The workplace technology keeping offices healthy in a COVID-19 world
In an uncertain environment where health and wellbeing are at stake, workplaces need to build employee confidence to ensure their return.
The growing interest in workplace technology is helping to create office environments that are safe, productive and enjoyable for employees. It’s also giving employees confidence that their employers have their best interests at heart. So what solutions should organisations be aware of? And what are the challenges they help overcome?
Challenge: Enable and track social distancing
Workplace teams need to understand where employee interaction occurs and implement measures to minimise risk.
Solution: Sensors
IoT sensors can be used with a high level of accuracy to collect valuable data and provide insights around employee behaviour. Find out where employees gather, when the elevators are in high demand and if social distancing protocols are breached . Move past solely physical workplace controls to produce real-time social distancing solutions that protect employees.
Beyond social distancing, sensors help to collect the data required for future workplace and space strategy and design - helping ground decisions around the right-sizing of real estate with hard data.
Whereas once sensors were perceived to be difficult or prohibitively expensive to implement, wireless sensors have become popular for their ease and speed of implementation.
Challenge: Navigating the office safely
Pre-COVID-19, workplaces were designed to foster collaboration and create ‘happy collisions’ . Now, with health and safety top of mind, hygiene measures for navigating the office are critical.
Solution: Apps to enable a contactless office
Intuitive technology, like mobile apps, with a frictionless experience and familiar interface are no longer a luxury - but will very soon become an expectation.
In smart buildings, swipe cards are being replaced by personal remote controls, in the form of enterprise apps for smartphones. Not only will employees book meeting rooms from their phone, but they will also navigate their entry to the office. This way, staff can enter the building, call the elevator and be taken to their floor and desk - without touching a single surface inside.
A flexible and real-time booking system can help workplace leaders to plan for safe seating, which can be continually adjusted depending on local social distancing guidelines.
While workplace technology solutions make people feel confident to return now, they are also a healthy investment for the future of your business. Learn more in our webinar, The Smart Office of the Post-Pandemic World: How to use workplace technology to right-size your workplace, ensure employee safety and optimise wellbeing.
