An increasing number of companies are adopting hybrid work models where employees split time between working in the office and working remotely. Experts predict that by 2025, over 50% of jobs could be hybrid.
Hybrid work allows companies to hire people regardless of where they live. It also gives employees more flexibility over when and where they work. However, managing teams that are spread out in different places does come with some big challenges.
Some issues that come up are:
- Employees feel disconnected from the culture and each other
- Managers have a hard time monitoring if remote workers are productive
- Businesses aren’t sure if they need more or less office space
A popular solution many companies are using is called coworking spaces. Coworking spaces are shared offices that individuals or companies can use flexibly. If a business makes a coworking space its designated remote office, it can help address many hybrid work struggles.
Having all remote employees work from the same coworking location allows them to still connect in person. Coworking spaces also have staff, amenities, and technology so workers can stay productive. And since coworking memberships are flexible, it keeps real estate costs variable for companies embracing hybrid models.
As hybrid work keeps evolving to become more standard, finding effective ways of using a coworking space will be key for more and more businesses.
Establishing a Culture Across Locations
A major struggle with hybrid work is nurturing a cohesive company culture when employees are dispersed across different sites. Scheduling regular all-hands meetings where everyone dials in can help, as can ensuring teams collaborate through digital channels. However, it’s still easy for remote workers to feel disconnected.
Coworking spaces can foster community and culture for offsite employees. The vibrant social settings allow for meaningful interactions and relationships between professionals working for different companies. Assigning a coworking location as the go-to satellite office for a company’s distributed workers can help them feel less isolated.
Maintaining Productivity and Oversight
Managers often express concern about the ability to monitor productivity with a distributed workforce. Coworking spaces can assuage some of these worries. Many provide infrastructure like high-speed internet, printing, office supplies, and front desk staff. This allows employees to maintain efficiency without the company needing to supply satellite offices themselves.
Coworking spaces also often use community management platforms that let companies track entry/exit times and run utilization reports for their remote workers. This grants helpful visibility and metrics on employees using the space.
Optimizing Costs
Real estate is typically one of an organization’s largest costs. Embracing remote work allows companies to reduce expensive central office space in prime locations. However, failing to provide any physical workspaces for employees can hurt morale, culture, and collaboration.
Coworking spaces allow businesses to rightsize their space needs while still offering office options. The flexible month-to-month commitments keep costs variable versus fixed long-term leases. As hybrid policies develop and space needs change, it’s easy to scale up or down.
Navigating the realities of implementing hybrid models means addressing challenges like maintaining culture, oversight, and optimal budgets across distributed workforces. Embracing coworking spaces helps tackle many of these concerns by supplying professional, collaborative environments for remote employees. As hybrid work continues evolving, leveraging coworking spaces as satellite offices will only grow in popularity.