Inclusive Growth Show
I love driving diversity and inclusion at the leadership level. Each week, I host insightful conversations where we explore the journey of inclusive growth, discuss strategies for engaging senior leaders in equity, diversity, and inclusion, and share practical tips to inspire and empower meaningful change.
Inclusive Growth Show
How Inclusive Coworking Spaces Are Redefining the Future of Work
What makes coworking spaces the heartbeat of modern business?
In this episode of the Inclusive Growth Show, Toby Mildon chats with Ed Hobbs, National General Manager at X-Why, about how coworking spaces are evolving into hubs of inclusivity and collaboration. With 11 locations across the UK, X-Why is leading the charge in designing accessible, sustainable, and community-driven workplaces.
Key Takeaways:
- How X-Why’s commitment to B Corp principles influences workspace innovation.
- Why hybrid working has accelerated the demand for flexible office spaces.
- Practical steps X-Why takes to ensure inclusivity, from neurodiversity-friendly designs to accessible facilities.
- The role coworking spaces play in fostering collaboration and a sense of belonging.
- Insights into the future of coworking and regional expansion beyond London and Manchester.
Whether you're a business leader or a freelancer, Ed’s insights will inspire you to rethink the potential of your workplace.
If you want to build a more inclusive workplace that you can be proud of please visit our website to learn more.
Welcome to the Inclusive Growth Show with Toby Mildon Future-proofing your business by creating a diverse workplace.
Speaker 2:Hey there, thank you ever so much for tuning into this episode of the Inclusive Growth Podcast. I'm Toby Mildon and today I'm joined by Ed Hobbs, and Ed is the National General Manager of a co-working space called X&Y. They've got buildings all over the UK and we're going to be learning more about his business, and I met Ed at an event or I was speaking at a conference actually that was hosted out of the X and Y building in Manchester, which is only just a 10 or 15 minute walk down the road for me Beautiful building, great venue for hosting an event and Ed and I just got chatting in the break and he's got some really interesting things to talk about in terms of co-working spaces and, I suppose, where the trend is going in terms of co-working. You know facilities and I just thought it'd be really interesting to get him on today and just talk about that. So, ed, thanks ever so much for for joining me. It's lovely to see you, thank you.
Speaker 3:It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. So, ed, can we just sort of dive straight into the first question? Can you just let us know a bit more about X&Y, your role as National General Manager and what X&Y is and does?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. As you kindly said, we do flexible workspace. It's kind of our core, original business, should I say. We've been around for five years. We've currently got 11 sites across the UK with people who are either kind of individuals, co-working, hot desking, but also private offices for large companies and lots of meeting rooms and events. As we saw when we first met, we are completely sector and size agnostic.
Speaker 3:I'd say the common kind of thread running between our membership base is purpose a bit of a buzzword, but we kind of see that as businesses who are trying to do better. So, whether that's from a sustainability standpoint, being fiscally and ethically responsible, we both want companies who are already doing it well but also getting people in who hopefully can be inspired and motivated to do better by the other people who they're working around. Brilliant. And so in my role put it as simply as I possibly can I sort of manage our people at site level and day-to-day operations. It's a relatively large team, so lots of hiring, coaching, mentoring, alongside ongoing management, which suits me just fine. And we are in the service business, so lots of hospitality dealing with customers. Heard hospitality described recently as relentless troubleshooting, which I think is probably sums it up nicely, and that's me and my role.
Speaker 2:Brilliant, and what attracted you to working in this industry.
Speaker 3:People say they're either drained or energized by people, and I'm definitely the latter, getting opportunities to both work with colleagues within a large team but also dealing with lots of different people on a daily basis, whether they're different companies, but every company being made up of different individuals as well, get very stimulated with different ideas and different ways of doing things. Up of different individuals as well, get very stimulated with different ideas and different ways of doing things. I sort of fell into it. About 10 years ago, I was working with a startup who had a base in a now very well-known co-working brand called WeWork, who weren't so well-known at the time and, yeah, it's completely opened my eyes to a very different way of working.
Speaker 3:I had always seen offices as being quite a dull place where people don't want to go. So walking into a space and people smiling, people laughing you know, as a young person living in London, not from London it was a great way to build personal as well as work connections. And, yeah, everyone thought that I worked for the company, the flexible workspace, rather than my actual job, so I thought it would probably be worthwhile making the jump. And then, yeah, 10 years later, never looked back that was probably a sign, probably a sign.
Speaker 3:I think um, yeah, it was good it was. It's been great to see this, this kind of trend, rise. I remember at that time people thought that kind of co-working was just for hippies with long hair and beards on beanbags which you can't see me, but I'm probably not the best person to be saying that.
Speaker 1:Ironically, because I do have long hair and a beard.
Speaker 3:But yeah, really really great that that kind of more inclusive environment bringing fun into the workplace, people kind of collaborating rather than just competing, suited me very well.
Speaker 2:So why do you think that spaces like X and Y are thriving nowadays? What's happened in recent history to increase the popularity of these spaces?
Speaker 3:I think there's lots of different factors. As I said, I think initially there was a viewpoint on you know, it's only creatives or people who are in IT who would be using these kind of spaces. I think, kind of looking back quite far, those sort of companies became very cool, so people wanted to be like Google or Facebook and have ping pong tables and have beer taps in the office Facebook and have ping pong tables and have beer taps in the office. And I think flexible workspaces were a more accessible option for people who are maybe smaller or they're growing companies who can't afford to do that on their own. But also it then allowed people to become part of a bigger community, which is a buzzword, but I think people want to feel a sense of belonging and they do want to interact with different people in different businesses.
Speaker 3:And then, of course, the pandemic, I think, has really accelerated everything. It opened up even the most sort of restrained businesses to realize that hybrid working has to be a thing sometimes and really develop the systems and tools to allow their workforce to work more in a more sort of flexible, hybrid way, which then means that even for big business, this becomes an option and an attractive option if you want to be able to attract the best talent and retain staff and not have to worry about creating wellness schemes and creating a space which looks after your people and hopefully is accessible and hopefully does all of the things that we you know as people in this time are much more aware of and know it needs to happen. So lots of things go into it, but I think those are kind of my top reasons.
Speaker 2:That's really cool. I mean, I've visited quite a few flexible working spaces over the years or co-working spaces, and I think I see the benefits being flexibility of office space. So you might be a small, a very small company, maybe two, three, four people you can have an office in the middle of central London. That's affordable, that's flexible, great location to meet with clients or travel to meetings and then benefit from all of the services that the building has to offer. So whether that's relaxation spaces or the additional services that a lot of these places offer, like having a resident barber or a resident wellness suite or beer on tap or networking events that are organized, so I think you know, like you say, it's that building, that sense of community, which is really powerful. In what other ways do you see, you know, co-working spaces or flexible working spaces being a force for good in the world of work?
Speaker 3:I mean it's a huge. It's a huge topic for us. We're at B Corp, where we're sort of the first flexible workspace to become one with Home of B Lab in the UK. So this idea of business as a force for good runs through everything that we do and actually there's a lot of flexible workspaces who have also joined in that community, which is fantastic. As I kind of alluded to at the start, one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this job is because you interact with so many different people and when you do act as that linchpin or that sort of communication point for thousands and thousands of different people who are all ambassadors with their own businesses, actually that point of inspiration and motivation can really accelerate and snowball. So by creating those networking events, by making sure that there are those safe spaces for people to go, whether it's meditation, whether it's prayer rooms, really bringing those tools to the masses and making that more of a norm, I think that is a huge means for flexible workspaces to be a force for good, because if it is a company who, yes, they've started off with a two or a four person office, eventually they probably will end up being more than that. They certainly will have friends or family members or partners who do work in a different way to that, so hopefully it causes other people to follow suit. And, as well as that, we are constantly putting out information and making it more accessible to do things like become a B Corp, or we're constantly putting on different sustainability challenges reducing waste, how do we reduce energy making that information more accessible and hopefully making it not only informative but also fun.
Speaker 3:I think really, really, it's about engaging people in a way that everyone can, not only doesn't have to do it. You know you can add in a sustainable development goal and make it a law to do things. You have to do it. You know you can add in a sustainable development goal and make a law to do things. You have to do it. Actually, I think the the faster pace of change and and a real force, force for good is when people want to do it. So kind of taking these different ideas, taking these different um processes and, yeah, hopefully getting it out there to the people in a way that they that they want to do it. That's really cool.
Speaker 2:So, as I mentioned in the introduction, um, I met you at the, the manchester building, and you've got buildings all over the the uk and I know you've got plans to expand your, your real estate. What are you most excited about in terms of making your spaces as welcoming and as inclusive as possible?
Speaker 3:I'm really excited to be At the forefront of this and constantly innovating and learning. I think having a mindset of it's really important to try something and be very open to the feedback that comes from it and then being open to sharing that knowledge and that whole collaborating as well as just competing. I think you know competition is we're a big industry. Competition is great to drive you to do things, but actually by collaborating we can. We can all sort of rise and all improve our standards.
Speaker 3:Actually, we met at the work tech conference, but I know you, um, you had a meeting in one of our buildings in london, at five fields site yeah, which is a building we did in partnership with the westminster foundation, which very, very much kind of a charities and impact hub for us, and I'd say that we we tried a lot of new things there in trying to make it more accessible, not just sort of wheelchair accessibility and ramps and lifts and making sure that it's step free, which you know should definitely be a standard, but also we've got braille running through the building, making sure that we had a great company called yeah crystallize come through and check that it was accessible from a site perspective and then also looking at how accessible are our kitchens.
Speaker 3:We did a lot around neurodiversity. Some of it worked, some of it didn't, and actually all of that planning is theory. Now that the building is full, we've got a load of feedback from people within the building and we've changed light settings. We've adapted different spaces to become more quiet zones. There's also a lot of children who use the building, so a lot of training and additional support in terms of safeguarding, and it really excites me because it's all learning that we can now take and put into new buildings that we wouldn't have been able to get if we hadn't tried it the first time.
Speaker 2:You reminded me actually, I mean this is testament to the power of the purple pound, which is the spending power of disabled people because you and I met at the Manchester building where I was speaking at a conference that the X and Y was hosting. But because I had a good experience at your building in manchester, I rang you up and I go I don't suppose you've got any facilities down in london, do you? Because every four months I I get my kind of top clients together for round table discussions and things like that and we needed a good space to host that meeting. So I mean that goes to show that that actually, because you provided an accessible and an inclusive experience in manchester that then led to future work or business for you down in london. Just kind of drop that in there yeah, well, thank you for your business.
Speaker 3:I think that's the thing. That's exciting is, um, and actually, when you're in manchester, you gave me some really interesting feedback. You said it was an accessible building, but actually on one side of the reception desk we should add a bell. I think it was, which took really easy, simple solution, and then we can just do it the next day. So I think, from why should we create these accessible and welcoming spaces? I think everyone should be able to get that feeling of belonging.
Speaker 3:That is a difficult thing to do because every single person is different and there's a hell of a lot of us, but by creating those kind of warm and inviting spaces and also having a variety of different options. Yeah, some locations are just not going to be up someone's street, whether it's because of the type of industry they're in or the type of person they are, or just the physical location. So I'm excited for us to expand our reach, get into new places, particularly regionally, where that kind of better business, that better business sphere isn't as as developed as it is in kind of london and also manchester's got a pretty good scene for it as well. So I think that's where we'll really hopefully be a great catalyst for this way of working and really see some great benefit, not just for us, but for everyone we work with.
Speaker 2:That's really cool. So what does inclusive growth mean for you?
Speaker 3:The inclusive growth is around benefiting everyone, not just yourself, but also not leaving yourself out of the equation. We talk about sustainable growth a lot and really looking at that as how do we build something that lasts, how do you build something which evolves in a positive way over time through different iterations, where you are constantly positively benefiting yourself, your customers, your employees and everyone that your business touches?
Speaker 2:Brilliant, and if the person listening to us right now wants to learn more about X and Y facilities, what should they do?
Speaker 3:Please add me on LinkedIn, drop me a message, and then I will make sure you get connected up with the right person for whatever it is you're looking to know or do.
Speaker 2:I'll make sure that I include your LinkedIn URL in the show notes of this episode, so the person listening to us right now can just easily click and connect.
Speaker 3:Look forward to connecting.
Speaker 2:Brilliant Well, ed. Thanks ever so much for joining me. It's been really lovely to catch up with you. Brilliant Well, ed. Thanks ever so much for joining me. It's been really lovely to catch up with you. Congratulations on the work that you're doing around B Corp for your business, and congratulations on building accessible and inclusive spaces that we can all enjoy working from.
Speaker 3:Thank you, hope to have you back soon and anyone else who's listening.
Speaker 2:Cheers. Thank you and thanks you ever so much for choosing into this episode with Ed and myself. Hopefully, you've taken away some inspiration about how to create warm, inviting and welcoming spaces that we can work in. They've got a lovely website as well, where you can actually see the buildings all over the UK and some lovely photos of what you can expect to use when you enter their buildings. Thanks ever so much for tuning in and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode, which will be coming out very soon. Cheers, take care, goodbye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Inclusive Growth Show. Thank you for listening to the Inclusive Growth Show. For further information and resources from Toby and his team, head on over to our website at mildencouk.