The Office “Hot Days”

 Hybrid work patterns have cemented Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays as the “core” office days. Research reveals these midweek days are often “required in-person time”, packed with meetings and collaborative activities, while Mondays and Fridays remain quieter as employees take advantage of remote flexibility. A LinkedIn survey found that 90% of employees view the workplace as more than just a functional space—it’s where collaboration and innovation happen.

Encouraging attendance on key days while making quieter ones more appealing can create a balanced, vibrant workplace. That’s where engaging perks and events come in.

Why Being in the Office Matters

While remote work offers flexibility, the benefits of in-office collaboration are hard to ignore:

• Stronger Connections: Office days foster personal connections, from quick coffee chats to impromptu brainstorming sessions.
• Boosted Morale: Social perks, like networking breakfasts or wellness events, make people feel valued and connected.
• Increased Productivity: Studies show 83% of leaders believe returning to the office improves productivity, while 81% say it strengthens company culture.
• Collaborative Sparks: There’s nothing quite like the energy of an in-person brainstorming session to drive innovation.

Work Patterns Have Shifted – So Should Your Employer Brand

The way we work has changed, and so have our office routines. With hybrid working on the rise and many employees required to be in the office on certain days, some have become clear favourites for in-person time. These are great opportunities for employers to boost collaboration, engagement, and community—key elements of a strong employer brand. At Work.Life, we’ve embraced these shifts, rethinking how to make office days more enjoyable and inclusive for everyone.

While remote work offers flexibility, the office remains a powerful tool for building company culture and a strong employer identity.

• Stronger Connections: Office days foster personal interactions, making teams feel more connected.
• Boosted Morale: Social perks and wellness initiatives help employees feel valued, enhancing retention.
• Increased Productivity: 83% of leaders say returning to the office improves productivity, reinforcing the role of the workspace in performance.
• Collaborative Sparks: Innovation thrives when teams brainstorm in person.

Companies that invest in a workplace culture that employees genuinely enjoy don’t just improve team engagement—they build an employer brand that attracts top talent. A thriving office environment signals to potential hires that your company prioritises collaboration, well-being, and flexibility.

How Work.Life Helps Businesses Build a Stronger Workplace Culture

At Work.Life, we specialise in spaces designed to bring teams together in a way that supports both productivity and happiness. Whether it’s adapting office perks to match hybrid schedules (like our Week in Reverse at Liverpool Street) or curating community-driven events, we help businesses shape office experiences that strengthen their employer brand.

Want to create a workplace culture that people love? Discover how Work.Life can help.

Liverpool Street’s Success with a “Week in Reverse”

Work.Life Liverpool Street recognised that not everyone’s hybrid schedule allows them to enjoy all our community perks. To tackle this, the team flipped the script by introducing a “Week in Reverse”:

• Wednesday became Beer & Pizza Night, traditionally a Thursday treat.
• Our Wellness Wednesdays moved to Friday for a more relaxing end-of-week.
• Fancy breakfasts, usually reserved for Mondays, appeared later in the week.

Kim, Membership Manager at Liverpool Street, explained: “Our Week in Reverse showed how much our members value the little things we do to create a sense of community. By switching up the schedule, we made sure everyone had a chance to participate and feel included—it’s something we’ll definitely revisit!”

Ideas for Maximising Your Office Days

To make the most of your office space and boost engagement:

1. Plan Around Core Days: Focus events and team-building activities on the busiest days (often midweek).
2. Create Variety: Rotate perks to keep things fresh and exciting for your team.
3. Celebrate Community: Events like breakfasts, wellness sessions, or after-work socials encourage connections that drive collaboration.
4. Leverage Quiet Days: Use lighter office days for deep work or smaller, intimate events to entice attendance.

Work.Life: Designing Offices That Work for You

At Work.Life, we specialise in spaces designed for collaboration, community, and comfort. From thoughtful layouts to curated events, we make office days something to look forward to.

Ready to create an inspiring office culture? Discover how we can help at Work.Life.

The post When Are People in the Office Most? A Look at Office Trends and Engagement appeared first on Work.Life.

Check out our locations here and our memberships here.

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We wanted to understand what the world of work means to them as employees at a queer charity, how they’ve seen workplaces evolve, and what they believe more needs to be done to achieve true equality for queer people at work. 

How has the world of work evolved for the queer community over the last 50 years?

Henry: We can see from our logbook entries that the queer community has historically faced significant discrimination in the workplace—people being sacked for their sexuality, and LGBTQIA+ employees not feeling confident being their authentic selves. While there have been changes to our freedoms and protections, there’s still work to be done. Queer people need to be able to be their true selves, with allies and role models in positions of authority. Working for Switchboard is incredibly humbling and energising, especially seeing the dedication of our volunteers.

Bob: Since 1974, Switchboard has recorded anonymous notes on every conversation, now housed in the Bishopsgate archives. These notes reveal thousands of stories of people terrified of coming out at work, particularly during periods such as Section 28. Many lost their jobs or faced career limitations. While legal protections have improved, fears still linger. However, it’s fantastic to see many people now out and thriving at work, driving incredible change through internal networks and organisations.

Allison: People’s comfort levels being out at work still vary by industry. Many still don’t feel able to be their authentic selves in certain fields. Working at Switchboard, a bit of a queer utopia, is special. Celebrating 50 years of Switchboard has been powerful, considering the millions of lives touched by our volunteers. Being part of ensuring this legacy continues is a real privilege.

What essential resources and support should companies provide to ensure the well-being and inclusion of LGBTQIA+ employees?

Henry: We need to think about allyship and awareness training for all employees, and equity programs to promote LGBTQIA+ people into senior roles.

Bob: Organisations can make a huge impact on well-being. Active Pride networks, well-resourced and with senior leadership sponsorship, are crucial. Regular feedback sessions and a culture of active listening are also essential.

Allison: Displaying pronouns, using inclusive language, and ensuring policies consider LGBTQIA+ circumstances (like medical leave for trans employees and adoption leave) are important steps.

What advice would Switchboard offer to workplaces seeking to enhance their LGBTQIA+ inclusion efforts and cultivate a more diverse workforce?

Henry: Be honest about where you’re starting from, your mission, and motivations. Centre the experiences of LGBTQIA+ employees, invest in allyship, and training initiatives.

Bob: We’ve delivered workshops on creating a strong culture of allyship and active listening. It’s important  to feel supported in the workplace. Organisations should actively seek ways to improve and listen to their employees’ needs.

Allison: Get Switchboard in to deliver a talk or training session. Actively listen to and seek feedback from your LGBTQIA+ employees.

How important is LGBTQIA+ representation in leadership roles for fostering workplace inclusivity?

Henry: It’s crucial—we need to see people like us to know opportunities are open to us. Working under Stephanie (Switchboard’s CEO) is inspiring.

Bob: Representation at all levels is critical for fostering an open and inclusive culture. In a previous job, a senior leader openly talking about his husband created  a welcoming environment for me.

Allison: If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. LGBTQIA+ leaders help shape inclusive cultures and can understand  how to make workplaces safer and more inclusive.

How can employees actively contribute to fostering a culture of inclusivity and support for their LGBTQIA+ colleagues?

Henry: Be aware of privilege and intersectionality. Call out discrimination, amplify queer voices, and avoid using allyship for self-promotion.

Bob: Every colleague has a role in making the workplace safe and happy. Sometimes it’s about listening and learning, other times it’s about challenging inappropriate behaviour.

Allison: Create a culture that isn’t hetero/cis-normative. Don’t assume everyone is straight or cis until they come out.

What future trends in LGBTQIA+ acceptance, support, and representation do you hope to see in the workplace?

Henry: More senior LGBTQIA+ leaders, a reduction in workplace discrimination, and improvements for trans and non-binary colleagues.

Bob: We hope to see even more collaboration between groups, with colleagues feeling able to be themselves and work together on supportive changes.

Why is it important for Switchboard to collaborate with organisations like Work.Life? How has this collaboration impacted your mission?

Bob: Collaborating with Work.Life helps us reach more people who might need our services. Work.Life’s support has allowed us to better support our volunteers and ensure our funds go directly towards our mission.

Allison: Work.Life’s approach to partnering with Switchboard is fantastic. They utilise their resources to make a big impact, like providing advertising space for Pride and physical space for our volunteers. Switchboard’s collaboration with organisations like Work.Life is vital in creating more inclusive workspaces and supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. As we celebrate 50 years, we look forward to continued progress and partnerships that drive positive change.

Check out Switchboard and get involved with this years Pride celebrations at Work.Life.

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Hi Tim! Could you tell us a bit about yourself and the company?  

Hi! I’m a Partner at Ninth Seat, and we’re an insight agency that was founded way back in 1984 and have spent most of that time based in the same office in Angel. The company has changed a lot during that time, but the building has pretty much remain unchanged!

We went through a rebrand a few years back to reflect the change to our business and went through B Corp certification. We’re now coming up to our first anniversary of being a B Corp, which is so great, it’s integral to our values as a company.

There are about 29 of us in total, most concentrated around London but we also have an office in Leeds and several fully remote workers.

And what does Ninth Seat do exactly?

We’re a market research company, which essentially means we undertake consumer research to understand people opinions and behaviours – everything from quantitative surveys and statistical analysis, to qualitative focus groups and sensory research.

We are lucky to work with a real range of  great clients, such as Unilever, Dyson, and Merlin Entertainments, but just as importantly I work with a great team of creative and talented researchers.

What’s your company culture like?

Really good question – every year we do a well-being survey and get the results back, so I’ve actually seen the stats, and I can genuinely say we’re a very nice place to work! We’ve got quite a flat structure with a fairly senior team, people who have a lot of experience in research. We work very collaboratively; everyone gets their hands dirty. We’re that size of company where everyone still gets involved in the day-to-day elements of the job, and still get excited about it.

I think ‘family’ would be very cliched, but I’d say we’re a close-knit group. The majority of people in the company have been here a long time – I actually started in this company as a graduate, and we’ve currently got two members of staff who started as placement students on their university course. One of them is in a senior management role and the other one is a good six years in now, so people do tend to stick around!

What made you look for a new office solution?

Well, we’re lucky to have been in an office forever, really – we looked at moving back in 2016 when our lease was last up (good old long leases!) and at the time, everyone was still going to the office every day. When we looked around we did think of serviced offices, but it was early days, and the price comparisons seemed prohibitive. We realised the office was quite uninspiring and was never going to have that real buzz of excitement due to the size of the team, and that was even pre-Covid.

That’s especially changed the way we’ve all worked, so most people only come to the office about twice a week, and we’ve got way more remote workers, with people moving out of London and away. We just don’t have that critical mass within the company, so to come into the office, some days you can feel like you’re the only person there – like, wow, I spent an hour coming in on the tube just to sit on my own? So much of what we do is talking to people and our best ideas come from collaboration, which works to a certain extent remotely, but there’s just real value in getting people together on a frequent basis.

We want people to want to come into the office, not through a mandate, but by being an inspiring place to work. Being a small company, you’re in that situation where you only meet a certain number of people in your own team, and I think that’s something that we really saw from Work.Life, the community was there.

What were you looking for in a new office – and what was it that sold it to you at Work.Life Old Street?

We went through the process of looking for what we wanted and we went to all the usual suspects of flexible workspaces. Then, the way I cycle home, I go past the Work.Life in Camden, and I’d seen it as a brand and thought, ‘Oh, looks like there’s one just down Old Street, I think it must have just popped up.’ So we decided to go for a tour – four of us went down for the initial meeting, and it was the first one we all walked out and thought… “we can see ourselves being here”. It was really driven by the team. The atmosphere didn’t feel forced, it felt like people were genuinely happy in their jobs. And I think that just makes a huge difference.

And then there was the huge bonus, of course, that Work.Life are a B Corp – it’s very much aligned to our own way of doing business, in that we’re not in here just to make money, we want to do good with what we do and to feel proud of what we do.

It was also great having a trial day – it was going to be a very different way of working for us, and just being able to do that, we realised that it was gonna be a lot easier than we thought. We went on the busiest day possible and still had loads of space for everything we needed to do, we managed to use the phone booths, overall it was just a really positive experience going into it.

Finally – what’s the main benefit you’re hoping to get from basing your team at Work.Life Old Street?

The coffee… Yeah, definitely. That’s gone down very well. I think we’re going to have a very well caffeinated team.

Looking for your new work-home? What are you waiting for?! You can book a tour here. 

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Meet Martyn! He’s just one of our rockstar membership managers who works hard to make our members’ work-life happier (and easier!). Martyn’s our fun-loving, free-wheeling tennis maestro who loves a bit of fancy dress. And he’s here to spill the beans on what it’s really like behind the scenes as a Membership Manager at Work.Life Soho. 

Read on for a sneak peek into our Soho offices and coworking space as he takes you on a journey through a typical workday in Martyn’s world. 

7:15am – 8:30am 

My day begins at 7:15am when my alarm scares me awake. My outfit is already prepared the night before. With a quick shower, breakfast bar and glass of water, I’m on my way to Honor Oak Park Station to get into Soho. 

I get into the office at 8:15am and immediately grab my much-needed daily mocha from our coffee machine (we have free unlimited tea and coffee here). I also have a couple of crumpets. Sometimes, I like to mix things up with cereal instead; variety is the spice of life, people!  

Mornings aren’t my favourite part of the day, I’ll give you that, but after my morning coffee and crumpet, I’m back to my usual bubbly self, ready to help anyone that needs it. 

8.30am – 12.30pm 

From here, I get set up for the day with a morning huddle with my lovely team. We discuss the day’s events, what we are working on and any projects we need to focus on. As a manager, planning is key, so I write down my to-do list with my daily priorities. This can be anything from sales, facilities and community activation – you name it!  

The dream team!

No two days are the same, so adaptability is one of the essential skills for my role. I can have a full day on my feet showing people offices and talking to them about their businesses. Being positive, approachable and likeable in this role is also a big plus.  

12.30pm – 1.30pm  

During my lunch hour, I enjoy a walk around Soho through Carnaby Street and Soho Square. Sometimes I’ll watch tennis highlights if the weather’s not too great. 

Photo by Liza Pooor 

We’ve been making salads as a team recently from recipes we find on TikTok or Instagram. It’s a cute idea to do once a week. If I don’t have that, I’ll go to Berwick Street Market to enjoy one of the many cuisines down there; Dorothy’s West African stall is my favourite. 

Work.Life Soho’s location is genuinely so good. It’s close to loads of great bars and restaurants and it’s easy to get to tube stations.  

The office itself has such a great vibe with an amazing community. It’s a fun, warm and inviting space – I really can’t fault it. And the office feels even more lively lately because we’re all excitedly counting down to the opening of our fifth floor on 1st March! 

1.30pm – 5.30pm  

Anyway, back to my day. My afternoon is filled with team leader check-ins, tours with new businesses and renewal conversations. And on Thursdays, we eat pizza! 

On other days, my tasks and responsibilities can include speaking with brokers, keeping our facilities and operations in order with the team, and organising community events for our members.  

My favourite spot

Our members are one of the best parts about working at Work.Life Soho. They are fun. A few teams have dartboards, so we often play this with a drink and a slice of pizza. They make it great to be here; ultimately, they’re why we’re here! 

5:30pm – 8:30pm 

I finish work at 5:30pm and head to my tennis club in Dulwich to play a mixture of singles and doubles practice. I play competitively in a couple of leagues on weekends.  

Move over, Serena. 

When I’m not playing tennis, I might pop to the pub with the team for an after-work drink or two or do a sporty activity like a Spin class. We also enjoy doing quizzes as a team, and with the theatre on our doorstep, we try to go to a show at least once a month. 

London’s public transport is probably the biggest challenge of my job. It can get wildly congested during ‘rush hour’, so sometimes I stay at work later to avoid this. There’s usually someone I know around here to go for a drink or play darts with. 

8:30pm – 10:30pm  

When I get home, I like to unwind by watching my programmes. There’s a lot of stuff on TV at the moment – my latest obsession is Traitors.  

Then I’m off to bed between 10:30pm and 11:30pm so I can get a good seven to eight hours of sleep before I wake up and start all over again! 

Talk to Martyn 

Our seriously stylish Soho coworking offices are totally decked out and ready to go, with all the stuff you need for a productive workday. We’re talking 24/7 access, a stocked kitchen, loads of meeting rooms, and a jam-packed events calendar with something for everyone. 

Plus, our shiny new fifth floor has offices available for teams of 8, 9, 12, 15 and 18. But be quick, they’re selling fast! 

Contact Martyn pronto at soho@work.life to learn more about our incredible coworking and private office working space in Soho. 

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Since it started in 2017, the B Corp movement, short for ‘Benefit For All’, has certified more than 6,000 companies across 89 countries. B Corps are leading the way to build a stronger future for the next generation, with organisations taking more accountability for their actions and choices — “serving a global community of people using businesses as a force for good”.

At Work.Life, the B Corp certification has enabled us to use this framework as our first step to embed sustainability in our business model, to go beyond business as usual and pursue a more impactful way to deliver our mission to create happier workspaces.

During this B Corp month, and as we prepare to publish our first Impact Report, we reflect on our B Corp journey – what we’ve learned with each one of the challenges we found along the way, sharing those with others, and celebrating the successes of the last year.

Becoming a B Corp

Our business is driven by our passion for employee wellbeing and happiness. As part of a brand exercise back in 2019, we decided to put forward the case to pursue B Corp at Work.Life. 

“For a business of our size and a brand with our mission, B Corp felt like the right thing to do.”
Sarah, Head of Marketing and Sustainability Committee member  

We conducted our B Impact Assessment, the first step to obtain the certification, during a time where we were focused on rebuilding our business after the Covid pandemic

Some businesses work with external parties to obtain the certification which was not the case with us. The fact that B Corp is so aligned with our company values, made it possible for us to recruit an incredible group of volunteers within our team, representing the different departments to deliver the work – such as representatives of our people, leadership, facilities, and community teams. 

“Working in this project at a time of so much uncertainty, was also a highlight and a motivation drive for our team.”
Elliot, Director and Sustainability Committee member  

Rebuilding our business whilst working on our B Corp certification, was a source of motivation for our team helping us understand what areas we were already very strong, such as Workers, Governance and Community and review processes in areas that we were less strong, such as our environmental performance. 

It took us about two years, from starting the process, to submitting our B Impact Assessment and to obtaining the certification in January 2022.  

The duration of this process (despite feeling very long at times!) was key for us to implement new policies and processes but also embed new ways of working as a multi departmental team and prepare for the work that was waiting for us after the certification.  

Embedding sustainability in our business model through B Corp

One of the biggest challenges for businesses in order to improve their sustainability performance is that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to frameworks that businesses can follow.  

In our case, due to our alignment with B Corp values, we felt that this was a solid starting point to start our sustainability journey. B Corp requires businesses to continue to improve their social and environmental performance in order to be recertified every 3 years, supporting the development of a longer term strategy. 

Embrace B Corp as a framework meant we could use that as a guideline to build our first sustainability roadmap, and use B Corp self-reassessment score as our first sustainability performance indicator which we are tracking quarterly. Our Sustainability Lead and Sustainability Committee, forming the governance body for our sustainability work, used the framework and this metric as a foundation to define and start executing our sustainability strategy and roadmap. 

To expand the impact of our sustainability work, it became clear that we needed to create an additional network of Sustainability Champions, to bounce ideas and to support on numerous projects. Employing our Sustainability champions (from different levels of the company) proved so successful that we plan to extend this approach in other areas to maximise impact (e.g. Community Champions). 

“As a Sustainability Champion I get to support our strategy by engaging our members in this topic via different tools such as our sustainability Slack channel“
Jon Watson, Membership Assistant and Sustainability Champion

All of our sustainability work is delivered by passionate team members that embed the work within their day-to-day jobs. We believe this is the best way to ensure sustainability is embedded in every part of the business.  

“We are a lean team and to help prioritise our sustainability projects, we ensure that every quarter there is a company goal associated with our sustainability roadmap.”
Sophie, Commercial Director and Governance Impact Area Lead

 In the past year, we also understood that, to continue to be successful in delivering our roadmap, we must continue to engage everyone in the company.  

“We are incredibly fortunate to have so much passion within the Work.life team to drive our ambitions forward. People come to us even during our hiring process with ideas on how they’d love to make an impact! This collective energy is helping us to work on things like developing further training resources and including social & environmental performance in our job descriptions.”

Laura Ash, Head of People and Workers Impact Area Lead

We believe that no matter what everyone’s role is, every individual in our team can make a difference to drive our sustainability agenda and we want to continue to empower them to do so.

Our biggest challenge: Improving our environmental performance

 Tackling climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time and businesses play a fundamental role to drive change in this area looking at reducing their emissions and support our path to Net Zero.   

In most of the buildings we currently operate, we lease only a part of the building, making it very difficult for us to collate water, energy and waste data from different landlords.  The arduous process to collate the data in the past year, has also taught us that the acquisition phase of our buildings is critical in this process. And therefore, instead of only looking at the operational stage we started reviewing our acquisition criteria for future buildings, as well as working with our suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of our delivery processes.

“When we started our B Corp journey, we had no data available, despite being one of our biggest challenges it has also become one of our biggest achievements in the past year.”
Megan Beard, Facilities Manager and Environment Impact Area Lead 

 After collating most of the data for the last year, we are now able to understand the environmental impact of our operations, and we aim to define improvement targets and strategies to deliver these.  

In the past year, the B Corp certification has empowered us to improve areas in the businesses where we were already performing well and, at the same time, allowed us to start tackling complex areas of our business. 

“Using the B Corp framework is helping us to take a step-by-step approach to further develop our sustainability strategy. This process is encouraging us to develop ambitious projects that go beyond, whilst being by other businesses in the community, as well as learning and exploring other frameworks to further expand and deliver our sustainability ambitions.”
Ana Bernardo, Area Manager and Sustainability Lead 

Celebrating B Corp month

Our members have played a fundamental role in the success of our sustainability work by taking part of our fundraising events, such Pride Month, and behaviour change programmes, such as our recycling drive that increased our recycling rate across selected spaces to 75%.

“We can’t wait to celebrate B Corp month with our members and beyond”
Viraj, Area Manager and Community Lead 

During this month, we will be celebrating B Corp month with our members and team by organising a B Corp Bingo, empowering participants to consider more sustainable habits and win prizes from some of our favourite B Corps.  

To understand what it means and what does it take to go beyond, we are also hosting a public panel discussion, with veteran and recently certified B Corporations to shed light into the successes and challenges they encountered on their journey to become more than just a better business. You can find out more about this event and sign up to attend here.

The post Going Beyond The B appeared first on Work.Life.

Hi David! Can you tell us a bit about Ultra Education and your mission?

We exist with the mission to positively impact the lives of all children and young people (from as young as 7 years old to 18+), with a particular focus on those who might suffer from disadvantages due to social background, colour of their skin, how much money they have or where they come from.

We use entrepreneurship as a vehicle to draw out and increase confidence and to instil a level of resilience in children and young people; an understanding that failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing (actually in a lot of situations, it can be a good thing!)

But really, although what we’re doing is teaching children the fundamentals of how to start and run a successful business, what we are really doing outside of that is instilling in that cohort, a belief that they have the capacity to go beyond expectations.

The skills young people learn from our entrepreneurship courses and workshops are fundamental skills to any business that you go into. You’re telling them you could go into any business and take on a senior role; you have that capacity to go far beyond where you might believe you can go, irrespective of your background and what you look like, and where you come from.

What do the courses and workshops involve?

We have a curriculum that we work to, fundamentally based on a number of key principles.

One is that we define entrepreneurship as doing what you love and making money from it. So it’s absolutely underpinned by identifying; what is your passion? What do you really enjoy?

Then, once you can identify what your passion is, do some research to understand if there is a market for it. Who else is doing it? Are they successful or not?

We then teach the fundamentals of sales and marketing, and how you can start a business in the most cost effective way, how you can sell your product and or service, profit and loss and so on.

And then finally, we give them the opportunity to define, hone and practice their pitch thus enabling them to sell their products and services. We run an annual Youth Business Fair and we try to do these at really impressive locations like flagship banks, and shiny office buildings. We’re fortunate enough to be taking our 8th (yes, 8th!) Youth Business Fair to Wembley Stadium on 30^th April this year.

And how do you deliver these courses and workshops?

We deliver in a number of different places. We do quite a bit of working in schools with class takeovers, after school clubs and assemblies, as well as with youth organisations.

We also have partnerships with some local councils that allow us to deliver in their areas, and with housing associations, who ask us to work with their residents. So there’s a number of different ways that we deliver the curriculum; it can be anything from an assembly in a school for an hour, all the way through to a 12-16 week program and these can be group sessions or one to one where we provide additional mentoring and support for young people at risk of being NEET (not in education, employment or training), entering the criminal justice system and also for those with special needs.

How many of you are there in the Ultra Education team?

There are 15 of us altogether, some working full-time and some part-time, plus a number of volunteers who support us through various initiatives.

We have an operational team, a project management office, an education team – a lead facilitator and then teaching facilitators delivering to schools.

David & some of the Ultra Education team, the Deputy Mayor for London for Business, Rajesh Agrawal and Councillor Muhammed Butt, the Leader of Brent Council.

How did you start working with Work.Life?

I posted a project on Matchable, an online platform which matches volunteering projects with employees. We’ve used it a bit in the past but the match with Sophie Turnbull, Commercial Director for Work.Life has been really helpful on a number of different levels.

Ultra have a number of different partnerships, but we don’t do anywhere near enough work with corporate organisations. Sophie and I have been spending time on a weekly basis coming up with a marketing plan we can use to share what we do for education with organisations that might be willing to provide a level of support.

It’s not about money, but sites. We talk about exponentially increasing the number of young people that we positively impact, and one of the best ways we can do that is to get more funding in to grow our reach. And it’s kind of a largely untapped territory for us, the corporate space – so working with Sophie is proving really useful, particularly for me to try and figure out the best way to design and build a campaign that we can use to target the corporate space.

How have Work.Life spaces helped Ultra?

The other key area Sophie has helped us with is providing physical space for our team to meet. We have access to use meeting rooms and workspace. Personally, I was looking for somewhere to get out of the house to work so it’s been really useful to use the Work.Life Flex membership and work from various different coworking spaces in London and Reading depending on where I am. Most of our work is based in and around London, so it’s quite nice to go in and just spend an hour or two doing a bit of work in a productive workspace that’s got some nice friendly faces as well.

I also try to bring the team together to meet in-person semi-regularly. Although we’re primarily remote for now, we run an in-person team meeting once a month. We’ve visited Work.Life Holborn and Work.Life Farringdon.

We spend the day brainstorming, working through how we can be more efficient, how we can be leaner in some of our functions, and provide a better result to our customers and to our beneficiaries. So it’s been really, really useful to have the screen in a meeting room, a whiteboard, and a comfortable setting with snacks and coffee to all have a brilliant in-person session.

And do you see the team moving into your own office?

Absolutely. I think that it’s so important. The geography of the team at the moment would make that a challenge, but I certainly would welcome the opportunity when eventually our business is in the right place to have a location that we can go into regularly. In my opinion, you get so much more achieved when you get people together, and it’s incredibly important we get to spend face time together at least a couple of times a week.

What’s coming up for Ultra in 2022?

We have big plans! The first one is diversifying our income, which Sophie is helping us with.

The second is diversifying our delivery and the types of businesses we partner with. For example, I just got off a call earlier this morning with Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer, and we’re looking to run a program with them, to inspire young people to see fashion as a viable career.

Hopefully, assuming things go according to plan, we’ll be taking some young people into the Vivienne Westwood Studios in Chelsea and into their warehouse so they can see how the clothing is designed. They’re going to offer one or two internships with the organisation. Just another example of different diverse ways that young people could aspire to be something more than they perhaps believe that they could be. So that’s the second thing, diversifying our delivery from the bottom up.

Finally, we want to increase the number of locations as well. We’re currently primarily London-centric and we do have a franchise out in the West Midlands as well, but the team are spread over the UK and we want to make use of that, to widen our reach around the UK and beyond.

We want to make this available to every young person irrespective of geography and social background – it’s going to take some time to achieve our goals, but we’re absolutely on that journey to get there!

Want to join the Work.Life community? Get in touch today to learn about our meeting rooms and coworking memberships.

The post Work.Life Community Stories: David Sobo, COO at Ultra Education appeared first on Work.Life.

Our second favourite pastime is watching our members excel. Our first, is telling everyone about them! We’re highlighting founders who’ve grown their businesses (and their teams) within the walls of Work.Life coworking spaces.

Joe Binder joined Work.Life as a one-man band, and look at him now – a casual 15 hires later, and his company WOAW is building brands for some of the country’s most prominent CEOs and founders. We chatted to Joe about how he started WOAW, his journey at Work.Life, and his ambitious plans for the year ahead…

So first of all, tell us about WOAW…

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to start a business. At University, I launched and grew a YouTube channel to over 20,000 subscribers and learned loads about social media in the process. After graduating, I had an opportunity to combine my love of entrepreneurship with my interest in social media. So, I took it. Enter, WOAW.

We build personal brands for founders and CEOs and use social media to redefine personal branding, so that our clients can construct their own unique audience that they can access anytime. The digital landscape has changed significantly over the last couple of years, and it’s now more important than ever for business leaders to build their reputation online.

Joe and the team at Work.Life Camden

When did you originally join Work.Life, and why?

I joined in January 2018 as soon as I set up WOAW. I needed a reliable space to work, so that I could have a clear division between sitting on the end of my bed at home and doing ‘proper’ work in an office. The fact that I would be surrounded by other entrepreneurs was a big pull factor for me, and we’ve ended up meeting a number of our existing clients from working in the space. The community here is brilliant and so welcoming.

How many of you are there in the team now compared to when you joined?

When I joined, I was a solo hot desker. Every day I’d come into the space, take a seat, open up my laptop and get to work. Though, while I was working, I’d always have conversations with other small business owners in the same position as I was.

Gradually we expanded to 5 people. Then, we took some time to establish clear processes, ways of winning and built impactful case studies. After that, things really took off. The team more than tripled in size in 9 months.

Eventually, we needed our own private office space. So after hot desking for a few years, predominantly at Work.Life Camden and occasionally at Work.Life Soho, we finally took our own 8 person office in Camden. This was a huge moment for us and felt like a massive step towards being seen as a ‘proper’ business.

Flexibility is important to each of us, so we’re able to make great use of the space using a rota system. This means that the team can enjoy full flexibility in working from home or working from the office. Over the next few months as we continue to grow, it may be the case that more people want to be in the office more often. I feel safe in Work.Life’s hands, meaning that if we do need to move into a bigger space it will be a seamless experience – just like last time.

I’m now grateful to say that we’re a team of 16. This time next year, we would have likely passed the 30 person mark… but let’s see how we get on!

How else has the company grown over the last 3 years?

The last few years has been a period of massive growth and momentum for WOAW. We’re now fast approaching our £1M ARR target and have also significantly diversified our portfolio of clients.

We now work with a wide range of founders, CEOs and leadership teams of high-growth businesses, and our clients have become our biggest supporters. A massive milestone for me and the team was watching our name get plastered onto the door of our office. Each of us are massively proud to walk in every morning.

I’m absolutely buzzing to press forward with our ambitious growth plans for 2022.

The WOAW team out and about in Camden

How has Work.Life supported you as you’ve grown?

All the basics have always been covered, from Wifi to coffee to warmth in the office. Small things that are a pain if you have to manage them yourself. The Work.Life team have hosted countless events and had too many pizza-gatherings to count, all of which have facilitated the forming of great relationships.

The Work.Life team has always been incredibly welcoming to each new team member, showering them with gifts and goodies on their first day.

As a business owner, there’s many things that Work.Life supports me with. The flexibility is a huge help, as well as not having to worry about the tedious side of having to manage an office yourself. If the coffee machine breaks, Work.Life will fix it. If the internet goes down, Work.Life will fix it. If the heating suddenly breaks, Work.Life will fix it. Things that may seem insignificant, but when you’re trying to move at a million miles an hour – it helps to have them all covered.

What do you & the team love about being members?

The really good vibes, particularly held up by Cara and Georgie. It’s always a great atmosphere. Some favourites among the team are Pizza Thursdays, Wellness Wednesdays and especially Whatever-the-name-is-for-the-reason-we-get-croissants-and-pain-au-chocolates-in-abundance-on-Mondays.

Not to mention, it’s always great meeting other talented entrepreneurs in such a relaxed environment.

And finally, what are your goals for this year?

We’re looking to more than double the size of the business and continue our work with brilliant entrepreneurs and business leaders; inspiring millions through the impactful content we help create.

In short – we’re going to WOAW.

We couldn’t be prouder of OG Work.Life member Joe’s incredible success with WOAW. If you’re interested in following in the footsteps of WOAW and becoming a member at Work.Life Camden, book a tour now or get in touch at camden@work.life.

The post Member Spotlight: Joe Binder, Founder & CEO of WOAW appeared first on Work.Life.

With so many different requirements, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. So, workspace providers are offering a wide range of options, including more flexible ones. At Work.Life, we offer memberships ranging from pay-as-you-go coworking spaces to a full-time private office, suitable for all different levels of usage and flexibility.

We’ve been speaking to some of our members about how they’ve found being back at Work.Life, and how they are using their workspace.

For TwoBoys, working from home presented some challenges. We sat down with their founder Jamie Brown, to find out how their office has been helped them collaborate and communicate better than they were able to remotely.

Hi Jamie! First of all, tell us a bit about TwoBoys & the team.

TwoBoys is a graphic design and marketing agency, working across a wide range of sectors, but specialising in charity fundraising and comms. We offer a mix of digital and print-based graphic design.

We’re currently made up of 5 team members – three creatives, and two Account Managers. We all work from Work.Life Soho, and have done for the last few years – before that we were based in Work.Life Camden.

How did you find working from home? What were the challenges?

I’d say we operated at 85% of our best when we worked from home. There was no impact on productivity, but definitely an impact on creativity which is so important in our line of work.

We all found collaborating virtually quite tricky. In the office, we’re able to stand around a screen and scrutinise a piece of design together, but trying to do that over Zoom is much more difficult. So I’d say that was the biggest challenge; trying to work through creative processes remotely.

Another thing is that we don’t all have great setups at home. I don’t just mean a comfortable chair and desk, but the general atmosphere – some people have very busy households where it’s hard to concentrate, others won’t have any interaction with other people for a whole day. Neither make for a great working environment! The office provides a much better, more comfortable workspace where we can communicate and enjoy spending time with each other.

“The office provides a much better, more comfortable workspace where we can communicate and enjoy spending time with each other.”

Some of the TwoBoys team in their office

Did you have a strategy for bringing the team back to the office?

Most of the team work on iMacs which are not at all mobile. So, for us it was always either come back to the office full-time, or work from home full-time.

To be honest, the return to our office was driven by the team, who wanted to come back in full-time. They were encountering the challenges of remote working, struggling to collaborate properly over Zoom, and also wanted to see each other – we’re really close as a team, and we definitely all missed the perks of being in a Work.Life space.

We all came back to the office last May, and have been in consistently – 5 days a week – since then, with the occasional work from home day where necessary.

What do you think the best things are about working in the office?

There’s lots of things, both for me as a business owner and benefits that appeal to the team.

I’d say the interaction with people has been great, especially post-pandemic. I’ve had the opportunity to meet lots of new people, make new business connections and friends. The space in Soho is an amazing location with a buzzing atmosphere both in and out of the office. The team love being so close to amazing food, shops and bars, so i’s been a great environment to come back to.

The events and socials put on by the team in Soho really appeal to us all, we particularly enjoy the Thursday beer and pizza (no surprise there!)

Reception at Work.Life Soho

“The office really feels like ‘us’ and is a lovely place to come in and work every day.”

Which membership do you have & what are the main benefits?

I’m a Resident member, so I have a private office space in Soho. Having a private office definitely gives us the benefits of our own space, and more privacy than in a coworking space. We tend to chat a lot about our work, so it’s important for us to have that separation and not have to worry about disturbing other members.

We’ve also been able to brand our office and put our own stamp on it, including displaying some of our work and adding decorations. The office really feels like ‘us’ and is a lovely place to come in and work every day.

Why do you like working from Work.Life Soho?

We love being in Central London because of the amount going on nearby – and of course how easy it is for everyone to get to when we have team members based all over London. I’ve been a Work.Life member since 2015 and employed several team members throughout my time here. I really feel that it has helped me no end with recruitment and retention – it allows me to offer ‘big business perks’ that as a small business, I wouldn’t otherwise be able to offer.

Breakfast at Work.Life Soho

“The space allows me to offer ‘big business perks’ that as a small business, I wouldn’t otherwise be able to offer.”

For Jamie, coming back to the office full-time was a decision driven by his team. They benefit from having the privacy of their own space which they can make their own, as well as the benefits the coworking space has to offer (that they can’t get at home!)

Want to find out more about our flexible workspace solutions? Contact us today – we’ll chat to you about your requirements and find your best-matched option.

The post Back to Work.Life: How a Graphic Design Agency Returned to their Office appeared first on Work.Life.

B Corporations are companies who value purpose as much as profit. They “meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.” There are currently 3,800+ B Corp certified companies worldwide – and we want to be one of them!

To become B Corp certified, businesses have to score 80/200 points in five key areas: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers. So far, Work.Life have submitted our assessment with 91.5 points, and are in a queue to be audited by a B Lab analyst. In the meantime, we thought we’d catch you up on our journey! To find out more about why Work.Life wanted to pursue B Corp certification, we spoke to our Head of Marketing and passionate B Corp committee leader, Sarah Sich.

Sarah, you’ve been the driving force behind our B Corp journey so far. How did you first find out about B Corp?

It took three encounters with the idea of B Corp before I decided to really put together a case for pursuing it at Work.Life.

Firstly, I was talking to a friend who works in fashion about what they’re doing for CSR and she mentioned that they were looking into getting B Corp certified. This set me off on an all-nighter where I stayed up researching about it, as well as other certifications out there for businesses.

Then, I was reading Courier Magazine and came across a piece talking about brands like Patagonia and Cook (both B Corp brands), who have proven that having a social mission and prioritising non-commercial items doesn’t mean shunning business success.

Finally, not long after, I was at an awards ceremony for Escape the City, and a representative from B Lab was there to talk about B Corp. That’s when I thought – OK, this is a sign! This is what Work.Life should be doing.

How does B Corp relate to Work.Life?

Work.Life is a workspace business driven by our passion for employee wellbeing and happiness. Pursuing B Corp will help us expand that to other important impact areas such as the environment and communities.

As a provider, we also have a duty to our members to ensure we’re providing sustainable workspaces. For a business our size and a brand with our mission, it just felt like the right thing to do. Beyond that, it also has many commercial benefits:

• Attract new members (60% of consumers are more likely to buy a service/product if the business has clear social or environmental values)
• Build on our amazing company culture and attract new team members (48% of certified businesses found that prospective staff were attracted to them specifically because of their certification)

What do Work.Life want to achieve by becoming B Corp certified?

The main achievement is to have better company processes which ensure environmental and social impact is always considered as part of all of our decision making.

The certification will also act as a clear sign to all stakeholders that we’re running a caring and ethical business.

Of course, we are looking forward to joining the already 3,800+ community of businesses who are certified and having that support network to continue to improve our impact score.

I also really think that in 5 years, more and more businesses from different industries will become certified and there’ll be no reason to work with companies or suppliers who aren’t. So we don’t want to be on that side of business when everyone does come to realise that this is the future!

What’s involved in the B Corp certification process?

The first step is of course getting buy-in from the business and the team! In our case, that was pretty easy as we’re all a really great bunch of humans.

The second step is filling in the assessment to figure out what your current score is (80 is required to submit your assessment to B Lab).

The third step is planning out what areas you’re going to pursue and commit to making the changes required to gain more points.

Finally, it’s making those changes, which can vary from implementing ways to measure/track new metrics, creating a new policy, updating processes and training, etc. I’d recommend creating a committee of people in the team to do this as you’ll require knowledge and decision-makers from areas such as HR, and facilities to input and sign off on changes as you go.

Most importantly, you should be communicating everything you’re doing to the whole business – the certification isn’t a tick box, it ensures a new way of working & decision making which impacts the way everyone works. It’s also so important that the whole company understands what is being done and why.

What’s the next step?

We want to be the best business we can be, so the journey doesn’t end here. As we wait for our submission to be audited, we’re continuing to work on improving our impact areas. We have committed to working on three improvements each quarter to ensure we’re continuously trying to be a better business.

In the meantime, you can read more about CSR at Work.Life.

The post Why We Want To Become A B Corp appeared first on Work.Life.