Your workspace isn’t just a place for your employees to do work. It also plays a crucial role in creating and maintaining a strong company culture while ensuring your team is set up for optimal performance.
That’s why many business leaders want to customize the look, feel, layout, and functionality of their office environment to their exact specifications—and rightfully so.
Traditionally, this has been a privilege reserved exclusively for those leasing high-priced traditional offices with extensive, long-term commitments.
But this is no longer the case today.
Contrary to popular belief, many serviced office space providers allow for—and have even become experts in facilitating—workspace customization while still allowing you to retain flexible agreement terms.
It is possible to have the best of both worlds. And in some cases, it’s even easier to do in a flexible workspace than in a traditional office lease.
Here’s what you need to know.
How workspace customization works in traditional office lease scenarios
In a traditional lease, landlords will respond to your requests for customization within your workspace.
In some cases, this may come in the form of an incentive to sign your lease—also known as a tenant improvement allowance.
In this scenario, the landlord would provide you with a partial payment toward the cost of your requested customization—amortized over the term of your lease.
From time to time, the landlord might handle the work on your behalf but, in most cases, you’ll be left to foot the remaining bill and coordinate all of the work on your own.
Why flexible office spaces make customization easier, more efficient, and more effective
Flexible office space has come a long way in the last few years.
The original concept of coworking still exists, often embodying the stereotypical offering of open-plan spaces filled with foosball tables, beer taps, and hot desks.
However, serviced office suites have skyrocketed to prominence, offering the coworking-centric benefits of shared amenities, cost-effectiveness, community, and flexible terms while still providing the aspects of a traditional office that many organizations desire.
And this is where the element of profound customization has found its way into the flexible office space model.
It’s also where things get interesting.
Let’s look at iQ Offices, for example.
Unlike traditional office landlords, we recognize that customizing your workspace is not your core competency.
So, we’ve built an in-house team that has the experience and expertise to make recommendations about how to customize your space and then handle the work on your behalf.
With our HQ by iQ offering, we can help bring your vision to reality.
We have project managers and designers on staff who are highly responsive to member customization requests.
And they will work with you, under a single point of contact, to do things like:
- Move or add walls in your workspace
- Incorporate phone booths into your office
- Source and install design elements including custom branding, furniture, and artwork
Rather than having to put on your project manager hat, this expertise and support allow you to save costs, reduce stress, eliminate hassle, and keep your focus where it needs to be: the daily operations of your organization.
The differences between traditional office vs. flexible office space customization
The reality is that landlords are in the business of leasing space—ideally on long terms. They have the ability to do construction and customizations but, unlike flexible office space providers like iQ Offices, that is not their core business.
On the other hand, flexible office space providers transact on shorter terms and are much more flexible than a traditional lease.
So, in order to ensure we are able to transact quickly, iQ Offices has built out a team and conducts customizations with a focus on quality and speed. We anticipate the unique needs of our members and have built our business around it.
Real-world example: Flexible office space customization in action
Curious to understand how flexible office space customization looks in execution?
We recently did a transaction with an international bank that was comparing HQ by iQ to traditional lease options.
They ultimately chose the flexible office route as our team at iQ Offices was able to make recommendations and execute a customization plan which required a significant amount of work to be done in under two months.
Through the combination of a robust project management and design infrastructure fused with a space that was created to be customized, we were able to move faster and provide a higher-quality workspace than the traditional lease options this member had been exploring.
While many organizations still believe that flexible office space can’t be customized to meet their needs, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In many instances, it can actually reduce costs, spare you a lot of stress, and ultimately deliver a better office environment.
Interested in learning more about customization options for your next company headquarters? Book a tour of your local iQ Offices location today. We’d be happy to discuss the possibilities and talk you through the process.
Kane Willmott is the co-founder and CEO of iQ Offices, the largest independent Canadian-owned co-working operator with offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. iQ Offices provides beautiful office spaces with safety, service, privacy and design at the forefront.
