A coworking space member productively working

The strong community that you’ve built is what keeps your members coming back, but productivity is why they showed up in the first place. We’ve talked about how to increase productivity through the senses, as well as the importance of creating a culture of wellness. Now we’ll dive into other ways you can help members feel more productive. While the first step for a lot of people in coworking is just putting on pants and leaving the house, there are other important ways you can encourage your members to be more productive!

Optimize Your Work Environments

Whatever your task for the day, big or small, your environment plays a critical roll in how quickly you work through your to-do list. Sometimes these tasks require all of your attention, and even the smallest distractions can throw you off. There are days when a bustling open space may be too distracting, and a quiet booth may be more effective. Because of this, it’s important to offer a range of work areas or desk options to give your members the space to move around and find the right environment for what they need to accomplish. These can be quiet spaces, communal areas, outdoor spaces, or private offices. Providing different environments throughout your coworking space will help your members find what works for them, and encourages mobility throughout the day. Movement throughout the day is great for improving health and has been shown to help improve productivity in the workplace!

Offer Some Extras

Say someone is looking into coworking and they love the community and opportunity to network, but they need absolute quiet to get work done. Think about offering a borrowing program where members can borrow noise-canceling headphones for those days when other people’s sniffles and conversations are a little too distracting. You could have endless options, including laptop chargers, blankets, or phone chargers. On top of this, you can also create a community Spotify account where you have playlists that encourage different moods. To see a list of our favorite playlists for coworking, check our Coworking Playlists.

Break Half-Day Habits

Why do people leave coworking spaces before they finish work for the day? While we all love a good half-day, it’s easier to be less accountable in coworking spaces. When you think about a regular office, people leave for doctor appointments, childcare, or even lunch. These commitments don’t disappear with coworking but there are ways you can encourage members to return after. To help keep productivity up, look into offering childcare within your space, or bring in flu shots and free doctor visits to members. Another great idea to keep members around during lunch is to offer rotating food truck options throughout the week. No one likes working while hangry after all. These simple changes may stop members from ending their workday early because of other commitments or needs!

Create Dedicated Social Time

Consider the wellness of your members and how that impacts productivity. Having a community manager that is passionate about breaking up the monotonous weekday routine can help to make your coworking space more exciting and therefore more productive for members! While socializing and networking are an important part of coworking, they also take away productivity and can be distracting to some members. Offering a dedicated lunchtime can help foster a fun environment during a natural break time that encourages networking, asking questions, bouncing ideas back and forth, and socialization.

What are some things you have done in your coworking space to help increase productivity in members? We would love to hear your ideas!