Co-working as a potential solution for remote working challenges

Hybrid work is accepted widely as a way of working in the post-covid era. Since the start of pandemic there has been an increasing amount of research on advantages and disadvantages of remote working. Yet, employers’ perspective on hybrid work has remained less clear. Traditionally, organizations have arranged work in corporate office environments and less attention has been paid on WFH by the employers. Although WFH is popular among employees and previous research has explored its benefits, the opportunities of WFH vary between employees. The need of workplace outside home environment remains and one solution introduced already pre-covid is co-working spaces.

This study aims to explore existing co-working spaces by showcasing three cases from USA, Phoenix. They were visited in November 2023. We focus on variety of real estate aspects such as location, real estate sector, building layout, users, and services provided on site. Our results show that despite the different business approaches and strategies of co-working operators many similarities were recognized such as all of them were expanding, focusing on wide service provisions, and creating a community. Especially, the physical presence of managers on site and their involvement in grassroot level on a day-to-day basis were seen to strengthen the community spirit. Also, what stands out from the findings is the importance of recognizing the local and cultural needs of users.

This study contributes to the understanding on how hybrid work can be arranged via co-working spaces. The lack of social connectiveness has been recognized as a downside of WFH. Co-working spaces hold a lot of potential in creating connection inside and outside organizations. Our findings can act as a steppingstone for further research in inclusion of co-working spaces in workplace management strategies.