Co-workers Pass: with flying colours

Working from home, your local café or even a park bench has taken on a whole new meaning since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We are no longer working 9am til 5pm from our company’s office; if indeed we ever were. Instead, more than 4.3 million Australians have been working from home in the last 12 months; and according to an ABC study a good two-thirds of them want to continue doing so.

Many of those people are in the regions.

Productivity’s still great

Recently a leading Stanford economist revisited a 2014 study that found people were more productive when they work from home. Professor Nicholas Bloom wanted to know if being forced to work from home due to a pandemic had impacted on people’s productivity. The answer was no. Productivity was still up. But so was loneliness.

But loneliness sucks

The study found that once the novelty wore off, working from home was lonely. People did not want to return to working 5 days a week in the office, but they did miss the water cooler conversations or the creative rub that comes from social interactions with other employees or colleagues.

This absence of connection is something that many professionals working from home in regional areas appreciate daily. Coronavirus has made us all feel more insular and that is not great for innovation. To address this, many people working from home are turning to hybrid solutions. Mixing working from home with some time in the office, or better yet, some time in a co-working office where they can connect and network with others in similar situations.

It is this solution that BOOM Clunes seeks to accelerate through its BOOM Works incubator.

It’s what? BOOM Works.

BOOM Clunes is a social enterprise designed to help a small town tip towards a boom, rather than a bust. We started with a shop. A retail outlet designed to open our doors to locals and visitors alike, create a distribution channel for local entrepreneurs, and build a Clunes brand. Now we are introducing BOOM Works.

BOOM Works sits above the shop. A suite of open spaces and offices designed to provide:

- Serviced offices 24/7

- Co-working passes

- Room Hire

BOOM Works is a space to work, think and network. It includes:

- 9am – 4pm access, 5 days a week

- Free, highspeed Wifi

- Access to photocopying and printing

- Podcast or Zoom room

- Meeting rooms

More than Facilities

Having access to facilities that make it easier to do your job in the regions is a bonus. It ensures that an annual pass of $250 + GST is money well spent. But the real win is the opportunity to connect.

Part of a Co-working Community

A Co-working Pass (purchased annually, or automatically included with serviced offices) comes with:

- Online community directory

- Online chat

- Information sharing

- Workshops

- Networking events: including the ‘old’ Friday night drinks

…why BOOM Works, will work.

The future of work is changing. We all know it and we are all trying to find a way that it works for us. Having a local, affordable and functional space to do this with like-minded others is a win-win that’s hard to find fault with.

So what are you waiting for? Why not give it a try?