Interview with Stéphanie Auxenfans: Stéphanie Auxenfans, Managing Director of Multiburo

What needs do you intend to meet with your new Connect'Team offering?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - This is one of the consequences of the major upheavals in working practices that have taken place since the pandemic, which are mainly driven by the need to improve the quality of work. teleworkingThe practice has generally been maintained. We have just carried out a customer survey in the spring, according to which 52% of respondents telework between one and three days a week. And 13% do so for at least four days. So there are project teams that work almost entirely from home. By now, everyone has recognised the role of the office, and the disadvantages associated with teleworking. So we've come up with a simple package, in the form of a subscription, which allows a team that works mainly from home to meet at the office. Multiburo one day a week. They are given a space to suit their needs, usually a large meeting room, to enable them to working together. This gives them a weekly physical base from which to meet up. That's what Connect'Team is all about.

Multiburo had already launched several offers during the crisis. Wouldn't they cover the needs that Connect'Team is meeting?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - What's different is the subscription system, and the fact that we're preparing the venue differently to make it a sort of private coworking. The idea is to reserve a meeting room to work together. This isn't really possible in the coworking space because it brings together several different companies, and at Multiburo coworking is rather quiet, with a few bubbles for telephoning or chatting. With Connect'Team, we also offer the team the opportunity to store their belongings between two working days, and we can also hire them monitors, keyboards, and so on.

How do you see the relationship with the office changing?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - Among the major upheavals that have taken place in recent months, we have identified the following three new types of behaviour. The first, which we didn't necessarily see coming, concerns those employees who don't feel comfortable teleworking, and who may also feel isolated. Our spaces can enable them to telework in a Multiburo space with a coworking subscription, to be well set up, with a real desk, a good connection, in short a professional place, which is positive in terms of motivation. There are also a lot of companies who, with teleworking, find themselves with offices too big. As a result, coworking and flexible office solutions are booming, with meeting rooms that can be booked on demand, as and when required. There is a search not only for savings but also, and above all, for flexibility. There is also a strong recovery in travel with the end of regulatory constraints. And with Multiburo installed in three major Paris stations, the meetings business is completely back on track, whether face-to-face or online. hybrid formatbecause our rooms are equipped for videoconferencing. The desire to get together, and to travel to do so, has completely returned. It's reassuring. And so are the training sessions, because it's much more pleasant in person and more participative. Physical meetings are also much better prepared than they used to be. Small departmental meetings tend to stay in digital format, because these two years have taught us to master all these collaborative working tools.

We have a role to play in offering an alternative to a complete return to the office

What are your projections for the ratio between teleworking and office work?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - I think we're going to find a a break-even point around two days' teleworking a week. Larger companies tend to have a three-day week. But the economic fabric is made up more of small businesses. There are also functions for which teleworking is not very practical. So there's a balance to be struck. I think that full remote, or 100% teleworking, will be rare, and reserved for start-ups and new technology companies. The problem with office property is that it is fixed. Companies are committed to three-, six- or nine-year leases, they've bought furniture... They're a bit stuck, so they're turning to coworking operators who offer à la carte real estate, a bit like a hotel except that it's offices instead of rooms. We have a role to play because we offer an alternative to a complete return to the office.

Will this unprecedented demand for third places prompt you to speed up the roll-out of your network?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - We are always on the lookout, we always have two or three projects in stock. However, we were very constrained for many months, so we postponed our projects a little. Property is part of a long cycle. It takes a year to complete an opening. So we have plans for early 2023more in the regions. On the whole, the coworking sector is going to be moving towards a wide coverage of the country, to accommodate teleworkers, project teams, SMEs that want to give up their lease and alternate between teleworking and coworking... It's a sector that's evolving rapidly at the moment. Companies have realised that they can no longer afford to keep their real estate static.

How do you position yourself in relation to the other players in the market, some of whom, like WeWork, have opted to open sites at very high speed?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - Multiburo is a large, independent French SME. We come from the world of business centreswhich is the same business: thetemporary property. We've developed in the traditional way, we've moved into coworking, we've redesigned some Multiburo sites and we've opened new ones. We're not in the same league as WeWork, and we don't have the same customers either. Our positioning is not the same. At Multiburo, because of our track record and our experience in business centres, we are positioned to provide services that are genuinely dedicated to the company's activity: we manage mail and calls, we can provide after-sales service, debt collection, host servers, prepare meetings, etc. We have a whole range of assistance services to free up the entrepreneur so that he can concentrate on his business. We are also very focused on confidentialitythe comfort. We don't have a very open community mode like other operators have. A lot of people go to WeWork for the networking aspect: they go there to meet people. Our promise is different, and companies find their way.

there's room for everyone

A lot of players have entered the French coworking market: too many in your view?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - I often give a caricatural example: when bagged salads arrived on supermarket shelves, classic salads didn't disappear for all that... In a market that's also only growing because we're in the process of gobbling up market share from traditional real estate, we have a very strong position. enormous potential. Companies are reviewing their property strategy. Honestly, there's room for everyone. I'm very vigilant about our positioning, our offering and the way we work. I think there will be concentration in our sector, but at the same time the market is potentially very large. If companies switch from traditional real estate to coworking operators, the potential is immense. In the Paris region, coworking is currently limited to 3 or 4% of office space. And 10% in central Paris. Everything else is conventional real estate.

How do companies choose their coworking operator?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - The first criterion is location. Before choosing between Multiburo, Regus, Wojo or WeWork, the company will first and foremost choose a very specific location. The second criterion is the quality of the offices, particularly in terms of comfort. Companies choose according to their needs. At Multiburo, we truly offer made-to-measure. We can decompartmentalise or re-compartmentalise spaces according to need: we are very flexible. Not all players offer this. I often tell my teams that we need to go out and find the right customers for us. I would say that we are positioned in a four-star market.

Coworking operators are also starting to manage office floors within companies: could this be a way forward for Multiburo?

Stéphanie Auxenfans - Exactly. Visit office operated is a segment that I'm observing, a very dynamic sector, in which we are not currently involved. I think that when we have the internal resources we'll go and offer our services to large companies. Because at Multiburo we have the experience and expertise to do that.