Are you ready for the future of work? Follow these five steps to make the transition to a hybrid workplace easy and effective.
Written by Dominic Fortino, his LinkedIn: The Hybrid Workplace is here to stay.
A Day in the Life of an Employee in the New Hybrid Workplace
The majority of the global workforce does not want to return to full-time in-office work, and neither do most employers. In fact, 68% of the nearly 300 executives interviewed in April this year have signaled their intention for their corporate workforce to operate in a hybrid model. The concept of a workstation has grown into a dynamic collaboration area that is no longer defined by physical presence. Today, the Hybrid Workplace is made up of a variety of spaces that not only allow for flexibility and creativity but also encourage it. To put it simply, the Hybrid Workplace provides an opportunity where employees can divide their time between working from home and going into an office.
This model is rapidly becoming an attractive, but no less effective alternative. For employees, hybrid workplaces offer improved flexibility and a healthier work-life balance, allowing them to complete tasks in a manner that works for their specific needs.
To offer an insider on the hybrid workspace, this post will take you through a typical hybrid workday in the life of Dave and Margie—two employees no strangers to a traditional 9-5 work schedule, who not so long ago, would’ve commuted from their homes to the office in the morning and head back at the end of the day. But with a hybrid office model—such as the solution offered by Smarten Spaces—things have changed dramatically for Dave and Margie.
Compared to the often static, stifling, and shackled traditional office space environments, this new approach—the integration of technology and physical environments that enable employees to choose the best space for the task at hand—is helping companies and workers to navigate this brave new world.
As the workplace flows from fixed to flexible, ensuring workplace readiness; managing this mobile workforce; and creating a climate to facilitate collaboration; will be key considerations for companies going forward. Smarten Spaces’ offers an all-in-one solution to organize your workforce with a centralized management system to enable a more refined hybrid work experience for people like Dave and Margie.
Hybrid Workspaces Offer a Healthier & Safer Office Experience
Hybrid Workplace solutions are comprehensive and address both office and work-from-home situations.
The Hybrid Workspace needs to meet the conditions for COVID safety, which often means rotating work stations and similar measures to ensure social distancing. Let’s start with a standard workday, and how Smarten Spaces is helping Dave and Margie navigate it smartly and safely.
Dave will be working in the office on this day. Dave will wake up to a push notification on his phone reminding him to take his health declaration before coming into the office. Dave uses Smarten Spaces to confirm his current health status is both vaccinated and non-symptomatic. Then a QR code sent to his phone grants him contactless access to the building.
Using the Desk Booking feature, Dave can then configure his seating options or book a meeting room. In the background, the facilities team has applied the Smarten Spaces social Distancing algorithm to the floorplan to ensuring desks are spaced apart according to their local requirements. Our Contact Tracing feature leverages real-time information to track transmissions with minimal intrusion. It can identify primary and secondary points of transmission by tracking interactions across employees’ seats and meeting rooms and identify individuals who may be at risk with tracking data and logs. The AI-driven scheduler ensures smart workforce management by automating who works from the office or at home, and when, effectively managing safety, seating, and services within a single solution.
Margie, meanwhile, is also beginning her workday, but at home, meeting the company’s occupancy restriction protocols, and looking to be productive while taking advantage of the increased time flexibility. Our Work From Home (WFH) Scheduler automatically alerts her to when she can do this, while the WFH Rostering app lets managers instantly keep track of all the pertinent details of her day while keeping her team members, including Dave, up to date about her status. One look at the app, and Margie can start her workday knowing she’s all set.
Back at the office, Dave utilizes The People Finder feature to safely and easily locate a colleague’s workstation. It was a marathon session and he is now feeling hungry, so he’s back on the Jumpree Workplace Experience App, ordering and paying for his meal online safely and securely. After his meal, Dave uses the Way Finder tool to make his way to the innovation center to present project updates to management.
All this while the app is recording bookings and behaviors, along with AM or PM trends and space usage; enabling managers to adjust the day-to-day specifics, including, after desk/meeting sanitization, temperature and humidity.
Schedule Meeting Rooms & Office Spaces in One App
In this scenario, Dave needs to come into the office because he has an in-person meeting scheduled with an important out-of-town client that he can’t conduct remotely. He can book the room using the Jumpree Workplace Experience App as well as getting a look at the specifics details and adjusting them, if needed, to address safety needs.
Dave’s 2 pm has arrived. The Visitor Management feature activates a smart pass for visitor validation and Acess Control authorization, geo-fenced for specific access for floors or wings as determined by Dave through the app. The touch-free and secure process verifies and records entries and keeps detailed logs of all such activities. During the meeting, the Smarten Spaces app is hard at work, behind the scenes, with sensors that monitor and adjust air quality, temperature and humidity as needed. In addition to environmental controls, it will shut off lights and air conditioning when the meeting is over to save energy.
Jumpree’s Occupancy Control and safe and smart check-in and check-out features let managers monitor the comings and goings of everyone in real-time, ensuring there are no irresponsible actions that may compromise health and safety standards. This also takes the guesswork out of controlling occupancy.
Engage With Employees & Coworkers Wherever They Are
Communication and ease of access are key.
Margie needs to get in touch with Dave to brief him of the outcomes of her Zoom session with a very important client in Belgium. She also needs to get feedback on Dave’s 2 pm meeting. That’s where Smarten Space’s Employee Engagement features come in. The platform’s Community Feed feature enables her, and Dave, to stay up to date and share new and important information instantly in a secure social platform, built especially for enterprises. This way employees are in the loop no matter where they are.
Margie stays connected to the company and up to date on developments, all without leaving her home. That means she won’t need to spend time catching up when she returns to the office, and her workload won’t be affected by the change in venue. It also reduces any feelings of isolation or disconnection, keeping her mental health in check.
The Survey and Feedback element allows Dave and Margie to evaluate their experiences and enables managers to make adjustments based on the recorded responses. This includes work events to webinars to group get-togethers and any areas where the company requires worker feedback.
Smarter Spaces, Better Business, Better Experiences
Hybrid workplaces are currently on the rise and offer the best of both worlds as clearly demonstrated by the experiences of in-office Dave and working-from-home Margie. Employees too are reaping the benefits—professionalism and quality, enhanced work-life balance, productive workflows, and more efficient time management.
It’s important to note, though, that not all hybrid workspaces are the same and an all-purpose approach can prove disastrous. Configuring a solution that works for you takes time, expertise, and a knack for managing spaces… Smarten Spaces has all three. We’re committed to bringing workplaces into the future with comprehensive and easy-to-use digital solutions to meet all your hybrid office needs. How? By designing technology that keeps human behavior and experience in mind. In fact, we’re the first company in the world to deliver a comprehensive SAAS solution for the digital workplace that transforms how people experience and interact with the workspaces of the future.
Our tech-based solutions are convenient and intuitive—allowing you to manage all aspects of scheduling, workspace, health requirements, and employee needs from a single platform automatically. You can even tailor it to the specifics of your business to enhance the experience of all that interact with the workspaces of the future.
With seamless offerings across workplace and space management, as well as tenant engagement, we are currently smartening 90 million square feet globally (and counting). Schedule an interactive workplace lab today, and discover how we can Smarten your Spaces.