What is a Flexible Workspace Office?

Understanding flexible workspace offices and how they work

Flexible workspaces have become increasingly popular as companies shift to more hybrid models and allow employees greater flexibility. In 2018, more than 31,000 flexible office spaces were available worldwide. Today, flexible space has become a crucial component of many worldwide gateway cities, with many companies opting for flexible workspaces over traditional offices. Coworking Insights noted that a recent JLL study found that by 2030, it’s expected that 30% of all office space will be utilized flexibly.

But what does the definition of a flexible workspace office even entail? Let’s look at flexible workspace office and flexible working more closely.

What is a Flexible Workspace Office?

A flexible workspace office is usually known just as a flexible workspace, but sometimes it is referred to as a shared office or flexispace as well. A flexible workspace office usually includes a variety of creative desk layouts with private and shared workspaces employees can utilize.

Often, a flexible workspace office includes hot desks, and collaborative coworking spaces such as small brainstorm or huddle rooms. Some may have open office layouts where all employees and departments are in the same room.

A flexible workspace office though is not publicly available to lease or rent. While coworking spaces allow employees or entire departments from various companies to use them, a flexible workspace office is a managed space for one company and one company only. Some companies simply create a flexible workspace office themselves, offering a new environment for on-site and hybrid employees.

Benefits of flexible workspace offices

The benefits of flexible workspace offices are numerous. While fixed workspace offices may put colleagues near each other, flexible workspaces bring individuals into contact with more people, fostering greater creativity and collaboration both within teams and team-to-team.

Some of the benefits of flexible workspace offices include:

1. A greater exchange of knowledge
2. Enhanced creativity, collaboration and innovation
3. Increased communication for more connected teams
4. More freedom and flexibility (since flexible workspace offices go hand-in-hand with flexible working models where employees can work in the office or at home and maybe even set their own work hours)
5. Cost savings thanks to reduced retail space and more efficient resource usage

Challenges of flexible workspace offices

While flexible workspace offices can offer a freer feeling and stimulate collaboration and creativity, they post some challenges as well.

1. Less Privacy: An open-plan office like a flexible workspace office means employees may feel it’s hard to have private or quiet conversations and could be easily distracted by others. TIP: Offset this challenge with a strategic layout design that utilizes an open space plan but preserves enough distance for privacy and concentration. Go one step further and mix in a few huddle rooms for employees to use for private conversations, important calls and quiet time.
2. Hard to Connect with Colleagues: With teams working across different cities and time zones, reaching and communicating with colleagues can be challenging. Good communication during flexible working is important, and fortunately, messaging tools and workspace management solutions that offer colleagues the ability to book desks nearby each other when in the office can help a lot with preserving connectivity. [See how the Workspace Booking App can help employees book desks near teammates here.]
3. Flexible Workspace Access: For companies new to flexible workspaces, ensuring employees have access to the workspaces they need can be hard at first. This is especially true when meetings pop up in the middle of the day, and an employee or team needs a space. TIP: Workspace management technologies such as on-site desk booking screens and sensor solutions can help with workspace in real-time by allowing employees to reserve spaces when they are open/become available using visual indicators with color coding to alert workspace availability. Sensors are especially helpful in that they can automatically declare a room open/available if they don’t detect occupants after a set amount of time. This allows for faster workspace turnover and greater efficiency of use.

How to Create a Flexible Workspace in an Office

Implementing a flexible workspace office comes down to organizing and designing the office for collaboration while keeping productivity high. How business owners help do this?

Here are 15 design ideas for flexible spaces where employees thrive, and below are three we feel are most important when creating a flexible workspace office.

1. Modular hot desks: While the idea of a flexible workspace office is to foster communication and collaboration, too much interaction and noise can be distracting and decrease productivity. Instead of long, connected tables or setups, consider using two-, three-, or four-person workstations. These modular hot desks can help provide the openness of a flexible workspace while controlling distracting elements and help increase efficiency.
2. Include quiet places: We’ve mentioned this before, but we’ll mention it again: Creating a space specifically for quiet, uninterrupted work time can both increase employee focus and reduce distractions. We would suggest considering multiple quiet places placed throughout a flexible workspace office to provide balance and ensure employees can easily access them.
3. Allow autonomy and control: Employees in a flexible working model should be able to work at the office, at home, or at their favorite coffee shop. Having an easy way to manage workspaces can help employees feel more in control of their day, and thus empowered to be more productive. A hot desking management solution is an easy way to do this. Resource Central, for example, helps organizations simplify the management of flexible workspaces by allowing employees to seamlessly schedule and manage hot desks through the standard Microsoft Outlook® interface.

Explore
modern workspace management solutions

5 tools companies need to make a flexible workspace successful

As a closing note, outside of designing the workspace itself, having the right smart office solutions in place can help ensure maximum efficiency and productivity. A flexible workspace can easily become discordant if a business doesn’t have the right management technologies. We suggest having the following tools critical to flexible workspace success:

1. Hot desk booking system
2. Mobile workspace booking app
3. Insights solution that provides workspace and resource data and analytics
4. Digital signage software
5. Calendar software (including a web-based group calendar)

Read Next:
What are the Benefits of Flexible Working?