Coworking space as a concept is quite alien to the general masses. It is due to the rise of millennials and startups culture in the country. The coworking is another western concept that has found wings in India. Relatively a new concept in early 2010s, now co-working industry has carved a niche for itself in the Indian economy.
It has seen a rapid growth in the number of professionals to prefer coworking spaces over the traditional office set up in the recent years. India in general is undergoing a sea of change since there are plethora of MNCs, SMEs and growing start-up companies which are looking actively to move into co-working spaces. Since it is an economical choice and it helps the companies save on their running capital cost and gives a more flexible workspace.
The industry of co-working space is constantly being shaped and expanding. It is estimated to reach a market valuation of $2.2 billion by 2022 with a market penetration of 5.7 percent. With such promising numbers and the constant growth scalability of coworking hubs, we can say that the future of co-working spaces in India is very bright and evolving.
Since India is a cesspool of a thriving economy, abundant talent and growing employment, it is the perfect office space for acceptance of a new working style. Due to the flexibility that India has begun to showcase, the demand for flexible, innovative and collaborative workspaces have become a reality and they are sprucing up swiftly.
The days of conventional offices with desks, chairs, high leases, separate housekeeping staff and expensive cafeterias are long gone. Today the shift has focused on to more collaborative, economical, along with an inclusion policy along with honing a culture of working together and community building.
Imagine a workspace where you could connect and network with like-minded professionals of the same business or different businesses, it could foster important connections and can lead to business engagements. The effectiveness of ideation and brainstorming with different segments of the workforce over a cup of coffee or even a mug of beer can help the creative juices flow. The hierarchy and different industries will give you the extra edge which can be a win-win situation for everyone in the community.
Having gone through the complexity and the evolving nature of coworking spaces in India. The most significant factors that are contributing to this growth surge for the co-working arena can now be discussed. It is important to understand why the current workforce is interested in moving to co-working spaces:
The co-working model of operation is very economical. The coworking industry operates on a very short leases, cheaper and flexible plans and scalability for the team as it expands. There are hosts of different zones of workforces like the freelancers, new start-ups, SMEs and MNCs who prefer co-working. The cost of capital eventually goes down and has an additional opportunity to expand, for growth and good infrastructure. It is a very practical approach to save up to 20-25% savings as compared to any traditional office set up in the metro cities.
Fostering workplace relations with other host companies in the same shared office space can help in growing connection and collaborate with tons of other players who are growing and are in similar space like your brand can help you bond. It can help generate business, shoot up revenues, help solving a production problem or integrate your business altogether.
All of the co-working spaces in India have tons of amenities to offer. They help in providing basic workplace amenities, community connections, engagement activities, pitching sessions, knowledge transfers, recreational activities, latest IT infrastructure, 24*7 security, latest technology enabled areas and internet. The brands with access to such exclusive range of offerings can get great discounts and can specially help them curate experiences for a productive and hassle-free working environment and bettering their future.
The co-working trend has undertaken the Indian ecosystem. It is widely projected that by 2020 more than 50% of the global workforce will be using the services of the shared office space. The open and flexible system of co-working can make companies widely look into the co-working as an option.
With such components co-working most certainly has a very bright spectrum and is the future of unconventional workspaces.
If you want to share your views and experiences regarding the coworking spaces, please feel free to write back to us.