Effective Coworking Space Management and Utilization Strategies
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Coworking offers enormous benefits for distributed and hybrid workforces. But to maximize the value of coworking, companies must manage and use the spaces strategically.
This article provides best practices for organizations to optimize their Coworking Spaces strategy. We'll cover choosing locations, overseeing operations, integrating technology, measuring utilization, and more. Follow these tips to improve the experience and ROI of company-sponsored coworking.
Locating Coworking Spaces
The first step is identifying locations that align to business needs:
- Map employees' addresses to determine where shared workspaces make geographic sense based on talent density and commutes.
- Assesswhether to use coworking brand networks or independent spaces. Chains allow employees to use any branded location, helpful for frequent travelers.
- Mix metro and suburban spaces to provide flexibility based on employee proximity to urban centers. Suburban coworking access can aid recruiting too.
- Locate near current offices for easy hybrid scheduling if some staff work onsite. Centralized spaces also simplify meetings.
- Consider coworking/coliving combos to recruit young talent open to shared housing arrangements too.
Strategic placement provides convenience and commute efficiency to encourage utilization.
Selecting the Right Spaces
Tour potential spaces in priority locations to assess amenities, layout, community, and culture fit.
- Evaluate spaces based on company branding and identity to choose spaces that align and impress employees + clients.
- Prioritize spaces conducive to productivity and collaboration. Open layouts, meeting rooms, events, and community foster engagement.
- Assess the availability of private offices for employees needing quiet heads-down work.
- Consider industry-specific spaces if they provide networking and partnership opportunities.
- Vet the community to ensure diversity and inclusion values align.
Top providers like iFusionSpaces offer enterprise services to customize and brand spaces too.
Structuring Agreements and Pricing
When negotiating coworking agreements, consider:
- Opting for enterprise or corporate rates since companies use more space and services than individuals. Rates may run 10-30% below published pricing.
- Securing member pricing across locations if utilizing a major brand's network. Multi-city deals provide savings.
- Purchasing a set number of desks or offices per month but allowing dynamic scheduling of the spaces to accommodate flexible headcount.
- Building in conference room hour banks so teams can reserve as needed versus paying per use.
- Negotiating longer term agreements such as 12-24 months in exchange for discounts below month-to-month rates.
- Allocating a services budget for employees to access coworking programming and events locally.
Optimizing Space Usage
Coworking space goes underutilized if companies don't actively encourage and track participation.
- Promote the coworking benefit during onboarding, in employee messaging, intranets, etc. Reinforce frequently.
- Outlining scheduling protocols for reserving desks and meeting rooms. Simple is best, such as through shared calendars.
- Enable employees to customize their office hours across corporate offices and coworking based on team and personal needs.
- Incentivize coworking participation through contests, recognition, or requiring a certain number of days per month/quarter.
- Track member check-ins and space usage to identify opportunities to improve utilization.
- Conduct user surveys and focus groups to solicit feedback on how to enhance their experience.
- Designate community leads at each space to coordinate events and assist onsite employees.
Integrating Technology
Technology and apps improve the user experience:
- Leverage coworking space apps to enable reservation booking, community messaging, event signup, etc.
- Embed coworking space details into company intranet sites, dropdown location lists, email signatures, and calendars.
- Enable virtual check-ins and access through smart locks and touchless entries.
- Use productivity and collaboration software suites employees already know vs. standalone coworking apps.
- Build integrations between coworking apps and internal systems like Slack, employee directories, IT systems.
- Supply team collaboration technology like large monitors, whiteboards, and projectors in coworking conference rooms.
Seamless technology minimizes friction accessing and working from any location.
Measuring Performance and Utilization
Analyze coworking spaces like any business investment:
- Track usage rates such as percentage of available seats filled, meeting room bookings, etc. Set monthly and quarterly utilization goals.
- Calculate cost per employee versus traditional space. Divide total coworking costs invested by number of employees using the space.
- Survey employee satisfaction with amenities, convenience, etc. and resolve pain points surfaced.
- Assess productivity and output when working from the space versus home offices.
- Consider community engagement such as attendance at events, partnerships formed, etc.
- Measure timesavings from reduced commutes when employees utilize closer coworking locations.
Analyzing metrics helps guide where more promotion or investment is needed and informs future expansion decisions.
Planning an Enterprise Coworking Strategy
Effectively integrating coworking into real estate requires advance planning:
- Project headcount growth across locations to determine space needs over a 3-5 year period.
- Calculate the financial tradeoffs between traditional leased space versus coworking for budgeting.
- Determine policies for hybrid vs. fully remote employee use of space, if applicable.
- Model scenarios for fluctuating team sizes in different markets each year to rightsize coworking offices.
- Develop reservation protocols for desks, offices, meeting rooms, event spaces that align to company tools.
- Assess culture implications and strategies for distributed teams across owned, coworking, home office spaces.
- Plan a rollout timeline identifying target locations, change management required, and key dates.
Thoughtful strategy and change management enable smooth adoption of shared work environments.
Realize the Potential of Coworking
The office landscape is changing. To attract talent and enable flexibility, companies are integrating coworking into real estate portfolios like never before.
Follow these tips to manage coworking spaces strategically for maximum benefit. Reach out to providers like iFusionSpaces to explore enterprise services tailored to your organization and culture.
When leveraged effectively, company-sponsored coworking unlocks immense value through greater connectivity, collaboration, and agility. Unleash your distributed workforce.
Read about more: What are Coworking Spaces and How Do They Differ from Traditional Offices?