Everythig you need to know about The Future Of Coworking Trends

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the current workplace trends. As the world is trying to adjust to the current remote working trend, many still prefer co-working places over working from home. According to a study by Iqra (Hafee et al. 2019), Behavioral as well physical environmental factors all help in promoting an employee's health and productivity, and these factors are hard to find at home, thus it’s leading to the popularity of co-working workplace trends. Most freelancers prefer co-working places instead of home-based setups as it helps them stay focused and increases productivity and quality of their work, and the same goes for the work from the home trend.

9 Future Coworking Trends You Probably Don't Know About:

Are you feeling a change in your work practices? Then these 9 predictions might help you go through this change:

1.Shifting to Remote Work:

The traditional workplace gives total control over the employees during their working hours. The company's sense of control felt threatened with the rise of remote work during the pandemic. However, soon they realized that there are as many pros to the remote working trend as there are cons.
So, if companies can recognize the root of the problem, then they can weigh the pros to cons and cater to the cons and get more efficient and productive employees while saving costs. The following are some pros and cons of remote working:

The PROS:

• Employees feel more relaxed by losing their employer's control over them.
• Increased employee morale, productivity, and performance.
• Flexible working hours (employees can work at their best).
• Companies save costs on office spaces and supplies.
• The employees and employer become more technology aware.

The CONS:

• Employees might get more relaxed, less focused, and distracted at home.
• A poor working environment can lead to a decrease in employees' productivity.
• Less interaction between employees can lead to lowered motivation and awareness.
• Lower check and balance can lead to a high turnover rate.
• Loss of human touch.

Due to the above-mentioned cons, companies usually prefer to invest in co-working spaces and benefit from the benefits like no other.

2. The rise of automation:

The diversity of people in a co-working space works as a double-edged sword for the owner of the place. The diverse nature of a co-working place not only works as a customer appeal point, but can also be quite burdensome in terms of cost and customer satisfaction for the space owner.
As different people working for different fields in different companies have different working hours, which might lead to hiring extra workforce for their management. But as usual, technology can yield a long-term cost-effective solution with which the owner won't have to hire any additional workforce.
This automation rise is what has given birth to the concept of "automated workspaces", where technology solutions are adapted for a 24/7 operating co-working space with less workforce. The technology solutions are in the form of:

• Biometric or card-based entry and exit.
• Surveillance cameras for monitoring.
• Special Automated software for specialized tasks (like billing, timesheet, room booking, etc.).
• Touchless Automated hardware (like printers, RFID door access, vending machines, etc.).
• Security cameras for surveillance.
• And many more.

3. Branding and Marketing:

Branding and marketing work hand in hand with each other. A good brand with flop marketing can make all the branding work go to waste, similarly, good marketing without branding can lead to a high customer turnover rate.

A positive and strong brand image can go for a long time. It is important to invest a substantial budget in branding, especially during these COVID-19 times. Make the branding positive enough to attract valuable customers to the point that whenever even the work co-working space is mentioned, the first thing that comes to their mind is you.

If you want to acquire long-term customers, then you need to focus on compelling discounts and offers. To spread more awareness about your co-working space, use digital marketing. Build a website, with SEO empowered details, blogs, and articles to drive traffic to your site. The website should hold complete updated details about the space so that potential customers can satiate their curiosity and questions from the website alone and decide fast.

The following are some of the features that your website should have:

• Professional pictures and videos of the space.
• Clear-cut and transparent pricing and policies.
• Complete contact information (from location to contact number).
• Updated discounts and offers.
• Updated Social media links and sharing buttons.
• Detailed services and promotions information.

Once your website is up and running, half of your work is now complete and now you can focus on running digital advertisements that link back to your website. This might look costly at first, but is a one-time investment that can reap more returns than the investment.

4. Birds of a feather stick together:

Selective membership can lead to the co-working space becoming a community with people of similar interests working together and adding more value to the existing community. This method can not only boost morale, but can also lead to longtime customer benefits.

By gathering people of similar interests together, space becomes more harmonious and can lead to the people working there creating more connections and collaborations. "Birds of a flock stick together" will not only attract more customers but will also make the customers stay longer by providing a workplace-like environment.

Field-centric vs Diverse Community Workspaces: By making the workspace field-centric, you will not need to apply the selective membership approach, but the space itself will attract people of the targeted field/niche.

A diverse workspace might require more maintenance and management than a niche-specific one. This also reduces cost, as the services need to be designed for only specific niche-related customers.

Niche-specific workspaces also help in building new connections and collaborations with people of the same industry. The workspace now acts as a community working towards the same goal while helping each other out.
It is not only the customers who benefit from such an idea, but also the space owners. As they now only must cater to a specific community of people rather than a diverse community.
Niche-specific workspaces do not necessarily mean people within the same field working together, they can aggregate people based on:

• Their gender (e.g., female-only spaces).
• Their roles (e.g., Parent only spaces).
• Their skills (e.g., Co-working kitchens).
• Field and Skill Specific (e.g., Laravel developers).

6. The Hybrid Workspaces Evolution:

Instead of creating only co-working spaces, hybrid co-working spaces are also a thing now. Some restaurants serve customers in the daytime and become co-working kitchens at night.

Hybrid co-working spaces are cost-effectual with high benefits for both the owner and the customers. The customers can enjoy the benefits of the space, without applying for any kind of membership, and can also work at the same time.

People can not only work but can also attend networking events, seek new opportunities, meet mentors, and much more. The Hybrid co-working space is an ingenious idea that is slowly evolving and will be seen even more in the future. It serves as a win-win opportunity for both the owner and the customer.

7. Multi-location Workspaces:

Multi-location workspaces are another trend whose benefits will be seen even more in the future after COVID-19 when the co-working business owner will start to expand and scale their business. Then the customers will be able to benefit from global membership passes, through which they can access workspaces in other branches other than the current one they are working in. By multi-location workspaces it means that the service provider remains the same, it is just that the customer can now use any branch of the workspace they are registered with. Now imagine a co-working space having multiple branches, e.g., in the US, China, and Pakistan. This means that businesspeople can access these places without any extra charges if they are to travel due to work in any of the above-mentioned countries.

8. Modern Intelligent Designs:

It is important to adopt new modern living trends to make the co-working spaces unique and attract more customers. Instead of old dense cabins fitted in a small space, the new spaces will be focused more on wide-open eco-friendly spaces.
Instead of the design being only catered towards it being a working place, more focus should be placed on making the space more relaxing and comfortable. The spaces will be equipped with the following spaces:

• Presentation rooms.
• Discussion rooms.
• Telecom rooms.
• Relaxation rooms.
• Cafeterias. Etc.

These new modern spaces will be equipped with a touch of nature in the working space.

CONCLUSION:

The Covid-19 has changed many things; one of them is the future of the co-working space, evolving from being a simple working place to a community of workers working together towards a common goal. These changes are not just a temporary trend, but they are here to stay, and that for a long time. So, it is better to adopt these changes ASAP and make a name in the co-working industry.

Reference:

Hafee, I. et al. (2019) ‘Impact of workplace environment on employee performance: Mediating role of employee health’, Business Management and Education, 17(2), pp. 173–193.