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Right in the center of Barcelona's vibrant streets, just a 20-minute walk from the famous Sagrada Família, people who want to take their productivity to the next level will find a home at Cloudworks.
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 to 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're moving toward a world where work needs to be more employee-centric and where work/life balance is much more important," Teresa says. "At its core, this is about flexibility. At the end of the day, we are all human beings - we need to have time for ourselves."
Changing the way companies think about essential aspects of work, such as flexible 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 because of the pandemic. Not only in terms of cutting 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 help retain and attract talent by making work a little better for everyone."
While it took time for companies to adapt to the market shift, 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 was, but now they are the ones telling us," Marta points out.
While they celebrate this rapid shift in people's mindsets, it's 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 common areas and the number of workstations. Now, on the other hand, every single one of our coworking spaces is designed differently," Marta explains.
This is a direct result of the different needs of the 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 were using it as a social space. So they literally just came to the office to meet. That was very unusual to me, because they were paying this huge bill to basically just chat with each other."
Another client wanted a library-like area. "The idea was to create a space where you can work in peace without being interrupted. A lot of people still see the office as a space where they're constantly being interrupted. 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 focus, I'd rather work from home."
Even if they are special requests, there are a few requirements that seem to have to be met in any 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 draws people in." And she knows exactly why this is such a pressing issue for many: "Companies really struggle to get people back into the office. But that's what they want. So they have to find the perfect space - otherwise it's just wishful thinking."
A key 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 office location to fit easily into their lives. Of course, that's something that's possible in typical offices as well. Still, 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, it's about providing a community and a network." Marta agrees, "I mean, there are tangible benefits: Costs are easily controlled and the office situation is much more flexible. And you don't have to hire a person to take care of 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 stay up to date? "We send a survey to all our customers every year to ask them how they rate our services, but also how they use the workspace 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 they use all of these. That was very interesting to me, because it shows that the days when we thought of work as people sitting at a desk are over. It's time to recognize that people are starting to value more flexibility in the way they work," Marta recalls.
Recognizing this and acting accordingly, however, is a major undertaking for companies. Still, Marta is convinced that ultimately any company can implement New Work. "I think 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 hygienic factors like pay, but flexibility is more important now 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, like real estate or finance, that are less open and willing to change in comparison. But they're trying and they're also contributing to the overall trend we're seeing. But to me, that's not really a surprise either. The past is in the past, no one can really stand still."
Coworking spaces were the first point of contact with New Work for many, especially at the time when people started to rethink the way we work. But is that still the case? "I think companies still see coworking spaces as a driver of change in the way they work. For example, most of our clients 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," Marta says.
One thing that has helped the New Work movement: the Covid19 pandemic. According to Marta, it helped companies realize that work is not a rigid concept to be accepted. On the contrary, companies need to constantly rethink the way we work. Cloudworks' CEO sums up positively: "Ultimately, I think it was a driver for people to take New Work more seriously overall."
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