Shared office space has gone from being a disruptive new trend to becoming the new normal in commercial buildings around the world – and in Cape Town.
In previous posts, we’ve covered the basics of shared office space; how to manage a shared office in your building, and how this type of layout can turn vacant office space into a profitable new business for building owners.
In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the fine art of setting up your shared office for maximum efficiency, productivity and team happiness levels. We delve a little deeper into agile workspace management as we look at how it can transform your commercial office space.
As the shared workspace market gets more competitive, agility is key
Any business serious about surviving and thriving in the 21st century places agility at the core of its philosophy. Co-working spaces are no exception to this rule.
A desirable shared office space needs to be set up to inspire productivity in its users – and it needs to be managed flexibly too.
- With a new co-working space opening around the world every 4 hours, the days when having a shared office environment was a novelty are long gone.
- As competition heats up, your co-working space will need to do more than offer free coffee and funky cube furniture – it needs to be a place where serious productivity takes place.
- Cramming too many desks into a standard office space to maximise profits, or offering so many lifestyle perks (like massages and games tables) can take away from the professionalism of your facility.
The agile workspace design and management approach is a great way to design and streamline your shared office space so that it becomes an enabling environment for great work to get done. Here’s how it works.
Agile workspace – a place where entrepreneurs meet, and amazing things happen
As a shared office space owner, your aim should be to attract as many talented entrepreneurs as possible, put them under one roof, and let the magic begin.
To do that, you’ll need to divide your workspace into different zones with each one corresponding to a specific type of activity. For example:
- Breakout areas – these consist of small tables where free discussions can take place.
- Silent zones – for quiet reflection and focused tasks. There should be no disruptions here.
- Reception lounge – for visitors and off-site team members who work remotely. These areas should be equipped with WiFi, charging docks and refreshments.
- Boardroom with presentation facilities and teleconferencing – for serious meetings and client interaction.
Having separate areas for each type of task that your office space users need to carry out will minimise distractions and ensure smooth relations between all your users.
The last thing you want is frustration – because that will drive users away to the comfort of their favourite coffee shop.
Agile management brings the coffee shop to them in the form of breakout and reception areas, while making quiet spaces and formal meeting rooms available for mission-critical tasks.
Multi-generational team integration is another benefit of agile workspace. Having enough spaces – with different levels of interaction between users – will allow millennials to share and collaborate to their hearts’ content while older workspace users enjoy the calm and quiet of private workspaces.
Marketing your agile workspace
Once your agile workspace is up and running, you’ll have plenty of selling points that will appeal to potential tenants.
To market your commercial property effectively, we’d like to offer you the expertise of our area experts. Contact the Commercial Space team today and let’s chat about your needs.
