The onset of COVID-19 and its continued presence has brought about several unprecedented trends in office culture. Though many are eager to return to a work routine that includes some, or all, weekdays spent in an office setting, employers are reevaluating the necessity and worth of long-term leases. Moreover, the pandemic has practically obliterated the desire for open-style offices, which close to 70% of all offices in the U.S. are designed to reflect.
To solve the workplace issues raised by COVID-19, enterprises large and small are looking to flexible workspace options — such as coworking spaces — to satisfy their teams, providing an alternative to working from home that still foregrounds health and safety. Already, large corporations such as Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Royal Bank of Canada, and Slack have adapted their operations to include coworking, granting employees the option to either work from home some of the time or work from a shared office that’s near their home.
Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has set office “decentralization” in motion, enterprises are carefully reconsidering the logistics of their office setups. To combat the spread of germs and integrate better sanitation practices, decentralization and dividing up workers is the best way forward in prioritizing the health of their teams. But for teams of 50 to 100 to 250 employees, the question remains: what is the most efficient way to optimize flexibility and utilize coworking spaces?
The Hive – Kennedy Town in Hong Kong, one of several thousand coworking spaces that can be accessed with Coworker’s Global Pass.
Coworking passes: a powerful solution for enterprise teams
For enterprises that have employees stationed in several different cities or even on different continents, offering a coworking membership pass like Coworker’s Global Pass — which includes thousands of spaces in 105 countries — can be useful for several reasons.
Cost effective
For enterprises that want to offer their teams a perk like coworking access, subscribing employees to a flexible coworking membership pass is a much more cost-effective solution than relying on day passes. Accessing a day pass at a coworking space can be complicated, and even burdensome, to both the customer and the space. For one, pricing presents an issue. With the average cost of a day pass at $22 globally (equalling $660 a month), business owners might question the value and defer to a work-from-home structure for their employees instead.
With Coworker’s Global Pass, however, enterprises can purchase any number of coworking “credits” that can be used—or not used—by employees whenever they want. For instance, giving each employee five Global Pass credits per month (which equates to a mere $50) allows workers to utilize a flexible office on occasion, offering a much-needed change of scenery in addition to services such as printing, meeting rooms, and oftentimes 24/7 access. Furthermore, enterprises can coordinate a better work structure for their staff that encourages in-person collaboration—which a recent study by WeWork has shown is essential to team productivity.
As a result of the cost-effective nature of coworking passes, enterprises don’t have to worry about spending money on monthly memberships that their employees might only use once or twice a week.
Optimally flexible
Another reason why Coworker’s Global Pass is a powerful solution for enterprise teams is because of the flexibility that coworking passes offer. Teams can easily download the Coworker app, reserve a day of coworking at a space in their area, and quickly check into the space on their scheduled date. This type of transactional flexibility is important, as it lets employees get down to business without any hindrances or administrative processes. It also makes the process of scheduling a group meeting or an afternoon brainstorming session seamless and time-efficient.
Having a coworking membership to thousands of spaces is particularly advantageous for people who prefer flexibility in their work. Leaving for a trip tomorrow? Global Pass users can reserve a workspace within seconds through the Coworker app. Have a change of plans? You can just as quickly cancel a day of coworking and reschedule it to a new time or location in the future. No matter your schedule, the beauty of Global Pass is that it’s totally up to the user how they use their credited days of coworking.
After all, coworking spaces are called “flexible offices” for a reason—they are designed to offer the most flexible workspace option available, meaning employees can come and go as they please, take advantage of the space’s perks if they suit their interests, and use as much (or as little) of the space’s services on an as-needed basis. This type of added flexibility is critical for remote staff members in the post-COVID-19 work environment, who are looking for a simple alternative to working from home that better fits with their lifestyles and team expectations.
Increased agility
In addition to cost-efficiency and flexibility, enterprise teams can benefit from the increased agility that coworking membership passes provide. Depending on the available square footage, coworking spaces offer agility for growing teams that simply cannot be matched by traditional office leases. From designating a set grouping of hot desks to reserving several private offices, accommodations can be arranged in a variety of structures that perfectly meets the needs of the enterprise at their particular stage of development.
Only have five staff members working in Shanghai? With Global Pass, those five people can choose between over 30 different coworking spaces and try out different hot desks before deciding upon their favorite workspace. What about if you have 200 staff members in Shanghai? Through Global Pass, these 200 people can choose the coworking space that’s closest to their home, cutting down commute times and quickly locating workspace that can accommodate individual workers or groups. Giving teams the option to use Global Pass eliminates capital and operational expenditures, which means improved agility in terms of hiring and scaling.
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Though coworking is not a new trend among larger companies, it is one that more enterprises will be moving toward as a consequence of COVID-19. In any capacity, utilizing coworking membership passes as an enterprise is a valuable solution, providing the accessibility that employees want within the framework of a professional office environment.
Learn more about Global Pass for teams and discover Coworker’s full enterprise solutions here.
Feature photo credit: UNBOX in Dubai
