothes], there’s no equal to actually collaborating. You can be starved for socialisation and if the experiences from 2020 are as imprinted in your brain as ours, you won’t be willing to experience that starvation again.
#3 Retain Staff
Two words, one huge opportunity! Staff retention has a domino effect on invaluable things like your organisation’s culture, overall motivation and output, loyalty, customer satisfaction, as well as the relief of knowing you don’t need to hire and train someone new.
By investing in a space that screams collaboration and innovation, you’re offering your employees the opportunity to:
- Avoid long commutes
- Work their own way
- Collaborate without reprimand
- Become inspired by other’s drive and creativity
- Feel safe in a secure space
We know this success firsthand. With the introduction of conveniently located spaces at central locations like Chadstone Shopping Centre, Waterman Business Development Manager, Chris Jbeily noted that “Our annual coworking survey reported that 82% of our members value easy access to shopping centre amenities such as parking, retail, dining, banking and postal centres”.
#4 Improved Work Life Balance
“Flexibility is something business is prioritising now more than ever,” and an improved work life balance goes hand in hand with staff retention. As mentioned earlier in the success at Chadstone Shopping Centre, your staff are yearning for demonstrable flexibility and convenience.
“If you asked people what they love, it’s the flexible environment. People are accountable for their jobs, it’s up to them how and where and when they do that. The key difference is that we’re empowering people and making them more creative.“- Steven Miller, Microsoft Office Division Business Group Director
As we’re sure you experience yourself, there’s nothing worse than a long commute home when all you want is to spend quality time with the ones who matter most. Through locations close to home with amenities mere metres away, you’re signalling to your team that you understand and recognise what’s important [and valuable] to them.
