This morning I attended an event at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Business for a presentation the results of a survey commissioned by Oxford Properties on how companies are changing their Canadian workspaces to be more collaborative.
It’s a look at corporate Canada, but it certainly has some great content about collaboration, sustainability, the spread of generations in the workforce, and what each generation wants from a workspace - all of which can be applied to the coworking industry.
Some key points:
- 27% of any given day is spent collaborating
- 49% of those surveyed prefer to work in a private office, 21% in an open workspace, 18% in a flexible work destination (such as unassigned cubicles first come/first served desks) with collaborative spaces
- a 30min commute is considered reasonable beofre it impacts ones work-life balance
- the national average of commute time is 29mins, whereas Toronto sits at 42mins, Montreal is at 36mins, and Vancouver is at 33mins.
- ages 35 and under want everything - proximity to shops and cafes, food provided, onsite gym, daycare nearby or onsite, etc (one positive audience response to this was “And why shouldn’t they? They have clarity for what they want and need for their workspace.”)
The presenter, Michael Turner, only used one example of a coworking space, WeWork, calling them Regus on steroids, and though he didn’t specifically call them coworking spaces, he did accurately describe what a coworking space does and can do for its members, noting that the focus is on community and collaboration and knowledge sharing between people from unrelated companies.
I was glad to see someone from CSI in the audience of this event as well.
I’ve attached the survey report (pdf). It’s a quick and interesting read with some great graphs that I’ll use in a summary on the CoworkingCanada blog.
r.
Oxford Properties - Future of Work Whitepaper.pdf (2.91 MB)
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rachel youngrac…@camaraderie.ca
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