Workplace Management Software for the Evolving Workforce
The workplace is changing – employees are demanding more flexible workspaces, including the ability to work remotely and more collaboratively in co-working spaces. Employees are simply no longer content to sit at the same desk every day, all day.
Most corporate offices include a variety of spaces, from personal desks to larger meeting spaces to private huddle rooms. This modernization of the workplace clashes with the now outdated way corporate real estate has traditionally been managed. As the workplace evolves, companies need to evolve how they track and assign workspaces in order to keep up with the changing workforce.
The layout, management and utilization of corporate real estate dramatically impacts employee happiness and retention rates. This direct influence and impact on your people means that to remain competitive when pooling talent, you must create a collaborative, innovative workplace. And, to do this, you need a workspace that reflects those values.
One way to accomplish this is by investing in technology like workspace management software to help enable dynamic, flexible workplaces, and better understand how your space is being utilized.
A workspace management tool will improve your employees’ experience by:
- Preventing overcrowding of workspaces with proper desk booking software.
- Allowing for better collaboration with scheduled meeting spaces.
- Making it easier to find the types of spaces your employees want (and giving you access to robust analytics on which spaces are used the most).
- Preventing double bookings by integrating office calendaring tools with space booking schedules.
- Making reserved rooms available for use if there no one has checked into the space.
- Offering remote mobile access for booking space anytime, anywhere.
- Proving to your employees that you care about their workspace and time by providing options for different types of workspaces.
When developing your workspace, make sure you don’t only look at it as arranging furniture and installing hardware. The right workspace management software fully enables and empowers your employees to manage their office environment so they can use it the way they need to get their work done, and gives you a clearer view into the return on your facilities investments by providing analytics and reporting on how your workspace real estate is being used.
Workspace Management for Business Efficiency
The emergence of the Internet of Things has taken workspace management software to a new level. Through IoT tools like sensors, reservation management systems and smart devices, workspace management has become even more connected, allowing for better utilization of all your resources.
According to reports from JLL, 38% of workspaces are underutilized in a typical workday, and the annual cost of real estate per employee can exceed $6,600. Companies simply cannot afford to fall behind in workplace optimization.
Organizations that can successfully adapt will realize better employee productivity and better cost savings. Technology-infused workplaces are becoming the new normal, and organizations must focus on improving their space utilization in order to stay competitive.
With the right workspace technology, your organization can easily gain better insight into:
- Whether you need to downsize your offices due to unused space.
- How you can better utilize meeting rooms and shared spaces to better meet employee needs.
- How many employees are actually coming into the workplace, and what shared spaces they are using.
- How meeting spaces are being used and when.
- Whether your current workspace is providing appropriate workspaces, or if you need to reconsider how many collaborative spaces you provide.
- The cost of maintaining your workspace and how employee usage is affecting that cost.
For example, your organization could save thousands of dollars a year by implementing sensors in your bookable meeting rooms that determine when a room is or will be in use, automatically turning on and off the HVAC system in response.
By only using the HVAC system when the room is scheduled to be in use rather than have it run for the entire day for a single meeting, your organization can enjoy significant savings on utility costs.
In addition, using robust reports and data, you can begin to see patterns in room bookings, like which rooms are being used and when. These patterns can help your facilities team better plan for the needs of your office.
For example, if you notice that every conference room is constantly booked, and many of the larger meeting rooms, which can accommodate up to 20 people, are being used for meetings of only 3-4 people, then you can likely assume that the office needs more small meeting rooms. And rather than invest in more real estate, why not transform the larger meeting rooms into additional small meeting rooms – providing more of the right kind of spaces your employees need without additional real estate costs.
This is a prime example of how workspace management software you get a better view of how your space is being used and making it easier for you to make wiser, cost-saving decisions about the space.
How Accruent Can Help
Organizations can drive profitable growth and innovation through a more connected workspace. It is critical for companies to identify, understand and satisfy employee needs by transforming their workplaces, in addition to managing their workspaces in a cost-effective way.
Accruent's EMS workspace management software solution offers highly configurable scheduling options, hybrid spaces support and flexible technology integrations to create an office-wide solution that meets the needs of every employee. EMS also provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities so that you can see when and how your space is being used, providing you with opportunities to better arrange and utilize your space to optimize employee engagement and satisfaction.
Schedule a demo with us today to see how EMS can help you balance a flexible, modern workplace.
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