Coworking spaces have been popping up all around the world. People in all types of careers appreciate the flexibility of working in non-office environment that has the amenities they need, such as fast internet and printing, along with a setup that promotes collaboration and creativity. When the average person thinks of members for coworking spaces, they picture freelancers, those who work from home or remotely, startups, and small companies. However, anyone can use a coworking space, and these are far from the only groups that do so.

Big Corporations Are Using Coworking Spaces

There is a growing trend of big corporations taking advantage of the benefits of coworking spaces. Some technological giants, such as IBM, Microsoft, and Verizon, are testing the use of coworking spaces for employees so they can be close to and easily interact with innovative startups.

One of the biggest coworking companies, WeWork, is seeing a growing number of large companies using their spaces. In fact, in recent times WeWork’s clients with more than 1,000 employees have doubled. Just some of the big names with WeWork memberships include Salesforce, Starbucks, Microsoft, Facebook, and Bank of America. A recent report even noted that 25 percent of the annual WeWork revenue is from these companies with more than 1,000 employees.

While small businesses move into a coworking space to utilize them as their primary office, for big corporations coworking spaces represent the opportunity to estiblish more distrubuted teams far away from their HQ and managed their team expansion in a more flexible way. So it's no surprise that big corporations have good reasons for making the move into coworking spaces.

Ease of Access to Innovators

As mentioned before, some of the major tech companies that choose to use coworking spaces do so to get closer to innovators in the field. Because coworking spaces tend to have a social and collaborative element in addition to the features of a traditional office in a more relaxing atmosphere, it becomes natural to interact with others This gives large corporations access to startups with industry-changing ideas and new talent.

Improved Productivity

Having employees work side by side with startups and industry innovators does more than make it easier to get new talent; it also provides motivation and increases employee productivity. Employees tend to be more motivated when they see others around them working hard and producing great ideas, giving large companies another reason to use coworking spaces.

Cost Effectiveness

The reason so many individuals and small businesses use coworking spaces also applies to larger corporations. No matter the size of your business, coworking can save money, provided you choose the right space. Instead of having to rent an office space, buy furniture, pay for utilities, buy office equipment, and provide coffee and snacks, corporations can just pay a monthly fee to the coworking company and notice savings.

Flexibility and Convenience for Employees

Most large corporations that let their employees use coworking spaces offer the choice of working in a coworking environment or in a normal office. This way, employees can have more flexibility and choose whichever location is more convenient for them. In the case of companies collaborating with WeWork and other coworking businesses with multiple locations, employees can choose the location in the city that is by other activities for the day, such as errands they need to run after work. Overall, employees tend to appreciate the shorter commute that comes from coworking spaces.