CAFM & IT put in place to help keep employees safe.
Employees are expecting increased hygiene standards, particularly in washrooms, as well as stepped-up practices and protocols in other shared spaces. Occupancy sensing technology has a number of uses in a safety-prioritised workplace:
Room occupancy sensors
Room sensors let employees know when areas such as washrooms, cafes, canteens, meeting rooms and office floors are safe to enter based on the capacity needed to maintain social distancing.
They can also alert cleaning staff when and where cleaning is needed based on traffic. This is a simple way to improve process efficiency, ensuring that high-traffic areas that really need attention get it first, rather than waiting for their next turn in the cleaning cycle.
More importantly, it shows staff that you take their concerns seriously. According to a recent study, one in ten employees said they were experiencing stress at the prospect of sharing a toilet with other staff members upon their return to the office.
Desk occupancy sensors
Sensors can also be used to indicate when desks are free and help cleaning staff see at a glance which desks have been used recently and where their efforts should be directed. Sensors can also help create a ‘frictionless check- in’ for those who wish to employ desk check-in or ‘hotelling’.
Air quality
A well-ventilated office is a happy and productive office. Integrating occupancy data with your HVAC system allows you to automate control of temperature and ventilation based on real-time occupancy levels.
Proper ventilation can help reduce absence relating to sickness and curb the headaches and drowsiness that can occur in a poorly-ventilated office - found to affect 86% of employees.
More than half (57%) of UK office workers think that indoor air quality is affecting their mental and physical health, so it is important for employees to see that steps are being taken to reduce transmission, improve hygiene and protect their personal wellbeing.
Employee experience A well coordinated, thoughtful and people-first employee experience is one of the single most important things you can do to help your staff as they return to the office. It will help them feel more relaxed, confident and ultimately boost their productivity. Trends are suggesting businesses are looking to use occupancy sensors and occupancy data in the following ways to help improve the employee experience:
Employee apps
Incorporating the collected occupancy data on an employee app makes it available to them at a moment’s notice, helping them to plan their day and make more
www.tomorrowsfm.com
informed decisions - like visiting the canteen or onsite amenities during quieter periods.
Wayfinding
The data collected by sensors can help employees find each other, as well as find available meeting rooms, desks or breakout and collaboration spaces.
Frictionless check-in
As explored above, desk sensors used with apps or swipe cards can help employees find a recently cleaned and available seat to work in without any worries about safety.
Space utilisation and optimisation Throughout 2020, we saw an unprecedented change in attitudes around how we live and work. Having started out as a temporary solution for many, remote working has gathered pace and will now affect key decisions being made by businesses, from the terms of contracts with staff, to how much office space is actually needed.
Productivity, collaboration, co-ordination and opportunities for socialising mean it is well worth hanging onto your physical office space if you possibly can, even if it is reduced in size. What could this look like - and how could occupancy data help organisations make the most of their new arrangements?
Flexible working patterns
Although it looks certain that people will eventually return to the workplace, many businesses have announced the adoption of more flexible and hybrid working patterns and that their employees won’t return to the workplace full time.
Some employees may be asked to work from home permanently to help with costs and leases, others may not feel comfortable coming back to the workplace based on their personal risk level. In many cases, the workplace will be centred on teamwork and collaboration, but with fewer employees in the office, space will need to be optimised to ensure it is being used to its full potential.
Occupancy data can help smooth out the kinks, showing how much space you are actually utilising and highlighting areas which could be repurposed, consolidated, sublet, sold or given up to lower costs.
Energy saving and cost reduction
Occupancy sensors allow you to improve sustainability, connecting occupancy data with other building facility management systems and turning off things such as lights and HVAC when rooms are not in use. By directing a person to an area that has available capacity you can eliminate the need for turning the lights on for an entire floor for just one person, as well as promoting efficiency by grouping people together to work in a way that is both socially-distanced and cost-effective.
https://www.irisys.net/workplace-guide?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=tomorrow_fm_magazine&utm_campaign=workplace_guide)
To learn more about how using occupancy sensors can help improve your employees experience when returning to the workplace, download our guide, ‘Using Occupancy Data to Re-engage Employees With the Workplace’, here:
irisys.net/workplace-guide
TOMORROW’S FM | 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
