THE 7 PILLARS OF HYBRID WORK - PART II

Introduction

01 - Clear rules of the game

02 - Real estate and redesigned spaces

03 - A relevant service offering

04 - Supported managers and employees

05 - Technologies to organize, optimize and animate

06 - Data to make the right decisions

07 - Governance to monitor actions and ensure continuous improvement

Conclusion

First, the fundamentals with connectivity and audiovisual. The employee must be able to hold a “seamless” hybrid meeting thanks to state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment (easy connection, even for visitors, sound quality allowing all interlocutors to be captured, dynamic camera which automatically orients itself towards the person speaking, filtration of ambient noise, etc.). In addition, at home, employees must be able to access all the documents and tools they need without compromising security requirements. In the office, he must be able to access the internet wherever he is and plug in his computer if necessary. The development of informal workspaces may involve nomadic energy solutions to free yourself from computer cables.

Software packages can also be valuable for better managing spaces. For a real estate or work environment department having responsibility for a real estate portfolio, we are of course thinking of an IWMS which will make it possible in particular to support the space management process and identify opportunities for changing the layout or reducing surface areas.

When meeting spaces are very busy(and therefore it becomes necessary to integrate sensors or tablets to ensure check-in/check out ) or that services are associated with the rooms (small catering, service for rearranging the layout of the room, etc.), Outlook may be insufficient. The reservation can then be ensured by an IWMS or dedicated software.

Finally, recent years have seen the emergence of hybrid work organization solutions, much more relevant than the simple presence declaration portals developed post-covid. They encourage and organize presence in the office individually or in teams. Their integration into everyday tools (Microsoft Teams add-in in particular) encourages their use and appropriation.

Teleworking and flex office have considerably blurred the vision of real estate management and work environment management on the actual occupancy of their buildings. Occupancy data has become key to dimensioning the need for space but also to organizing the distribution of spaces : meeting rooms used at more than 95% at peak times for an office occupancy rate of 60% (present in the office vs. number of workstations)? So it’s time to rethink the layout. We still need to have indisputable data! This occupancy data is also key to optimizing the operation and functioning of technical equipment or even adapting the level of services. Access control, sensors based on different technologies: many solutions can help but you have to make the right choices and organize yourself to take advantage of this often already existing data.

Other data are also necessary in a context of hybrid work: this concerns the employee satisfaction, the rate capture of certain services or even assessment of well-being and more generally of the workplace experience.

A real data strategy is necessary to be able to make the right decisions and regularly improve the quality of the working environment in the service of the performance of the entire organization.

As we can see, there are multiple levers. Furthermore, they must be mobilized over time and “test & learn” becomes the rule. What works on one site or for one entity may not be suitable in another context. It is therefore necessary to rely on governance, powered by quality data, with real decision-making power. This governance must be part of a recurrence and rely on feedback from the field but also data to define and adapt the action plans which must cover each of the previous pillars.