There’s no denying that India is a force to be reckoned with in the global business landscape, thanks to its strong start-up culture, emerging unicorns, growing gig economy, and more. Yet, women’s participation in workplaces remains painfully low in the country.

According to the Gender Gap Report 2021 published by the World Economic Forum, only 22.3% of women in India participate in the labor market, which translates to a gender gap of 72%. Yes, you heard it right – a whopping 72%!

So, what does it take to increase women’s participation at workplaces? To begin with, it calls for a massive change in the traditional office culture and practices, and that’s where coworking offices can make a world of difference. Let’s check out how coworking can help improve women participation in workplaces:

How Coworking can help improve women participation in Workplace

1. By Offering Special Packages to Promote Female Entrepreneurship
2. By Creating Networking and Learning Opportunities
3. By Increasing Funding Prospects
4. By Providing a Safe, Secure, and Supportive Environment
5. By Making Workplaces Accessible to Women
6. By Offering a Space Devoid of Distractions
7. By Being Inclusive to Working Mothers

1. By Offering Special Packages to Promote Female Entrepreneurship

Often, women are forced to slow down their careers due to financial constraints. Shared offices address this issue by giving discounts to female members on membership fees, partner events, and value-added amenities.

For instance, The Office Pass (TOP), one of the leading coworking operators in India, currently offers an additional 10% discount on membership for women. The pay-as-you-use plans are also beneficial for women-led start-ups and female entrepreneurs who are strapped for cash.

2. By Creating Networking and Learning Opportunities

Women’s participation in workplaces is directly proportional to the opportunities they receive – the more networking and business opportunities they get, the better their participation and growth will be. However, according to the LinkedIn Opportunity Index 2021 for the Asia Pacific, women continue to receive fewer opportunities than their male counterparts.

Coworking offers women at work several avenues for learning, knowledge sharing, and collaboration. Female entrepreneurs are more likely to find potential collaborators in a shared office than in a traditional workspace. The networking events and mentorship programs offered by coworking operators further help them widen and strengthen their professional network.

3. By Increasing Funding Prospects

Access to funding can make a huge difference to women’s workplace participation. However, the funding scenario is bleak for women entrepreneurs in India as it is in other parts of the world. Study after study shows that there is a glaring gender gap in VC financing and other types of funding.

Shared offices provide women entrepreneurs with the right kind of support and resources they need to attract investors. The networking forums and events conducted by coworking providers also double as platforms where investors can identify and tap into the ever-growing potential of women-led businesses.

4. By Providing a Safe, Secure, and Supportive Environment

For women to be able to participate and excel in workplaces, they must first feel supported, safe, and secure. As shared offices are committed to gender equality and devoid of gender-based power politics, women feel safe and confident to speak their minds and express their ideas. Additionally, most shared offices are equipped with CCTV cameras for additional safety and security.

Likewise, coworking offices help create affinity among women occupants and form informal support groups. Since many women entrepreneurs go through similar difficulties, they can help one another by sharing professional feedback, resources, and references.

Also Read: Why Coworking Space is Ideal for Women Entrepreneurs

5. By Making Workplaces Accessible to Women

A long commute to work is a problem for everyone, and even more so for women juggling multiple responsibilities. Often, they end up missing networking opportunities and workplace events because they cannot stay after office hours. Add to that the safety concerns of traveling alone at night, women’s workplace participation naturally drops.

Neighborhood coworking serves as a safer option for women in this regard. It helps reduce the commute time, allows them to work not far from home, and prevents safety risks associated with late-night traveling. As women’s access to workplaces increases, so does their participation.

6. By Offering a Space Devoid of Distractions

Though many women choose to work from home due to familial commitments, the WFH model is not necessarily a productive option for them. As per a study by Kearney, women working from home experience the burden of domestic chores five times more than their male counterparts. It adversely impacts their workplace participation and might also slow down their careers.

Coworking helps improve this situation to a considerable extent by offering women a feasible alternative to working from home. It provides them with a fully-equipped professional space devoid of distractions, where they can fully attend to their professional commitments.

7. By Being Inclusive to Working Mothers

It’s a known fact that traditional workplaces treat working mothers and fathers differently. Working fathers are hailed as breadwinners of the family while working moms are often considered a liability by many employers. Consequently, the gender gap further widens, and women’s workplace engagement plummets.

Working moms juggling professional and familial commitments need an inclusive workplace that offers flexibility and support. Shared offices are inclusive and flexible spaces where working mothers can thrive. Many coworking operators offer amenities like crèche, play areas, and other childcare facilities as a measure to enhance women’s workplace involvement.

To Sum It Up…

More and more women and female-led businesses are turning to coworking, and it is easy to see why. As safe and well-equipped workspaces for women to grow, thrive, and support one another, shared offices are the need of the hour and the future of India’s women entrepreneurship.

BOOK A COWORKING TOUR

Distributed offices are a rising trend among businesses, and why not. In this work model, you have a hybrid workforce that operates from different domestic or international locations. While some of your teams work from the corporate office, others operate from home offices, coworking spaces, managed offices, and the like.

Hybrid teams and distributed offices are the future of work, say reports. While this model offers a new approach to flexibility and productivity, its success depends hugely on effective collaboration among employees. When you have teams working from multiple locations, you must think out of the box and use effective collaboration strategies.

Let’s look at some of the best strategies you can adopt to facilitate employee collaboration in a distributed office.

7 Best Strategies to Achieve Employee Collaboration in a Distributed Office Setup

1. Onboard the Right Talent
2. Define Expectations and Workflow
3. Set Up Regular and Structured Meetings
4. Facilitate Real-Time Communication
5. Invest in Data and Project Management Tools
6. Respect and Manage Time Zones
7. Provide Your Team with the Right Work Environment

1. Onboard the Right Talent

The first step is to hire the right talents for your distributed office. Remember – not everyone is cut out for this work model. Your employees will be working from remote locations, often without any direct supervision. So, you must pay special attention to hire self-motivated individuals.

People working from distributed offices must also be excellent team players. It is also recommended to onboard tech-savvy individuals and fast learners since employee collaboration in a distributed office often involves learning to use new technologies, digital resources, and software.

2. Define Expectations and Workflow

A disadvantage of this work model is that it doesn’t make room for non-verbal cues, such as situational prompts, body language, reading between the lines, etc. As a result, employees working in a distributed office are likely to misunderstand each other or overlook important information.

For your distributed teams to collaborate effectively, you must define the expectations and workflow clearly and unambiguously. Make sure that you clarify, define, and explain every aspect of the work environment, starting from the working hours and communication channels to deadlines, goals, and other metrics.

3. Set Up Regular and Structured Meetings

Regular and structured meetings serve as a great employee collaboration strategy in the distributed office setup. Unlike in a traditional office, your employees cannot enjoy the benefits of spontaneous communication and feedback while working from different locations. You can compensate for it by holding team meetings regularly – daily or at least twice a week, based on the needs of your team.

While holding daily or weekly meetings, make sure that employees get a chance to share the latest updates on their work, goals, and targets. It will help keep everyone in the loop, thereby facilitating effective collaboration in the workplace.

4. Facilitate Real-Time Communication

Real-time communication is a crucial factor contributing to the success of the distributed office model. You must use the right tools and employee collaboration software using which your teams can communicate, ideate, and solve problems in real-time.

Video chats and conferences are great tools to facilitate real-time collaboration among employees working from diverse locations. Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and GoToMeeting, are some of the best video conferencing and instant messaging tools you can use to encourage real-time communication.

5. Invest in Data and Project Management Tools

Access to business data and insights is also crucial in promoting effective employee collaboration in a distributed office. It is a good idea to invest in some cloud-based tools and software to share and manage data and information. Project management tools are also a great choice for enhancing long-distance collaboration.

From file management apps like Google Drive and DropBox to project management software like Trello, your options are plenty. You can choose one based on the size and requirements of your team and your budget, but make sure that it has ample security features.

Also Read: How Do Coworking Spaces Help Startups and Entrepreneurs Reduce Costs?

6. Respect and Manage Time Zones

When you have teams working from different continents, it is important to respect and manage the time zone difference. The good news is that you can use it to your advantage – by planning the work hours and workflow with some extra care, you can ensure round-the-clock productivity.

For starters, take special care to schedule meetings during everyone’s work hours. You can also record the meetings for employees who are not able to attend.  Apps like the World Time Buddy are specifically designed for geographically distributed teams – you can use it to find the best time to schedule meetings.

7. Provide Your Team with the Right Work Environment

Distributed offices help decentralize business activities, but your teams still need a workplace. Not everyone has the luxury of working from a well-equipped home office, devoid of distractions. That’s why it is important to invest in non-traditional workspaces that are conducive to employee collaboration.

Coworking spaces and managed offices are great choices for SMEs and corporates planning to decentralize their business activities. The greatest advantage of coworking is that your team gets a professional office space complete with all amenities and tools required for collaboration.

Final Thoughts

Managing a hybrid workforce spread across multiple locations might seem like a daunting task. However, with the right employee collaboration strategy and tools, you can enhance the productivity and performance of your teams.

Above all, don’t forget to provide your team with the right work environment where collaboration happens naturally. If you are looking for a coworking space or a managed office for your distributed team, get in touch with The Office Pass (TOP)  right away.

BOOK A COWORKING TOUR