HOW COWORKING BREEDS THE EVERYTHING EXPERIENCE FOR THE MILLENNIAL WORKFORCE
By Manas Mehrotra, Chairman, 315Work Avenue The work culture has gone through a massive transformation in the recent past and so are the preferences of the millennial workforce. Today’s workforce is vibrant and flexible and coworking has given them the exact dose of their desire. It is the cool factor that has made coworking space to be so hot and trendy at present. Gen Z looks out for ‘the everything experience’ at the workplace and realizing this requirement, a few co working players have put up the platter for them conceptualising and initiating various community-centric engagements along with understanding the professional and personal needs of the workforce. While recent reports indicate at extensive crowding in the coworking space over the last couple of years with the sector taking up a significant 13% of the total transacted office space last year, it would not be an easy task to offer ‘the everything experience’ by several minor players. Getting into the co-working business may seem easier but being able to thrive isn’t that easy as coworking works around a framework of design, technology, community building and customer service that sums up to provide ‘the everything experience’ under one roof. Being unable to be a capital-intensive and customer-centric business dominated by retail and hospitality, several players in the co-working space have not been able to sustain and have begun stepping out. However, only handful of companies and their intricately designed services will be able to live up to their ethos and embrace consolidation in the coworking space and make them stand out in all ways. A few companies come with an array of benefits and are ready to offer ‘the everything experience’ under one roof. The life of the millennial workforce is defined by the era of the internet and the emergence of social media and for this super-connected generation, connectivity is a must component at the workplace. Agility and the ability to keep pace with the changing digital needs are what make a workspace comfortable for these digital geeks and are well-armed to deal with their technological requirements. Flexibility at the workplace, vibrant and cheerful designs to boost up morale, an energetic and convenient vibe that leads to creativity and inspiration and a platform for engagement and interchange of innovative ideas have become the foremost priorities of the millennial workforce. From IT to housekeeping to food and snack bar open for 24/7, co-working covers it all. They offer the flexibility of either designing one’s own working space or handpicking from the design that is customised as per client requirements. Starting from maintaining health and safety at the workplace at par with international standards to organising team-building sessions and entertainment activities, their platform is the hub of enhanced productivity for the employees and provide ‘the everything experience’. Today’s workforce is moving towards reinventing their careers with every tick on the clock and coworking acts as a button to revamp their career path. It provides the space to engage and interact with other community members and brings wider scope for career growth and development. Intra and inter-team networking and collaboration have become one of the key features of shared working space. Conducting talks, training sessions and workshops to enable one to harness their interests and providing short cut access to angel investors are some of the additional pleasures they offer. Gone are the days when corporates used to spend a lot of time and money to hire employees through conventional interviewing and training procedures. The new work culture has made corporates seek other ways of pulling in the appropriate talent, of which, coworking is one of the primary modes of doing so. This is because, shared office spaces have become a hotspot of a large number of emerging talents, starting from talented freelancers to efficient and skilled teams to tech nerds. Hence they provide the corporates an easy access to energetic talent. Coworking gives the millennial workforce the key to becoming socially responsible and meets its appetite for being a social contributor. Shared working spaces open up new avenues for the corporates to provide their employees with an opportunity to volunteer for a social cause. Gen Z does not prefer restricting career opportunities at one place and looks out for exploring jobs at different workplaces in various locations. This is where coworking comes with the flexibility of being leveraged at multiple, newer locations. Greener spaces have become the order of the day with the global trend of green revolution and reduction in carbon footprint taking place at present. Such work spaces are the advocate of a touch of greenery and nature that opens up ways to help workers relax, de-stress and increase productivity. It has become essential to meet with the changing demands and coworking is constantly striving towards offering ‘the everything experience’, thereby giving leverage to commercial real estate space to a great extent. Not just start-ups, several top-notch corporates are switching over to coworking over traditional office layouts to bring the very best out of their employees.
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