Malaysian coworking space WORQ launched its 3rd space at KL Gateway in Bangsar South on the 12th of July following the success of its 2 other coworking spaces in Glo Damansara, TTDI, and UOA Business Park, Subang.
The unveiling was officiated by YB Fahmi Fadzil, MP of Lembah Pantai with the attendance of another special guest, Cradle Fund’s acting CEO, Razif Aziz.
The interior design of their new location resembles an industrial-like steampunk concept. WORQ’s CEO, Stephanie Ping explained, “This outlet is the first of its kind in such a design, including a number of steel and mirror features, much different from the other outlets.”
WORQ’s main focus is to reach out, support, and build a hyper-localised business community. Aiming to build a space where businesses and entrepreneurs congregate to connect, share resources, knowledge and collaborate, this is something they’ve put into practice with their 2 older spaces, and again now with their KL Gateway space.
Besides that, they’re also strong believers of work-life balance and have run (and are still running) initiatives to ensure that their members are encouraged to achieve it.
To them, it all boils down to having a good time while keeping fit.
The Limitation of Time Should No Longer Be An Excuse
“People normally feel that it’s difficult to practise work-life balance due to the limitation of time. However, we strongly believe that this can be overcome with better time management and the act of prioritising one’s day,” Stephanie said.
“We at WORQ believe that the right environment allows people to be more productive. This way, they achieve more or complete more work in a lesser amount of time. With that, they then have time to balance work and life.”
However, just because one has a work-life balance, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re immediately healthier. According to WORQ, fitness should be a lifestyle.
“People have difficulty getting into fitness as it’s not part of their lifestyle yet. Once it becomes a routine, it will be something that they will not be able to leave behind,” Stephanie stated.
“Also, we believe the environment one is associated with is a strong reason people either pick up or leave fitness. Thus, we at WORQ try our best to encourage fitness activities in our space itself.”
A Focus On Physical And Mental Health
A few examples of their fitness initiatives are Bachata dance sessions driven by WORQ’s Community Manager in their TTDI space, the organisation of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts, and kickboxing and yoga sessions.
It’s not just physical health that matters; WORQ has partnered up with Action for Happiness Malaysia and will be organising a meditation session in September at WORQ Subang as well as a get-together run with Own Your Story, as part of their mental health initiatives.
Along with activities encouraging existing members to prioritise health, WORQ has also come up with the Biggest Loser Challenge open to non-members and current members. Non-Malaysians can apply, too.
The challenge is to get people into a fitter version of themselves within a month, with the winner receiving a lifetime Hot Desk membership at WORQ KL Gateway.
A Hot Desk membership entitles one to 24/7 access to the workspace, and access to members-only events, shared facilities, printers and scanners, a game room and napping pods.
Interested participants aged 18 and above are welcome to visit the KL Gateway space until the end of September to register for the challenge by providing their identification and current weight.
By the end of October, participants will return for a weigh-in and have their amount of weight loss calculated for the winner to be determined.
The challenge is localised for WORQ KL Gateway as the gym F45 Training and a jogging track, which is directly accessible through the space, are nearby fitness options.
WORQ has also partnered up with F45 Training and Anytime Fitness to offer corporate discounts of 10% at both gyms to further encourage exercising amongst their members.
From Personal Growth To Business Growth
With personal health taken care of, WORQ also looks at business health. The WORQ Business community is meant to assist businesses, particularly those in the suburbs, by providing relevant connections, resources and knowledge across all of its spaces.
An example of the community’s success stories starts with one of WORQ’s first few members who entered as a 2-man team.
Through WORQ, they managed to connect with other members and provide their web development services to other businesses in the space. They’re now a 6-man team and looking to diversify their business into app development.
WORQ also runs a quarterly networking event as an initiative to connect the internal and external community to meet their goals.
Through one of their NetWORQ parties, an attendee was offered a Business Development Opportunity role and is currently focused on bringing in Digital Marketing Projects for his company.
He also got an opportunity to volunteer for TedXBangsar, which led to something bigger as he was subsequently offered a Marketing Assistant role by the curator.
“During that period, he managed to meet and network with big leaders and famous people due to his involvement,” Stephanie said.
3 Awards In The Past 2 Years
WORQ won Best Coworking Space Award 2017 at the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards and won Coworker Member’s Choice Awards 2019 for 2 locations, Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam.
The award that they find the most meaningful, however, is their Outstanding Incubator/Co-working Space 2018 award by Malaysian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (MVCA) “as it is awarded by an established organisation in Malaysia”, Stephanie shared.
“This exhibits that we are recognised by the local bodies and community in our effort to establish a hyper-localised business community. We’re ecstatic to be on the right track and it motivates us to go the distance.”
- You can find out more about WORQ here.
