Digital 52 2️⃣ - In New Zealand, a company started a coworking space. Learn how and why they did it.
On an Island - Positive Impact - Started by Larger Companies
Read the story of Rewired by XERO on page 161 of "Around The World in 250 Coworking Spaces".
While coworking spaces are very often initiated by individuals, there are more and more companies investing capital, time, and effort in creating different variations of collaborative workspaces worldwide. What is their motivation and what do they seek in creating such spaces? We chatted with Sarah Reading, Head of Workplace Experience at XERO.
Started back in 2006 in Wellington, New Zealand, XERO is very much focused on supporting small businesses. The company has grown over the years and currently happily serves over 2,000,000 clients (quite a few of which are coworking spaces) while also employing over 4,000 people globally.
How (and why) did XERO decide to open its own coworking space? That's what you'll learn in today's story, by discovering Rewired by XERO a coworking space featured on page 161 of "Around The World in 250 Coworking Spaces".
➡️ Key Figures
- Opening year: January 2019 [3 years and 9 months of existence at the time of this publication]
- Size: 700 sqm (7,000 sqft)
- Location: Auckland, New Zealand 🇳🇿
➡️ A little tour around Rewired
How The Community Gets Together
The different membership options of Rewired
➡️ Behind-the-scenes
Things you didn't read in aw250cs
"Having a coworking space allows us to be closer to our clients. We create value for them using the wider XERO network."
Sarah Reading, Head of Workplace Experience NZ
➡️ Rewired today
Where does Rewired stand today and what has changed since the pandemic?
💫 4 Major Changes
After the first lockdown in Auckland, it took quite some time for members to come back to Rewired, and Sarah adds "We noticed back then that a lot of our members were thinking about changing their memberships, going from a fully fixed one to more flexible options."
"We see our members and our team coming in for collaborative work, for team meetings, or at times when they want to catch up and work on something together. It seems that their focus work happens more at home."
"We moved through an alert system within our space. We tend to follow what other coworking spaces are doing in New Zealand in terms of opening and closing the space. We've got restrictions as per the government but we try to have as few restrictions as possible at Rewired just to make it as easy as possible for people to come back."
"We use Slack and have used it even more following the pandemic to connect with our members and connect them with each other too. We are here for them and we want to make sure they are feeling the love. We give them an online safe space where they can share their experiences. We have a counseling service at XERO which is normally available only for our staff. Following COVID-19, we've extended it to our members as well. Ensuring the wellbeing of our people is part of our work."
💬 In our initial conversation, you started talking about operations and managing a coworking space and you said “Operationally coworking spaces should be simple and easy to use. It takes only one bad experience to set back months of work in providing a great experience to community members and guests.” - Could you expand on this notion of simplicity and easiness to use at Rewired?
" The Rewired team is part of a larger workplace experience team at XERO and our focus is on providing an exceptional experience for our staff. We select easy-to-use technology for meeting rooms, using printers, or connecting to the wifi. The easier we make that and the fewer questions people have to ask in terms of support the better. For us, as a team, being operationally prepared means we spend less time fixing things and more time supporting our community in building their businesses and growing them.
We are constantly anticipating people's needs so that what they experience at Rewired can really feel seamless.
Prior to their arrival, we send them a workbook that details how to access the printer, and how our visitor system works but also details the meeting room technology we use. Then when they arrive, we do a walk around the space, we show them everything down to the fire escape routes, the kitchen, and its different appliances and we make sure they don't have any questions.
Because we are part of XERO, anytime we experience any tech issues, we can tap into the wider team so it can get solved quicker, which is good. It's also a point of difference for us."
➡️ Reflections on building Rewired by XERO
💬 What has been your biggest learning out of bringing to life and growing Rewired?
🤓 Be curious, ask (a lot of) questions
"I've been working in workspace experience for 15 years but coworking is a relatively new space for me. So since we started working on Rewired, I have spent so much of my time asking questions and feedback to our members.
- How can we help?
- How can we add value for you?
- Do you like what we are doing?
- Is it working for you?
- How can we improve?
It is so important to get that feedback loop and find out what we are doing right and what we are doing not so right so we can adjust."
💬 What would be your one piece of advice to another company thinking about opening a coworking space?
🔎 Do. Your. Research.
"Find out your point of difference and ask yourself what kind of value you want to add through the development of a coworking space. We believe our point of difference is being part of XERO which is massive on small business support so we tap into it and make our members at Rewired benefit from it too. Price is not what makes you fundamentally different."
💬 If you could chat with coworking operators now, what would you like to ask them?
💬 Last but not least, what's your biggest dream for Rewired?
🔥 "World domination is always nice [laughing]. It would be cool to roll out Rewired in other regions of the world. We've got offices everywhere so how can we tap into that and grow Rewired in the same way we did it here in New Zealand, replicating the experience we offer our members while also blending in the local cultures."
See you next week for Digital 52 3️⃣!
And if you missed Digital 52 1️⃣, it is all about a coworking space located in a remote part of Norway that has a tremendous impact on its local community. Have a read by clicking below!
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