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Serviced offices The Goldilocks option for flexible working

As businesses around the world move into a new era of flexible working, serviced offices offer a best-of-both solution for convenient access to a formal workplace, without the restrictions of traditional leased offices. This ‘Goldilocks’ nature of serviced offices and coworking spaces is one of the benefits listed in an article in the Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, written by a multinational team from universities in Italy, South Africa, Germany and Spain. In the article, they write that there are four differentiating factors between working at home, traditional leased offices, and coworking spaces including serviced offices:

1. Accessibility (i.e. opening hours)
2. Flexibility (including scalability)
3. Diversity of Organisations
4. Diversity of Workforce

Serviced offices and coworking spaces score well as a middle-ground option, avoiding some of the pitfalls that can arise from a workforce based in home offices, or from leasing traditional commercial workspace.

Accessibility and Flexibility

The article notes that while traditional premises may be accessed during working hours, employees working from home can often choose their hours at any time of day or night. Coworking spaces cover both ends of this spectrum, with some offering around-the-clock access while others are restricted to traditional working hours. The authors write: “Coworking places are timewise-accessible by choice of the worker. This offers more flexibility than traditional offices.” Greater flexibility is also seen in other ways, for example by allowing businesses to adjust the amount of space they occupy in serviced offices in order to respond to the need to scale up – or down – as time goes by.

Supporting Diversity

Coworking spaces are again praised when it comes to supporting greater diversity of organisations and individuals alike. In terms of working alongside other individuals, the home office is self-evidently the most restricted, whereas traditional leased offices typically only expose employees to their own colleagues. By comparison, serviced offices may have more communal areas and multiple businesses on the same premises, increasing the opportunities for networking and collaboration. And the authors note the high cost of traditional leased offices in city centre locations, which may price out new start-ups and small businesses compared with more flexible serviced offices.

Get the Best of Both

Serviced Office Company are proud of our growing number of locations providing high-quality serviced offices in London, Manchester and Telford, including desirable physical premises in Canary Wharf and MediaCity. Tenants benefit from 24-hour access – with 24-hour security – as well as collaborative breakout spaces, kitchen areas for informal discussions, and meeting rooms for hire on-site for more formal and private conversations. We welcome new start-ups and where possible, will help you to scale up to larger offices within our premises as your business grows in the future, starting from our coworking and hot desk spaces if that’s what you need to get growing. To find out more, fill in the enquiry form for the location you’re interested in, or contact us if you’d like to arrange a tour in person and see if our serviced offices in Telford, Manchester or London are right for you.