As a result of the crisis, companies are obliged to adapt their organisation to employees’ expectations of flexibility. But how can telework be organised in a sustainable way, guaranteeing the health safety of employees, the quality and connectivity of their environment, while offering them a good employee experience? How to allow them to work closer to home and from wherever they want in good conditions? This is how Wojo helped Accor to set up a coworking offer for its employees, everywhere in France, including remote locations.
A coworking subscription offer designed for the needs of companies
Wojo offers coworking, private offices and meeting rooms for large groups. With a coworking subscription, their employees can go and work in any Wojo space, without any individual fee, which offers great flexibility in their organization.
Informed of available spaces through the Wojo application or the wojo.com website, employees also receive newsletters highlighting the latest open coworking spaces, invitations to events organised by the coworking operator, information on good working practices, etc.
Wojo invoices the company according to the usage, and accompanies the managers in their reflections on the ideal working week. For example two days in the office to meet and transmit the company culture, three days in telecommuting, two of which are in coworking and one at home. The Wojo team also share feedback from the employees, their practices in the choice of the reserved places and the frequency of use.
Accor has decided to set up a partnership with Wojo to enable its teams to benefit from this offer.
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A need to offer a differentiated work experience
Steven Daines, Chief Talent & Culture Officer (Global CHRO) at Accor, agrees: “Today, we have to offer much greater flexibility to attract talent. The health crisis has accelerated this transition to hybrid work arrangements and increased employees’ expectations in this area, by imposing teleworking for longer periods.
Anne-Sophie Béraud, VP Inclusion & Diversity at Accor, shares this vision: “I think that it is not possible to go backwards because habits have been established, positive habits. For a company, I think that it is also interesting to offer different forms of work. This is the future of work, in fact.“
With this in mind, the Accor group decided to test teleworking in third places, and called on Wojo to offer employees an unlimited coworking offer.
The Wojo coworking offer, a springboard towards a new organization of work
Wojo is 300 coworking spaces throughout France, Spain and in September 2021 in Germany and Austria. It’s the possibility to rent private offices and meeting rooms for a day or for a longer period without any commitment… The network has everything to seduce companies looking for geographical and organizational flexibility.
In each coworking space operated by Wojo, teleworkers find furniture adapted to their work, a fast and secure Wi-Fi connection, natural light, a catering offer, and additional services that vary according to the site: garden, gym, spa, etc. Thanks to its hotel partners, France’s leading coworking network is able to offer workspaces and meeting rooms close to employees’ homes, or in central locations that allow teams to meet without having to travel to headquarters. The offer is 100% flexible, and the Wojo teams build a tailor-made answer according to the company’s needs.
Employees who have a Wojo coworking subscription also benefit from a 10% discount on the catering services offered by our hotel partners: a great way to make lunch breaks more enjoyable for everyone!
A partnership with Wojo that promotes a hybrid telework organization
“What we propose to employees, quite simply, is to go coworking in a third-party space as much as they want. Some go there to work alone. But, often they also go there to meet in third-party spaces and work together. And that’s quite interesting because we didn’t expect it,” explains Anne-Sophie Béraud. She recalls that, according to an internal study, 84% of employees were in favour of coworking before the offer was put in place, which immediately aroused enthusiasm, with many employees actually activating their Wojo subscription to take advantage of this service.
Steven Daines is delighted with the flexibility that the partnership between Accor and Wojo brings to employees, who can now work wherever they want. “We’ve been able to test a hybrid model that allows the employee to work closer to home and then at the same time enjoy an environment […] where you’re going to meet other people, you’re going to be able to have contacts, you’re going to be able to air your mind.”
Wojo plays the role of facilitator for companies. The coworking expert takes care of the onboarding of employees on these new uses, answers their questions, sets up the reservation tools and follows their feedback in order to constantly improve the offers proposed in its spaces. To meet specific (or regular) needs, it is also possible to mix a coworking offer in free access for employees with private offices on demand.
A new organizational model that appeals to decision makers and employees
After these first months of experimentation, the feedback is very good. When asked about her feelings about this new offer, Gradislava Bikkulova-Vincent, Financial Partnerships Account Manager at Accor, underlines that she has noticed “positive results on [her] own time, on [her] own balance“. Edouard Roux de Lusignan, Senior VP Topline France and Southern Europe, works at Wojo three to four days a week and explains, “I don’t want to be all teleworking or all at headquarters, I think there’s a happy medium between the two.”
Steven Daines stresses that he has received nothing but positive feedback from employees, while Anne-Sophie Béraud concludes: “Wojo is very interesting, it’s a new way of working. We didn’t necessarily think about it before the crisis, but the crisis has allowed us to take the plunge and accelerate this transformation.
Coworking in third places, a third way between office and home
Because the observation is the same for managers and employees: the time of 100% at the office seems to be over, and 100% telework at home has shown its limits during the health crisis. Coworking in third places within coworking spaces covers the needs of employees (reduced commuting, quality of the workspace, efficient Wifi, ergonomic furniture, etc.).
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At the same time, this organization of telework erases inequalities between employees in their working conditions, prevents isolation and security risks related to the use of a home Wifi, and offers a place to socialize. Either with colleagues by deciding to meet in the same place, or with other coworkers from different backgrounds.
For companies, this new organization of telework allows them to reinvent their offices, and to optimize their real estate footprint by reducing their surface area in order to save money. When you know that office rent is the second most important expense for the company, just after salaries, this model has everything to seduce!
Discover the complete testimony of Steven Daines and Anne-Sophie Béraud.
