GSA officials told GAO that they plan to identify expiring leases near federal coworking spaces to help agencies explore coworking opportunities. Image: luchunyu/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe GSA needs to make several improvements to its pilot program of providing working space to be shared by multiple agencies—started in 2023 as a possible tool for reducing excess federal office space—before conclusions can be drawn about its long-term potential, the GAO has said.
The office sharing, or coworking, program involves space in six federally owned or leased buildings nationwide. At least 924 users from 59 federal entities had visited the spaces at least 1,839 times as of the start of August, the GAO said, but since it sends satisfaction surveys only to users who check in to a space, it “may not be fully capturing user satisfaction with the coworking space.”
Also, the GSA “has not developed a system to track federal coworking’s progress against its long-term goal of cost and space savings.” That information would help “demonstrate the value of federal coworking to Congress and agencies considering federal coworking as a space planning option,” it said.
With about half of GSA leases set to expire over the next five years, “GSA officials told GAO that they plan to identify expiring leases near federal coworking spaces to help agencies explore coworking opportunities,” the report said. However, the agency has “not defined what would constitute sufficient interest” to merit an expansion.
“In addition, GSA has not developed criteria that would inform decisions on scalability and whether to integrate the pilot activities more broadly into GSA’s overall efforts,” it said.
GSA agreed with recommendations to improve the quality of the pilot’s usage data, develop criteria for potentially scaling up the pilot, and track cost and space savings.
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