Benefits of Working Out of Cocoon
There are some important benefits that you and your employees gain when you work from a shared office space, and even more so when that workspace is Cocoon!
Functionality & Focus: Workspaces are set up and designed for the purpose of accomplishing specific work-related tasks, which increase efficiency and productivity. Can you say the same about your home workspace? Social interactions naturally ebb and flow throughout the day with moments of conversation around desks and periods of quiet focus. At home, it is all down to you to nurture that focus.
For many, the office also offers an escape from distractions. Home-based working can often mean having to contend with spontaneous interruptions whether that’s pets, children or deliveries arriving at your door.Creativity & Collaboration: Working as a part of a team boosts your creativity as well as enhances your collaborative and social skills. Not only this but connecting with people in person on a daily basis helps us acquire new contacts that can help us and our business in the long run. Collaborating and connecting virtually, sadly, does not produce the same effects. When working from home, especially over an extended period, people’s networks can shrink considerably to the people they only directly need to work with.
Being in the office allows employees to connect with people they may not interact with daily. These spontaneous conversations over coffee or while passing in a corridor are hugely valuable. These moments can provide people with context about the business, sounding board advice, new ideas, collaboration opportunities, learnings in ‘how to get things done’ within the business and insight into where work overlap is occurring. What may feel like ‘time off the clock’ is often a rich addition to people’s work, leading to better decision-making and increased efficiency and effectiveness.
Additionally, it’s much easier to read people’s emotions face to face than over a screen resulting in more personal conversations where you can really get insight into people’s wellbeing and offer support where needed.Culture & Development: Organizational culture has a proven influence on business performance, particularly revenue growth, net income, productivity, employee absence, creativity and employee retention. This is because culture impacts people’s wellbeing at work and can ensure we are more engaged and passionate about our roles.
It is also much easier to create a culture of support and personal development when you have employees of all levels in the same space. An office space is often at the heart of your business culture, it creates increased collaboration for meetings and group working, enhances relationship building across colleagues and helps with training and development opportunities. Encouraging curiosity in the office can help disseminate knowledge across the desks, breaking down silos and allowing for ideas to be shared and developed as a team.Balance: Even if you love your job, it’s not healthy to feel like you’re working during every waking hour. Everyone has a different attitude to balancing work and home, but research has long suggested that there are two broad groups: those who keep work and home separate are ‘segmenters’ and those who blend them both are ‘integrators’.
Segmenters are able to devote sufficient energy to personal and professional projects, even when one area becomes busy or stressful. They are also better at mentally ‘switching off’, which reduces stress.
The office allows anyone to experience these benefits, regardless of their position on the segmenter/integrator spectrum; by having a clear ‘place of work’, one can physically leave it and draw a line under that part of the day.
Have you found working from home has been compromising these areas of your life? Is it time to find a workspace outside of your home so you can find that balance we so desperately need? Tell us in the comment field below!
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