Remote workspaces can benefit your business from having a more flexible remote work policy and placing employees in co-working spaces. Research indicates that people aged between 18 – 34, popularly known as the millennial, are more likely to use all of their available remote work time, and they’re increasingly using it up at co- working spaces. These work spaces create the right environment of creativity, collaboration & knowledge sharing for them to grow.
With all the benefits of a sustainable ecosystem that co work spaces offer, it's clear that the era of shared or co-working spaces is here to say. But as with everything else, shared spaces also have some areas of concern at times it has been noticed that employees working in a shared work space are apprehensive about the work culture, lack of interaction with the Employer, missing career advancement opportunities & many other problems that arise at any work place.
Here is your quick guide to addressing the concerns & offering support to remote employees working out of a shared work space.
1) PRIORITIZE OFFICE CULTUREAccording to research, more than half of remote employees come into the office fairly regularly, provided a sense of office culture is preserved at the shared workspace they are working from. Consider taking a cue from shared workspaces, which offer perks like health and wellness centres, gyms, doctors-on-call, sick bays, etc.
2) COMMUNICATE VISUALLYEmployees working out of a shared workspace communicate most frequently over email. As such, they are often worried about the tone and timing of messages. Therefore it’s important to facilitate visual communication from time to time. Consider offering video conferencing tools, so remote workers can have more direct conversations with their colleagues and supervisors.
3) COMMUNICATE ACROSS MULTIPLE PLATFORMSRemote employees may sometimes believe that a lack of face time with their Employers will reduce their chances of career advancement. to alleviate these Concerns, make use of collaborative tools such as Slack, Asana, or Facebook at work, so employees can still get regular feedback on their progress and communicate more Efficiently.
4) ORGANISE TRAINING & KNOWLEDGE WORKSHOPSIt has been observed that training & workshop are very handy when it comes to ensuring positive & constructive engagement with your workforce. So what if it's a distant one with whom you don't interact face to face every day. Apart from enhancing & polishing the employee's knowledge & skills, training & workshops also keep the employees motivated to perform better, besides giving them an assurance that their employers are attentive & care for them. Hence a win- win situation for both employers & employees.
C O N C L U S I O NResearch conducted by Harvard Business Review suggests that the combination of a well-designed work environment and a well- curated work experience are part of the reason people who co-work demonstrate higher levels of thriving than their office based counterparts.
People who work from shared workspaces often have substantial autonomy and need less supervision. It is important to recognize the fact that team building is an ongoing process and keeping your team motivated all the way is even a greater task that demands attention & effort on part of employers. more so if you have a team that works remotely for you. It is not something that you solve for once & rest all the life. The idea is to keep thinking of things that work for you & your team. Our advice to employers is to provide these employees the support that is required to function to the best of their abilities thereby turning them into a relatively happier, content & connected lot that works to your advantage.
Guest Author
A passionate entrepreneur and foodie explorer, Meghna is one of the co-founders of IndiQube. With over 14 years of experience in manufacturing, HR, consulting and commercial real estate, she is also the co-founder of HirePro and Ultrafine. Armed with an MBA in Finance from IMT, Ghaziabad and a Company Secretary Degree, her interests include interior design, branding and project management.