A coworking space manager is the secret sauce to a thriving coworking community.
They are the unicorns of the space – the fast-thinkers, the problem-solvers, the shoulder to cry on, and the person cheering you on to do your best work.
Finding a great coworking community manager is about knowing who you’re looking for and creating a hiring process that helps separate the good from the absolute best. After working with hundreds of clients, we’ve seen exactly what it takes to win in the world of coworking community management.
This article was created to be your one-stop shop for understanding the role of a great community manager. The information here comes straight from our experience in coworking and often from the mouths of community managers themselves.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have all the knowledge you need to define, find, and hire an exceptional team member for your space.
A coworking space manager, also known as a community manager or coworking community manager, is the face of your coworking space and the first touch point for your members.
They are the person who checks people in, makes the coffee, fixes the WiFi, chats with your members, creates your social content, and everything in between.
When you’re first starting your coworking business, your community manager may be yourself, especially if you’re trying to keep your costs low. Or, you may choose to automate your coworking space and not hire a community manager at all (with a platform like Optix, it could be possible!).
“An exceptional community manager creates an atmosphere where members feel comfortable asking for help, advice, or even recommendations for a good place to eat.”
Coworking space managers wear several different hats including but not limited to marketer, receptionist, salesperson, tour guide, therapist, best friend, and so much more. Their exact role will depend on the needs of your space and what you define.
Here is a breakdown of what the typical community manager role includes in a coworking space across five key categories.
Operations is exactly as it sounds – all of the operational bits and pieces that keep your business running. Tasks include:
PRO TIP: Operations are typically lower thinking tasks that are prime for automation. Consider engaging software like Optix to automate as many operational tasks as you can to ensure your community manager has the time to do the human things that really matter on the day-to-day – like connecting with members and providing an outstanding experience.
“1880 Bardo’s Optix-powered app increases the coworking space’s operational efficiency. The ease of setting up accounts and generating tailor-made plans makes my life a lot easier."
Sales and marketing is one of the most common functions for community managers in a coworking space. It’s so common in fact that we wrote an entire article on Essential Sales and Marketing Skills that Every Community Manager Should Know.
If you’re managing a coworking space, we highly recommend checking it out. Here is a short, non-exhaustive list, of sales and marketing tasks a community manager may be responsible for:
PRO TIP: If you’re a community manager, learn how to give a really great tour of the coworking space. This is the greatest sales tool you have, and an incredible way to prove your value as a manager.
Community management is the meat and potatoes of the work of a community manager. Ideally, this is where they’ll be investing most of their time. It includes tasks like:
Tori Taylor, Founder at Bad Company Workspace in New Zealand, says she is perfectly happy with her coworking community managers spending all of their shift interacting with members and building relationships. It’s a critical part of the job and can be a critical piece to member retention. Learn more about it in our webinar on member retention below.
The level of receptionist services a community manager engages in depends largely on the space, particularly whether or not they offer virtual mail services. Those who did will find a strong need for services like:
Finally, most community managers take on some level of management of the physical space, whether that’s ordering supplies for making sure there is always a fresh pot of coffee ready to go. Common tasks include:
PRO TIP: Space management presents another opportunity for automation. Steve Krueger, Founder at ECOMsquare, set certain supplies to auto purchase on Amazon based on the average time it took for them to be used by the community. You can do this for toilet paper, oat milk, paper towels, cleaning supplies, the list goes on and on.
Mastering the hard skills of community management is one thing, but having the right qualities can be harder to find. You’re looking for a community manager who is quick on their feet, deeply empathetic, a people person, and a problem solver. In short, a unicorn.
We asked five of the best community managers what it takes to be exceptional in their role. Here are some of the qualities that were mentioned.
To learn more about what it takes to be a great community manager, according to those who do it, check out our article here.
“Genuine connection & community are key! I love welcoming new faces to the space, ensuring they have a friend.”
Now that you understand what a community manager is and what their job may entail, it’s time to break down how to hire one. This guide will be most helpful to you if you’ve never hired a community manager before. If you have, use it as a gut check to refine your process.
A job analysis is standard practice when hiring for a role. It involves conducting research via other job descriptions, identifying the required outcomes for the job, examining job efficiencies, and determining if training is required. For a community manager position in a coworking space, a job analysis may involve the following steps:
Writing a job description is an art and a science. Here are some best practices when writing your job description for your superstar community manager.
Looking for an example of a job description for your community manager role? Below is one example that you can tailor to fit the needs of your space.
This organization approached the description with a story-telling format, included what they offer, and put their accommodation policy at the end. Use this as inspiration for your own JD!
Community Manager
Los Angeles, California
[Summary of company] We’ve built the world’s largest workspace network so that our customers can work better, faster, and happier. Join the team in one of our coworking spaces. Promote our products and services to new and existing customers. Bring more freedom to more people and businesses. And you’ll be able to work better, faster and happier too.
The opportunity
[Summary of role] As a Community Manager, you’ll be responsible for the smooth running of the space. You’ll motivate your team to create a great working environment to ensure customer satisfaction and retention.
A typical day
[Role duties] You start the day with an informal team talk over coffee, to plan the day and make sure everyone’s prepared.
With one eye always on reception, you see members turning up and also the first meeting rooms guests arriving. You welcome them and take them to their meeting room, show them the facilities and help them set up their WiFi connections and AV system for their presentation.
Later you have a meeting to learn more about a new member and get to understand his business needs. You think about the other members and how you might be able to introduce him to a couple that may be of interest at the networking event later in the week.
A large company is taking a whole floor of the space and is moving in next week. You run through the move in detail with the reception team, ensuring the welcome kit is prepared, and all badges and keys are ready for handing over.
At lunchtime a couple walks in enquiring about coworking membership. Your colleague from sales is on their lunch break so you offer them a coffee and give them a tour of the coworking space, explaining all the benefits of membership.
Later in the afternoon you host a monthly operations meeting for Community Managers from your local cluster of spaces, along with the regional Operations Manager. After the meeting you do a final walk around the building, speaking with members, asking how their day went as they start to wind down and head for home.
About you
[Requirements] We’re looking for someone who has the experience and aptitude to manage a smooth running operation. You’ll need to be an accomplished multitasker, able to pre-empt issues before they become problems, and keep a team motivated and focused on service excellence. You also need to be:
What we offer
[What we offer] On top of a competitive salary package you’ll enjoy:
Accommodation Policy:
[Accommodation] We are committed to treating all people in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence. We believe in integration and equal opportunity. Accommodations are available upon request for all applicants with a disability throughout the recruitment process.
There is no single “right way” to write a job description. Focus on making it an interesting, exciting, and accurate reflection of your space to attract the right kind of candidates to the role.
Now that you’ve written a clear and compelling job description, it’s time to post your ad on as many job boards as you can! Try some of the most popular boards like:
Promote the job through your own personal network as well to get in front of as many people as possible. You’ll also want to consider coworking specific job sites and opportunities including the Coworking Job Board by Coworkies or This Week in Coworking to make sure your role is getting in front of the right people.
Finding a community manager who has sales experience, a customer service background, social media experience, is great with technology, and can make a mean cup of coffee can feel next to impossible. Before you begin looking at applications, consider writing out all of the qualities your perfect community manager possesses. Then list these qualities in order of importance.
For example, maybe your space is known for being warm, welcoming, and community-driven. Hiring an extraverted community manager with strong interpersonal skills will be an absolute must, while other qualities, like deep knowledge of coworking SEO or IT experience, may come second to that.
Finally, we’ve gotten to the interview process! For a part-time community manager role, a single interview is all that usually makes sense. But that’s more than enough time to get the information you need about a candidate.
An interview will typically start with a brief introduction (“Tell me about yourself and why you want this role”) , followed by some behavioral questions to gauge their skill level. Tailor yours to the coworking experience by asking questions specific to common occurrences in your coworking space. Here are a few examples:
You’re looking for answers that show you how the candidate handles difficult or uncomfortable situations. Qualities like patience, understanding, and adaptiveness go a long way in these situations. Throughout the entire interview process, you’ll also want to pay attention to the general energy of the individual. When hiring your community manager, look for someone with a personality that will fit well with your space and your members.
Any skill can be taught. It’s more important to find people with the right personality who are a right cultural fit for the space. And finally, look for someone who has the skills to both attract and retain members.
Ideally you’ll find a community manager who is great at both – someone who has the sales skills necessary to bring people in and the hospitality skills necessary to get people to stay. But if you need to prioritize one skillset over the other, it’s best to figure that out before you begin the hiring process.
A tip on hiring a community manager for your coworking space
Before you run off and hire someone for your space, we want to leave you with one final piece of advice: don’t hire someone until you can financially support it.
First-time operators can sometimes make the mistake of bringing people and tools on before they’re financially ready, and community managers are not cheap. If you’re based in North America, you may expect to pay between $400 and $1,000 a week for your community manager depending on their roles and responsibilities – if not more.
Make sure you have the cash flow to support bringing another person on board before you begin the hiring process. If you are in need of some extra help, but can’t afford a full-time manager, consider looking into a community volunteer, virtual assistant or running your coworking space autonomously with the help of coworking software.
Deanna Hoy, the community manager at Q Space, is managing over 150+ members all by herself. How does she do it? With Optix.
With end-to-end automation capabilities, Optix can help your community manager book tours, follow up with leads, engage members, and more without any added effort.
Your community manager’s time is precious. Optix ensures they’re spending their time on the things they should – and not on the things they shouldn’t.
Hiring a community manager is a huge milestone for new coworking operators, but it’s not always easy.
By following a careful hiring process that considers both qualifications and cultural fit, you can find the right person to lead your coworking community and help you develop meaningful connections with your members.
Looking for more advice on how to hire for your coworking space? Here are four best practices for hiring your coworking staff.
