Having your employees in a coworking space can be a big benefit to your business. It can encourage the sharing of ideas and creative collaboration, among other pluses. 

However, it can also present some unique challenges that need to be considered. The good news is that these challenges can be mitigated with an adjustment in how you manage your employees. 

Here are some tips on how to effectively oversee staff in a shared workspace… 

Focus on Positive Collaboration

A coworking space is a departure from the traditional office space with dividers between each desk. Your staff will share a common space and therefore be in constant communication with each other. 

That’s why it’s important to encourage them to get along. One way you can achieve this is by hosting team-building activities or fun events that are both fun and challenging to help them form a sense of camaraderie. Think about creative challenges, breaking them into teams to present an idea at the end. 

There are also a number of online communities you can join so employees can collaborate electronically as well as face to face. 

Keep Statistics and Share Them 

You can track the attendance of each coworking employee and share that information with the team each month. In some cases, you can even create a leaderboard of the most productive employees based on submitted work, creating some healthy competition and even bonuses. 

Stats about the company’s performance can be sent via an email or newsletter to employees, giving them additional fulfillment from their hard work and providing more motivation. 

Make Sure To Be Present

Not only do you need to be available remotely for any questions that come up from your team, but you should also actually visit the shared workspace too. 

This isn’t just to potentially catch your employees goofing off and watching videos instead of working on that big project that’s due at 4 p.m. Going to the coworking facility can help ensure the facility is suitable and determine whether policies need to be adjusted. 

Be More Flexible With Schedules

One of the big advantages of coworking spaces is that they don’t typically follow the 9 to 5 timeframe. They can be accessible to members at almost any time of day or night. For the employee, that means they should be able to run an errand during the day without having to pre-approve time off from you. 

As long as your staff produces quality work on deadline, then you should let them have a certain amount of control over their scheduling. Of course, you also don’t want them to abuse this privilege, so keep a close eye on overall productivity. 

Allow Some Quiet Time

You could find out if a private space can be created to allow some alone time to those who need quiet or are simply trying to focus without distractions. At LaunchHouse, you can reserve a conference room or even rent a private office. Aside from that, you can also tell employees they can listen to music on headphones as long as they don’t ignore obvious requests. 

Shared Workspace Can Be Managed With The Right Approach

More and more employers are turning to shared workspaces in the gig economy. While they make sense in many ways, choosing the right one makes a difference. To find out how a shared workspace can help you, contact us.