“The game may not be simple, but the rules are clear”
Flex spaces can satisfy the cultural and economic needs of almost everyone. This includes digital nomads, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and virtually all employees of small, medium, and enterprise businesses. But to do this effectively involves explicit requirements for, and succinct feedback about, the built environment.
The success of co-working spaces in the past was a direct result of such accountability. The game may not be simple, but the rules are clear.
A new level of transparency is required to satisfy expectations for the broadest range of flex space occupiers, expectations that go far beyond the freelancers and startups of the co-working space past. Complexity is increasing as workplace strategists manage employees frequently and widely distributed between corporate hubs, flex spaces, and home offices.
Because work cultures can have divergent needs, it’s important to understand how spaces appeal to specific communities. Increased transparency allows both flex space providers and users to more easily manage workplace demands.
What are the important characteristics of a flex space to you? Take the Workplace Mobility survey and use access code promo_21.
Opportunity
“Managing the broadest array of business communities means the greatest opportunities for growth”
When user expectations and workplace capabilities are clearly stated, consumers have readily available flex space alternatives to accommodate business transformations whenever the need arises. And space providers who can effectively manage the broadest array of business communities have the greatest opportunities for growth.
Acquisitions, new product releases, and meteoric expansions can dramatically affect business fundamentals. With a wide range of flex spaces to choose from, businesses have more opportunities than ever to explore creative alternatives and to make necessary workplace changes sooner.
Mobility
“Mobility is the invisible hand of the workplace”
The widespread adoption of flex spaces signals the normalization of a distributed workforce and the increasing viability of workplace mobility. But workplace strategists, particularly in the enterprise, are faced with difficult new challenges like, what standards apply to the overall definition of mobile workplace requirements and how do individual remote locations support these standards?
Businesses are also asking which existing physical inventories can be most effectively leveraged for corporate hubs and how can excess inventories be otherwise gainfully repurposed.
If mobility is the invisible hand of the workplace and transparency and opportunity makes it all possible, analytics makes the flex space marketplace work.
Focus
“Location and user benchmarking effectively satisfy mobility demands”
Expectations for a traditional customized work environment have always embodied fulfillment and productivity goals for a business. In the flex space marketplace, benchmarking allows flex space providers to offer workplace mobility for users both individually and collectively across all communities served.
Floor plan benchmarking provides transparency into the physical, cultural, and operational natures of flex environments. Together, location and user benchmarking effectively satisfy mobility demands.
Choice
“Simplify workplace strategy decision making and optimize user experiences”
Location Assessment
Tools that identify opportunities for mobility according to explicit expectations simplify workplace strategy decision making and optimize user experiences. Location assessment reduces risks in the decision making process for users by treating flex space locations objectively.
If mobility is the agent of change, the primary challenge in the flex space marketplace is scale. Users may not want to visit all candidate spaces personally, nor is it likely that they can depend solely on satisfaction data to support successful mobility decision making.
Location Optimization
Location optimization defines working environments that satisfy specific communities or community groups. Strategic location optimizations reduce risk for flex space providers and can also help mitigate the need for company specific workplace customizations.
As flex space providers optimize physical environments around community needs, possible outcomes include innovations like trade hubs, technology hubs, professional hubs, health hubs, and others.
The mechanics behind location optimizations provide a stable foundation for persuasive communications, dynamic lead generation, and high customer conversion and retention. Get in touch to find out how.
What are the important characteristics of a flex space to you? Take the Workplace Mobility survey and use access code promo_21.