More people are working from home now than ever before.

As of late June 2020, about 40% of Americans were working from home full time.

Whether you’re an employee or an employer, you might be learning about the pitfalls of work from home after a few months of doing it.

Are you considering using a collaborative workspace? Let’s take a look at 10 reasons why they’re great.

What Is a Collaborative Workspace?

Before we start talking about why collaborative offices are great, let’s take a quick look at what they are.

Collaborative offices are either coworking spaces or a space where a company has their employees work collaboratively.

If you’re interested in how some of the biggest companies in the world feel about this type of space, check out what Google’s COO said about collaboration.

1. Makes You a Happier Worker

While working from home in your pajamas all day sounds awesome, it can actually be kind of a drag. There are tons of benefits to having the flexibility that working from home offers, but there are also a lot of drawbacks. Overall, working in collaborative spaces tend to make employees happier.

2. Increases Productivity

At home, there are so many distractions. Whether it’s your dog, your kids, your spouse, or just Netflix calling to you from your bedroom, it can be hard to stay on-task.

When you work in a collaborative office space, you’ll likely be way more productive. Being around others who are working will motivate you to do the same. When you’re surrounded by other committed professionals, you’re much more likely to resist temptaiton and distraction.

3. Promotes Creativity

When you are working with and around others, your creative juices start to flow. You pick up on the ideas that other people have and they inform your own. It can be hard to be creative when you’re just sitting at a desk alone at home.

4. Offers Friendly Competition

Humans are competitive, and that’s ok. We want to do well relative to those around us, and others succeeding tends to egg us on to better ourselves.

If you’re home alone or stuck in a house with lazy roommates, you don’t have much to compare yourself to. When you’re in an office filled with motivated, energetic, and hardworking people, it’ll help you keep growing and learning.

5. Encourages Attendance

Have you ever told someone else that you were going to do something, like go on a diet or quit smoking for example? If you have, you probably noticed that the fact that you had told someone else made you more willing to stick to your difficult plan. This is because it created accountability, and when you let others know what you plan to do, you don’t want them to see that you aren’t sticking with it.

Collaborative offices have the same effect on attendance. If you’ve been working from home, there have likely been days that you just wanted to stay in bed. It can be hard to motivate yourself to work when there are no distinct lines between your worklife and homelife.

When you work in a collaborative workspace, you get into a routine that incorporates other people. If you tell someone that you’ll see them in the morning, it’ll help motivate you to actually show up the next day.

Also, if you find yourself in a collaborative workspace that you enjoy both work-wise and socially, you’ll simply want to go because it’s fun. It’s great to be around other likeminded people who are being productive. Why would you want to stay at home in your tiny apartment to work all alone?

6. Comes With Perks

Lots of collaborative spaces come with additional perks. These might be food services, conference rooms, workout spaces, and tons of other amenities. Having these add ons can help you have an appropriate work life balance, as you don’t have to go nearly as far to support the lifestyle you want to lead.

7. Offers Networking Opportunities

Let’s face it, networking is everything in a lot of businesses. As the old saying goes, it’s not what you know, but who you know.

You’ll be able to meet other people in different fields, in the same field, that share your skills, and that have totally different skills than you. What’s so awesome about networking, too, is that the people you meet also know other people. That means that your network balloons exponentially when you work with others in a collaborative office space.

8. Cost Effective

Whether you’re an individual looking to work in a coworking space or a company looking to build a collaborative office space, it can be a fairly cost effective endeavor.

For individuals, it is a lot cheaper to rent a space at a coworking place than to rent your own office. Frankly, for a while at least, it might be cheaper than outfitting your own home office.

For companies, collaborative workspaces can help them cut costs.

9. The Opportunity to Learn

Many of us learn best from other people. Being in a collaborative office makes this way more likely than if your sitting at home in your slippers.

10. Reduces Loneliness

Let’s face it, sitting in an office or cubicle on your own, or at home, is fun for a little while. Then, it starts feeling pretty darn isolating and lonley.

When you work in a collaborative space, that won’t be a problem. You’ll have tons of support from those around you and plenty of people to talk to you if you need to chat or bounce an idea off of anyone.

Collaborative Work Space: Is It Right For You?

There are lots of pros and cons to any kind of work environment. Many have found, however, that a collaborative office space can improve people’s productivity and their sense of satisfaction in their worklife.

Did you find this article about the benefits of using a collaborative work space helpful? If so, be sure to check out the rest of our blog!