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Right in the center of Barcelona's vibrant streets, just a 20-minute walk from the famous Sagrada Família, Cloudworks is home to people who want to take their productivity to the next level.
Cloudworks is one of the most popular coworking space providers in Spain with several coworking spaces in Madrid and Barcelona. With an open and diverse community at its heart, the company is one of the drivers of New Work in Spain. But what doesn't that mean for them? "For us, New Work is about rethinking work. It's about rethinking the role of the office for companies. It's no longer about the office as a tool, but as a physical partner that helps you develop your business as a company," says Marta Gràcia, CEO of Cloudworks. Her colleague Teresa Garcia de Zuñiga, Community and Space Lead at Cloudworks, emphasizes the importance of rethinking the way we see work: "It's no longer just about coming to the office and getting your work done. It's about more than that."
In summary, New Work for Cloudworks is about moving away from the old 9-to-5 concept. "We are moving towards a world where work needs to be more employee-centric and where work-life balance is much more important," says Teresa. "At its core, it's about flexibility. At the end of the day, we are all human - we need to have time for ourselves."
Changing the way companies think about essential aspects of work such as flexible working hours and the office has not been easy for many companies. Marta reports that many of her clients have simply been forced to change the way they work due to the pandemic. Not only in terms of reducing costs, but also in terms of the most valuable asset there is: talent. "They had to learn this the hard way: coworking spaces can actively contribute to retaining and attracting talent by making work a little better for everyone."
While companies took time to adapt to the market change, they have embraced the world of New Work much faster than Cloudworks could have imagined. "This is something new for us now: our customers are actually ahead of us. Before the pandemic, we were the ones showing them what New Work is, but now they are the ones telling us," Marta emphasizes.
While they celebrate this rapid shift in people's mindset, it has also had a drastic impact on the way they design their coworking spaces. "Before 2020, all of our spaces were basically the same in terms of the number of communal areas and the number of workstations. Now, however, every single one of our coworking spaces is designed differently," explains Marta.
This is a direct result of the different needs of customers. And these can be surprising, even for a coworking space provider as experienced as Cloudworks. "We designed a space for a client who only wanted 25% of their space to be workstations - the rest of the space was to be a communal area," Marta recalls. "And during the pandemic, they didn't use the space as an office at all. But they used it as a social space. So they literally just came to the office to meet each other. That was very unusual for me, because they were paying this huge bill to basically just chat with each other."
Another customer wanted a library-like area. "The idea was to create a space where you can work in peace without being interrupted. Many people still see the office as a space where they are constantly disturbed. So this client wanted to have an area that made it clear to everyone: I'm not going to disturb anyone sitting there right now. And honestly, I can relate to that: If I have to work on budgets or have a task that requires a lot of concentration, I'd rather work from home."
Even if these are special requests, there are a few requirements that seem to have to be met in every coworking space, depending on what is requested. Marta smiles: "The first thing HR managers always say is that they want a space that people really enjoy coming to. They want to have a place that really attracts people." And she knows exactly why this is such a pressing issue for many: "Companies are really struggling to get people back into the office. But that's exactly what they want. So they need to find the perfect space - otherwise it's just wishful thinking."
A decisive factor in all of this is location. People don't want to spend a large part of their day commuting to and from work. They want the location of the office to fit easily into their lives. Of course, this is something that is possible in typical offices. Nevertheless, there are some advantages that only coworking spaces can offer, as Teresa explains: "One of the most important factors is access to all kinds of services. It's not just about providing a physical space, but also about providing a community and a network." Marta agrees: "I think there are tangible benefits: The costs are easy to control and the office situation is much more flexible. And you don't have to hire someone to look after the office itself. But then coworking spaces are also a place where anything can happen. It's a place to work, but also a place to meet new people and brainstorm. And what office can offer that?"
With all the changing requirements, how does Cloudworks actually keep up to date? "Every year we send a survey to all our customers to ask them how they rate our services, but also how they use the workspaces in general. And interestingly, one question that stood out last time was about their workspace situation: do they work from their desk? From the common areas, the meeting rooms or the phone booths? And more than half of the respondents said that they use all of these options. This was very interesting to me because it shows that the days when we thought of work in terms of people sitting at a desk are over. It's time to realize that people are starting to appreciate more flexibility in the way they work," Marta recalls.
However, recognizing this and acting accordingly is a major undertaking for companies. Nevertheless, Marta is convinced that ultimately every company can implement New Work. "I think that companies are now being forced to change the way they think about their employees, because otherwise people won't want to work for them. Of course there are hygiene factors such as pay, but flexibility is now more important than ever. Can I work from home some days? Can I work from a different location in the summer? ... Things that used to be a big plus are now a must".
Teresa adds that companies are changing at different rates depending on the sector: "There are some more traditional sectors, such as real estate or finance, that are less open and willing to change in comparison. But they are trying and are also contributing to the general trend we are seeing. But that's not really a surprise to me either. The past is in the past, nobody can really stand still."
Coworking spaces were the first point of contact with New Work for many, especially at the time when people were beginning to rethink the way we work. But is that still the case? "I think companies still see coworking spaces as a driver for changing the way we work. Most of our clients, for example, have never heard of a phone booth before they come to us. So they rely on us to show them what New Work has to offer, they rely on us to develop new spaces and also to integrate new products and technologies into those spaces," says Marta.
One thing that has boosted the New Work movement: the Covid19 pandemic. According to Marta, it helped companies to realize that work is not a rigid concept that has to be accepted. On the contrary: companies need to constantly rethink the way we work. The CEO of Cloudworks draws a positive conclusion: "Ultimately, I think it was an impetus for people to take New Work more seriously overall."
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