Coworking Space Preparation Towards the "New Normal"

Almost three months since the implementation of self-quarantine due to the pandemic, co-working space is one of the industries that be affected. Its flexibility as a place of work for everyone allows the risk of transmission to occur.

Faye Alund, President of Coworking Indonesia, an association that embodies co-working space, said that his party conducted a brief survey to see the condition of the co-working space in Indonesia for the past three months. This survey was followed by 30%-40% of members. The total members are 250 people representing about 100 businesses co-working space.

"The answer is occupancyalmost 0% because many are closed for two to three months. June has started to open. For friends outside Jakarta, even though there is no PSBB, the occupancy has also fallen by almost 0%," he explained to DailySocial.

Faye's brief explanation is in line with what Ngalup, a player from Malang, faced. Director Ngalup.co Andina Paramitha said that during the last three months her party had switched to “survival mode” because all members are doing WFH. Because occupancy dropped drastically, the team began to reduce one by one the needs that were “nice to have".

"Before Covid-19 entered Malang, we had prepared a plan to last until December 2020 to turn the wheels of the economy. We will push new services and to reduce cost "Every month, we make adjustments to needs, starting from electricity usage, employee salaries, to employee catering," he said.

The conditions were slightly different as described by the Co-Founder and CEO of GoWork Vanessa V. Hendriadi. GoWork is classified as a large player with a total space of almost 60 thousand square meters spread across 24 points in four major cities in Indonesia.

Vanessa revealed that her party was following government policy in closing locations because the most important thing was prioritizing collective safety. It's just that, there are several locations whose members are companies engaged in essential businesses, so GoWork must remain open.

"Our average occupancy is still above 70%, indeed it has decreased slightly compared to before Covid-19, namely 95%. However, we see that this is only temporary and we are ready to face it."new normal” with all the protocols that we continue Update," explained Vanessa.

CoHive also closed the majority of its locations during the PSBB and reopened on June 8 2020, starting from its head office, CoHive 101. CoHive CEO Jason Lee explained that the pandemic had made business changes for the company, but his party was starting to be optimistic about welcoming new normal conditions.

"Throughout the PSBB, our private office occupancy remained stable, therefore the development team has provided the best solution for members. "We believe building long-term relationships with members will strengthen the community," he said.

From the business side, the CoHive team is actively discussing with building owners to provide options and adjustments regarding rental fee flexibility for CoHive members, especially startups and SMEs so that runway they are longer.

“On a positive note, as a platform coworking and the largest community in Indonesia, we hope to be one of the first industries to recover and grow stronger than other players as we provide what is needed to reactivate [activities] in the new normal.”

New source of income

The implementation of PSBB is in line with the reasons why occupancy has decreased. Therefore, players must find out how to ensure their business stays alive. Faye emphasized the main essence co-working space is the activation of a community that wants to expand its network, as well as accelerate it Serendipity.

Serendipity are fortunate coincidences and can happen at any time. This can be created through co-working space sebagai melting pot-New.

Network expansion is translated into business language by deploying training program which has been adapted to member needs. Now this program is held in online version.

“In March-April, many friends created a free version of the program to test first because this was moving from offline to online, learn the topic, and so on. Then in May we saw they started monetizing by creating paid classes, you already know market what do you need, even if you are just starting out.”

From the association's side, they encourage members by providing access and opportunities for players coworking expanding sources of income by participating in programs held abroad. One of the player-only global events co-working space is the Berlin Coworking Hack 2020.

“From there, we can learn from other actors about streams [new income] what can be done during the pandemic. In addition to activating the program, there are also ways through crowdfunding, use resource from members for cooperation and monetization in order capacity building, and others which are all done online.”

The players agreed with Faye's statement. Vanessa explained that even though many locations were closed, the GoWork team's activity had actually increased. Apart from being busy building relationships with everyone stakeholder (members, partners and building owners) to remain survive, they did digital activation aggressively through content of interest from popular platforms.

It is claimed that almost every day the GoWork platform is visited by more than 1000 visitors tune-in to company-created content. He admitted that a strategy like this had never been explored by the company before. “Because of this crisis, GoWork discovered a new business opportunity that really helps our community grow and is a complement to our flexible workspace business.”

CoHive is also aggressively holding online programs for its community. Jason explained that his party invited professionals, both individuals and company representatives from across industries as speakers.

“Community and collaboration are still a core part of our business but with a focus on health and safety. For example, we adapted by moving social events/activities online. Of course, in the future we will hold more online activities.”

Missing it too. They make programs webinar paid and collaborate with coworking others outside Malang to reach a larger audience. Apart from that, Ngalup created a new service, namely webinar studio. Ngalup provides all webinar needs, starting from cameras, microphone, laptops, background, Zoom license, up to host if needed.

“We are also taking care of services virtual office. Later, corporates can put their company address at our place, without having to work in Ngalup. "The impact doesn't seem significant yet, but we are sure that in the future there will be big opportunities for this service," said Andin.

Health protocol

As a gathering place for people from various companies, co-working space need to implement health protocols in welcoming the new normal. The procedures taken follow government instructions, for example providing facilities for washing hands, thermoguns to check body temperature, ensuring the use of masks, and distributing hand sanitizers at many points.

"We provide chairs and tables in the room one meter apart to prevent spread from the Ngalup office environment," explained Andin.

CoHive has also made a number of preventive measures that the community needs to adhere to, such as being more disciplined in regular sanitation at all locations, recommending that face-to-face meetings can only be held if the number of participants is under five people. Then encourage members to come not at the same time in order to minimize the number of people queuing at the lift or elevator.

“We are still in the process of refining more detailed guidance from this week, and onwards when people return to the office. Although this is an additional cost for us, health and safety is our priority.”

Meanwhile, GoWork implements health verification via QR Code before entering the office area. All visitors are required to register using the online verification form via smartphone. When the visitor has been verified and passed the body temperature check, the team will provide a special mark, in the form of a marking sticker to be attached to the left side of the chest.

Vanessa also limits the use of several facilities, such as the gym room, rest corner, sleeping pod, bench cushions and shared writing equipment. "We urge you to bring your own food and drinks due to restrictions on the use of clean kitchen areas."

Strategy survive and new trends

Anticipating uncertain economic conditions, the players have prepared safety anchors to stay afloat at least until the end of the year. The strategies used between large-scale players and medium-small scale players will of course be different.

Apart from relying on new services, Andin ensures that his party will continue to tighten it post-post monthly expenses until the end of 2020, starting from electricity usage, employee salaries, to catering.

Separately, in an official statement, GoWork remains optimistic about the industry's sustainable recovery coworking in the next six months with the new normal. The company will continue expanding into new locations, after being delayed due to the pandemic, in Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya. GoWork's newest location is located at Treasury Tower, SCBD, Jakarta.

"Operator coworking will experience an increase in occupancy and interest numbers because many companies have become more flexible during the post-Covid-19 era. [..] coworking will be an affordable solution for companies that are increasingly careful and intelligent in utilizing business capital as economically as possible by choosing co-working space," said GoWork Co-Founder and CFO Richard Lim.

From the CoHive side, Jason admitted that his party had received a dramatic increase in business inquiries in the last two weeks because business owners had been waiting for the PSBB to end. This optimism makes him believe business demand will increase in the next three to six months, higher than before Covid-19.

"The majority of companies in Indonesia rent their office space at a fixed rental price for 5-10 years, even though the actual space needed is not that big. [..] We think they will turn to flexible workspace providers. We see a strong recovery in the next 3-6 months with greater potential.”

Faye also added similar optimism. He likened the impact of this pandemic to players co-working space is a blessing in disguise (blessing in disguise). Business resilience will certainly be challenged as to how it can remain survive in one year.

Covid-19 has indeed taken everything value of the physical facilities owned co-working space, but value What is much more important is how to expand your network and increase your capabilities through the necessary programs. So co-working space it's not a workplace that has desks, chairs and internet facilities.

"So when you come in new normal, mindset has been established, that work can be flexible, that working remotely it is possible that the KPI is not from the pair of bodies but from result. This changes habit the way of working, with standards from co-working space which we have introduced so far."

The next trend that may occur during the new normal transition period is emergence co-working space which are located on the outskirts of town or housing to accommodate people who want to continue working remote without having to come to the office or work from home.

“So instead of having to Commute, co-working space can accommodate a more professional work environment, equipped with facilities and networking," concluded Faye.