CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Meghna Agarwal, Cofounder, IndiQube.
- How are flexible workspaces transforming modern workspaces?
Flexible workspaces are an extension of the OnDemand pay as you go revolution that has disrupted food, travel and hospitality industries, into Commercial Real Estate. Embracing the shared economy, flexible workspaces create an ecosystem that provides flexibility for companies to scale up or downsize, access to modern amenities, networking opportunities, community events and a host of a-la-carte services leveraging technology.
Taking an employee first approach, flexible workspaces are transforming the industry leveraging technology, embracing sustainability, and fostering a community. As workplaces continue to evolve in the new normal, flexible workspaces are poised to play a key role in shaping the future, enhancing employee productivity, and improving ease of doing business for companies.
- What is the reason there is an uptake in the co-sharing workspace?
Co-sharing or flexible workspaces are not new to the industry, they are concepts that have been there for close to a decade. The pandemic has however accelerated the adoption of these flexible workspaces, as companies were increasingly uncertain about their long-term workspace needs and were vary of investing upfront capex for office interiors and amenities.
This has led to a spurt in demand where we are now seeing increased adoption of flexspaces across the spectrum from Fortune 500’s to Unicorns, thriving startups and Offshore Development Centres. With Flexspace portfolio surpassing 50 Mn Sq.Ft. and flex leasing in recent quarters constituting to around 20% of overall leasing, the rise in uptake of flexspaces looks a promising trend.
- Is co-sharing moving towards sustainability? If yes, how?
Flexible workspaces as a concept are an extension of the shared economy. Common amenities including Gym, Meeting Rooms, Gaming Zones, Cafeteria, Reception and more are accessed in an on-demand fashion leveraging shared economics and paving way for sustainable consumption of commercial real estate.
At IndiQube, we have embraced sustainability on multiple fronts. Nearly 40% of our properties are certified as Green Buildings, we have renovated and upgraded 2 Mn Sq.ft. of old properties and brought them back to life, leveraging rooftop solar we generate over 1 MWp, initiatives like rainwater harvesting, STPs, WTPs, water efficient fixtures, smart sensors have helped reduce freshwater consumption by upto 85%. Leveraging IoT and deploying smart HVAC systems with active CO2 monitoring has helped significantly improve indoor air quality. All these initiatives have resulted in IndiQube becoming a ‘Green Champion Award’ recipient and a founding member of IGBC.
- What is the trend you see in flexible workspace?
One huge trend that we are seeing in this space is the increased acceptance of flexible workspaces among large enterprises that were traditionally unaccustomed to this concept. We foresee that at around 5-10% of commercial real estate portfolio of all large enterprises is going to come from flexspaces.
Additionally, we see an emergence of flexspaces in tier II cities like Coimbatore, Jaipur, Madurai, Lucknow among others. This shows that work is moving to where talent is unlike the scenario in other metros.
We are also seeing that companies are looking at a distributed office setup with intra city and inter-city centres rather than having one large hub office.
- Will Co-Working Spaces Be the Next Big Revolution In India?
Increased awareness, enhanced flexibility to scale up or downsize, Zero Capex, access to smart technology, sustainable way of working and being part of a thriving community are all tailwinds favouring the adoption of flexspaces. However, we are still scratching the surface when it comes to share of Flexspaces in overall commercial real estate in India indicating that there is significant headroom for growth.
- How do innovation and technology come hand in hand to boost productivity?
Given the distributed nature of work today, technology is crucial to create a consistent employee experience. The way employees book meeting rooms, order food in the cafeteria, avail transport, access amenities, participate in events etc. can only be made consistent with technology.
Also, technology plays a crucial role in enhancing workspace productivity from real time air quality monitoring to analytics on energy and water consumption in addition to meeting room usage analytics.
From seamlessly managing visitors through VMS to paperless execution of services, Smart Buildings are going to play a crucial role in enhancing productivity of the entire workspace ecosystem.
