For any organization to work hard and rise, everything depends on the performance of its employees. Directly affecting company sales, employee productivity tells a lot about the organization’s work culture and value system. To complete projects on time and even work on deadlines, it is essential that the employee is comfortable and has an active workspace.
The prime responsibility of the employer is to take care of the employees. This includes providing a work-friendly environment too. Casual, fun, and tech-savvy office spaces are not an alien concept. A vibrant, aesthetically rich office space sparks creativity, and innovation.
Managed office spaces make this impossible task very feasible and possible by creating these extravagant yet flexible and modern spaces.
Alternatives like managed office spaces and offices on rent are great saviors, especially in the 21st century. By 2024, there will be more than 40,000 coworking spaces which tells us a need for a new work environment to enhance the overall progress.
Some studies show the effect of the work environment on productivity as well the overall progress of the employee. The traditional offices had a very monotonous look and feel making them boring places to work. With no option for customization, traditional spaces feel overwhelming to work from and hence people choose to work from home whenever possible.
While we are at the employee productivity in the office space, let us look at some factors of the work environment that affect it .
Modern Infrastructure
The most common yet essential problem of traditional spaces is the infrastructure.
The cubicle structure, with no additional spaces, congested meeting rooms, and the traditional setups were designed to be functional enough.
With the changing times and especially after the pandemic, people are habitual to having a private space for working and some chill-out spaces to refresh and take breaks.
The same needs to be inculcated in the offices with ergonomic furniture, multi-purpose meeting rooms, private pods, and spacious lobbies with ample light and air ventilation.
Changing the look and feel of the office space changes the mindset of the employees as well. With all the necessary technology available and infrastructure personalized, they feel motivated to work boosting their productivity and inventing new ideas.
Collaborative Professionals
Good infrastructure can motivate people to come to offices and work but having a collaborative environment will make all the difference. The traditional spaces had a problem with a rigid structure and so discussing or collaborating on new ideas was sought of tedious.
Having collaborative professionals in a workspace is essential for progress. They help in figuring out the issues and bugs and provide necessary feedback. For a team to excel in their work, they need to have collaborative leads and open and transparent communication.
The advantage of coworking spaces is that there are all types of professionals coexisting in the same place. This can help the employees to be creative with their work and at the same time learn new skills.
For example, if a team has a project to build an application for digital marketing but needs more knowledge about the domain. The same building has a digital marketing agency as well. This team can collaborate with the agency to not just complete the project on time but come up with new ideas depending on their interaction with the professionals.
Comfortable and Fun Office Spaces
Most people working in multinational companies and huge infrastructural facilities often complain about not having fun office setups. The new concept of fun and comfortable office space is the attractive decor, stimulating colors, bean bags, coffee stations, and chill-out zone. Abandoning the allocated desk, people can opt for any of the corners of the office that can help them get the job done as well as improve their performance.
Inculcating game zones and fun rooms are also a part of the new normal now. Foosball tables, carrom boards, chess, TT table even video games, are all provided by coworking spaces. They help to calm the tension and revitalize the work.
Work-Life Balance
Coworking spaces are known for building a stress-free environment. The motto is to improve the quality of work rather than just the quantity of work. Rather than spending a whole day without any motivation and still not being able to match deadlines hampers productivity as well the work-life balance.
Maintaining a work-life balance doesn’t only mean working for a dedicated number of hours and then getting back to life, it also means having flexibility about where to work and when to work. Coworking helps in this aspect as well. It gives employees a chance to decide their working hours and still provides all the necessary technology and equipment. It gives a disturbance-free environment to focus on the work.
Having a work environment to take care of the stress and disturbance around improves the quality of work hence improving their overall performance.
Dedicated Spaces for Recreational Activities
Dedicated spaces for activities like yoga and wellness, gyms for fitness, and swimming pools. Some of the coworking spaces even have daycares so parents can focus on work while their infants are in the same building.
Taking care of employees’ physical as well mental health is very important. So dedicated spaces for such activities become crucial.
Annual events such as social gatherings, sports activities, cultural fests, and outdoor tours are also a part of employee engagement. It gets a competitive spirit while they are enjoying the time spent with their peers. To achieve employee satisfaction, coworking provides dedicated spaces for all such activities.
Ease of Commute
Traveling to the office spaces is one of the major factors affecting work-life balance and the overall progress of the employee. Working from the office means traveling for 1-2 hours to and fro. Coworking comes to the rescue here. People can choose spaces located near their homes and book themselves a workstation. This reduces the travel time substantially and gives them an office to work from.
There are multiple coworking spaces listed by the companies that the people can choose from and travel to headquarters only on necessary days.
Inclusion and Diversity
When people can coexist in an office space, it reflects in their work ethics and professionalism. With coworking spaces and multiple professionals regardless of their designation, gender, and pay scale, it gives a sense of inclusion of all and respect for each other.
Variation and diversity are equally important for work productivity. Instead of interacting with the same people in the cubicles, coworking gives a chance to communicate with people from different professions.
Coworking allows you to build a network and broaden the horizon of the people you are interacting with. It gives a chance to build a community together. This gives a sense of belongingness and boosts confidence improving the work progress.
Networking Opportunities
We are aware of how coworking helps in networking. They even provide abundant learning occasions. Mentorship programs from field experts, social gatherings for different professions, and workshops included in the work culture gives a platform for learning and experiencing excellence firsthand. They help employees to understand the growing technologies, and skills they need to survive in the future and provide them with guidance to do so.
Coworking also encourages events based on interests. So other than facing the pale walls and laptops throughout the day, coworking arranges for activities/ workshops to help you build new hobbies and passions.
Open Spaces
According to an article in The Royal Society, transforming a traditional office setup into an open, transparency-enabled architecture with fewer boundaries and walls triggers social interaction to a great extent.
In the post-pandemic world, where people are habitual of working alone from their homes and minimizing social interaction, open office spaces can improve social meetings and interactions. Of course, people will try to protect their privacy by using headphones or appearing busy, but once in a while, the motivation to work will go away. On such occasions, having a big crowd working and collaborating peacefully will help every individual and can enhance their productivity.
Include Natural Vegetation
The designs of the coworking spaces are working on including natural vegetation as a part of their infrastructure. Even some studies show that including plants in your workplace maintains inner peace and gives a relaxing feeling. They help improve productivity by reducing stress and making the workplace more attractive as well.
It also helps in reducing the employee’s sickness by absorbing the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere of the spaces. The hanging pots and sections having planted pots make the atmosphere lively.
According to an author told ScienceDaily that enriching the traditional places with plants, served to increase productivity by 15 percent. Plants make people feel welcomed and at home. They can increase human happiness levels. All these factors are directly impacting the work progress of the people working in such places.
Conclusion
Still not convinced with the perks of coworking when it comes to the work environment? People nowadays are choosing coworking to improve their productivity and it eventually helps in maintaining a good work-life balance and having a positive approach. Compared to the traditional setups where people were obligated to go and it felt like a compulsion, coworking spaces make you feel like having an option from where to work and how to collaborate with people.
Norah is a food and sports lover. She likes to do yoga and body weight exercises. She completed her high school and doing college in Amsterdam.