Every big company including Google, Facebook, and Apple is embracing the practice of coworking. Coworking — when carefully implemented — can be a big help to both small companies and large conglomerates. But is your company ready for coworking, and what exactly can you get from it?
What You’ll Need
Coworking involves assigning office personnel into more informal coworking or shared office spaces. First, you’ll need to acquire Cloud-scheduling software that can handle task management and storage. This allows your employees to work away from the office, similar to telecommuting from home. You’ll need software that can offer solutions to the various needs of your company as well as serve as a conduit to your coworking employees. You’ll need to rent workspace from an established coworking space.
Choose established brands as this will give you more flexibility as these brands have more workstations per location. You’ll want to keep your team together, especially when you’re exploring coworking for the first time. Established brands also give you access to more branches around the country.
The Upside
Coworking lets you expand your company without having to acquire more office space. Renting workspace in a shared office space is vastly less expensive than expanding an office. You won’t need to apply for extra permits and certifications, and you can get your employees working immediately. The coworking model also connects you to a network of freelancers who you can use when you have specific needs in a particular location.
You won’t rent an entire building merely for a 1-2 month campaign — but through coworking, you can have personnel in different locations serving different functions for minimal amounts of time. Coworking can increase the efficiency and productivity of your workers. It can reduce the stress they experience and raise their overall happiness. This gives your company better workers and keeps your turnover at a minimum.
The Downside
Coworking has its disadvantages, and the most obvious one is privacy. In a coworking environment, your employees will be around different people with different backgrounds. Most coworking spaces will not have standard office cubicles, so your employees’ workstations will be clear for people to see. You have no control over the security of a coworking space, so secrecy and privacy can be a huge problem.
Your choice of software becomes even more critical as you will need one that can provide safety from spyware and nasty viruses that can infect your mainframes. The lack of supervision is also a double-edged sword — good employees will perform better while bad ones will tend to idle away. You might need to strictly monitor their daily tasks to make sure they fulfill their allocated duties or perform their functions properly.
Coworking can reduce your overhead, expand the reach of your company, and make your employees more efficient and happier. It will need a bit of preparation on your part, but with the right software and the right location, you can make full use of coworking and all the benefits it offers.