Coworking is great for companies wishing to expand or initiate targeted projects in specific communities or locations. It comes with disadvantages and advantages, of course. However, your company can take steps to minimize the bad and make full use of the good.
What’s Good
Flexibility
Coworking spaces allow your company to expand the number of your employees without the costly overheads involved in an actual office expansion. You can also make use of freelancers as temporary employees on projects that have a limited duration.
Targeted Marketing
By co-working spaces, you can send teams to different locations to be more in touch with the local scene. They can tailor marketing strategies upon their arrival and give instant feedback and on-the-ground observations. Of course, you can employ local freelancers to do the job, but sending your team is a surer and more reliable option.
Efficiency
Coworking is proven to have a positive effect on worker efficiency. Discarding the usual office protocols, coworkers have more freedom to work how they wish and focus solely on their job. The unlimited number of breaks — and even the availability of console games to de-stress — has been proven to increase productivity, especially for the more creative types.
Worker Happiness and Turnover Ratios
The lack of supervision and strict hierarchies in coworking spaces make them less stressful on the people working there. Coworking employees are known to be happier and less stressed. This could be influencing the increased efficiency and is a factor in employee satisfaction and employee turnovers.
What’s Bad
Security
Coworking involves having your employees work outside of the company office. You have no control over the coworking space’s security, especially its data networks. You’ll need to acquire software that can support project management such as assigning various tasks, scheduling, and receiving output.
You’ll want it to use cloud-based project management so that it can be checked before getting into your companies private servers. Install the software in your coworking employees’ laptop and give them a little talk about not letting other people use their things. When it comes to the safety of your employees, there’s very little you can do aside from partnering with large established coworking brands that have stricter security protocols.
Privacy and Secrecy
The shared office setting of coworking spaces is hardly conducive to privacy and secrecy. Your employees will be mingling with other companies’ employees, and their workstations are exposed to anyone passing by. If your project requires secrecy, you might need to use the boardroom for meetings (most coworking spaces have these) or keep things within your company.
Lack of Supervision
The informal setting of coworking spaces and the lack of supervision will be an acid test for your employees’ work ethics. Driven workers will perform better, while slackers will lose focus of their work. You’ll get an inkling on which of your employees are truly dedicated to their jobs, but you might lose a few in the process.
Coworking can create big opportunities for your company, all while raising productivity as well as the overall happiness of your employees.
