With coworking set to become the new way of work, you might be thinking about making the switch, but you’re still not 100% sure.
Well, after you’ve read our top 5 benefits of coworking space, we think you’ll have changed your mind.
Whether you’re a startup, freelancer or an employee of a fortune 500 company, coworking has never been so attractive and offers a wide range of benefits.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the key advantages of coworking space so you can see just how awesome it really is and why you should consider it today.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
Benefits of coworking space
- Great for your wellbeing
- Incredibly flexible
- Saves you money
- Great for productivity
- Opportunities to up-skill
Let’s cover each on the benefits in more detail.
1. Coworking is great for your wellbeing
Our first benefit of coworking is how it can significantly improve your mental health and wellbeing.
Coworking can be a real stress buster for some people. Working from home, or even from a traditional office with a rigid schedule can be difficult. Coworking can be a relief for some and provide a healthy way to work.
Working from home is not easy, there are plenty of distractions and no clear definition between home and work. Coworking offers a space dedicated for work, this brings a definite boundary between the two, removing home distractions, and ensuring that the two don’t get blurred.
If you currently work from home then swapping to coworking can have a significant positive effect on your wellbeing and mental health.
Similarly, working at a coworking space is great because of the wonderful community that you become a part of. Working from home, on your own, can become extremely lonely. Humans are social animals and depend on interactions, without which your productivity will collapse and more serious mental health issues could arise.
The community-based feel of coworking is beneficial because you will have a sense of belonging. Being in the right headspace when getting down to work can greatly increase your productivity and happiness.
One other thing that coworking does is it gives you control. Some job-based anxiety and stress stem from a feeling of being out of control. Coworking has the opposite effect, you are in control of everything, there’s no manager telling you how you should work or what you need to get done today.
You can choose where you work, when you work, how you work, you will have complete job control. This also highlights the flexibility that coworking offers, which brings us to our next benefit of coworking space.
2. Coworking is flexible
Number 2 on our list of the benefits of coworking space is the flexibility it offers. Coworking offers the greatest amount of flexibility of any kind of workspace, period.
Following on from the previous point, you make the decisions. There’s no HR manager sticking their nose in telling you how to work, it’s totally up to you.
If you like splitting your day into two with a workout in the middle, you can. If you like working late into the evening, you can do that. Are you an early bird? That’s fine too.
How your workweek looks is also up to you. Like working Saturdays and having Wednesday’s off? You can with coworking. Coworking spaces are incredibly accommodating to all kinds of schedules, allowing you to work in an environment that best suits you.
Once you’ve booked a coworking space, you can instantly move in as they are pre-furnished, there’s no need to wait for your desks and sofas to arrive. Similarly, all your utilities are set up and ready to go straight away, you just need the WiFi passcode and you’re all set. This is great if you need office space on a temporary basis, there are no delays. It really is plug-in and play.
Coworking also offers great versatility in the way you pay. Some coworking spaces even allow you to rent for as little as an hour. Even with more permanent coworking spaces, the minimum contract length will rarely be more than one month.
The contracts are also all-inclusive. You’ll have everything you need so you don’t have to worry about sorting anything out. This saves you time and money – another benefit.
3. Coworking saves you money
If office space is a necessity for you, then coworking is by far the most cost-effective choice. Our third benefit is how coworking space saves you money.
As I mentioned earlier, the contracts are simple and easy to understand with everything you need all bundled into one fee. This includes utilities, cleaning, access to amenities, you name it.
This is a far cry from traditional office space’s compartmentalised cost structure. Paying for everything separately can get extremely confusing, and ultimately waste your precious time and money.
Another issue with traditional office space is the fact that you have to pay for growing room, to cater for new employees, or risk outgrowing your office and having to end your lease early (which comes at a cost due to the ridiculously long minimum contract lengths).
With coworking space, if you’re a small team then you don’t need to pay for space that you don’t need. You generally pay per desk, so as you add members to the team, your cost will go up accordingly. You won’t end up paying for far more space than you need and wasting money.
Similarly, parts of your office that you don’t use all the time are shared. Amenities such as the kitchen, toilets, meeting rooms and so on can all be shared. This means shared costs for those spaces reducing your expenditure on space you don’t use all the time even further.
4. Coworking works wonders for your productivity
Another benefit of coworking space that is widely covered is the increase in productivity.
The previous benefits in this article all contribute to making coworking the most productive way to work.
Firstly coworking is wonderful for your wellbeing and mental health. We all know how productive we can be when we’re in the right headspace and mindset. Issues such as loneliness, stress and anxiety can lead to plummeting performance in the workplace.
Coworking helps to put you in a space where you enjoy work. It allows you to choose when, where and how you work. This means you can make the decisions that are appropriate for you, decisions that will help you work in the most productive way.
With these two points, your job satisfaction will skyrocket, and again, happiness and satisfaction at work equate to high productivity and great performance.
The sense of community and being part of a team is great for your motivation. Working in a coworking space, you will meet loads of new people. It’s such a flexible environment so coworkers come and go, meaning there are always fresh faces.
You’ll be able to make new friends and find people that inspire you, pushing your productivity higher than ever. Which brings us to our final greatest benefits of coworking.
5. Coworking provides opportunities to up-skill and be inspired
Our final benefit of coworking space, is that it offers endless opportunities to network, collaborate with other professionals and get inspired.
Especially in hot desking environments where cooperation between individual workers is highly encouraged. You will have access to countless like-minded professionals who are incredible at what they do.
This is great for you as it could lead to a new joint business venture, a new job or simply a great new friend. Networking is extremely important and having a strong network of professionals is lauded across the world of work.
Coworking also provides access to plenty of education and online courses which you can use to upskill. Coworking communities are not just the physical kind. The community’s online presence can be overwhelming.
Especially with large operators like WeWork or Regus, there are countless tutorials and online courses ready to help you learn something new. Regularly adding new skills to your resume is extremely effective and will allow you to have an incredible wealth of knowledge that employers simply can’t resist.
Benefits of coworking space for startups
The benefits of coworking space for startups and endless. But arguably the main two are cost and networking potential.
Startups don’t want to waste money on long-term, binding contracts. They want to be remain nimble and dynamic so they can react to new situations etc. Coworking certainly offer startups this in abundance.
Similarly, one of the best things a startup can do is go out there and tell the world about a new product. With the networking potential of coworking spaces, this is incredibly easy to do.
All in all, coworking spaces are great for startups and it’s no wonder so many up and coming businesses use these shared working environments.
Top 5 benefits of coworking
All in all, coworking has many awesome benefits!
Here’s a quick recap of what we covered above.
First, coworking is great for your wellbeing and mental health, the sense of belonging you feel when joining the coworking community is incredible and can have a really positive impact.
Second, the flexibility offered by coworking is second to none. You can choose how, when and where you want to work. You’re in control of your entire work life.
Third, it’s cheap! Not the tacky kind of cheap but the wow I can’t believe it costs so little kind of cheap. Sharing office space means sharing the cost.
Four, you will excel when working at a coworking space. All other points on this list contribute to improving your productivity. Job satisfaction is the most important, if you are happy with your job then your productivity will rise.
Five, the networking and collaboration opportunities are endless, literally. With new people turning up every day, you’ll never get bored.