Pleasant to the senses, relaxing to the body, artistic yet invigorating – these are the most appropriate adjectives for defining co-working spaces and in these professional places, the amalgamation of aesthetics and ergonomics creates enormously functional and productive workspaces. The beauty of a co-working space is often found in the tiniest of details and is frequently referred to as a positive atmosphere that people get from the moment they enter the premise hence, to keep your clients coming back to your coworking space, you need to create this kind of positive atmosphere throughout the space.
In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Aditya Mehta, CEO and Co- Founder at Akasa Coworking, suggested, “When developed on any cinematic or sporty theme, a co-working space becomes more captivating and engaging for employees who even hate to take any sick or casual leave. While the co-working spaces are made to accommodate a wide range of employees, from freelancers to solopreneurs to big corporates, the offices should be designed to be open and welcoming with a surreal vertical garden in the corridor and a zen garden in the lounge.”
He advised, “To help professionals with the ease of working by lessening complaints like back pain, arm pain and musculoskeletal disorders, the co-working spaces should be designed with ergonomic furniture like height-adjustable desks and ergonomic chairs. Also, certain employee-friendly measures can be adopted like making entrances easily accessible with ramps, elevators, and automatic doors, and providing special equipment like adjustable desks. For specially-abled employees, there should be an arrangement of wheelchairs and a separate washroom for them.”
According to Sawan Laddha, Founder of Workie, vastu is something which needs to be followed in office space. He said, “For example, Southwest should be master cabin, Southeast is good for server room, avoid washrooms on Northeast, always make people sit East or North, avoid people to see towards South along with flow of natural light in office to the maximum level. Energy and vastu create a great balance of office and growth of organization. Right colours and effective space planning along with great collaborative and breakout space is recommended. Use light colours on walls along with motivational quotes or right design to make office energetic. Carpet is recommended to create good acoustic of office space.”
Nakul Mathur, MD at Avanta India, recommended, “Since everyone brings their own laptops/desktops, people expect a flex space to provide ergonomic furniture. Having said that, there are a lot of things you can do to make your workstations easier to use and more suitable for today’s workforce. This is all about assisting teams and individuals in organizing their desks for maximum productivity; in order to accomplish this, they require improvements to their quality of life. A great perk, for instance, is to make certain that each desk is close to a few power outlets and equipped with extension chords.”
Talking of additional perks, he said, “A co-working space provider can design small welcome kits for new members, as well as incentives for returning members and referrals, just like any business would do for new employees. There are no limits to what you can do here and showing appreciation to each member might be just the little thing that sets you apart from your rivals. You can send welcome emails to new clients and their team members. Place welcome notes with a branded promotional item on each desk. Show your members how much you care by getting involved and asking them questions about the space, their requirements and any challenges they may be facing.”