It’s no secret that it can be difficult to navigate the demands of large and rapidly-growing enterprises, especially in the face of uncertainty. Over the course of the pandemic, for instance, many watched as the traditional work model was upended in favor of remote work options—only to discover that while some thrived from a home office setting, others did not.  

Rather than stick to a one-size-fits-all solution that leaves a segment of the workforce with their needs unmet, forward-thinking leaders came to the conclusion that their workplace strategy needed to change to better support emerging work preferences. 

How did these organizations do this?

By turning to Industrious to create robust, comprehensive and tailor-made solutions that responded to their organization’s unique demands. 

Custom Canvas Suites help anchor two hybrid workplaces set up for the enterprise.

How One of the U.S.’s Largest Unicorns Switched to a Hybrid Workforce

Explosive growth comes with many benefits, but it also requires creative solutions to unique problems. For one of the U.S.’s largest unicorns, the pandemic served as a catalyst for this as the company experienced massive growth, expanding into countless new markets, and hired hundreds of thousands of workers to meet the increased demand for their product and services. 

While the enterprise initially worked remotely, leveraging Industrious’ Virtual Membership to establish a business address in Nashville, rising vaccination rates and some employees’ desire to return to the office led them to search for a solution that would allow them to cater to employees’ individual preferences. 

Opting out of a company-wide return to work, however, they decided to offer employees the ability to choose how they wanted to work: full-time in one of their regional headquarters, fully remote, or a mixture of the two. Unfortunately, while providing employees with options is a great way to retain talent, it can also create additional layers of complexity: if employees can choose when and how often they want to use office space, it can be hard to accurately calculate real estate needs.

The solution? 

Industrious partnered with this enterprise to provide dedicated workspaces flexible enough to handle the company’s explosive growth. Two custom Suites were developed to serve as regional headquarters while employees in other locations were offered Industrious’ Access memberships to work at locations convenient to them. 

This meant employees were able to embrace a flexible workstyle that met their needs while the company enjoys the added benefits of an intuitive and responsive workplace portfolio that supports their continued growth. Plus, as they continue to grow into newmarkets, their partnership with Industrious will enable them to readily expand their presence at a fraction of the cost. 

Employee choice was critical; Skillshare wanted to create a workplace that let employees work how and where they want to.

How Skillshare created a workplace model designed around meeting employees’ individual needs

For Skillshare, an online learning platform that serves millions of members, the pandemic marked a significant shift in the way their employees worked. Originally, approximately 65% of their employees worked in their New York City headquarters, but the company shifted to remote work after the onset of the pandemic.

While many of their employees enjoyed work-from-home life, however, Skillshare realized that others were craving the in-office experience. Collaboration was also a challenge, and the company realized they wanted to create a long-term solution centered around meeting every team members’ needs.

By partnering with Industrious, Skillshare was able to offer Access memberships to their employees—many of whom moved away from New York during the pandemic—so they were able to choose when to work from home and when to work from an office setting. 

Not only did this significantly reduce costs associated with maintaining a large office space, but Skillshare was also able to redistribute these funds into improving employees’ overall experience through work-from-home reimbursements and additional funds toward learning and development.

As a result, Skillshare saw a significant increase in employee morale. Empowering employees to choose for themselves—while creating equitable experiences both in-office and at home—meant Skillshare was able to craft a solution that met their employees’ individual needs without sacrificing community, company culture, or collaboration.

Industrious partnered with the company to build out workplaces that its employees would love, so it could balance retention and expansion.

How One Professional Services Firm Balanced Expansion and Retention

One of the biggest challenges with any rapidly-growing organization is keeping pace with demand while expanding into new markets. That’s why, when a large professional services organization turned to Industrious with the goal of establishing offices in new markets across the country, opting for a hybrid work model was essential. 

Rather than trade company culture for convenience, however, this company wanted to maintain a high retention rate among their employees—meaning they needed to both quickly establish new offices and create an environment that reflected the company’s culture while supporting their employees’ flexible work style.

Industrious allowed them to create a hub-and-spoke portfolio, using Suites to establish the company’s regional headquarters—complete with a private entrance, corporate branding, and a customized layout—while relying on Industrious’ extensive network of coworking facilities to provide local, flexible offices in multiple areas around the country. 

This allowed the company to quickly set up workplaces that suited both its culture and needs, expand rapidly into new markets and surpass its retention goal with the added benefit of using its workplaces as an attraction tool for new hires.

Moving forward 

The future is flexible. Cases like the ones laid out here are a testament to that. Embracing flexibility is a great way to attract and retain new talent, cut costs, and expand into new markets without adding complexity or unnecessary risk. Not only do hybrid and distributed work models offer all of these benefits and more, but they also allow enterprises to find the right solution that puts their employees’ first without sacrificing organizational needs.