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Regardless of whether your company has a strict policy in the office or supports a flexible schedule, the reality is that office assistance is at its highest levels in five years, according to BISNOW.
No one would argue the need for a healthy office, especially one with more people. And if you ask what a healthy office does, most would say that it is one that supports physical health and safety, well -being, collaboration, productivity and social connection.
This is the reason why so many companies focus on factors such as air quality, ventilation, safety and employee welfare programs, for example. While these environmental and social health indicators are important, they overlook a critical element: the ways in which humans interact in a space and use the office.
Do not make assumptions about productivity in the office
Employers make many assumptions about how productive employees are in the office. Anecdotally, many employees say they hope to spend time in the office to collaborate with colleagues. However, the main organizations want more than opinions and anecdotes. They want data that show the frequency of a rain of casual and improvised ideas in the office and aligning that with productivity and efficiency.
The data on how teams collaborate are crucial to improve organizational productivity, as I have seen through numerous conversations with labor leaders in Fortune 1000 Companies. With the opportunity of greater collaboration in person, decision makers want to measure and understand the frequency of casual and improvised discussions and a brainstorm and how to foster more creating the appropriate office environment.
Not long ago, meetings and curled up data were based on how long employees spent using online collaboration tools and video platforms. Today, with employees who spend more time in physical spaces, understand how and where employees collaborate is essential to improve experience and eliminate silos.
For example, compare the needs of an advertising agency with a group of research experts. We assume that the agency needs more space for collaboration and customer meetings, configuring the office design to present open desks, soft and large and impressive conference rooms with high -end visual audio capabilities.
In the group of experts, we assume that their employees need dedicated areas for individual work focused. As a result, the office design consists of gray cubicles ranks and a handful of conferences rooms of different sizes.
Over time, an interesting change occurs in both companies. The employees of the advertising agency enter the office in the morning, gather with their teams or participate in a larger company meeting, have lunch in the rest room and then leave for the day.
Think Tank employees are shown in a conference room for themselves or in small groups, participating in videoconferences with colleagues and customers, spending little time in their desks. After a while, less employees enter the office, citing the ability to be more productive working remotely.
Business as usual, right? Yes, except for the long -term problems of these work arrangements. In addition to having to heat and cool unoccupied spaces, negatively impacting the carbon footprint of the building, there is also the cost of the cleaning areas based on programming, not on use. Security also plays a factor in case an emergency occurs in the office, and no one is available to respond. Add to this the expenditure of the lease of the office and the potential of the wasted investments in a redesign of the office. Not to mention critical opportunities, but less measurable, losses of face -to -face interactions.
Healthy buildings must cover all human experience
When we think of healthy buildings, we must consider all the human experience in them. Instead of making assumptions of how employees want to work, employers are beginning to look more closely how the office plays a role in health, well -being and productivity of employees.
Consider the idea that each business is a system in itself, designed to produce results. In that system, the office can be seen as a product, one that is continually refined to meet the needs of its “customers.”
In this case, customers are the people who use the office. Today, that product is improved using the digital space; The next was to improve it in physical space by combining infrastructure and intelligence data in real world spaces. Through a combination of AI and body heat detection technology that guarantees privacy, it can have a better idea of how the workforce uses the office. It is like having a touch screen interface in a digital application, except in this case, the office is the product.
For example, a sensor that includes movement in a space can lead to an idea of one -to -one -to -group interactions, the frequency of improvised meetings and if an individual is using large spaces. This can show the subsequent impact on energy efficiency.
It is not about tracking assistance or keys. On the other hand, by guaranteeing privacy and understanding how the workforce moves naturally throughout the office, employers can make better decisions on how to make the most of the time of an employee in the office.
They can learn that the best open desks are taken quickly, which forces most employees to work in darker spaces, and that the talk of talk makes it difficult to be productive. That is why the conference rooms are squatting, and employees are working remotely.
These ideas can lead to better management decisions about work policies in the office, designs, leases and even cleaning contracts. Employers who have accumulated ideas about the use of the office are feeding the data in GPT to create office designs and designs that reflect their corporate cultures more closely.
Instead that employees conform to the office, there is a way for the office to conform to the needs of employees. As a result, the office can become a place or “product”, employees expect to go, providing a healthy work environment.
Honghao Deng is CEO and butlr co -founder.
#healthy #buildings #employees #happier
