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Four Steps to Co-Working
Heaven
Co-working is gaining momentum
as the latest “new” way of working.
Talk of mobility, agility and flexibility
has been getting tediously repetitive
for many years and has only been
sustained by successive waves
of organizations adopting such
programs. Consultancies, such as
PwC and Accenture were in the first
wave around 2000 AD, when laptops
became (relatively) a¥ordable. The
second wave was later in the decade
to 2010, when tech firms themselves
started to “walk the talk.” These are
now in their second iteration.
Global financial services firms, among
others, are in a rather slow-motion
third wave. They are necessarily more
conservative and cautious than those
in the first two waves. Confidentiality
remains king, and this would seem
to put co-working – which seems
to be about openness rather than
confidentiality – out of the picture.
Or does it?
Tethered, Untethered, or Adrift
All organizations have business units
with di¥erent functions and workflows.
Some are more confidential, more
regulated, and/or more tethered to
their desks: dependent on immobile
infrastructure such as paper
documents or specialist desk-top
computer kits, and even critical face-
to-face interactions. Trading floors are
the obvious example. Traders are firmly
tethered to dedicated and specially
configured workstations. They are
obliged to make any business-related
telephone calls from a dedicated
landline that is recorded. This is an
extreme example of activity based
working (ABW), where the task and
workflow match the workstation.
Not all functions are quite so tethered.
The less tethered the function, the
higher the potential for internal agility.
The more the internal agility, the less
the oce of tomorrow needs to look
like that of today, and so internally
mobile sta¥ could work from a space
that looks much like the co-working
spaces.
The Co-Working Wolf in the
ABW Sheep’s Clothing
Many financial services organizations
have already started down this
path. In Singapore Credit Suisse and
Standard Chartered, among others, are
notable to have created such spaces.
Getting the numbers of workpoints
(i.e. ergonomic workstations and
alternative choice seats) right is a work
in progress as organizations cautiously
try out what could work, and what
could be acceptable to their people.
Fearful that people who do not have a
designated home-from-home desk will
resort to open rebellion (as happened
in one bank in Australia), some
organizations have adopted a “Fixed
plus ABW” model. That is, you get your
own desk plus the ability to use any
of a number alternative workpoints.
Other, perhaps braver, organizations
have gone for the “pure NTW/ABW”
model: only free-seating, as in a
cinema where you choose the seat that
best suits your needs – in the middle
with the best view of the movie, close
to the aisle if you have a weak bladder,
or in the back row if you are with your
girl/boyfriend.
IN THE NEXT 5+ YEARS WE WILL SEE MORE AND
MORE CORPORATES AVAIL THEMSELVES OF
CO-WORKING SPACES TO REDUCE THEIR
FOOTPRINT.
50 ASIA PACIFIC BFSI OUTLOOK 2017