Marcus Richards
A hybrid workplace has become the norm over the last couple of months. The widespread adoption of flexible work has given way to technological acceleration.
The use of technology is not new, but the pandemic has pushed companies to the tipping point of technology. Experts believe that digitization has accelerated by seven years. To stay relevant in the industry, organizations have taken several digital initiatives.
However, with a virtual meeting room or an online desk booking system, we cannot discount the challenges of a hybrid workplace. The workforce scattered, managing them requires proper insight.
Now, most facility managers are faced with two choices right now. These can:
- Implement a host of standalone tools to deal with the different return to the office use case
- Deploy a holistic hybrid workplace solution that integrates with collaborative tools
Although the choice of tool depends on unique business and employee needs, decision-makers agree that a hybrid workplace system is the future of work. To manage both office and remote employees, such solutions are the need of the hour.
We have listed five benefits of a hybrid workplace solution for your reference.
A Hybrid Workplace Solution Helps Stay Informed About the Office Space
You can centralize the data into one dashboard with a hybrid workplace solution. This means that you can stay up-to-date with everything in your office.
From floor occupancy to who is sitting where you get real-time insight. If meeting rooms appear to be booked all the time, you can take measures by creating more collaboration spaces.
A hybrid workplace system gives you accurate information about your office space. This can be critical for making long term decisions.
It Helps Optimize the Office Space
In a hybrid work setting, a few employees come to the office on selected days a week and the rest work from anywhere. However, the onus of who comes when depends on the employees.
This creates uneven space utilization in the office. While some days, your office can be filled to the brim, some days it might remain empty.
Trends have shown us that employees want to work and collaborate when coming to the office. Therefore, the need to manage your office space is primary.
This is where a hybrid workplace solution comes to play. You wouldn’t have to worry about your office space with such solutions at play. A hybrid workplace solution comes with interactive floor plans, which allow you to visualize the entire place.
From meeting rooms to desks, you can see the whole place. This improves your chances for optimization.
For instance, remote workers decide to visit the office for an important meeting. You need to accommodate them. With an idea about your entire space, you can do that better. You can see which seats are empty or occupied to ensure they feel comfortable.
Even on a regular day, you can optimize the space for maximum efficiency. If a few desks remain empty most days, you can convert the space into a collaboration area. Also, the chances of overcrowding in the office reduce significantly.
With a hybrid workplace solution, you can optimize your office space.
Hybrid Workplace Solution Increases Employee Productivity
The introduction of the hybrid work model might have had a warm welcome, but settling into it is a different story.
After almost a year of working from home, many employees might find it difficult to adjust in the workplace. This can have a direct impact on the productivity of the employees. A survey by Senion in 2017 found that 4 in 10 employees wasted 60 minutes daily looking for desks, and the number has only increased post-pandemic.
With a hybrid workplace solution, your employees can book their desks before coming to the office. This prevents them from wasting time finding desks. Most hybrid workplace solutions also allow employees to raise their requests for amenities like desktops or LAN connections when scheduling themselves.
This will ensure that they don’t waste time looking for an empty desk when coming to the office.
It Helps Reduce Costs
The hybrid setting has left organizations with a pressing question – how much does it cost to manage one?
Pre-pandemic, most companies spent a large sum of money towards office rent. In London, the average cost per employee was around £500 per month. In New York, the average cost per employee was around $510 per month.
However, this has changed completely. The office footprint has reduced significantly over the last few months.
A study by Hubble revealed that a high-quality hybrid workplace could cost up to $210 per employee, which is a significant cost reduction. And this can be achieved when adopting a hybrid workplace solution.
Factors like transparency in office space utilization and efficient decision-making can lead to substantial cost savings. According to a report by Gartner, organizations that invested in hybrid workplace software showed a 10-15% cost reduction in space due to effective management.
A Hybrid Workplace Solution Ensures Better Safety Compliance
Safety is a significant concern right now. 2 out of 3 employees are worried about the physical implications of returning to the office. Therefore, it is imperative to address their fears by being safety compliant.
A hybrid workplace solution accumulates office space data in real-time. This means that the chances of overcrowding in the office reduce significantly.
With floor occupancy data, you can keep track of the number of employees in the office at any given moment. The moment it reaches the maximum limit, you can sound the alarm.
A hybrid workplace tool also allows you to set a maximum floor capacity. Moreover, these solutions automate the entire sanitization process. After every desk and meeting room is used, you can automate the cleaning process. This will ensure that the next person will get a clean workplace.
To Conclude
A hybrid workplace solution has a myriad of benefits to offer for organizations. From cost reduction to increasing employee productivity, such a solution can make the implementation of a hybrid work setting easier.
WorkInSync is one of the leading hybrid workplace solutions in the market. It offers a host of features that when leveraged can boost your company’s implementation of flexible work.
