Advances in technology have sparked the era of the ‘Smart Office’, but what does it all really mean? What makes an office ‘smart’ and why should you be considering making your office smart? And most importantly, how can smart technologies be leveraged to help you adjust your office to the new reality post-Covid?
Let’s delve a bit deeper…
Simply put, a smart office is a work environment which leverages numerous technologies to help employees work faster, more efficiently, smarter and with greater output.
There are numerous technologies to help run your office more efficiently – here are some of our favourites:
Smart sensors can be installed in all parts of an office to monitor occupancy levels, and adjust lighting, heating or cooling, air purity and other environmental factors according to how many people are in the room.
Simple to use, these apps allow employees not only to view which rooms are available but to book rooms and room facilities such as projectors, monitors, conference call facilities and catering (if required). They also give other users visibility on when rooms have been booked out, to avoid double booking.
Especially in the post-Covid world, a more flexible and agile working environment requires better use of desk space. Smart desks allow employees to find and book a workspace, monitor their sitting/standing time, and have all the immediate connectivity to networks that an employee needs when they’re on site.
Smart video surveillance is predominantly used for security purposes, but with facial recognition technologies and location tracking, these systems can also be used to find an employee quickly on a large site. The system can also be used to develop data on staff movement and congestion to help plan more effectively around social distancing, and there are even systems that can monitor staff wellbeing and happiness.
Keeping staff motivated and productive is a challenge, as is keeping them healthy and fit while at work. Gamification – digital products that reward users for interacting – is a great way to motivate staff to set goals and tasks and record them as they’re completed so that they can earn points, badges or rewards.
For companies with large offices or premises, using smart maps to help staff and visitors find their way around and locate themselves or others is really useful.
There are really tangible benefits to running a smart office, including:
• Better communication between colleagues around schedules, file sharing, access to projects and more
• Increased productivity with higher flexibility around working hours and working-from-home
• Better employee retention, with a happier and more productive staff
• Simplified scheduling of space and in-office staff requirements to help manage a more agile, flexible working environment
• A safer, more connected environment by managing numbers of people on site, location density, mapping and traffic flow and access permission and restriction as needed
• Cost-savings on energy usage, through smart management of lighting, heating, cooling etc.
To find out more about setting up your office to be Smart, and leveraging technology to be more efficient in the post-Covid workplace, contact Officescape today on 01223 581185 or info@officescapellp.co.uk.
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