How serviced offices are disrupting the traditional workplace

At the end of last year, an industry report, Shared Space, looked at how serviced offices and co-working spaces are changing the landscape of the modern office set-up.

The authors discovered that in the previous year in 20 metro areas of the United States, the shared space industry had grown from occupying 26.9 million square feet to 43.5 million square feet – a significant increase!

It is widely believed that the reasons behind this increase are the evolution of our working landscape in the wake of constant technological advances, the rise of the gig economy and the adoption of agile working practices. With more people being in a position to choose the kind of work environment that suits them, more and more are opting for a relaxed, casual atmosphere, which they find conducive to their motivation and productivity.

As shared spaces tend to be informal and relaxed environments, they have become very popular in recent years, especially among younger workers. Indeed, this kind of environment has been shown to be very good for productivity, so it’s no wonder that those who are attracted to co-working offices tend to stay.

Disruption to office landlords

There is further disruption of the traditional office environment in that many companies are moving into serviced offices & shared space in order to save themselves both money and time. When businesses move into a new building, they not only have to pay the rent, they are also responsible for utilities, insurance, cleaning, maintenance, etc.

By renting an office in a larger shared space, they only need to pay one monthly fee that covers those costs and also don’t have to spend time organising such things. Meaning they have more time to concentrate on running their business, not worrying about their workplace.

It’s no wonder more and more small businesses are moving into serviced office spaces like the UOE Hub.