By Mary E. Corrado, courtesy of SBAM Approved Partner ASE
For many organizations the definition of the traditional workplace has changed. With so many remote and hybrid employees, having one central office location is often not necessary or no longer efficient. Instead, some are turning to hubquarters – a network of smaller locations.
This new model is similar to the more common Hub and Spoke model, where one central office remains with smaller satellite offices. But the hubquarters model does away with the central office. Each hub is designed for both collaboration and independent work. They consist of a group of small, coworking spaces across various areas.
Some benefits of the hubquarters model include:
- Avoids having a large, empty office with only a few employees occupying the space on any given day
- Offers employees various places to work in-person with colleagues or independently
- Hubquarters take up less space and require less energy thereby
- Reduces the organization’s carbon footprint by reducing commutes
- Offers increased flexibility for workers
To make hubquarters work, it’s important that leadership frequent each hub. This will offer all employees the ability to collaborate with various leadership team members no matter which hub they frequent.
Collaboration remains an important issue that cannot be lost through remote or hybrid work of any kind. In fact, a recent survey by WeWork found that nearly 70% of those who describe themselves as satisfied with their job indicate that they collaborate with people outside of their office, such as clients or partners, at least once or twice a week. More than half of all “happy” employees collaborate with five or more people on any given day.
While it may be difficult to change your mindset from a traditional, central office workplace, it is important to keep your mind open and explore new ways to work. As we’ve learned over the past year and a half, flexibility is key to success. Employees are resilient, and leaders must be too.