All together now! Collaborative workspaces bring bumper benefits

Oct. 16, 2014 - PRLog -- Across the world, businesses agree that collaborative workspaces are good value, breed efficiency and inspire innovation and entrepreneurial activity. So more and more companies globally are choosing collaborative work environments to provide their staff with top-class locations in a more cost effective and flexible way.

A recent Regus survey analysing the views of over 22,000 respondents in more than 100 countries, of which 185 respondents were from Hong Kong, confirms that 89% of firms believe that collaborative workplaces are value for money and 88% say that they help reduce cleaning and maintenance costs.

But the benefits of collaborative workplaces do not stop there. Co-locating businesses share costs, but they also share industry knowledge and ideas. This makes it an ideal breeding ground for innovation (72%) and entrepreneurial spirit (73%), all of which are key features of excellent employees.

Collaborative working is also seen as a valuable way of creating connections with partners, providers and suppliers (80%) and even potential clients (79%). This introductory function can prove very valuable to businesses in the long term. In addition to this, in a volatile economic environment, businesses also report that collaborative environments help them expand and retract more rapidly and without incurring hefty penalties (73%) because they usually are more flexible than traditional leasing arrangements.

In Greater China, respondents from China (97%), Hong Kong (95%) and Taiwan (96%) agree with their global counterparts (89%) that value for money is the most important benefit of collaborative work environments. Interestingly, China respondents rated the fact that it encouraged mixing with similar firms second (93%) while globally (88%), including Hong Kong (92%) and Taiwan (95%), believed that reducing maintenance and cleaning costs was the second most important benefit.

"Workers globally agree that collaborative work environments are an optimal solution to help businesses save money while providing workers with top class locations and facilities. But cost reduction is not the only factor driving collaborative workplace popularity," said Michael Ormiston, Country Manager, Regus Hong Kong.

"Global businesses recognise that mixing workers from different firms and different functions helps develop a more innovative and entrepreneurial outlook as well as keeping the firm supple and able to respond to changes in the market faster. Unlike traditional leasing arrangements, collaborative workplaces are generally more flexible allowing firms to expand and retract as the market demands."

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Methodology

Over 22,000 business respondents from 100 countries were interviewed via online survey during July 2014. These were sourced from Regus' global contacts database of over 1 million business-people worldwide which is highly representative of senior managers and owners in business across the globe. Respondents were also asked to delve deeper into the motivations for some of their preferences explaining the benefits of collaborative workplaces and the downfalls of traditional work arrangements that require lengthy commutes and rarely provide professional drop-in locations for workers traveling or moving to and from meetings.

The survey was managed and administered by the independent organisation, MindMetre Research.

About Regus

Regus is the global workplace provider.

Its network of more than 2,000 business centres in 104 countries provides convenient, high-quality, fully serviced spaces for people to work, whether for a few minutes or a few years. Companies like Google, Toshiba and GlaxoSmithKline choose Regus so that they can work flexibly and make their businesses more successful.

The key to flexible working is convenience and so Regus is opening wherever its 1.8million members want support - city centres, suburban districts, shopping centres and retail outlets, railway stations, motorway service stations and even community centres.

Founded in Brussels, Belgium, in 1989, Regus is based in Luxembourg and listed on the London Stock Exchange.