A team of experts from the flexible workspace operator COLLECTION Business Center, which operates sites in Vienna, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Düsseldorf, has identified six changes – based on various discussions with clients and its own experiences during the crisis – to which both clients and providers of flexible workspace models must adapt:
<u>Firstly</u>: Physical proximity and close interaction with other people – previously an essential part of the concept offered by pure-play co-working providers – can no longer be facilitated. Working together in open-plan offices or attending events with large numbers of people in confined spaces will no longer be acceptable to either clients or staff in future. This trend will clearly benefit providers of traditional business centre concepts, such as Collection Business Centre. These offer flexible workspaces in enclosed offices, ranging from around 12 to 40 square metres. This allows teams to continue working closely and flexibly together, whilst remaining physically separated from one another and thus enjoying maximum protection. Furthermore, hygiene regulations in co-working centres must be revised. On a large scale, spaces used by many different people should be regularly disinfected.
<u>Secondly</u>: the demand for flexible workspaces in private offices will definitely continue to rise during and after the coronavirus crisis. More and more decision-makers are now realising how important it is to make their fixed costs more flexible and not to be tied into long-term leases. COLLECTION Business Centre offers lease terms starting from one month. Customers can expand or downsize their office space as they wish, entirely according to their own needs.
<u>Thirdly</u>: Private offices in business centres are becoming a serious alternative to working from home. Many employees and companies have had very negative experiences with being forced to work from home during the coronavirus crisis. Social contact is lacking and cannot be replaced even by occasional phone calls and video conferences. Constant distractions hinder concentration: children are shouting, constant contact with one’s partner causes stress, the leaf blower outside the window is a nuisance, postmen and parcel couriers are coming and going non-stop, and friends pop round spontaneously because, after all, you’re ‘at home’. 87 per cent of business centre customers surveyed said they could hardly wait for their time working from home to finally come to an end.
<u>Fourthly</u>: as many services as possible offered by providers of flexible workspace solutions must be digitised in order to reduce the multitude of communication channels. So-called virtual offices – where a physical presence in the office isn’t necessary, but the business centre handles calls in the company’s name and receives and forwards incoming post – will become increasingly important.
<u>Fifthly</u>: For many companies, the priority – particularly now – is to maintain their ability to work as effectively as possible. As not every employee has suitable space at home for concentrated work, renting a flexible individual office in a business centre is a very good option.
<u>Sixthly</u>: In future, companies will spread their teams across different locations rather than concentrating them in one place. This will protect employees from infecting one another. Consequently, there will be increased demand for private offices close to employees’ homes. The amount of space companies require at their headquarters will decrease in favour of flexible workspaces.