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Creating and Collaborating: That's all about Co-working Co-working not only has a formal work environment with flexibility and sense of ease but also giving them Happy Hours to break the monotony of 9-5 work culture

By Abhay Chawla

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As Indian business culture is switching to unconventional approach of operating, the traditional definition of working spaces has been changed. There is a paradigm shift in how companies and SMBs are connecting with each other in co-working culture. The prospect of sharing the working space emerged during early 2000s when IT industry boomed with entrepreneurs and then the culture of start-ups leveraged the trend of sharing offices depending upon the number of seats and even working hours.

Earlier freelancers and SMBs were the first to get attracted towards the trend of co-working spaces but now the attraction has shifted to MNCs and large corporate houses. What actually makes co-working spaces so popular?

Fascinating spaces and winning amenities

The infrastructure of co-working spaces has undergone a huge makeover discarding the conventional structure with boring walls, cluttered shelves and outdated workstations. Co-working culture has given the offices a quirky makeover equipped with a host of "fun and social amenities'. They are no way lesser than the corporate houses when it comes to providing facilities like conference rooms, high speed Wi-Fi, printers, lockers, etc.

With such facilities, a new trend of swanky interior with quirkiness of western work culture is on the high rise. These co-working spaces have also started embedding relaxing zones, bean bag rooms, gaming zones and cafeteria to increase the productivity of employees.

Building a strong and interactive community of like – minded people

Co-working spaces are also about creating engaging communities as an essential part of the culture. This created a spirit of mutual support among the co-workers of the same company to the co-workers from company to company. The co-working community becomes an idea bank where ideas flow.

To engage all the members with each other, co-working spaces host fresh Networking and Offsite events to create an interactive community of the go-getters. In addition, to keep the everyday motivation of entrepreneurs and employees up, they have also started adding innovative activities and special events, workshops and seminars in their spaces.

Apart from hosting events, co-working spaces' culture of involving entrepreneurs and co-workers in brainstorming and decision making creates a huge impact on the engagement front. It plays a vital role in making the community not only interactive but also productive and efficient in terms of business growth.

Building the Growth Model with a mix of Co-working model and Flexibility

Co-working spaces are usually 24 x 7 accessible. People can work for long hours to meet short deadlines with their own flexibility and home like amenities. Due to collaborative work culture, the interactive community of start-ups are moving on the lines of co-working model to boost their business growth.

Moreover, it becomes a perk for entrepreneurs and co-workers to seek opinions and solutions for their challenges and problems from market experts. It helps start-ups and SMBs to move out of their home and work in a healthy and productive environment.

The co-working spaces are becoming an important part of Indian start-ups and SMBs that not only gives them the formal work environment with flexibility and sense of ease but also giving them Happy Hours to break the monotony of 9-5 work culture.

Abhay Chawla

Founding Partner & COO, India Accelerator

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