IWG and Kirwin Paulsen, a businessman, have partnered to open a Regus at the iconic Durban Country Club.
This location is IWG’s 3rd flex-space franchise partnership in South Africa since March this year. The growing demand for hybrid work solutions and unprecedented flexibility has pushed workspace layouts beyond conventional collaborative models to focus on multi-faceted and multi-functional arrangements.
Kirwin Paulsen, a Forensic Planning Analyst, identified the Country Club as a perfect location for a flex-space centre.
“Accelerated by the pandemic, no segment of the property market has demonstrated more overall growth than the co-working industry, and analysts project this growth to average 24% for the next several years. They predict that flexible workspace will remain one of the office market’s primary growth catalysts for years to come”, Paulsen said.
Employees are also moving away from working in one set place and doing the standard 9-5. They want flexibility, plugging in at a time and a place that suits them.
A hybrid model accommodates all employees — letting those who enjoy the office keep coming in, while those who thrive while working from home stay at home and those who enjoy both choose freely.
The trend is for co-working spaces to integrate with mixed-use precincts where people live, work and play with ease and convenience. The emphasis is on collaboration toward sustainable, responsible, and productive qualities of working life.
“Pricey unused offices are a thing of the past, and we are seeing a shift to a hybrid and more flexible network of local offices, while businesses are opting for flex space where you can scale up or down as needed,” Alan VD Westhuizen, Head of Partnership Growth, IWG said.
“The Regus Centre in Durban Country Club is the perfect example of our strategy to take flexible co-working into the suburban locations and the cities and towns outside of the main metro areas where the demand for flexible workspace is growing,” he said.
The growing demand for hybrid work solutions places the centre in a prime position to not only provide flexible options for members of the club and international visitors but also for businesses of all sizes, in and around the area, looking for a hub and spoke option, giving their employees access to a network of local offices set one of South Africa’s most picturesque golfing venues in the country.
The Regus Centre at the Durban Country Club is an opportunity for businesses to fashion the hybrid virtual model that best fits their culture, and let it yield a new shared culture for all employees that maximises productivity, health, wellness, and sustainability, whether employees are working remotely, on premises, or in some combination of both.
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