As most businesses plan the best way to have everybody back at the office as safely as possible there are a lot of guidelines and best practices to consider. Things like providing everyone with access to sanitizing gel dispensers, cleaning products for their desks, making masks mandatory at the office, clearly signaling social distancing markers to make it easier for everyone to keep their distance, improving ventilation systems, and even implementing staggered shifts and breaks are all great measures to consider when going back to work during this pandemic.
In view of the hassle that traditional offices have to go through to make their space safe for their workers, you might think that other office solutions such as coworking spaces might be in for an even bigger headache. After all coworking spaces are places where many strangers come together and share desks, break rooms, lounge areas, and meeting rooms with each other, and according to the latest studies this wouldn’t seem like an ideal situation to face a highly contagious virus.
Surprisingly, there are many reasons to believe that coworking spaces will emerge from this pandemic not only stronger than ever, but they will also come to be seen as a key asset for businesses in every stage of the reopening effort.
Here are the facts that support this positive sentiment towards coworking spaces:
1. Remote workers need an office space too
The most helpful measure for de-densifying offices is definitely allowing people to work remotely. For the first months of the pandemic this meant that workers did the best they could to work from home, but from the very start it was evident that this was just a temporary measure and wouldn’t work for longer periods of time. First off, people’s homes just weren’t conceived as home offices. Not many people had a proper office at home and most people had to readapt spaces, such as working at the dining room and taking calls in the bedroom. This is not sustainable at all and will result in reduced productivity, more stress, and less worker satisfaction. So, if people are expected to continue working remotely, it is very likely that they will look to coworking spaces as an alternative to both the traditional office and their less than ideal home office.
2. Better access to government aid
Coworking spaces are places that unite small businesses, solopreneurs, startups, and freelancers under the same roof. In the wake of the covid-19 pandemic these are precisely the businesses that will need the most support from the government stimulus plans, and also, they will be very difficult to be reached by those funds they desperately need.
By their very nature, coworking spaces are well-positioned to help the government reach all sorts of small businesses, as well as help those businesses get access to the assistance offered by the government.
3. A strong community makes recovery easier
Coworking space members are job creators, and they attract huge amounts of equity capital. These are key factors that investors and governments will be looking for to kick start the economy once the dust settles. But coworking spaces will also play a vital role in the economic recovery because of the aspect they most excel at: community. Having a strong business community means supporting others when times are harsh, as well as helping companies that are down for the count to pick up the pieces and start over with a robust network that can help them do just that.
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