Joint office spaces to make remote work easier

Our idea is something everybody benefits from - companies, rural communities and individuals.
Majority of voter said that increased financial viability was enough for them to move out of the capital area.
People’s friends and family are the main reason they would consider moving out of the capital area.
Our mindmap.
Those who voted no in question two in the survey said that family and friends are the reason they won’t move.

Inspiration

Innblásturinn að verkefninu kom frá einum hópmeðlim en hann starfaði hjá Verkfræðistofu í bænum síðasta sumar. Honum var boðið að færa starfsemi sína til Akureyrar vegna verkefnis sem hann þurfti að sinna þar. Honum þótti það hræðandi í fyrstu en eftir að hann ákvað að grípa tækifærið á Akureyri þá var þetta lífsreynsla sem hann mun aldrei gleyma. Hann eignaðist vini fyrir lífstíð og kynntist landsbyggðinni á annan hátt en áður fyrr.

The inspiration for our solution came from one of our groupmembers, he worked at an engineering firm in Reykjavik last summer. He was invited to move his workspace to Akureyri because of an assignment he needed to take care of there. He thought it was scary at first but after he decided to grab the opportunity in Akureyri, it was a great life experience he will never forget. He made friends for life and got to know the country side of Iceland from another perspective.

What it does

Hægt og rólega hefur fólksflutningur úr bæjum í borg aukist. Starfsmöguleikar eru minni á landsbyggðinni fyrir ungt, menntað fólk - það er vandamál sem þarf að leysa. Það þarf að vera hvati fyrir fyrirtæki til að færa starfsemi sína í auknum mæli út á land, þar koma inn sameiginleg skrifstofurými. Þá þurfa fyrirtæki ekki að byggja heilu útibúin en samt verið með starfsemi á víð og dreif um landið. Hvatinn þarf ekki bara að liggja hjá fyrirtækjum heldur líka hjá einstaklingum. Þar spilar markaðssetning aukins fjárhagslegs frelsis við aðsetur á landsbyggðinni stórt hlutverk. Samkvæmt okkar markaðsrannsókn virðist fólk ekki nægilega upplýst um þennan möguleika.

Slowly but steadily more people are emigrating from the country side to the city. Job opportunities outside of Reykjavik are very limited for young, educated people. It is a problem that needs to be solved. There has to be a motivation for companies to move their operations increasingly to outside of the capital - so we suggest shared office spaces. Then, companies won’t have to transfer whole branches of the company but still be able to have operations across the country. The motivation doesn’t have to lie exclusively within companies but also with individuals. There, marketing increased financial flexibility by living outside of the capital plays a big role. According to our market research people don’t seem to be informed enough about that possibility.

How we built it

Það var augljóst frá upphafi að lausnin okkar þyrfti að vera sú sem er heillavænleg fyrir alla aðila. Svo fyrirtækin velji að hafa fleiri starfsmenn utan Höfuðborgarsvæðisins þarf fyrirtækið að fá eitthvað út úr því. Við leggjum til skattaafslætti eða aðra sambærilega lækkun á gjöldum til að styðja við þau. Ljóst er að í upphafi munu fáir starfsmenn frá sama fyrirtæki vera staðsett á sama svæði úti á landi. Því viljum við bjóða upp á sameiginlegt skrifstofurými fyrir ýmis fyrirtæki til afnota, þá missir einstaklingurinn ekki samstarfsupplifunina sem hann annars fengi í höfuðstöðvunum. Þá eru fáar ástæður fyrir því af hverju starfsmaður ætti ekki að vilja starfa úti á landi.

From the beginning it was obvious that we had to find a solution that works for all parties. So that the companies have incentives to have employees in the countryside we propose the following. We think by lowering taxes or other operation costs we could make it viable for companies to hire personnel that lives in the countryside. Very few people want to spend the whole day by themselves working from home, therefore we suggest that the government assist companies in setting up shared office spaces. These office spaces would have a variety of different professionals to make sure everyone gets the feeling of working with people. By using these office spaces along with technology to make sure the employee doesn't lose touch with his co-workers we feel we can create an environment where neither the employee nor the employer loses anything.

Challenges we ran into

Making these options interesting for all parties involved. At the moment there are zero to none incentives for companies to move parts of their business to the countryside but we want to change that. We also struggled with making remote jobs attractive to educated people.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Using the power of social media to know what people thought about this but we made a survey that got more than 800 responses. The results were surprising but a lot of people were interested in moving out of the Reykjavik Metropolitan area if the job opportunities presented themselves.

What we learned

We learned that if we make it financially viable for companies to employ people outside the southwest corner of the country they would be willing to relocate. We were also fascinated by how opposed people are to working by themselves but humans are social creatures and thrive in workplaces where they social interactions.