Are you still paying for square meters that stand empty most of the week? In many companies, the way we work has permanently changed. Time at the office is often limited to just a few days per week, while work is also done flexibly from home, the cottage, or a client’s site. For businesses, this shift means that an office which once served them well is now underused and unnecessary costs pile up month after month.
Why doesn’t a large private office always make sense anymore?
Desks and meeting rooms that sit empty most of the week require a lot of office space which also means higher fixed costs like rent, maintenance, and cleaning. In addition, private offices often demand long lease commitments, making it difficult to adjust the space to evolving needs.
For some companies, having a dedicated office is still essential for reasons like brand, security, or company culture. But many are looking for flexible solutions where costs align better with actual use and can easily adapt as needs change.
Flexibility with partially or fully shared spaces
A good way to seek cost-efficiency in office solutions is by using fully or partly shared spaces, or satellite offices.
Coworking spaces are an option for fully shared office spaces. Here, employees from different companies work in a shared coworking area with freely chosen desks and access to other shared facilities such as phone booths, meeting rooms, kitchens, lounges, and often additional office services like internet and coffee.
An office hotel offers an excellent alternative if you prefer partially shared spaces. Having your own private office room in an office hotel allows for significantly fewer square meters, since meeting rooms, phone booths, kitchens, and lounges are shared. You also benefit from shared office services, which are not only more affordable but also a worry-free option.
If your whole team is rarely in the office at the same time, you can scale the number of desks – and therefore the size of your office – to be smaller than your total headcount. When everyone does come in together, coworking spaces serve as flexible extra capacity.
Office hotels and coworking spaces also work well as satellite offices, especially when hybrid work is driven by your team’s geographical distribution. In that case, it’s not practical for everyone to commute to headquarters frequently. Employees who need ergonomic workspace can instead use a small office room in an office hotel or coworking space closer to home.
Of course, a larger private office with its own shared spaces can sometimes still be the best option. Even then, it’s worth considering which spaces you really need on a regular basis, and which only occasionally. Large meeting rooms, auditoriums, or workshop areas are often underused, so it may be more cost-effective to rely on external providers when needed.
By choosing fully or partially shared spaces, you’ll:
- Avoid paying for empty desks, meeting rooms, or lounges
- Get access to versatile, work-supporting spaces in a central location
- Save both money and time with internet, cleaning, heating, access control, coffee, and printing all included in the price
- Scale your space needs up or down flexibly
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