The 27 Things Enterprises Are Looking for in Flex Workspace

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As enterprises shift to hybrid and remote workplace strategies, coworking space operators stand to benefit from a flood of new business — but only if they can check the boxes.

Here are the 27 things the enterprise companies Upflex works with are always asking about as they make their office portfolios more flexible.

Enterprise companies around the world are increasingly shifting to hybrid work. But this transition can be complicated. Large companies traditionally own their office space, or lease private offices for the long-term, putting considerations like security, IT, and building maintenance in the hands of the real estate or facilities management team. But as these companies increasingly supplement or rebalance their office footprint to include third-party flex space, a big, fat check-list of those considerations now fall to their vendors: flex space providers and coworking operators.

With our network of more than 7,000 flexible workspaces around the globe, enterprises are leveraging Upflex’s solutions to make their office plan more scalable, responsive and far-reaching. Our Spaces team is regularly in conversation with big companies looking for flexible new options for hundreds — or thousands — of their team members, all over the world, and here are the top things they’re asking for.

In case your space wants to help meet the demand among these big corporate clients, we’ve put together the checklist for you.

Building Basics

Enterprise company real estate and facilities managers are shopping coworking spaces, they will want to know details about the building your space is located in. Here are questions we regularly field from enterprise companies when they’re considering workspaces to leverage through Upflex’s Hub & Spoke solution.

  1. What year was the building built?
  2. What’s the building’s total square footage (not just the square footage of the workspace)?
  3. Who is the building management company?
  4. They may also ask about building code, building class, and other details — like building materials and architectural style.

Location details

Of course, directors of real estate and facilities management teams at enterprise companies will ask about the size and nature of the workspace. But getting into detail, make sure your staff is prepared to field questions about:

  1. The total workspace square footage
  2. The square footage of your space’s combined common areas
  3. The number of meeting rooms and phone booths your space offers
  4. Whether the space is ADA compliant and wheelchair accessible
  5. Whether the space has other types of space within it, aside from hot desks and meeting rooms — is there a nursing room or breast-feeding closet? Is there outdoor space? A café? A gym?
  6. Staff should also be prepared to share the phone contact information for any of the building’s or space’s on-site tech support.

Health and Safety information

How secure is your space? The Upflex Spaces Team is regularly fielding questions from enterprise clients considering building flexible workspace into their office strategy about health and safety policies, access procedures, emergency evacuation and first aid infrastructure and more. If you’re looking to accommodate corporate employees from global hybrid companies at your space, make sure your team has this information readily available:

  1. What’s the capacity of your space and how many square feet are allocated per person?
  2. Does your space follow COVID health and safety recommendations? What is your current health and safety policy?
  3. Does your space have all your health and safety policies and procedures clearly displayed for visitors?
  4. Are there emergency evacuation plans posted inside each public entrance and at each stairway and elevator landing?
  5. Do you have first aid equipment on site?
  6. How about exit signs, fire alarms and fire extinguishers? Is your fire safety inspection and infrastructure update to date and up to code?

Amenities and A/V set-up

Employees might browse Upflex’s network filtering for amenities like a kitchen with free, unlimited coffee, or a fridge stocked with artisanal sodas. Maybe they’ll be looking for a roof deck, or a pet-friendly policy, or other workplace niceties. Workspace decision makers, on the other hand, are after productivity related essentials, like:

  1. What’s the audio/visual set-up like in your meeting rooms or conference rooms? Are these spaces equipped with mirroring, cameras, mics, conference phones, or other meeting tech?
  2. What about printers? Are they available and functional? Is your printer network secured?

Access procedures and security measures

How do you control access to your space, and how do you keep your users safe? Enterprise companies have some boxes to tick in this department, too. Expect to provide information about the following:

  1. Is there a building security team on site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
  2. Does your space use electronic card readers or similar locking security devices at access points?
  3. Is there a CCTV surveillance system operating in the building? What about in your workspace itself? What areas does this system cover?

IT Support

Some large companies may also want to know about your data privacy and cybersecurity policies, including whether your WiFi network is secure and whether users have unique, private login credentials. That’s just one of a handful of IT-related questions your team will want to be prepared to field.

  1. Companies will want to know about your IT services in general.
  2. What type of internet connection do you use?
  3. What are the ISP providers at your location?
  4. What’s your space’s network’s total bandwidth?

Sustainability

Last but not least, companies have sustainability promises to keep. Increasingly, organizations are drilling down on how to meet their ESG goals, and when it comes to the ‘E’ for environmental, the right workspace can help them gain some ground. The wrong workspace may set them back.

  1. Does your building has any green certifications, like LEED, Energy Star, BREEAM, Green Globes or WiredScore?
  2. What about your space itself? If you have implemented a sustainability-first energy efficiency plan, or if you use a green server or other green tech, that’s worth bragging about.