Plenty of on-demand space operators have space to lease for your hybrid work strategy, but not all on-demand space operators are equal. Many of them aren’t even on-demand. The good news is, the space you need, when you need it, is out there – you just have to rely on the right network.
Efficiency matters, too. There are satellite offices in need of launching, hubs in need of spokes, nomadic workers in need of occasional moorings. Quantity of space isn’t the challenge — billions of square feet of office space is currently sitting idle — it’s quality of space, ease of access, ease of use, and overall workplace experience.
It’s the network, in other words, and in today’s increasingly decentralized work environment, the bigger your network is, the better off you’ll be.
The space you need, when you need it
If today’s workplace has no limits, it’s also true that no two blueprints for workplace success are the same. In his seminal guide on the new era of work, The Four-Way Fit, Mark Gilbreath, CEO of LiquidSpace, lays out three key considerations for provisioning the space an organization needs to succeed.
- Consider where your space needs to be located. Maybe it’s a primary U.S. market like New York or San Francisco. Maybe it’s a more remote location like Estes Park, CO or Santa Fe, NM. Maybe you need a network of spaces close to where your employees reside. Maybe you need a centralized hub for culture building and organizational alignment. Maybe the answer is all of the above.
- Consider what types of space are available. Different space environments are conducive to different forms of work – concentration, collaboration, coworking. Additionally, your team may need or prefer hot desks, private offices, or conference rooms to accomplish their tasks. Meetings, brainstorming sessions, client presentations – what types of activities does the space need to accommodate?
- Consider the quality of the environment. Natural light? Ergonomic chairs and dual display monitors? Lightning-fast internet speeds? What matters most to your colleagues? How flexible will your physical space need to be? Health and safety protocols will certainly be a priority, particularly for spaces focused on collaboration and coworking.
Access is everything
Now that you’ve determined what types of space you need, and how frequently you need them, how do you access that space? After all, a flexible space provider is only as useful as its inventory of on-demand space is ample.
Armen Vartanian, Senior Vice President of Global Workplace Services at Okta, says, “One challenge (in the new era of hybrid work) is going to be ensuring this new workplace model is effective for employees wherever they’re located. A truly flexible work model means folks are working from different time zones, from different locations, from offices, third spaces, service offices, from home. You have to create an equitable experience, one that keeps employees engaged, regardless of where they are.”
Are office marketplaces all the same? Plenty of providers connect customers to flexible space, whether it’s a meeting place for an afternoon or a team space for a month. However, not all companies have the same depth and breadth of spaces at their disposal. ShareOffice, for example, is limited to space offerings in Switzerland. Bureaux a Partager is limited to France. Most providers are geo-constrained in one way or another. And not all providers offer the space you need when you need it. The importance of agility in the new normal can’t be overstated. Truly on demand workspace is both a differentiator and a game changer.
What about partnerships?
As the office market continues to shift to a post-pandemic reality, strategic partnerships have emerged, as space providers scramble to add inventory in order to satisfy the demands of our rapidly expanding hybrid workplace world.
What about these exclusive partnerships? At a glance, a merger gives the illusion of more – more space, more convenience, more perks. Plenty of reasons to fork over the monthly membership fee, no? Well, no. Mergers can seem attractive, they’re splashy, they garner their share of PR, but exclusivity can be more burden than benefit.
In the first place, in a global office market inundated with available space, memberships lock you into a network. What happens if the space you need isn’t available in that network? If your space requirements are exacting, and the inventory you’re searching is limited, it’s conceivable you could wind up going outside your network to find what you’re looking anyway.
What if the space your team needs isn’t available on the date that you need it? What if it isn’t available right now? On-demand is exactly what it sounds like. If your space provider can’t keep pace with the pace of your business, you may want to rethink your strategy.
Finally, quality may be the biggest consideration. For providers eager to secure portfolio bragging rights, space has become a numbers game. It’s less about the quality than the sheer number of listings in their inventory. That’s a race in the wrong direction. Quality of space suffers as a result, and quality of space translates directly to quality of experience – which is what you’re paying for.
Conclusion
And that brings us to LiquidSpace, the largest real-time network for flexible workspace. When we say our mission is to empower organizations to give their employees the freedom and choice to work from anywhere, we mean it. By bringing different brands together, rather than throwing up guardrails, we’re able to provide ease-of-use access to more than 13,000 flexible coworking spaces by the hour, day or longer in more than 2,700 cities spanning the globe. And since its inception more than a decade ago, the size of LiquidSpace’s network has helped to eliminate the costs and complexities of traditional leasing and delivers transformative simplicity and efficiency to a fragmented industry.
Yes we believe in partnerships, in bringing together as much choice as we possibly can. But they won’t be exclusive, and they won’t limit your options.
Another way LiquidSpace delivers on the promise of true workplace freedom is by providing the tools and technology workplace managers need to ensure the best possible experience for their colleagues. Physical space is part of it. But there’s more to quality of experience than natural light and the right number of ergonomic chairs. Ease-of-use, whether that’s seamless check-in/check-out, integrated payments, standardized legal, are all part of the equation. As the needs of the office market evolve, LiquidSpace continues to evolve with them. Offering customers an all-in-one solution for all of their workplace needs has always been our core differentiator.
Investing in a hybrid work solution for your organization is worth the effort and investment. The value of providing true workplace flexibility will drive productivity, increase employee retention and reduce churn in ways that are reflected in your bottom line. Recognizing this, devising the right hybrid strategy and provisioning a flex ecosystem to support it has shot straight to the top of the to-do lists of workplace managers far and wide. More and more are choosing LiquidSpace’s proven, end-to-end, enterprise-grade platform to get it done.
To learn about how the hybrid world’s only complete, end-to-end enterprise grade workplace management solution can benefit your workforce and your business, contact us or visit LiquidSpace.com/Enterprise.
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