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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, several businesses have transitioned to a permanent virtual work setup. Employees no longer need to work in a 9-to-5 traditional office. They have the flexibility to work from anywhere across the globe.
As per reports, 4.7 million professionals are working remotely.
While transitioning to a remote setup requires a great effort, the main challenge that follows afterward is maintaining good work culture and high productivity.
That’s where the ‘place’ of work matters the most.
For remote employees who have been working from home, moving to a fresh workplace is crucial. Research reveals that change in place of work is vital to amplify productivity levels and creativity.
No wonder, coworking spaces and coffee shops have become the prevailing choice of remote working businesses.
Despite the increasingly blurring lines between the two entities, there are several pros and cons of coffee shops and coworking spaces.
In this blog, The Address will weigh their pros and cons to help you choose a better remote workplace for your business base.
Let’s explore the drawbacks and benefits of coworking spaces and coffee shops.
A good work environment can boost employees’ engagement and productivity, thereby helping businesses achieve their goals.
What’s more?
According to Gallup, a productive and engaged workforce can increase a brand’s profits by as much as 21%.
Coffee shops can provide a comfortable and stress-free work environment. As they are designed for relaxation, remote employees can enjoy music with a cup of coffee while working. While this setup can be a blessing for some remote workers, it can be the reason for low productivity for others.
The reason? Most coffee shops do not offer quiet and dedicated spaces. Customers’ noise and background music can impact online meetings and distract professionals from delivering peak performances.
With coworking, professionals can choose – shared desks, private desks, or hot desks according to their work requirements and convenience. Employees that need privacy can opt for dedicated desks. They can even access private conference halls and rooms for meetings with clients. This can help them minimize distractions and noise, thereby improving productivity.
Unlike coffee shops, coworking doesn’t have fixed work hours restrictions. Working professionals get 24*7 access to the workspace, which is an added advantage and productivity-boosting factor.
The Better Option: Coworking Spaces
Top-notch amenities and infrastructure are crucial to maximizing an employee’s work experience.
In fact, reports state that 35% of millennials expect management to offer great amenities. Poor working facilities can lead to burnout, thereby impacting their work performance.
Most coffee shops offer free Wi-Fi access, comfortable couches, and air-conditioned halls. However, the Wi-Fi connection can become slow on being used by the plentitude of customers in the coffee shop.
So, poor internet connection can derail employees from working efficiently. Besides, coffee shops don’t offer work essentials like fax machines and printers. So, your team may need to step out of the cafe for additional amenities.
Coworking spaces are well-equipped with top-notch infrastructure and working essentials.
Here is a list of the amenities that coworking spaces offer.
No wonder, leading brands like Mitsubishi Power, GE Healthcare, Tata Teleservices, and more are operating from coworking spaces.
The Better Option: Coworking Spaces
Workspace location is determinative in making or breaking a business’s reputation. A prime office location can help enhance business visibility and attract new clients.
From prime locations to remote, coffee shops operate in almost every locality. So, professionals that need to arrange or attend one-to-one meetings with clients can invite them to a coffee shop in a decent locality.
Whereas, on days when they don’t need to meet anyone, they can work at a coffee shop nearby their home. This can save their commute time.
Most coworking spaces operate at prime locations. This gives working professionals a competitive edge. However, unlike coffee shops, they don’t have a plethora of options.
Employees require commuting to the coworking space every day irrespective of its distance from home.
According to studies, lengthy commuting time increases the risk of sleep problems. So, workstations’ location can be a disadvantage for working professionals that require long-distance commuting.
The Better Option: The answer varies depending on the location and distance
Networking events can boost a business’s ROI by helping employees build good professional relationships with like-minded professionals.
Besides, it allows them to learn new skills, thereby creating an intelligent and reliable workforce to ensure long-term success.
Networking is not enjoying coffee with clients or sharing business cards with contemporaries. At its core, networking is about developing meaningful professional relationships.
The noisy and distractive environment at coffee shops makes them a poor choice for networking events. Additionally, finding mentors and experienced working professionals at coffee shops is a chance of luck.
Since coworking is all about working in shared spaces, connecting with mentors, contemporaries, investors, and expert professionals is easy.
Coworking spaces allow like-minded professionals to collaborate and share their business ideas. This can help working professionals gain valuable insights and create innovative solutions.
Moreover, the availability of meeting rooms makes it convenient to arrange networking events.
The Better Option: Coworking Spaces
Data is the biggest asset for businesses. However, with the rise of digitization, data security breaches are becoming prevalent.
Reports state that US-based firms and customers experienced 46% of cyberattacks in 2020.
No wonder, companies are investing in data security to maintain confidentiality. The worldwide data security market is estimated to reach $366.1 billion in 2028.
Coffee shops have become a prime hunting ground for hackers.
Here are the top risks of working at coffee shops:
Since there’s no access to unauthorized working professionals in coworking spaces, businesses can gain complete control over their data. Besides, they can build private rooms to keep their data confidential and secure.
The Better Option: Coworking Spaces
If we consider the pros and cons shared above, coworking emerges as the clear winner. Coworking offers an array of seating arrangements according to the job role, enhanced data security, high-end amenities, and networking opportunities that can help boost your team’s skills and productivity.
The best part? Coworking spaces with coffee stations and kitchens can provide your team with a steady supply of coffee all day long!
So, if you aim to get crucial tasks ticked off your team’s to-do list in succession with a complete sense of data security and comfort, moving to a good coworking space can be a game-changer.
Get in touch with The Address for more guidance on coworking.
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