Miami — WeWork, the co-working giant, announced this week that to meet global demand and changing workplace habits, they’ve created an all access pass that allows people to use any of the 700 WeWorks all over the world.
“Companies have faced complex challenges as a result of the pandemic. WeWork’s all access pass aims to offer practical solutions that make sense financially and operationally, and meet the new flexibility demands,” said Lucas Mendes, WeWork’s general manager for Brazil.
WeWork has offices in 150 major cities around the world, eight of which are in Brazil, and make up 32 WeWork locations in the country. The new all access pass will be part of the company’s mobile app, and in Brazil will cost R$477 per month.
The company, which filed to go public for a second time in March 2021, has had a riddled past with management drama and a failed 2019 IPO attempt when SoftBank valued the company at $47 billion. Now the company is valued at $9 billion - less than 20% of its 2019 valuation and is looking for ways to adapt to changing times.
The pandemic has been another hard blow for the company that counts on people wanting to work together in shared spaces, but the company says it’s recovering because vaccination rates are increasing and more and more companies are employing a hybrid work model.
“Like any other business, we also felt the impact of the pandemic, and of course some companies stopped being our customers during this period. On the other hand, we have companies that grew their positions with us during the crisis; companies that decided to permanently implement a rotation scheme with their teams, or even to distribute their workforce to different locations to avoid displacement. In Brazil, with vaccination rates progressing and companies implementing the hybrid working model we have seen a consistent recovery since the pandemic first hit. Next month, we are heading to one year of positive net desk sales in the country,” Mendes told Bloomberg Línea.
As the “work from anywhere” lifestyle becomes feasible for more people, more and more companies are realizing that they don’t need large corporate offices where everyone has their own desk or office. But after working completely remotely for more than a year, many employees are eager to get back to the office - even if just part time.
In a FlexJobs survey, reported in Yahoo Finance, the company found that 81% of respondents say they would be more loyal to their employer if they had flexible work options.
“With WeWork’s all access pass, we are taking the first step toward digitizing spaces, by offering flexible options without long-term commitments…” Mendes said.
After all, not all companies are like tech giants Facebook and Twitter that can support an entirely remote workforce for an extended period of time.
