Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
- Fridays seem to be quieter and less busy for coworking spaces
- This is a challenge for operators seeking to attract and retain new members.
- Members are less likely to stay if they find it hard to connect with other members and the space even after a few weeks.
As a digital nomad traveling and working out of coworking spaces around the world, I try to spend at least a week in a single location so that I can experience the vibe, culture, and meet the members during different times of each day of the week.
Each week that I am in a workspace, my work schedule often times will be quite different from another member based-on their employer, company, timezone, industry, preference, necessity, or countless other reasons. After all, the flexible part of working, which includes location and schedule, is one of the core benefits of our entire industry and is a growing trend for companies worldwide.
A hot topic and often asked question is why some days seem way busier than others and the impact this has on a space.
In my experience, I have typically seen Fridays as the quietest day of them all. Fridays tend to be the day a coworking space is the least full, or at least the day in which I’ve had the least interaction with other members as people are hoping to close up their day and week as soon as possible. Personally speaking,  I am more inclined to take a half day, plug in and catch up on emails or administrative things, or even work from home on a Friday.
Why does it matter?
When there are far less people in a space on any given day of the week, members begin to lose the consistent connections that cultivate a community of people who look out for and support each other. For new members, I find that they are less likely to stay if they haven’t connected to the space and its people within a few weeks. It is hard to make those connections if there are one or more days where many people either don’t show up to a space or are not as engaged.
What can you do about it?
If the interest is to fill the space only, you could focus on attracting outside users who hold meetings or events at the space or new members that work out of the space during some of your more light times of the week.
On the other hand, if you are interested in finding ways to fill the space while strengthening the existing community of members, you need to think about creating new ways of engaging your members.
Whether it is a lunch on the last Friday of the month where members get together to have a meal and introduce new members or a happy hour where everyone meets at a local pub, the importance of creating moments of bringing people together cannot be underestimated. Our connections and the community of people that engage us in these spaces are what creates the stickiness factor that keep us coming back to a given space.
Do you think it is important to have a more consistent group of people working in a space throughout the week? What have you done or experienced to fill a space on quieter days?
I would love to hear from you.
