Quality infrastructure to employee motivation, how co-working is cardinal

Co-working spaces, the creative concept to host professionals from diverse walks of life, has been growing more and more popular in the present era. The hybrid working module brings flexibility to the overall working structure and mostly freelancers, remote workers, entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals leverage these spaces to increase their creative and productive credibility. The key social aspects that make the shared working spaces attractive for professionals include collaboration, network creation, socialization and sharing of creative ideas to develop and generate new business opportunities within a high-end working infrastructure.

The remote offices have been preferred by the growing businesses since while boosting collaboration, interaction and networking, they are well-equipped with technology state-of-art facilities and are aesthetically lucrative. Furthermore, the high-end working infrastructures are cost-effective, making them a smart choice for start-ups and small and medium enterprises.

The innovative and creative co-working spaces basically offer workspaces for employees of multiple organizations to work in close proximity in a flexible and shared office environment. According to surveys, start-ups are expected to lease 1.3 times more co-working spaces from 2022-24 than in 2019-21. The co-working office spaces are steadily becoming a popular choice and have been in growing demand in tier II and tier III cities.

Several surveys have stated that a well-designed and well-organized workplace, with opportunities for co-working, generates higher levels of productivity than the conventional office-based work environment. Thereby, more employees and employers, especially in India have been encouraging the work culture in a communal space rather than in offices.

The co-working places have a major impact on the mental health of an employee as working in isolation can increase work-related stress and reduce the performance of an individual. Especially for freelancers, lone workers, self-employed individuals or those regularly working from home, the co-working spaces provide a major opportunity for socialization, networking and collaboration; thereby escalating their creative potential. The co-working spaces help professionals to deal with work-related stress by reducing feelings of anxiety and loneliness as they get the opportunity to work with like-minded individuals under one roof.

While co-working spaces are generally created to welcome diverse employees, it has driven the need to give priority to certain employee-friendly measures like making entrances easily accessible with ramps, elevators, and automatic doors, providing special equipment like adjustable desks and accessible bathrooms; thereby encouraging a stress-free work environment. Also, considering that some employees might refer to work in their personal spaces, freestanding cubicles are generally placed wherever required and these can be re-configured at any time. This allows employees to work personally and also the cubicles can be restructured to create a larger space where employees can work collaboratively.

Studies have also uncovered that back pain, arm pain, and musculoskeletal disorders are the most common complaints among employees. Hence, co-working spaces are designed with ergonomic furniture like height-adjustable desks and ergonomic chairs. Also, dynamic co-working spaces focus on the mental and physical well-being of the employees by organizing weekly yoga classes and having spaces for employees to hang out or play indoor games.