Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Most European flexible workspaces are considered unfit for working parents with children. In fact, kids are ‘welcome’ at a just a quarter of coworking locations and only 2% offer childcare.
In recent years many coworking spaces have begun to introduce childcare facilities, such as Cowoki in Cologne, Germany; Coworking Cvenovka in Slovakia; and CoFamily Coworking in Spain. But while things are looking up for working parents, the realities of running two separate businesses under the same roof remain challenging.
“Both coworking and childcare are models where revenues are not secure,” says Jelissa Risse from The Village Coworking in Lausanne, Switzerland. “They fluctuate during holiday times and as children grow, the turnover can be quite high.”
One solution is to partner with an established childcare provider. This enables the coworking space to accommodate a wider age group of children and offer more activities.
An example is Second Home in London, which partners with a professional childcare provider.
“You need a great partner to run a nursery, which is why we went in with N Family Club,” said co-founder Rohan Silva.
“First coworking spaces put coffee shops in and now every boring office development has one. Maybe in ten years time every crappy office building will have a childcare facility.”
