How can you create a community at your co-working space?
- Set up a co-working blog
- Host happy hours
- Host networking events
- Organize a game night
- Facilitate group communication
- Put up a member wall
The modern age has offered people with various approaches to employment. While the traditional features of an office job are still present and are practiced today – partitioned desks and a top to bottom hierarchical structure – non-traditional modes of working have arisen, giving rise to the establishment of various co-working spaces in the Philippines, for example. With a diverse group of individuals utilizing such a non-traditional work set-up and environment, there is a challenge to make them more socialized with one another. If you’re a community manager aiming to foster a sense of community in your own co-working space, then this simple guide provides you with tips on that endeavor.
Set up a co-working blog
The job of every co-working community manager is to make the professionals utilizing their co-working space to feel comfortable. It isn’t unimaginable to think that co-working spaces might create a sense of disconnect. After all, there might be some tendency for these individuals to gravitate more towards their individual tasks and bury themselves in their own respective work.
Through a co-working blog, these professionals would be given a chance to communicate with others express themselves more freely. An online blog allows for higher accessibility of information, enabling the other individuals to share their views on their own respective industries. Not only does this avenue enable other professionals to enrich their knowledge on a particular subject matter, but it also fosters greater communication among them.
Host happy hours
Like any other typical office job, working at a co-working space can still be quite monotonous. It can be physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing to go to a nine-hour work shift every day, for five days a week. To ease some of the burdens, people need breaks in the monotony. One way you can do this as a community manager is by hosting happy hours.
Scheduling of happy hours can be every two weeks, or every Friday night, depending on your choice. Allowing avenues for professionals to be more laid back not only re-energizes them for another whole week of work but also provides them with opportunities to mingle with one another.
Host networking events
Another way of strengthening community ties within a co-working space is through networking events. Modern societies nowadays are arguably becoming more and more homogenized because of globalization, and the internet. With the world seemingly becoming smaller, the importance of building meaningful connections is something that should be brought to the fore.
Through networking events, members of your co-working space would be given a chance to deepen their relationships with one another. Aside from the potential of gaining valuable knowledge, they would also be equipped with useful professional relationships that they can make use of, to advance in their career ladders.
Organize a game night
Co-working spaces are still considered work environments – albeit non-traditional. This might be one of the reasons why members might find it reluctant to interact with another, as they’re so engrossed with their task. Because of the lack of interaction resulting from the nature of their work, there is little time to develop meaningful relationships with one another.
A game night, on the other hand, offers a more relaxed environment for these relationships to foster. Such a setting will promote the members to work with one another and likewise, foster a greater sense of community among them.
Facilitate group communication
Because each member of a co-working space has their own task to focus on, it’s understandable if they won’t willingly engage themselves in non-work related conversations with one another. As a community manager, in order for you to foster a sense of communication among the members, you should take initiative to provide them with the platforms and avenues for this endeavor.
You can take advantage of a wide range of user-friendly community messaging apps which your members would just as easily be able to use. Ease of access is after all, for the benefit of your diverse group of members.
Put up a member wall
Due to time constraints and busy schedules, it may not always be possible for your members to get to know one another on a more personal level. But it is essential that they get a general sense of the kind of community they’re involved in.
One of the ways you can achieve this, as a community manager, is by setting up a member wall. Posted on the wall would be the photos of the co-working members, as their respective biodata, and their hobbies or interests. In this way, every member would be able to get a glimpse of the kind of people they’re sharing workspaces with.
Key Takeaway
As a community manager, creating a sense of community among the members of your co-working space can be difficult. Because of the diversity of members, time constraints, and the potential differing interests, this endeavor can take a long while before it is achieved. The guide above, however, has equipped you with some useful tips before beginning in this undertaking. With the continued building of relationships and socialization, members of your co-working space in the Philippines might soon be able to feel like they belong to a community.