Excerpt from DeskMag Coworking survey
Coworkers like their workspace to be small and interactive, flexible on opening hours and close to restaurants. Most work daily and prefer 24-hour access. A coworking visa with access to coworking spaces worldwide is of high interest for them. And the majority don’t care much about the recreational activities on offer. Those are some of the findings of the first global coworking survey.
The survey shows that most coworkers (54%) prefer to share a workspace with less than twenty people, while 21% say they work well in a space with up to 50 coworkers. Large workspaces are widely disliked – less than 4% of respondents said they favoured a workspace with more than 50 users. The remaining 21% said size wasn’t important.
Coworkers were also asked about their preferred office design. For the majority, an ideal coworking space would have a mixture of open shared working areas, as well as smaller closed rooms for private conversations. In fact, workplace layout and design was ranked as the most important factor about which coworkers want to have more say.
The concept of using a shared flexible desk has caught on. Just under half (43%) of all coworkers rent a dedicated desk, which they use exclusively. The remaining 57% are either happy with or don’t mind using a flexible desk which can be shared with other coworkers.
Regarding amenities, unsurprisingly 99% say that internet access is the most important service they require. Almost as important are printers and copiers (80%) and at least one meeting room (76%). Often coworkers would like a café (61%) and a kitchen (50%).
So what draws people to coworking? Why don’t they stay at home, or work in an old-fashioned office?
Because they want flexibility and interaction, the survey shows.
When asked about the most important factors for their work, coworkers rank flexible work times as the highest (86%). Equally important is interaction with other people (86%), and the ability to share knowledge with them (82%). Coworkers also place high value on the random opportunities and discoveries made through such interaction (79%).
Those factors rank ahead of concerns such as price – 72% say the low cost of coworking is important. Interestingly, only 42% say that having a quiet and secluded place to work is important.
So what is the main result of the survey? When asked what coworkers love about their coworking space, an overwhelming majority said it was the friendly atmosphere and other coworkers who made it enjoyable.
