Coworking Resources

Gone are the days when coworking was only synonymous with freelance and startup life. While they’re still valuable users of flexible workspace, they make up a smaller portion of the coworking audience than they used to.

Corporate clients are fully embracing the benefits of coworking, enticed by flexible agreements and the ‘hit the ground running’ fit out model. Research shows that 55% of global corporations use flexible workspaces, and 17% of these plan to increase their usage.

Coworking giant WeWork was among the first to welcome corporate coworkers. In 2019 for example, IBM started renting space in WeWork’s iconic Chicago building; they were looking for an ‘inspiring offsite environment’, and a new way to work with one of their largest clients.

Since then, lesser-known coworking operators have played host to a range of well-known corporate and household brands. But what about yours? Is your space ready to welcome corporates? Or are you missing out on a potentially lucrative new audience?

There’s only one way to find out…

What corporate clients actually need

The first step in the journey towards managing corporate clients in coworking is to understand what they actually need. What does your coworking space offer? Establishing the basic requirements are key. Here are the main ones:

1. Clear processes

Corporates don’t like ambiguity because it wastes time and creates risk. Unclear processes also leave a bad impression, making you look unprofessional. They expect clear, documented onboarding around access and bookings, information on who to contact for what, and standardised procedures for queries and complaints.

2. Consistent communication

Large corporates with lots of moving parts rely on consistency. They expect a primary point of contact, written follow-ups and consistent communication about changes, upgrades, disruptions to service or policy updates.

3. Predictable billing

Billing is a critical component – one that can make or break your reputation with corporates. Like all members, enterprise coworking clients appreciate simple, templated invoices, clearly outlined extras (like meeting room access), and predictable billing cycles.

4. Privacy or semi-privacy

Open coworking layouts don’t always work for corporates, who often handle sensitive information. They tend to favour dedicated offices or clearly defined zones in shared areas, acoustic and visual panelling, and restrictions on who can access their ‘zone’.

5. Configurable meeting room access

Bear in mind that corporates often require guaranteed access to meeting rooms for weekly and ad hoc settings. Think about how you’ll distribute meeting credits, and ensure that your booking rules are accessible, fair and enforced.

6. Reporting (attendance, usage, space)

Corporates must justify spend to their shareholders, and they can’t do this without data. Coworking is sometimes seen as an added benefit – but with the right data, it can be transformed into a strategic asset.

7. Professionalism at every touchpoint

Employees will judge their employer on the quality of their office space, not just you. That’s why it’s so important to create a clean, dynamic working environment and adopt a professional tone in written communication.

8. Fast resolution for friction points

Nobody’s perfect, but corporates expect you to be responsive. From Wi-Fi outages to coffee shortages, prioritise acknowledgement, timelines, ownership and root cause fixes to common coworking issues. Doing so will signal competence.

Designing an onboarding journey

Strong onboarding creates clarity and structure, making corporate coworkers, and everyone else for that matter, easier to manage.

Make onboarding inclusive of everyone in the corporate team. You could start by creating a one-page coworking guide, and craft a short introductory email the client can forward internally. Host an in-person or virtual group walkthrough with all corporate employees.

It’s important to clarify what you, as the operator, are responsible for, versus your client’s responsibilities. For example, you might decide that the following falls under your remit:

• Workspace readiness and maintenance
• Access control activation
• Meeting room booking facilitation
• Guest handling
• Incident response
• Invoicing and usage reporting

And that your corporate clients are responsible for:

• Providing an up-to-date employee user list
• Appointing a single point of contact
• Sharing workspace rules with employees
• Reporting issues through the designated channels

During onboarding it’s important to outline space rules and access logic too.

Define who has access during which hours, which areas are private to the client and which are shared with other members, and rules around visitor access (including sign-in and time limits). Security compliance matters here – share rules on data privacy expectations and any compliance requirements. Of course, operators should report any security incidents quickly.

As with everything in onboarding, ensure this information is written down.

Explicitly explain how corporate bookings work, and present this in a user-friendly, accessible format. How many meeting credits does the client have and how is each meeting room priced? What are the cancellation rules? When are the peak times? What are the rules and expectations around AV equipment in meeting rooms?

Behavioural expectations need to be clear, and setting boundaries early can prevent future conflict. The following coworking standards might apply to your space:

• No phone calls in shared deskspace
• No ‘reserving’ shared desks
• No overrunning meeting room bookings
• Leave the office clean and tidy
• Respect others’ space and privacy

Managing spaces, zones, and expectations

Aim for balance in corporate coworking management.

Don’t let corporates’ needs outweigh those of independent members – and vice versa. Success centres on clear rules and strategic space allocation. Dedicated workspace often works best for corporates, while hybrid space – a set of assigned desks plus access to shared areas offers consistency and flexibility.

One option is neighbourhood seating when a corporate team is placed in a cluster within a wider coworking area. This encourages micro-cohesion and team proximity while fostering integration within the coworking community at large.

Watch out for groups who may start to dominate shared areas and amenities, and counter this behaviour by reinforcing the capacity rules and time limits. Consider placing limits on recurring bookings and create a rotation system to prevent groups from monopolising resources.

If you’ve got system-based protocols, there’s little risk of any personal confrontation.

Corporates can add huge value to coworking communities, through opportunities, diversity and skills sharing. Their experience and success can create a sense of energy and stability within the space – but only when their occupancy is equal and balanced.

Clearly marking out access, communicating expectations from the start of the member journey, and enforcing rules consistently (and fairly) will set you up for corporate success.

Handling meeting room usage (the #1 operational flashpoint)

Meeting room usage can be the most sensitive of workplace topics, let’s face it.

While freelancers and startups can sometimes operate with more flexibility, enterprise coworking clients rely on fixed schedules and recurring meetings. They may have higher expectations around availability, so communicating meeting room resource protocol is critical.

Block-booking is a common roadblock when it comes to corporate teams who are used to more traditional private office environments, and without ground rules, this can alienate and exclude other members. Use your coworking CRM to set limits on recurring bookings.

If you’re able to, allocating a dedicated meeting room quota or private meeting room access can relieve pressure on shared spaces. But of course, we don’t all have this luxury.

No-shows can be a revenue drain, and they can occur more when resources are booked on behalf of teams as opposed to individuals. Digital check-ins, releasing unused meeting rooms and no-show penalties can help prevent regular occurrences. Again, if the rules are written into the onboarding documentation, accountability is contractual rather than personal.

It’s time to get savvy with timing.

Business hours logic and peak-time rules are critical for managing corporate demand.

Making your peak times have shorter maximum booking lengths and tighter restrictions on recurring meetings can encourage corporates to book longer meetings, such as training sessions or client pitches, to be during off-peak times.

Corporate members need to be made aware of resource tiers too, otherwise they might assume every meeting room comes with high quality AV equipment. This information should be clearly stated on your website as well as your onboarding documentation. 

Billing, contracts, and predictable processes

Contracts and billing are a core part of the corporate coworking experience, and getting it right will help to build trust and reduce corporate churn.

Corporates and startups alike tend to favour unified billing, where costs are delivered in a single monthly invoice covering desk space, meeting room usage and any other add-ons. Automated, unified billing simplifies corporate procurement and is a big coworking benefit.

When it comes to corporates, tracking multiple users under one account is necessary to account for the way big teams grow and fluctuate, and individual users can be added or removed with ease. Within the single account, you can work with the corporate client to assign role-based permissions, such as who can book meeting rooms.

Billing transparency reduces friction and admin for both the client and you. Itemised invoices, real-time usage dashboards, and predictable billing cycles eliminate surprise charges and reduce friction between finance departments. Ultimately, corporate clients appreciate predictability. Steadfast, enterprise-ready processes allow them to focus on work, not admin.

Usage reporting helps tie everything together for corporates. Your coworking management software can create monthly summaries that show desk utilisation, meeting room usage, credit consumption, and other services, to paint a picture of value and ROI.

Service levels, escalation paths & communication protocols

Coworking members expect high levels of service, and corporate clients are no exception. It’s about striking the balance between reliability and flexibility: clear service structures can help.

Lightweight SLAs

Coworking spaces offer lightweight service level agreements which are attractive to corporates who want to break from the restrictive lease model. The key is to define service standards without overcommitting so as to set realistic expectations. Include practical standards in your SLAs, from hours of access to ‘aim for’ response times.

Escalation rules

Coworking members should be treated fairly and equally. It’s easy to see how some frontline staff could feel pressured into providing a ‘VIP’ service to corporates, but clearly written, shared guidelines should prevent this. Specify what qualifies escalation, who will handle said escalation, and when. For instance, missing AV equipment may qualify immediate action, while a query about amenities could warrant a slower response.

Communication cadence for account leads

Proactively creating space for feedback can be incredibly useful in preventing churn and building trust. Considering carving out quarterly reviews with corporate account leads; a forum in which to review usage and air concerns.

Know when to say no

Maintain a healthy coworking ecosystem by setting and sticking to boundaries. That means saying no from time to time. Requests that undermine workspace policy and other users is a no-go, and should be declined in a polite and professional way.

Overpromising will only make a rod for your own back!

Data, reporting & insights corporate clients care about

Corporates like to be able to defend their business decisions. In fact, they have to. So make their life easier by sharing data driven insights with them.

In being able to defend their coworking spend to finance and property stakeholders, they’re more likely to stay with you for longer.

Usage patterns are an obvious one that can really provide an insight into value.

Organisations want to know how often their teams are utilising their coworking membership, as well as their meeting rooms and other shared amenities. Data on popular days and times, and how attendance fluctuates, can help corporates refine their workplace strategy and make the most of your services.

Data on no-shows is useful for both you and the client, especially for meeting rooms and hot desks. Frequent no shows could suggest overbooking or policy misalignments. Booking data in general provides information on the demand for resources, enabling you and the client to identify oversubscribed and undersubscribed resources before they create friction.

Sharing this data can also help clients improve their internal processes – as well as saving them money and enabling your other members to utilise resources.

Trend insights matter too. Month-on-month and quarter-on-quarter reports into usage can reveal whether utilisation is growing, stagnanting or reducing, which can aid planning.

And let’s not forget benchmarking, which provides vital context to corporates. Comparing a company’s usage data to anonymised averages from similar sized teams or sectors can help corporates justify spend and feel confident in their decision to use flexible workspace.

Protecting your culture while serving corporate clients

Let’s talk about culture dilution.

It’s the burning question: how do you protect your culture while catering to corporate clients? It’s a valid concern, because without conscious boundaries and integration, corporates can unconsciously start to reshape the workplace experience for everyone.

Integrating corporate teams into the wider workspace community matters most.

Corporates should not be siloed, but invited to join the same routines and events as the freelancers and startups, from breakfast mornings to the weekly updates; community events to coworking message boards.

Boundary setting and early intervention can also protect your coworking values.

Watch out for teams claiming the same areas every day, conducting ad hoc meetings in shared spaces, and using breakout space as meeting space. It’s usually done innocently, but it can erode the member experience over time. Don’t be afraid to reinforce the rules around noise and shared spaces that you outlined during the onboarding process.

It’s important for your freelance, startup and SME community to continue to feel seen and heard. Ensure a diverse, inclusive events programming, and showcase a range of voices in your brand storytelling. It’s important to highlight individuals as well as groups.

Ultimately – be honest! Not every corporate is going to fit with you culturally and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Instead of just saying no, you could refer them to a workspace that might be more appropriate for them in terms of culture, resources and amenities.

Designing a fair coworking experience for everyone

At a time when remote working is a viable option for many, the success of shared workspaces hinges on fairness, transparency and consistency. These are the foundations on which a thriving culture can be built.

For corporate members who aren’t necessarily used to coworking, the way these three elements are communicated and reinforced is even more important.

Corporate clients are valuable from a both revenue and culture perspective, and can add value to your community through their energy and experience.

Focus on respect without exclusivity, and flexibility paired with protocol: a balanced, fair environment where everybody feels welcome, regardless of income and size.