alignSpace is a co-working space in West Chester, Pennsylvania offering flexible, affordable, and hassle-free office space.
Leasing an Office is a big decision.
As we approach the end of the year, many employers have their office leases coming due and are evaluating how to handle their office space strategy, and there are many factors to consider.
Considerations
- How long will the Coronavirus impact both restrictions and employees’ concerns on their health and well-being?
- How has your Company performed during the pandemic with a mostly remote environment?
- When evaluating performance, consider the impact to your culture as well as your thoughts as a CEO on your team working from home?
- Even if the restrictions ease and your employees feel safe returning to work, will they? Or have they come to value the flexibility of working from home and would a return to “normal” in office working have risk of employee attrition?
On the one hand, you’ll probably never get a better lease than you will now. The demand for commercial real estate has slowed significantly and landlords and property owners know it is much easier to keep a tenant than find a new one. On the other hand, the uncertainty of the pandemic and employee attitudes towards a return to “normal” office working has CEOs and management teams rethinking the expense of an office space.
Co-working Spaces offer the ultimate flexibility.
Most companies we work with are very leery of entertaining a long-term lease due to all of the aforementioned uncertainty. There is another option between the choices of full remote and an office space: co-working spaces. Co-working spaces can often have a number of benefits: shorter term agreements (some can even be month to month), ancillary services such as internet, printing, beverages and snacks provided and providing a cost (and time savings), meeting spaces available for client or employee meetings that must happen in person. Additionally, it provides the organization with the opportunity to provide an office environment for their employees who struggle to make work from home productive – or who just comfortable and crave more human interaction; after all, Zoom fatigue is real!
As you evaluate your next steps, consider a co-working space as it just may be a good option now for your team members and customers. It’s a cost effective way to maintain a little sense of “normalcy” while balancing the costs and empathy to your team members who may not be ready for a full time return to an office yet, with the team members who just can’t wait to get out of their house!