Courtney Lussenhop finds she does her best work at a coworking space, Kiln, in Ft. Collins, Colo. Lussenhop is vice president of Impact for The Community Impact Fund, a nonprofit focused on creating financial wellbeing for all. Lussenhop, who started working from Kiln in February, finds she gets energized by mingling with the other residents of the space, where she shares her office on a rotating schedule with two other tenants.

“I like to connect,” she says. “I work better in busy environments where I can interact and take breaks. It lifts my spirits and helps me focus. It grows my personal spirit, and I do better work for my company because of that.”

Lussenhop pays for the space herself, but says her employer loves it that she works there. “I do good work here, so they’re happy for me,” she says. Because the space includes perks such as a gym, massage chair and healthy snacks twice a day, she says she comes out ahead while paying $500 a month for her lease, because she eliminated expenses for a gym membership and regular massages. “I’ve brought that all under one roof,” she says.

Many people associate coworking with freelancers, startups and small businesses but traditional employees like Lussenhop are part of a growing segment. Market research firm Grandview Research found that the corporate and professional segment made up 27.6% of coworking revenue. The research also found that many of these spaces are prioritizing sustainability and adding wellness amenities for workers, such as gyms, meditation rooms and healthy food, both of which matter to many employers.

This trend is likely to continue. More companies are renting coworking space or reimbursing employees for using them as they seek “new ideas, flexibility and autonomy,” according to research published in the journal Review of Managerial Science. 

Liz Elam, founder of the Global Coworking Unconference Community in Austin, Texas, who doubles as a futurist, predicts that corporate demand for coworking will only increase in coming years. “I honestly believe that we can't build them fast enough for the demand coming our way when corporate America really leans in,” she says. 

Some coworking spaces, such as the Canadian company IQ Offices, are already investing in spaces where they can build very large suites to accommodate corporate clients who want to have their own entrance and their name on the door, notes Elam. “Post-COVID, everybody wanted one-person offices, but now we're back to ‘We need massive suites,’ so the smart operators have built their business to pivot based on occupancy.”

Tapping the power of human connection

As many employers discover, there are other unexpected side benefits when teams co-work. A big one is connection. One study published in Harvard Business Review found that coworking sites better supported “relational job crafting,” meaning they could form relationships with a variety of professionals outside of their company, reducing loneliness and improving job satisfaction and performance and allowing workers to enjoy the culture of the workspace.

Some companies see a great coworking space as a draw for employees. “In the past, people were putting them into coworking spaces, so they got the startup vibe but coworking has evolved and changed,” says Elam. “The reason people are putting people into coworking spaces now is they don't want to go to your office. They want to go down to where people are hosting events, where they meet a nice collection of people across various industries so it's not so homogeneous.”

Coworking is also helping employers to fight the loneliness epidemic, which affects many corporate employees who work from home, as well as those in corporate offices where there is little contact with colleagues. “If people are working from home, they're not in a community,” Elam says. “If people are working at an office, they're usually in a pretty soulless environment, and coworking spaces are these absolutely amazing bastions of humans and connection that people really need, crave and deserve in today's day and time.”

That’s not accidental. “Coworking owners have focused on building community and that's the glue,” says Elam. “It’s holding events. It's building community. It's getting people to talk to each other.”

Embracing wellness culture

As the culture of shared office spaces evolves and prioritizes wellness, coworking has become even more attractive for corporate clients and their teams. “People still think that it's startups and kegs and all that,” says Elam. “It's not tech Bros and startup land anymore. The world has completely changed and evolved.”

In response to demand from tenants, many coworking spaces are raising the bar on amenities that prioritize wellness. That starts with beverages. A system for purified water and sparkling water is table stakes, according to Elam. So is having a great “coffee game,” she says. “Spending a lot of money on a good barista or putting in really great coffee machines is a huge perk these days.”  

Many are also going beyond offering basic gym space and adding trendy extras like red light beds, a cold plunge or a sauna. “It’s not only the place where you work,” she says. “It’s where you work out.” 

Ultimately, it seems, many employers want their teams to love coming to work so much that they don’t want to leave. If the place where that is most likely to happen is a coworking space, many organizations are saying “Why not?”