Number of coworking spaces on the rise
The vast majority of coworking spaces surveyed in recent research conducted by Deskmag has shown interesting prospects and predicts that there will be a greater number of coworking spacesThis trend would be particularly evident outside of major cities.
More Digital Nomads – Less Business Travel
The coronavirus pandemic reduced business travel in 2020 to an unprecedented level. Will business travel return to previous levels once the pandemic is over or will it be partially replaced by remote video calls?
For people who work in coworking spaces, it depends on the purpose of that trip. Two-thirds of respondents expect a increase in the number of digital nomads compared to before the pandemic.
Why? Probably because such trips allow for experiences that people can’t replicate online. And the demand for them would increase after this long absence of travel.
On the other hand, business trips will occur less frequently than pre-Covid. Many of these will be replaced by online meetings.
2020: The Year of 'Working From Home'
What images of 2020 have become iconic? One above all Anna Wintour from Vogue magazine sitting in front of her laptop at home in sweatpants!
If at the beginning smart working necessarily coincided with working from home, with the progressive easing of bans and restrictions its truest meaning has been discovered: work remotely yes, but not necessarily within the home.
It is in this evolution that the investigation of Nibol, the start-up of the distributed office, conducted on a sample of 20 thousand smartworkers who highlighted, as anticipated, the contraindications of transforming the house into an office.
In detail, the 30% of the participants the survey indicated the first negative aspect solitude where you are forced to work from home and the lack of relationships with colleagues and customers.
It follows, with the 28% of preferences, the forced sharing of home spaces. Children who follow distance learning, partners who are also smart working, the presence of pets: "Living together in the same room and sharing a computer and internet connection are a source of stress for those who work from home" says Nibol based on the survey.
Again, «for the 20% of the interviewees, working from home means completely losing the work-life balance: working in the same place where you cook, you relax on the sofa causes a continuous invasion of the professional sphere into the private one and vice versa. With the risk of spending the day in pajamas».
2021: The Year of 'Work Close to Home'?
How will work change in 2021? What role will offices have? How will we manage the organization and the relationship with employees? How will the work experience change? What will remain online and what will instead forcefully return to being done in person?
These are the questions that have echoed in many end-of-year meetings, between doubts about the pandemic and post-Covid and the need to have some certainty. But there is one certainty: work as we experienced it until the beginning of 2020 does not exist and will no longer exist, what we have experienced, forcibly, over the course of the year will be an inspiration to create that or those new ways of working that will mark the future.
Smartworking or nearworking?
Working from home is expected to remain popular even after the pandemic is over. Coworking spaces outside of major cities are particularly likely to do so.
However, coworking spaces expect people to work “close to home” more often in the future. This trend is even stronger in what until recently were called bedroom neighborhoods and in the towns bordering large cities where many commuters live.
Before the pandemic, most new coworking space members worked from home. Why should it be any different once the pandemic is over? The demand for a sociable yet productive work environment is likely to be higher than ever after months of isolation and unwanted distractions.
Sociality, flexibility of hours and environments, technology but also safety and hygiene: these are the needs that emerge most strongly for the office of 2021. In fact, the main characteristics of the ideal office are that it is technological, but also attentive to well-being and comfortable, functional and with hybrid spaces. Welcoming, open, shared and connected to the outside, flexible and safe.
Socialization
People who worked remotely during the first lockdown (March-May 2020) and in the following months developed a strong need for sociality: in fact, it was the lack of networking and relationships between colleagues that weighed most on those who worked from home. The desire to have flexible offices emerges in the sense of adaptable based on the situation and the task to be carried out at a given time of day. Regarding services, the most requested ones concern the lunch break, such as delivery services or refrigerated lockers and then parking.
Giorgio Cappelli
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