This blog series of reasons to move into a shared workspace is critical for all organisations;
"to attract and then retain great staff."
Why is this reason so important to small business especially? Put simply, people work better when they love their work environment. And hiring, then retaining the best people is critical for organisational success, but particularly for those businesses in their formative stages.
Now, great design and corporate level amenities aren't staff motivators, but poor facilities are known to be major braking forces to staff motivation. Remember also that millennial workers care about such things more than boomers did, especially if they can't afford a nice house or flat to go home to after work. So why not make work their happy place?
And, let's be blunt here, most commercial landlords with small offices to lease, don't care about your work force. They don't care about staff satisfaction levels or retention rates. They don't even care if the carpets are worn or the paint work is stained, that is your problem as a tenant.
All landlords really care about is meeting the legal obligations like building warrant of fitness, then maximising their return on the building and any pre-existing fit-out. If you want cool design or nice facilities for your workspace, well this will come at a cost. Either in extra rent or extra lease commitments (think seven plus years), or most likely both.
Shared space providers however know this, and generally will have taken their facilities and services to a much higher level than you would find in a typical leased office space, or that you could justify spending as a small business tenant.
Even some large corporate or government tenants deliberately won't justify high-end facilities. But when it comes to competing for talent, where you are can be as important as who you are!
Top end amenities might include spa quality bathrooms and showers, with changing lockers, fresh bathmats and shower gel to enable staff to integrate exercise into their day. Some may even have gym equipment on-site.
Most coworking spaces will have at least one break-out area and larger ones will have several, with Koru styled lounges or recreation rooms with games like ping pong or pool. Each provider optimises their spaces according to the vibe (look and feel) they are creating, and prospective customers can compare offerings and choose a space that will best suit their needs.
A few spaces have really gorgeous cafe / kitchen spaces, designed for communal gatherings like shared lunches and morning teas, or just catching up for a coffee.
The kitchen and cafe area is usually the pumping heart and soul of any shared space because more than anything, a coworking space is about community.
The one thing that ALL shared spaces seem to have in common is that the organisations (small or large) really enjoy being there, and their staff love it too!
For a comparison see our: List of coworking spaces in the Hawke's Bay
or email or call us here for more information