Flexibility | The Great Room

What Employees Want From the Workplace After COVID-19

October 17, 2023April 12, 2023 by Jessica Rose Brian

Written by Lisa Cheng, Industrious

With high vaccination rates, employees are increasingly thinking about returning to the workplace

But after over two years of working remotely, many employees have certain expectations of what they want out of their office in the future. We talked to employees from five different industries to get a sense of what they want from their workplace as they start to spend more of their time in the office. Read on to learn how their outlooks have shifted over the past year.

Better Work-Life Balance

“There has been a history of office culture where employees were expected to carry out their days as if they [didn’t] have families; staying late would earn you a badge of honor. Those days are now gone. The pandemic took work-life balance and turned it into a work-life milkshake. We’ve all begun to see each other more as people and less as workers. People won’t want to return to a work environment that doesn’t have the flexibility and trust that allows for true work-life harmony.” — Doug S., VP of Research and Insights at a furniture and logistics company

Flexible Schedules

“I have my son at home doing school-from-home, which means I end up helping him a lot in the morning and then doing my business work a lot more in the afternoon and evening. Everyone on our team has had to find their own schedule, and some of them have really thrived with their new patterns. We’re going to keep that focus on flexibility every after the pandemic.” — Naomi A., Chief Marketing Officer at an information technology company

A Hybrid Workweek

“As with most things, there are pros and cons to working from home. For me, there is no clear-cut winner. I am happy that I can get more accomplished by working remotely, but there is also nothing that can replace communicating with others in-person. Because of that, I would appreciate the ability to split my time between the office and working from home. On days when I need to power through a project, I want to do that from home. On other days when I need help or another person’s perspective, I want to be in the office.” — Wanny M., Marketing Associate at an AI-powered hotel guest communication platform

“At least initially, a big concern for many employees returning to the physical workplace will be their own safety and the safety of their loved ones. Is the company returning to the office too soon? Are they putting the company before the well-being of workers? What are they doing to ensure a safe environment at the workplace? These … are the very first questions employees who have worked from home through the pandemic will expect answers to.” — Dave P., a software developer-turned-parenting blogger

Revamped Perks

“Companies will need to evaluate all of their perks to ensure they are providing their employees with the best options. [Benefits and perks at our start-up studio] are designed to remove some of the hassles of everyday life …. For example, once a month, our employees get a housecleaning stipend and their house or apartment is cleaned on us. With employees spending more time sitting at desks, we also invested in more ergonomic equipment to accommodate employees.” — David K., founder of a San Francisco-based start-up studio

Original Source: Industrious Office

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Enterprise Solutions: Coworking Thinks Big While Remaining Agile

October 17, 2023July 12, 2022 by Jessica Rose Brian

The shared workspace offers benefits that reach far beyond mere hot desking. Discover the custom, hybrid solutions coworking can provide to the modern enterprise in the rapidly changing world of work.

Over the last two years, the way people work has changed significantly, and it’s still in flux. The workplace has had to evolve, too; rethinking space distribution and allocation of resources. Hybrid work schedules are now the norm rather than the anomaly, meaning traditional space allocations are vastly inefficient and creating unnecessary costs.

Hybrid ways of working – where people spread their work time between home (or elsewhere) and the office may be different from what many larger firms are used to. However, it is a reality that all businesses, no matter what their size, need to remain nimble.

Traditional office spaces and conventional arrangements are often unable to meet the demands of an evolving business – let alone the evolving purpose of the workplace itself. Coworking spaces, meanwhile, are primed for evolution and change, the perfect place to set the foundations for your modern team and business.

How coworking helps enterprises build a solid foundation for the future of flexible work

Say goodbye to lengthy, long-term contracts
From a financial perspective, coworking does not require you to sign a conventional commercial lease – instead, clients can enjoy lower overhead costs and month-to-month rental flexibility. These flexible terms allow you to adapt the space as your business needs changes, like adding additional desks or booking meeting rooms as you need them. You pay for what you need when you need it.

*The Great Room Raffles Arcade, Singapore*

For developer security platform Snyk, this was part of the appeal in signing on as a member of The Great Room in Singapore. They chose coworking over traditional office space because it offers “easy scalability as Snyk expands,” says Jane Black, Chief of Staff of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) for Snyk.

“It’s great for a start-up that went from two employees in Singapore in March 2021 to 15 by Nov 2021. We’re looking to be 30-plus by April 2022,” says Shaun McLagan, Vice President APJ.

With our expertise as office solution providers, you can leave the heavy lifting to us
Establishing a new office also requires time and capital for design and fit-out of your workspace. Here too coworking spaces offer another advantage: you get a workspace that’s a great canvas for the office of your dreams. And it comes complete with desks, chairs, power access, and the extra benefit of amenities you wouldn’t find in a traditional office.

For Snyk, cost-effectiveness was another reason to join The Great Room rather than opting for a conventional office. Here, “We don’t have to worry about facilities or IT, and we don’t waste money,” says McLagan.

The money and time you save on rent and amenities can then be put to use elsewhere: talent acquisition, or building culture.

Dedicated office - Centennial Tower — *The Great Room Centennial Tower, Singapore*

A considered environment for your brand and corporate culture to thrive in
At The Great Room, it’s not simply about hot desks and small offices for start-ups. Larger teams can also take up dynamic enterprise spaces within The Great Room’s locations, complete with the privacy, design customisations you want, and the corporate branding you need. The Great Room Enterprise team will even help you with space planning based on your team’s needs.

Discover The Great Room’s Enterprise Solutions

An enterprise space is a type of managed office space that can be customised to suit the needs of larger teams. These exclusive, flexible offices give you access to personalised private spaces that also facilitate valuable human connection, enabling you to build a diverse and engaging collaborative culture.

An example of this is the Enterprise floor on level 6 at The Great Room, Afro-Asia. More than 13,500 square feet of space is divided into three Enterprise office spaces – all of which are kitted out with the features a Fortune 500 company would expect from a premium workspace.

Enterprise tenants can give input on the look and feel of their workspace. Then there’s added support in the form of an in-house design and build team that can advise on the latest trends, and that can help tailor the space with a bespoke fitout. The Great Room’s team has fulfilled requests for everything from private entrances, dedicated bars and server rooms to on-brand welcome lounges and floorplans with a customised split of desks and activity space.

The team will also manage the space and provide soft services that heighten the work experience.

Ultimately, the enterprise space is a private office within a coworking or serviced office environment. What it looks like will vary from company to company, based on their specific needs. Some may need a move-in ready office and a standard array of amenities. Others may need something more bespoke, tailored to the organisation’s unique team and brand ethos, perhaps with communal lounge areas within their exclusive space, as well as work booths, brainstorm studios… the options are limitless, and you get to choose.

The Great Room has seven locations across Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok – Asia’s gateway cities.

Find out how we can help your business adapt to the flexible future of work.
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Out with the Traditional Office, in with the New Sustainable Future of Work

October 17, 2023July 12, 2022 by Jessica Rose Brian

What didn’t work in 2021? How can we do things differently in 2022? It’s time to consider new ways of working so you can build a more productive business that lasts the distance.

As one year ends and another begins, many businesses are reflecting on what worked and what didn’t.

For many, the rigidity of the 9-to-5 in-office working day (or the 8-to-8, as the case may be) was one thing that didn’t. Fixed hours have their benefits, of course. For one, your teams are coordinated: they’re in the same place at the same time. Everyone knows where they need to be and when, and there’s a steadiness in that. It provides some much-needed solidity in a constantly wavering world.

But the day-to-day realities of the last two years have also shown us that people can be productive – perhaps more so – when they work to the beat of their own drum. This is because people tend to feel more fulfilled when they work their way. They can find time for exercise, to get their admin done, or spend time with children, while also getting the job done, and done well.

The Great Room Singapore, One George Street

We are all individuals, after all: one person may be more productive at 8am, and another at 11am; another person may have family needs to factor into the workday, while yet another may like to exercise in the mornings and work late at night. It’s easy to see how the obligation for these individuals to follow a strict schedule could lead to stress, dissatisfaction and eventually, burnout.

There’s also the added factor of commuting to and from the office: this takes time, and, if you’re stuck in traffic or navigating different trains and buses on a daily basis, it can add to the anxiety and that feeling of being subject to the daily grind.

Focus on employee wellness to build organisational strength and sustainability

Consider, then, the workplace trends on the cards for 2022 and beyond. Many of the forecasts claim that talent will be looking for companies that prioritise workplace wellness. This ranges from offering non-traditional benefits (such as family leave and childcare support), mental health support and opportunities for social connectivity (online and in-person) to financial planning assistance and education, access to fitness, and flexible working hours and locations.

Miskawaan Health Group (MHG) is one organisation that has already discovered the benefits of the flexible approach. MHG offers bespoke healthcare solutions that take a functional medicine approach, looking at root causes of illness and using natural substances such as supplements and infusions to address issues and to optimise at an individual level.

The Great Room Bangkok | Gaysorn Tower — *The Great Room Bangkok, Gaysorn Tower*

MHG decided to take a hybrid approach to how they worked, with support staff dividing their time between home and the office. The organisation has a full-service health clinic in Gaysorn Tower in Bangkok, but they needed different arrangements for support staff.

“Fixed hours would create inconveniences for those who wish to access offices for extra meetings and brainstorming sessions, [as well as adding stress for those] waiting for vendors to show up within working hours,” says CEO Varit ‘Top’ Taifayongvichit.

“Some advantages to hybrid working include increased productivity and employee satisfaction, more opportunities for continuous learning, improved collaboration and work relationships, and better outcomes for employees’ mental health. In sum, hybrid ways of working are likely to be the answers to MHG and its organisations as a growing start-up.”

MHG knew they couldn’t achieve this in a traditional office environment. “Traditional offices require longer-term commitments and allocation of costs at the beginning of renovations, continuous renovations are also needed to keep the company in ‘modern’ looks; monthly maintenance costs or overhead costs are also needed to keep up the space,” says Taifayongvichit.

Instead, he and his team decided to shift their staff to a co-working space. They looked to premium co-workspace provider The Great Room to support them in creating a set-up that would foster engagement and satisfaction. The healthcare organisation now has 33 desks at The Great Room Bangkok.

For MHG, the benefits have been manifold. The team now works in a dynamic and creative environment, says Taifayongvichit. At The Great Room, there’s a built-in focus on community, with opportunities to interact with other members at events, and also in the communal spaces over coffee or drinks. This was important for the organisation, says MHG’s CEO.

The Great Room “creates pain-free solutions of spaces for workshops and meetings. Moreover, helpful and friendly staff members from the Great Room make us feel like we’re not just tenants and landlords, but like friends and family. Services are excellent and superb,” he says.
Having flexible workspace solutions on tap is also helpful, he says; as is the ability to get extra desks, meeting rooms and event space on demand. “Office management and admin is taken care of,” he adds.
In short, “co-working space promotes the wellbeing of the company and also mental health of our members,” says Taifayongvichit. As a pioneer in the holistic healthcare space, he should know.

Make workplace wellness part of the programme at The Great Room

In 2022 and beyond, it’s going to be vital for many businesses to build wellness into what they offer their people – and this means providing talent with flexibility, opportunities to connect, and an environment that naturally supports their creativity and mental wellbeing. At The Great Room, these are all elements that underpin our very reason for being.

Supporting the mental and physical health of its members, The Great Room hosts events, workshops and talks focused on wellness and human connection. On the calendar you’ll find events such as sound baths, fitness classes with The Great Room’s partners, morning yoga sessions, tastings and more. And at The Great Room Afro-Asia, wellness is regarded as such a priority that there’s even a dedicated Wellness Room, and a Sky Garden where members can connect with nature in the heart of the city.

Get customised support for your business at The Great Room

The Great Room has seven locations across Asia’s gateway cities. All are located in prime neighbourhoods, with a range of flexible options available for businesses keen to grow but struggling to figure out how to do so. The Great Room’s expert staff are also on hand to provide advice on how to customise your workspace to suit your business needs.

Find out how we can help your business adapt to the flexible future of work.
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Path to Greatness: Workspace that’s as Agile as Your Business

October 17, 2023April 26, 2022 by Jessica Rose Brian

Flexibility is the way of the future in the world of work, and on-demand space opens up a whole host of opportunities for businesses. Forget downsizing or upsizing. Now, it’s all about rightsizing by creating a bespoke office space that supports your company mission, and your people. Find out how coworking can help you build an agile business by providing a flexible base to work from.

In the world of workplace solutions, it’s becoming increasingly clear that cookie-cutter offices just won’t cut it.

What happens when your business suddenly expands? When you take on a new project, and you need to hire three new people, but you don’t have any room in your office? What happens if local restrictions mean your business suddenly has to downsize? You’re left with wasted office space – and you’re paying for it with money that could be put to far better use elsewhere.

Evidently, one-size-fits-all solutions do not fit all.

The Great Room One Taikoo Place, Hong Kong - Dedicated Office — *The Great Room One Taikoo Place, Hong Kong*

What really suits your team depends on the size of your team, the nature of your work, where your team is, how you work and when you work. It also depends on factors that are outside your control – like pandemic restrictions, economic patterns, and consumer behaviour.

What you need is space that can be rightsized for the needs of your business.

Rightsizing and how it supports your business

Every office provides a mix of individual space – workstations, private offices – and group and amenity space. Individual space probably makes up 30 to 40% of your square footage, yet it gets used most of the time (say, 70% of the time).

Group space and your amenity space, those spaces where people gather, make up 60 to 70% of your square footage, yet they only get used 30 to 40% of the time (according to VenturePoint). These are the spaces in which staff print documents, where they drink coffee, have meetings, and so on.

The Great Room Raffles Arcade, Singapore - Workhall — *The Great Room Raffles Arcade, Singapore*

Rightsizing happens when you balance group, amenity and individual space against office costs. By rightsizing, you maximise on business savings by only paying for what you need, while creating the ideal conditions in which to optimise employee performance.

Factors to consider in the rightsizing process are square footage; lease terms; usage data (the nature of your spaces, how many of them there are, how that space is used, which spaces are used and which aren’t, plus headcount); and running costs.

Coworking spaces offer flexible solutions for the agile business

Coworking spaces like The Great Room provide adaptable solutions that enable your business to operate in the most agile way possible. With a coworking space, you can work with flex-lease clauses. Your business can begin with a rental contract based on monthly or yearly terms. You can start with a certain number of desks and/or a certain amount of office space, with the option to increase this as your lease progresses, depending on headcount and business needs.

The flexible nature of the coworking space contract was a huge support to PALO IT as their own business changed through the shifts of the pandemic. PALO IT needed to expand their team to more than 50 employees in 2022, and they needed an office for them, pronto. “The Great Room customised a tailormade space for us,” says Jing Lei, Managing Director for PALO IT in Hong Kong. The Great Room split an existing 50-person office in two, enabling PALO IT to slot into one half and accommodate their whole team. This supported our move to a larger space without the hassle.”

As a global innovation consultancy and agile software development company whose mission is to help companies use “tech as a force for good”, PALO IT understands the value of adaptability better than most.

“Businesses have no choice but to transform under the current situation,” says Lei. “Everyone is looking for expert support to structure their new ways of working; support that also meshes with their corporate governance. For instance, implementing an agile-targeted operating model (ATOM) to accelerate transformation into a data-driven organisation. Also, to facilitate teams through automation.”

This is what PALO IT does best, so it’s no surprise that “market demand has accelerated our business’s growth,” says Lei. “The Great Room has been a great help with both our internal and external events, and in welcoming our guests who come to our office.”

*The Great Room Ngee Ann City, Singapore*

PALO IT needed a collaborative environment where they could welcome clients and other guests, and courteous staff to support this. “It’s comfortable, friendly, and in a great location that’s close to our clients and partners,” agrees Lei. “Not to mention the great staff at The Great Room!”

It’s here that The Great Room excels: its conveniently located venues; the courteous, helpful staff; and the mix of communal and private meeting spaces – from the central ‘Great Room’, which is luxuriously appointed – to the meeting rooms, large and small.

Get customised support for your business at The Great Room

The Great Room also provides all the amenities as part of the coworking package. There’s barista-level, artisan coffee, internet, furniture, access to office equipment such as printers and more. By streamlining the costs associated with group and amenity space, The Great Room, like other coworking space providers, helps businesses balance their office outlays. In this way, The Great Room helps organisations rightsize, and with ease.

Find out how we can help your business adapt to the flexible future of work.
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In Great Demand – Making Flexibility Your Superpower

October 17, 2023March 10, 2022 by Jessica Rose Brian

Flexibility is the way of the future in the world of work, and on-demand space opens up a whole host of opportunities for businesses taking a hybrid approach.

When it comes to work trends for 2022, flexibility is the name of the game. People are choosing – in fact, many are demanding – flexibility; in where they work, when they work and how they work.

Flex is the way forward for everyone from start-ups to established organisations

This shift shows that hybrid, flexible working arrangements aren’t just for start-ups and solopreneurs. It’s not simply for those who are bootstrapping their business, or who are trying to save on costs (although that’s a definite benefit of flexible arrangements). It’s for any and every business that wants to be agile and that wants to expand and contract its workspace based on their needs that month, that week – or even that day.

Take OnTheList, for example. The members-only luxury flash sales company didn’t need a full service office; what they needed was somewhere to host client meetings in Hong Kong’s dynamic Quarry Bay district. “I was looking for a space that could accommodate different needs: meeting clients for coffee to catch up in a formal yet cosy environment with coffee and tea available; somewhere relatively quiet and with private space for business meetings,” says Mathilde Betinas, APAC Business Development Manager for OnTheList.

Ethica Wines, meanwhile, was expanding into the Asia-Pacific region from the US and they needed a Bangkok base for their Regional Sales Manager, Diego Sebastian Todone. “Being the only person from my company in the region and having to travel most of the time (in a normal world), I wanted to find a place that would cover all the needs of a full-scale office with the flexibility that a shared office offers,” says Todone.

“When I was looking for a place to use as an everyday base, I came across The Great Room. When I visited, it was love at first sight!”

For Todone, The Great Room offered all the advantages of having your own office. “It gives me access to concierge and printers, meeting rooms, a high-speed network, and a beautiful space to talk business with clients and partners.”

At the same time, however, a coworking space such as this one does away with the hassles that a traditional office entails: This includes a long-term lease, buying furniture and office equipment and committing to larger floor space to make room for facilities like meeting rooms and pantry areas that are necessary, yet will be underutilised. With a luxury coworking space like The Great Room, you shift to variable costs that you can control.

On-demand workspace supports greater flexibility

The best part? You get to choose what your costs look like by working with The Great Room to create a tailor-made package you can change whenever you need to. The Great Room offers a whole realm of on-demand services to support maximum flexibility.

You could, for example, choose to combine a private office space with hotdesking, like Bangkok-based luxury hospitality group AZOTELS does. This hybrid arrangement gives AZOTELS staff the flexibility to work in a quiet space when they need to focus, or to mingle when they want a more dynamic vibe. They can also purchase The Great Room’s Day Passes on-demand, when they have more staff coming into the office.

Perhaps, like Ethica Wines, you may want to work flexibly and meet your clients somewhere that feels aligned with your brand – somewhere that evokes five-star style. The Great Room’s Hot Desk memberships are the perfect solution, giving you access to the Workhall and Drawing Room, where the elegant surroundings, coupled with an array of lounge seating options, set the scene for connecting with clients and working productively.

Flexible access to the Drawing Room is part of The Great Room’s appeal for OnTheList. “You can select your working space depending on the number of guests you are expecting: you can go for a small coffee table for a one-on-one catch-up, or you can go for the sofa area for larger gatherings,” says Betinas. And “I can create my remote office space whenever I need I can just walk in with the day pass without having to worry about availability.”

For Ethica (Wines), The Great Room’s premium aesthetic and hospitality mindset suits their needs nicely. “The environment is very work oriented; it’s friendly, but at the same time very professional and upscale. This is really important for (us), as it mirrors the image that we want to give to our customers and partners that visit us at The Great Room,” says Todone. “Anything you need, the staff will always help you with a smile on their face. This is super valuable, because it puts you in the best mood to focus on what you have to do.”

Get customised support for your business at The Great Room

With hybrid ways of working increasingly the modus operandi, these businesses demonstrate just how well on-demand solutions can support their businesses in an era when flexibility is the only way forward. Whether you’re looking for regular desk access, a private office for a few weeks, or a meeting room for that important meeting, or a prestigious corporate address, it’s all possible at The Great Room.

The Great Room has seven locations across Asia’s gateway cities, including five in Singapore. All are located in prime neighbourhoods, with a range of options available – from on-demand space to fixed, private workspace for larger teams. Find out how we can help your business adapt to the future of work. Select your city below to learn more.

Find oUT HOW WE CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS ADAPT TO THE FLEXIBLE FUTURE OF WORK. SELECT THE CITY BELOW FOR MORE DETAILS.

The Great Scheme of Things

July 25, 2024November 2, 2021 by Jessica Rose Brian

For founders trying to focus on the bigger picture, coworking offers fully customisable, hybrid solutions that take care of all the details, so you can focus on what matters.

The last year and a half has been a rollercoaster ride of changes: companies were thrust into remote working, pivoting to operating online almost overnight. Since then, it’s been a push-me-pull-you scenario amid ever-changing distancing and numbers regulations. The constant shift, and the trajectory it ignited for the work-from-anywhere approach, have powered changes that were beginning to happen already, albeit slowly.

Businesses need to adapt their technology, and their people

As Kevin Sneader and Shubham Singhal point out in McKinsey Global Institute’s piece, “The next normal arrives: Trends that will define 2021 – and beyond”, the combination of Covid-19 and advances in digitisation and automation have been a potent one. They quote Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who said in April 2020, “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital change in two months.”

We’re not on the other side of this yet — what changes, then, are yet to come? While this is anyone’s guess, the consensus is that businesses need to be ready for change, and they need to be positioned for adaption.

The role of the office plays a significant role here. It looks like hybrid strategies that offer a mix of remote and in-office work are the way forward. As Sneader and Singhal argue, businesses also need to adapt their workforce “to the requirements of automation, digitisation, and other technologies.”

Coworking offers change-ready solutions

Organisations need solutions that reduce the burden: solutions that can adapt to them rather than the other way around. In particular, they need office solutions that are primed for change. This is the benefit of a coworking environment like The Great Room. Offering a mix of hot desking, fixed private offices and meeting space, The Great Room delivers flexibility: you choose the combination you need, and you can sign on for as long or as short a time as you want.

When compared with the rigidity of long-term office leases and fixed floorplates, coworking is a dream. With coworking, you’re no longer paying for empty desks and excess square footage you don’t need because half your staff are working remotely three days a week. At The Great Room, for example, there’s an in-house app that allows team members to book their desks in the office. This takes the load off office managers, and it reduces the risk of team members coming all the way to the office, only to find it’s at full capacity.

How coworking provides uncompromising solutions in real-life scenarios

Let’s look at a real-life example. AZOTELS Hospitality, a high-end hotel group founded by Adrian Zecha, needed a mix of privacy and connection in a vibrant work environment.

The Great Room in Bangkok was able to offer them a hybrid solution that matched their needs perfectly, setting them up with a private office, which supports confidentiality when they need it, as well as space in which to focus.

AZOTELS Hospitality also has hot desks, giving the team space to work in dynamic surroundings when they want to. “The Great Room delivered a turnkey solution that gave our hotel company the ability to scale without the initial overheads costs associated with a more traditional office set-up,” says Leanne Reddie, Commercial Sales & Marketing Director at AZOTELS Hospitality.

Plus, as their team grows, depending on the team’s needs, they can simply add more hot desks into the mix or move to a larger private office. In addition, the hospitality-driven nature of this coworking environment speaks to the AZOTELS Hospitality brand, making The Great Room the perfect partner. Says Reddie, “With the evolution of the working environment in this post pandemic era, The Great Room represents the office of the future.

Coworking provides on-brand settings and on-time support

In this way, The Great Room was able to quickly cater to AZOTELS Hospitality’s needs for a workspace in the right location, and one that felt on-brand. Indeed, this is one of the (many) perks of The Great Room: it’s luxurious enough to represent the quality of your brand to clients and stakeholders.

With facilities such as the ‘great room’ itself – that ultra-comfortable, stylish community space – premium in-house events, the barista-level coffee, as well as wellbeing spaces and outdoor areas at locations such as Afro-Asia, there’s a strong foundation from which to reinforce your brand and build corporate culture, as well as bolster employee engagement. All without management, marketing or HR having to lift a finger.

Support is another key benefit of coworking spaces. Premium coworking environments like The Great Room have expert, in-house support staff that are ready to handle any issues that come up – from helping with VC technology and booking meeting rooms and event spaces to adding extra desks when companies suddenly find unexpectedly high numbers of staff coming into the office.

For many organisations, it’s a weight off their shoulders to have someone else take care of the fit-out and all the admin associated with workspace. And, in the grand scheme of things, in a working world that’s constantly in flux, it’s details like these that make all the difference.

A Workspace That Moves With You

The Great Room by Industrious is coworking inspired by hospitality, with 150+ international locations across APAC, US and Europe where members have access to all workspaces in our global network.

Get in touch with us.

The Future is Flexible, The Future is Coworking

June 8, 2022October 12, 2021 by Jessica Rose Brian

When it comes to the way we work, the data is clear: the future of work resembles a different beast entirely from the one that it was in 2019. The events of the past year-and-a-half have been largely responsible, leading to a global work experiment that we’ve all participated in. Our findings? Hybrid strategies are the way forward.

The modern workforce wants Flexibility

Hybrid ways of working revolve around arrangements that combine remote and in-office work, facilitated by technology. The exact ratios of office and work-from-anywhere time vary from company to company, but the essence is the same, and for most companies, so are the outcomes. The data indicates that hybrid strategies contribute to engagement and productivity – and that most people prefer working this way. Just 15 percent of Southeast Asian respondents to the EY 2021 Work Reimagined Employee Survey said they want to work from the office full time. Seven in 10 respondents, meanwhile, believe that hybrid work arrangements encourage productivity and creativity.

Similarly, a 2021 Willis Towers Watson survey of employers in the APAC region found that 62% of employers identify flexible work arrangements as a priority; one that could boost the employee experience.

Hybrid arrangements benefit both employers and employees

For employees, flexible working arrangements improve the overall experience of work for a host of reasons. If they’re able to work when, where and how they want, it puts the power back in their hands. With autonomy, people feel more excited about work. Studies have shown that greater engagement can improve presenteeism rates. And, if people work when they want, they’re more likely to focus when they do work

For employers, aside from more engaged, productive workers – which a Gallup study showed can lead to increases in business profits to the tune of 21 percent – flexible work arrangements can also translate to reduced floorplates, leading to massive savings in rent.
As a business leader or owner, you could of course simply rent a smaller, one-company workspace. But that leaves you with no room to grow. There’s no space to scale up, or to scale down, as your workplace needs shift and change.

So why not simply adopt a blanket work-from-home policy? Well, people tend to find working from home a lonely and isolating experience. They crave the human interaction and connection that a shared workspace provides. At the same time, they increasingly shy away from the overly structured, stifling traditional corporate office environment.

Get in touch about customised workspace solutions for your team

Co-working at The Great Room supports flexibility, bolstering business operations and corporate culture

The ideal alternative, then, is a coworking space like The Great Room in Singapore. Here, flexibility has been a key aspect of the modus operandi right from the start. Companies are increasingly realising that coworking spaces provide an effective solution to the demands of the new working environment – and the desires of the modern worker. For organisations in flux – which is every organisations in today’s world – the coworking space facilitates agility.

When a company expands, a coworking space has desks at the ready. When fewer people are in the office – whether due to a pandemic scenario that requires remote work, or because of reduced staffing needs – a coworking space enables you to scale down in a flash, minus fit-out costs, and without incurring the penalties that come when you break an office lease.

Plus, the coworking environment facilitates sharing of resources. You no longer need to fork out for multiple printers, staplers, water coolers, dedicated front desk staff – these are all at your fingertips, courtesy of your coworking provider. The financial benefits are therefore apparent straight away, as well as in the long-term. (For boutique businesses, for example, the financial benefits of choosing a coworking space are significant: they report savings of 25 percent a year.)

For employees, one of the core benefits of a coworking space – and indeed, one of the central tenets of the coworking movement – is community. At The Great Room, for example, there’s a mix of SMEs, established global organisations, solopreneurs and freelancers. All of whom can come together in the coworking space provider’s ‘great room’, a luxe yet comfortable living room-style communal space designed to foster connection, new conversations, new ideas… and a sense of belonging.

While a coworking space offers greatly enhanced opportunities for connection, it also provides privacy benefits on par with those you would find in a traditional single-business office. Coworking spaces are primed to answer confidentiality and security requirements: all you have to do is ask for what you need. At the same time, coworking environments steer away from the pitfalls of the traditional office. Naturally flexible, coworking is the antithesis of rigidity: no more fixed locations, fixed desks or fixed hours. And, since you’re no longer limited to interacting with a small, fixed pool of colleagues, you’re less likely to grapple with groupthink (coming to a consensus just to avoid dissent) or office politics.

By saving companies time and money, and by fostering engagement and productivity, coworking spaces solve a whole host of workplace problems. And, by supporting hybrid working strategies, coworking demonstrates its staying power in the brave new world of work.

Mark Teng, Executive Director of That.Legal LLC

One law firm experienced significant financial and interpersonal benefits when they made the transition from traditional office space to The Great Room. Want to hear their story? [Read more here]

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Why Work-From-Anywhere Is The New Work-From-Home

October 5, 2021January 21, 2021 by Grace

Move over WFH: it’s all about WFA now. WFA, if you’re not familiar with this increasingly pervasive acronym, stands for work from anywhere.

As KPMG points out in embedding new ways of working, the pandemic has demonstrated on a global level that many jobs can be done from anywhere. With technology as an enabler, remote work – which was on the rise anyway – suddenly became the status quo. As many as 25 to 30% of the world’s workforce will be working remotely by the end of 2021, says Global Workplace Analytics.

REMOTE WORK 2.0

Remote work used to mean working from home, or potentially your hotel room if you were travelling, but it’s evolved beyond that to working from anywhere. The reason being that WFH is limiting. The new reality of work in 2021 is not binary: it’s not office or home. That ‘anywhere’ could be your own home if that’s where you want to work, but it could also be a cafe. It could be a co-working space, your friend’s house, a park, the waiting room at the dentist… anywhere really.

Studio at The Great Room, One Taikoo Place

But when it comes to home, there are distractions – social media being one of the biggest – along with the potential for drops in productivity and motivation.

As for cafes, they may offer more space, an attractive setting and a chance to interact with other people, not to mention ready access to food and tea and coffee. There are drawbacks, however. Unstable wi-fi, the potential for noise that interferes with your ability to focus; whether that’s from overall chatter and cooking noises, or the loud conversation the people at the table next to you are having.

WORK FROM ANYWHERE, ELEVATED

Enter the co-working space. With dedicated desks and offices, shared workspaces are an ideal bridge between the traditional corporate office and working from home. There’s also the opportunity to interact with like-minded individuals and businesses in an environment where everyone else is doing the same thing: working… and not looking at social media.

Workhall at The Great Room, Centennial Tower

ACTIVITY-BASED WFA

At The Great Room, which has inspiring shared workspaces in Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong, that ability to work uninterrupted is amplified by the fact that there are different spaces for different work needs. Head to the Workhall at your venue of choice, where there are desks aplenty when you need to get into the zone and do deep work. Or book a private office if you need privacy by purchasing ; just buy a Day Pass or monthly Hot Desk packages via The Great Room’s online stores in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

Need to have a casual chat with someone in your industry? Sit on the sofas and enjoy artisanal coffee in the expansive Drawing Room, the luxuriously appointed space that is the heart of every great room. Have to meet a client? Book one of the leather, wood and marble-clad meeting rooms. If you’re visiting a client at their offices, head to your nearest The Great Room location afterwards. This is activity-based work-from-anywhere at its finest – a far cry from the sofa, the bed or the dining table… and the kids.

The activity-based work model is driven by the idea that people will be more productive if they can move between various settings that cater to the nature of the work they’re doing at that particular moment in time. Giving workers the power to choose where, how and when they work is also hugely empowering.

THE POWER OF CHOICE

In Singapore, The Great Room takes activity-based working goes a step further. Here, you have four locations to choose from, and a fifth on the way. There’s prestigious One George Street, in the heart of the CBD, right near Raffles Place, Clarke Quay and Chinatown MRT. Then there’s Ngee Ann City on Orchard Road, which has a cool bar and a fun, dynamic vibe. Centennial Tower, on the Marina Centre-side of the CBD, is our tech hub; whilst Raffles Arcade, right next to historic hotel Raffles Singapore, is the co-working space of choice for creatives.

Each Singapor e co-working location has been designed individually; each has a different style and a different vibe. Move between them depending on your mood, or your working needs.

Drawing Room at The Great Room, Gaysorn Tower

In other parts of Asia, you will find a two-floor, light-filled The Great Room in Bangkok’s Gaysorn Tower, right next to Chidlom BTS; and another in Hong Kong’s One Taikoo Place, a state-of-the-art sustainably minded and Grade-A office tower in entertainment and work precinct Quarry Bay.

With such chic and forward-thinking destinations to choose from, why limit yourself to working from home when you can work anywhere? Start your WFA journey with a Day Pass for any of The Great Room’s shared workspaces in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok via The Great Room’s online stores.