Sussex-based Freedom Works Ltd launches 'Flexi Office Space' product

In April last year, at the start of the pandemic, Barclays CEO Jes Staley stated that having thousands of workers in large expensive offices may be a 'thing of the past'.

Roll on 12 months and the same Barclays CEO has stated “It is important to get people back together in physical concentrations”.

One thing is for sure is that businesses small and large are now looking at how their teams work together once the July 19 date passes.

In recent weeks, the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft have all confirmed they are expecting to see employees back on site at least three days a week from September this year, which also mirrors sentiments by the large financial institutions.

This coupled with a recent report, published this month, about the ‘Future of the Office’ by commercial property specialists, ARUP, further supported the trend that people are looking to get back into the office, but more on a flexible and collaborative approach.

The report highlighted a number of influencing factors that will shape requirements, including concern about social contact continuing to persist, the proof that remote working is feasible and the drive to reduce fixed costs.

In summary, the report concluded that “there will be a change from a mono-purpose ‘get-things-done’ place towards a multi-functional, flexible hub for meaningful interaction”.

With the changing way companies are looking to work, Sussex-based Coworking and flexible office operator, Freedom Works Ltd, have reacted to the changing needs of the market and have launched a brand new product to cater for the new way companies want to work.

“We’ve been witnessing, alongside our fellow Coworking spaces across Sussex a 20-25 per cent increase in enquiry levels for flexible workspace, on pre pandemic levels”, states Jon Trigg, managing director of Freedom Works Ltd.

“The drive in enquiries has been born out of companies either wanting flexible terms, and not committing to fixed leases or those looking to deliver a hybrid solution, whereby they want a blend of office and home working, which is why we have launched a brand new Flexible Office Space product."

Off the back of this demand, Freedom Works have launched the ‘Flexi Office Space’, which is a service whereby companies who are currently remote working can hire an office for an ad-hoc day or can series link a day or two a month, to get teams together.

“The demand from local businesses, established and starting up to remote work, but need their teams to meet together on the odd occasion has driven the launch of this product”, Trigg added.

“Simply put - a business owner can hire an office for a short period and only pay for that time, without the costs and hassle of managing a fixed overhead of an office”, he goes onto explain.

The ‘Flexi Office Space’ product is available at all of Freedom Works spaces in Crawley, Chichester, Hove and Worthing.

“The next two years or up in the air for a lot of small and medium sized businesses, and the flexible nature of where your team work from is only going to grow. So, our focus is to cater for that and enable Sussex businesses to benefit from the agility of the hybrid way of working”, said Trigg.