3 reasons why sensors are your most valuable space utilization tool

The major metric most organisations are seeking is space utilization – how much a space is being used and when it is being used. Of course, we’re also interested in agility ratios, occupant data and cost centre chargeback, but at its core, we believe space management is driven by understanding utilization and allocation.

Currently, most space utilization studies are focused on tracking people – not spaces. simple.space flips this paradigm around because we’re interested in understanding and leveraging value from the office space itself, not the people.

This change removes many of the barriers around employee privacy, data security – and reduces the cost of implementing space utilization reporting significantly.

simple.space uses sensors to collect real time space utilization data for our client’s office space to provide the most accurate measurement and understanding of space. The ongoing utilization reporting provided, also gives a better understanding of workplace behaviours.

1. Sensors are excellent value for money

Sensors provide 24/7/365 coverage of your space. When compared to survey studies, where people are employed to eyeball a space for a period of time (something like 2 weeks), the value for money per unit for a sensor is absolutely unbeatable.

Our clients tend to have a particular problem they need to solve for a certain area; we will set up the sensors for a period in one space, then move them to another area to tackle the next issue.

This is an incredibly cost effective and manageable way to use sensors to undertake space utilization tracking. We can set up as little as 50 sensors to run a pilot, up to a whole building or portfolio rollout.

2. Sensors provide deep data-driven insights

Sensors can provide game changing insight, by producing repeated observations of the same space over long periods of time. Compared to a manual survey, which might capture the workplace over a period of 2 weeks, sensors are taking observations every second of every day.

This allows you to make real, evidence-based decisions with greater confidence because you know what’s really going on in your space.

The depth of reporting and understanding you’ll get is almost incomparable to the shallow reach of a survey. Sensors provide instant real time feedback.

Our clients have identified and fixed issues they didn’t previously have visibility on and are able to check things like cleaning schedules are being met simply through the data produced by the sensors.

3. Sensors are accurate

When we compared a manual people counting study for a particular building to the simple.space sensors, we found that the actual workplace occupancy rate was lower than the manual observation survey reported.

This is due to accuracy issues with manual surveys – they are often completed over a brief time frame which can give an incomplete view; they perform perhaps one or two observations an hour for each space as compared to each second using a sensor; they can’t account for staff being in meetings, out for coffee or at the printer.

Sensors give a depth of data that provides much greater accuracy that a manual survey.

Each sensor takes an observation every second of the day.  20 sensors in a team space will produce over 800,000 recorded minutes of data in a 4-week period.

Reporting is then provided for each sensor for each day as well as aggregated data to provide an overview and give you key insights into how and when the space is being used. Reporting is provided for each sensor and aggregated to provide an overview of how and when of the workplace occupancy profile.

simple.space uses a research-standard data methodology designed to give you the most sensible results.

Want to know more?

If you’d like to find out more about how sensors can support your workplace space management, please get in touch with Raf Gouel via LinkedIn or email info@simple.space.

Or, download our brochure Sensor Based Space Utilisation as a Service.

5 Tasks crippling our workplace managers

 

 

To gather this utilization of floor space data, having spreadsheets as your end result is quite limiting when trying to dig deep into the room of a problem or visualize where the problems are!

Highlighters

 

With few tools, analytics and assistance, the matter of improving productivity, culture and optimizing space becomes much less visible to senior staff and ultimately C-Level.

Property costs are the 2nd (sometimes 3rd) highest cost for any business, it’s a rather strange phenomenon these issues are not being tackled head on.

 There is light at the end of the tunnel though.

More workplaces are learning of Activity Based Working, Agile Working, Hot desking and other flexible work environments.

We are even experiencing how this affects other elements of our workplaces, including culture, productivity and ultimately, the bottom line!

 

To learn more about how simple.space can help alleviate all these crippling tasks, stop gaps and help your business be on it's way towards a more modern way of managing the workplace, send us a quick email!

Tip #5 Final Challenge – 5 Tips on cost effective Activity Based Working and Flexi-Desking solutions

There’s a big elephant in the room, it’s been around for a while but creeps into our workplaces disguised as an emergent new threat.

Resistance to change

When it comes to Hot Desking, ABW and Flexible environments, this can play a major role within an organisation… so where does it stem from?

Let’s clear the air on the biggest challenges a flexible environment transition is likely to face:

• Technologies must be put in place to achieve a transition
• Workplace culture must be at a level allowing the transition
• A workplace manager (or admin, IT, HR) must spearhead office space management
• Workplace activities “how we work” must change

It’s no secret that most businesses are resistant to change from small and mediums to government and corporate departments.
Does this really have to be such a painful experience?

As with any project, we must introduce changes in phases albeit one (small) positive step at a time!

Barriers to ABW and Hot Desking

In a recent study conducted by Samsung, we saw some very notable barriers to activity-based working in workplaces:

• Staff prefer role-based working and their own desk
• Company culture, hierarchy
• Security concerns
• Requires Business Unit Managers approvals
• Skills to implement
• Network to support (technological)

Some of our earlier suggestions regarding more cost effective activity-based working solutions may alleviate some of the above but not entirely circumvent them.

The golden ticket to dealing with these challenges can be found in your very own workplace and it all starts with a culture shift!

Workplace Culture and Adaptation

The dramatic shift in workplace culture due to flexi-environments alone can be an overwhelming concept for most businesses.

The workplace is becoming a more critical point of failure for many businesses with the rise of tech giants leading the way in new, innovative, appealing and creative work environments. A silent war exists to gain favour of the more experienced and skilled staff who seek more attractive workplaces and offerings (with an emphasis on culture).

The Keys to Transitioning

Simply put, your employees are the keys to a successful transition.
Regardless of how or what you choose to do, engaging with your staff is KEY.

To achieve this, you’ll need to:

• Plan your transition(s)
• Break down the project into manageable parts
• Produce a schedule for the transition
• Know your space! (The first thing we mentioned in our initial article Tip #1)
• And most importantly, make sure all changes are introduced in phases

For example, if you plan on introducing a new telephone system, locker system and eDocument management system as part of a new initiative for moving to a new office, introduce these elements for some time prior to moving office.

Identify the staff encountering the most difficulty dealing with the new systems and hold short sessions to discuss and work through it.

A phased approach and staff engagement will ensure the only thing that happens after a physical office relocation is the move itself so staff are not experiencing a new office, new way to work, new phones (and so on) in the one hit. This would be overwhelming and in many cases, businesses see a significant rise in resignations as people leave this ‘unfamiliar’ workplace.

Final Touches

We’ve discussed affordable means to achieve flexible work environments and suggested a wide range of ways to deal with challenges.

Contact us if you want a free consultation on flexible environments, moving offices or managing your existing workspace better!
Sometimes all you need is someone to point you in the right direction. If the #5 tips are insufficient, don’t hesitate to seek assistance from an external source.

Tip #4 – The IT Crowd

How IT affects office seating arrangements

With many of us spending more time watching the “IT Crowd” than dealing with our IT department, it’s hard to know how IT really operates and what hurdles to expect.

It’s no secret IT will need to be involved and help you through transitions but the level of involvement will be influenced by your workplace environment (i.e. call center vs law firm vs tech company) and the size of your business.

Having worked through helpdesk to infrastructure engineer and managing an IT Team for the better part of a decade, here is some information that will unquestionably be useful when attempting to transition to a non-traditional work environment.

The early approach

IT departments are in a continuous state of change but really, they’re just like any other business unit.

Budget, procurement, licensing, processes and limited resources… what we tend to forget is that like any other stakeholders, they need to be informed of upcoming changes well ahead of time.

Think of this situation which we’ve all come across. You walk into a meeting room for an important meeting with a client but the tech isn’t working, projector unplugged, HDMI cables plugged into the wrong device. Someone was in there a few hours ago and left matters in a dysfunctional state. You run to IT who tend to panic and drop everything to ensure your meeting starts as soon as possible, unhinged.

Our expectation is to have our technology ready to be used at the drop of a hat but this is difficult with limited resources, processes and a dynamic workplace unless you account for every conceivable scenario.

The IT department is there to support clients, usually the business (staff) so let them know your plans and intentions by including them from the start.

IT and Flexible Environments

To the IT department, there is no distinction between ABW, hot desking, pair working focus groups, remote working or any other non-traditional work arrangements, these all demand the same result…

“Work from anywhere” – IT Teams

This calls on a wide range of tools, applications, connectivity, networking, the list goes on. Don’t re-invent the wheel by falling into new laptops, docking stations or special WiFi gear.

To minimize dependence on IT for the move or to simply begin testing a sample of staff in a flexi-environment, we need to focus on the ability to use any machine or use our own machine from anywhere.

In both situations, it all boils down to available software.

Licensing 101

“But we don’t have Microsoft Office installed on those computers!”

The concept is simple.

Know which existing pieces of technology will allow you to begin an immediate transition to flexible working and you guarantee a smooth transition!

IT have to keep track of software licensing, where they’re distributed and installation numbers. It’s likely they already have your answer, so what do you ask them for?

Let us help you with 3 simple and practical questions for IT:

1. Do we have any universal pieces of software like microsoft excel or chrome installed on all our machines?
   (known to IT as the Standard Operating Environment)

 

• Are you aware of any teams that need only this software to do their work? Teams like customer service, legal or finance?
• Any reasons why these teams would be unable to hot desk?
  (no wifi or network access in the proposed area etc)
  

 

As per Tip #2 Finding your solution, identify common teams such as contractors, customer support, communications, sales or legal staff as these teams/departments have a tendency to use very similar software suites.

This verification from IT will solidify, simplify and prepare you for implementing and testing your solution.

Your very own business case

One of our most common discussions and feedback is the struggle to build a business case to help fund the transition (if needed). Here’s the best business case we’ve identified but you can certainly get in touch with us to discuss and identify other unique scenarios.

You will find the most frequent scenarios is when a handful of staff are missing a critical piece of software. Perhaps a contractor or a temp staff member, all the more reason to transition to a flexi environment.

Purchasing Microsoft Office for the 3 people desperately needing it installed is a much more affordable solution than trying to source work space when the average desk in the CBD can cost in excess of $10,000p.a.

If all else fails, contractors or temps can start using opensource or free app alternatives (i.e. Google Apps) to assist.

IT & cool, innovative tech

It’s a cool new tool!

Most IT Departments, can’t wait to get their hands on new tools (and gadgets), there’s no doubt IT teams love their tech.

So inviting them to the simple.space solution will give them visibility on your plans and a sense of involvement.

It can also assist in future audits, finding the “where from” and “where to” when moving staff equipment (this is usually a task for helpdesk) and help with transitions when it’s time to move users around the office whilst providing a more connected workplace.

Come back to see our final article in our 5 Tips on cost effective Activity Based Working and Flex-Desking solutions, when we highlight the final steps and scaling up.

By now, you should have a solution in mind (possibly hot desking to start with), some staff (or team) to transition, discussed with relevant stakeholders (IT and the staff in question for the test case) and you’re ready to implement the changes and review.

3 ways data visualisation can revolutionise your workspace

Data visualisation is everywhere these days. Stunning infographics, gorgeous scatter graphs, insightful pie charts and beautifully designed tables bring to life the vast swathes of data that our society produces every day, hour and second. A modern take on the idea of visual communication, data visualisation is about making complex data more accessible and useful, helping us understand and analyse data quickly to gain deeper insights into the relationship between things.

 

Humans are visual beings. We retain about 70% more information when it’s presented to us in a visual format. One of our missions at simple.space is to connect and enable humans in workplaces to be more in-tune with the space surrounding them.

 

How does this relate to managing your workspace?

To quote Dr. Thoralf Sundt of Mayo Clinic, “If I can see it, I can fix it.”  The reverse must also be true – it’s hard to fix what you can’t see (Lean.org have said this so succinctly elsewhere that we can’t take credit for this insight). To support and sustain growth in your workplace, you need to be able to identify the problems in the way you carry out your work in a the physical sense – the desks, chairs and computers that allow your human capital investment to carry on (or cramp) your business. And to get back to Dr. Sundt, the most effective way to do this is using data visualisation techniques.

 

Here are three things you didn’t know about data visualisation and how it can benefit the way you manage your work space

1. It can empower your employees

Traditional data modeling is the empire of the geek, the bailiwick of the excel wizz. This means many of us – the average HR or office managers who don’t get their kicks from crunching out a VLookup –  can’t get the insight we need to make evidence based decisions on staffing and space management issues.

 

2. It helps you see what’s around the corner

Office relocations and new seating arrangements require multiple scenarios to be planned, ongoing collaboration and layers of approvals to deliver great outcomes – and comparisons between the old and new are a must in defining the new world order.

But It’s hard to evaluate the current and future state with a set of paper floorplans and some highlighters. Just like a map is for driving directions to your destination, visualising your work spaces helps you understand how to reach your desired outcome much more quickly and simply.

 

3. It creates a sense of community in a workplaces that are becoming more screen-based and less people-focused

Most of us have lived and worked in office environments with little visibility on who is who and just where they might be sitting. Staff directories are usually dated, you’re unsure who to contact, or perhaps there’s more than one “Steve” in the legal department. Once you’ve worked out it’s Steve-from-Sydney, not Steve the dragon boat racing enthusiast, directions to find where Steve sits are scarce and it’s hard to know which desk belongs to whom or why no one is sitting in that corner. Data visualisation gives you a new way to put a face to a name, a desk to a person and useful directions to find them both.