When I was young … Oh no, it’s not what you think. It’s not a moan, it’s looking back on how sometimes life brings about interesting connections. So, when I was young(ish), my first job in Ireland was in a Dublin-based call-centre working for AOL.
At the time, the German media-giant Bertelsmann was heavily involved in the operation. The Bertelsmann Foundation does a lot of research on different topics. Recently, they published a report titled “Rural Coworking in Europe”, and Tobias Kremkau, a Consultant at “CoWorkLand”, is one of its Co-Authors. The first time I met Tobias was in a pub in Dublin, one of many stops of his “Cowork & Travel” tour through Europe. You see? That’s life and its interesting connections.
The authors of the report “Rural Coworking in Europe” looked at various EU-countries to identify common market trends, but at Germany in particular due to the fact that it’s further developed (“CoWorkLand” alone has 200 rural Coworking-spaces under its umbrella).
Their trend-study identified six dimensions of “coworkability”:
- TECHNICAL SKILLS & TOOLS
- FREEDOM
- KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
- TEAM & TRUST CULTURE
- NETWORK BEATS HIRARCHY
- NEW WORK-LIFE BALANCE
According to the authors “These are internal and external conditions that enable the New Rural Workers and their work and lifestyle. These dimensions could be observed beyond a fixed age group, profession, or educational background, making rural coworking users – the New Rural Workers – a diverse and large group. This is one of the main reasons why rural coworking will gain even more attraction as work patterns are changing dramatically. Traditionally employees had a rather low coworkability. But with the Covid-19 pandemic this has changed.”
And while Ireland wasn’t part of that very interesting research, there is a good chance it will be should a report “Rural Coworking in Europe 2.0” come along. The Western Development Commission does a lot of research in that area and expressed an interest in meeting with the authors during a “Trade Mission” to the “CoWorkLand”-headquarters in the coming months.