Flexible shared office spaces — co working spaces — are now a firmly established option for businesses and workers looking for an alternative work environment.
The Market for Shared Workspaces Is Growing at a Blistering Pace
Between 2016 and 2018, the flexible workspace market grew by over 45 percent. That was an increase of over 27 million square feet of office space. The scale of growth for some markets is on another level; cities like Dallas, Boston and Seattle have seen amounts of co working space double in the last 18 months.
Co working Is Popular with the Tech Sector
While flexible workspaces account for only 1.1% of all workspace in all metropolitan areas, that percentage nearly doubles for markets with a large tech presence. The growth of the gig economy for high technology jobs is likely to be fueling this popularity.
Flexibility Has Become More Important to Established Businesses
Businesses with permanent office space are using the increased availability of co working environments to give their employees the ability to explore new areas. Studies have shown that among employees of larger companies, 1 in 7 utilize co working space. Short-lived teams can utilize short-term leases in flexible workspaces to carry out their projects with more efficiency. Larger businesses also see co working spaces as opportunities to access the start-up community, which tends to be a resource for new ideas and talent.
Most People Use Co working Spaces around One Day a Week
The benefits that workers get from a flexible workspace are less about the work environment and more about the simple access to an alternative work area. Research shows that people who use co working spaces have higher levels of productivity, but those same people report using their co working space between 0-20% percent of their work week.
With the public’s growing interest in co working and shared offices, companies will need to find exhaustive solutions to their tenants’ complex office access needs. Remote Lock provides a secure, cloud-based approach to co working space access control.
