As the Coworking industry continues to evolve, new trends are emerging to answer the progressing demands. From pet-friendly offices to futuristic space design, innovative and interesting concepts continue to surface in coworking spaces around the world.
Not too long ago, we put together a blog post on ‘5 niche Coliving spaces to look out for’. Now we turned to Coworking and set out to find the exciting options these spaces offer their visitors.
Read on to discover our selection of the top 5 new trends in Coworking.
Coworking with on-premise childcare
A growing trend in Coworking is offering full-time childcare on-premise. Finding effective, affordable childcare has become a major hindrance for parents to return to the workforce, and mothers in particular. Women disproportionately take on caregiving responsibilities when their family cannot find or afford child care, with damaging results to their careers. Thus, coworking spaces offering childcare not only make themselves an attractive option to parents of young children but also contribute towards gender equality.
Providing on-premise childcare offers numerous other benefits, including reducing the commute that parents traditionally have to make to pick up their child. This increases the valuable free time parents have with their children, while reducing the impact on the environment. Additionally, helping parents re-enter the workforce contributes towards economic growth and prosperity. Due to the positive outcomes of childcare in coworking spaces, we predict that this trend will continue to grow over the next years.
Niche coworking spaces
As is the case for niche coliving spaces, niche coworking spaces are becoming increasingly more popular. There has been an emergence of sites targeting different industries and professions, such as coworking for developers or musicians, spaces for entrepreneurs that encourage networking, and even locations dedicated to construction workers. Offering services tailored to the needs of the specific profession has evident benefits for the workers, as they can have ready access to everything they need in their line of work.
In addition to industry-targeted spaces, there has been an increase in coworking spaces catered to specific social groups and demographics, such as LGBTQ+ or women-only spaces, or different ideologies, like wellness-oriented spaces. Bringing together people with the same interests increases the feeling of community and enables collaboration with people working towards the same goal.
For the coworking spaces, targeting specific segments of the coworking population allows them to stand out from the abundance of spaces available. Spaces focusing on niches also tend to deliver faster growth and profitability. This trend has already been established in many major cities but is sure to grow even further in the future.
The corporate shift
Corporate coworking is a rising trend with many benefits for both businesses and their workers. While earlier, the Coworking industry tended to target entrepreneurs, freelancers, and digital nomads, today’s coworking spaces have set their sights on bigger targets as well.
Over the past few years, the historically rigid corporate environment has started offering more flexibility to its workers with remote working and fluctuating work schedules. Permitting employees to be in charge of their own work hours offers more work-life balance while increasing trust between employees and employers. Now, in the aftermath of COVID-19, this trend is expected to increase as even more corporations move towards coworking spaces.
For this shift towards corporate coworking to be successful, the spaces need to be able to offer different kinds of working environments to the corporations. Depending on the business, it might need access to meeting rooms and conference spaces, desk clusters for collaborations, and individual work desks.
Coworking for sustainability
With the climate crisis at the top of everyone’s mind, many have started to consciously take actions to reduce their carbon footprint. Among actions like reducing meat consumption and opting to buy second-hand rather than new, many only choose retail or service providers that have clear sustainability initiatives. This includes coworking spaces.
As an answer to the demands of sustainable-minded workers, there has been an emergence of green coworking spaces. To reduce their carbon footprint, some of these spaces get their power from renewable energy sources such as solar panels, others practice zero-waste, and most use energy-saving devices and appliances. By enabling the sharing of resources and services, they also reduce waste and unnecessary consumption.
As the need for sustainability will only grow in the coming years, we predict that the number of green coworking spaces will continue to steadily increase, and that many existing coworking sites will retrofit sustainable solutions to remain competitive.
Smart technology and management platforms
With the recent popularity of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IoT (Internet of Things), many sites have started to utilize smart technologies to provide their tenants with a seamless coworking experience.
Smart technology and integrations with various tools can automate certain operational tasks, creating a self-service culture within the space. For the tenants, streamlined operations can greatly enhance their coworking experience. Features such as smart printers and meeting room booking reduce or eliminate waiting times, increasing the workers’ productivity and satisfaction with the services provided.
For operators, management software helps manage the space and its resources, freeing up time and funds for other initiatives. Smart sensors can be used to save costs by turning off lights or ventilation for unused rooms and smart access control can provide instant access to the tenants while increasing security. Ultimately, effectively managing the coworking space with the aid of smart technology increases profitability, efficiency, and sustainability.
This concludes our list for the top 5 trends emerging in the Coworking industry, but we’re excited to observe even more trends that might make their way into your local coworking space. Now that you’ve seen our predictions, will you jump on the bandwagon and implement smart technology at your coworking space?
If you’d like to know even more about Coworking today, check out this unique book project by Coworkies: “Around the world in 250 coworking spaces”. The book contains carefully curated stories of people, spaces, and products that are actively transforming the workspaces of today, offering a comprehensive understanding of the diverse coworking world.
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SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control systems are easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!
