What Comes Next? Flexible Offices for Enterprise Teams
By: Onepiece Work
Tags: Coworking, Enterprise, Flexible Work, Office Culture, Real Estate

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Fortune 500 companies are shifting headfirst to remote work. To accommodate enterprises’ evolving office space needs, flexible and traditional office landlords alike are working towards expansion.

We recently hosted a virtual event with our close partner, Liquidspace, discussing the benefits of leasing with flexible office space for a more distributed workforce. Watch the webinar recording here:

Workforce Challenges Amid The COVID-19 Era

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on a remarkable degree of change at a rapid-fire pace. These changes led to an overhaul in office setups and the ultimate challenge of uncertainty. To effectively manage their workforces, enterprises have to leverage the risk of the unknown and develop innovative solutions.

Now, according to Gensler surveys, over 50% of people want to work out of a remote office in the future at least two to three days per week. Additionally, in physical office spaces, employees are seeking quality, safety, and a convenient location when prior to COVID-19, they favored catered lunches, office snacks, and drinks on tap. Ideally, employees want offices that are close to their current homes, as well as where they want to settle down in the future.

Keeping employees’ wishes in mind, companies are seeking a way to satisfy their immediate needs. However, given the uncertainty of the current circumstances, most companies want to avoid long-term contracts. Flexible office spaces can fulfill varying employee needs and serve as a long-term office solution for enterprises across industries.

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“I’m encouraged that supply partners like OnePiece Work are there to ease the uncertainty and accommodate the change and develop solutions.” — Jim Keating, COO at LiquidSpace

Defining “Flexible Office Solutions”

A flexible office solution is an office that’s customized for the client , fully equipped, and move-in ready. OnePiece Work offers both move-in ready offices and office leasing solutions that adhere to the client’s location preference, provide flexible leasing terms, and offer a customized office design fit to the client’s needs. Move-in ready offices provide hourly or daily space rentals that individuals or teams can rent with ease.

When companies seek out office solutions, they’re on the hunt for a multifunctional option. Offices traditionally have just one purpose. But, companies in the current age look to leverage their office spaces for multiple applications according to their employees’ needs. Flexible office solutions fulfill this need by serving as a multi-purpose office setup.

In office space solutions, there are two main scopes: work-from-home and traditional HQ, which was the norm before the outbreak of COVID-19. Flexible office space sits between these two scopes and is part of a total office solution in the current landscape.

How Flexible Office Owners Are Meeting Tenants’ Current Needs

As a flexible space provider, OnePiece Work is making every effort to continue top-notch services in a more efficient, safe, and productive manner. Safety is a top priority as the COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold. In order to provide a safe work environment, our team worked with numerous vendors to collect masks, hand sanitizer, and other essential equipment to distribute to our clients.

Our goal is to help our clients feel safe no matter their location, as well as provide top-quality office service for the entire OnePiece Work community. — Vickey Li, CEO at OnePiece Work

To effectively meet our community members’ needs, we must recognize the current issues that they’re facing and develop creative solutions. This requires adapting our current services and finding creative solutions to prevalent issues.

How Does LiquidSpace Cater To Evolving Market Needs?

LiquidSpace has long been a pioneer in on-demand technology and connecting demand to supply for flexible offices. Now, the company has begun to aggressively develop the capacity to shift its inventory to the supply side. This involves gathering the enterprise-grade inventory like OnePiece Work to create what’s called LiquidSpace Pro. The company has been moving in this direction for a while, positioning it to fulfill the complete range of enterprises’ needs in an offering called LiquidSpace Enterprise. This offering takes all of LiquidSpace Pro and places it in a single marketplace with SaaS tools, meeting all of the needs of the enterprise client.

Enterprise clients seek control over who can access certain spaces, and under what conditions. LiquidSpace Enterprise offers access to its entire global marketplace and the flexible office solutions within it. The platform provides market visibility and multiple pricing levels across the market. LiquidSpace offers complete control for enterprises through the build-in dashboard and tools.

A Bright Leasing Outlook For Flexible Office Spaces

The workforce has largely shifted to remote work, and flexible workspaces are a part of the “work from anywhere” phenomenon. This flexible marketplace will continue to grow into the future. But, enterprise clients struggling with the complexity of this change will need to focus on planning and strategy in the meantime.

The question of when to return to the office after the COVID-19 pandemic is the toughest to answer. As confidence in the workspaces develops, momentum will increase and encourage workers to return. Flexible operators must understand the current needs of clients and are adjusting the workspaces accordingly will accelerate that confidence.

Cities were the most impacted by the pandemic. Major enterprises, like Pinterest and Twitter, terminated their urban HQ leases. Now, these enterprises are seeking distributed locations to allow their employees to return to the workspace when needed. This is one example of how enterprises are now looking to decentralize their offices.

The needs of modern clients have changed. Health and safety are now top priorities, and flexible workspaces like OnePiece Work are keeping these priorities at the forefront.