It has been proven that people who work in flexible spaces are happier, and happy employees are up to 12% more productive. A survey conducted in 2017 indicated that over 44% of corporates were already using some type of flexible office solution and this number was expected to increase to 66% by 2020.   

The job market has become highly competitive, skilled workers can afford to pick and choose where they want to work. Companies are creating flexible office spaces that are comfortable, creative, productive, and environmentally conscious in order to make themselves more appealing to potential employees. Common additions include lifestyle elements such as child care services, healthy food, spas, gyms and other exercise spaces. These spaces also allow better access to innovators, talent and to reduce real estate costs.   

“This is a very exciting time to be a business owner,” says Michael Baretta, managing director of [dot]GOOD, South Africa’s first and foremost cause-marketing agency and tenant at The Business Exchange in Rosebank, a flexible office space in Johannesburg. “With a staff contingent that fluctuates between 20 and 50, flexible office spaces allow us to ebb and flow as we need. For-good marketing also requires high levels of collaboration and creativity; which these spaces are perfect for,” he continues.      

“I think that work spaces have come to reflect our cultures, behaviours and norms as a business. The office design and structure are incredibly important features which promote certain kinds of work and behaviour. As the nature of our work is knowledge-based, innovative and collaborative, we needed a workspace that mirrors the way we conduct business,” says Baretta.   “

One of a company’s most important resources is its employees. The incoming workforce is incredibly concerned with feeling good about the work they do,” says David Seinker, founder of The Business Exchange. “The latest flexible workspaces are employing millennial-pleasing technologies such as LED lights, recycling, new-age aircons and water supply plants to be more environmentally sustainable,” he says. “All The Business Exchange buildings have been ‘Green Star Rated’. The Green Star Rating is a system that has recently been launched in South Africa, where buildings are rated on how environmentally sustainable they are,” he continues.

“The business world has long been viewed as static, and beyond reproach. Flexible office spaces are changing the narrative by making employee’s happiness a priority, ” concludes Baretta.