What is a smart office?
A smart office is a workspace that uses technology to address the most pressing challenges in the workplace today. It helps employees communicate and collaborate more effectively, increases productivity and makes your office a desirable destination for potential recruits. Employee satisfaction is important if you want to retain talent and gain a competitive edge, so you might consider ways that you can make work more enjoyable for your staff while maintaining focus on your company’s goals and culture.
Why smart offices are popular
You may notice other companies rapidly incorporating smart features into their workspaces. Part of this is because employees are becoming more difficult to recruit and retain, and employers want to provide better spaces for their staff. This is only one benefit of having a smart office, however. The other benefits include:
Better communication
Smart offices provide everyone with better tools to communicate such as file-sharing software, videoconferencing and multiple points of contact with associates and management. Team members who communicate effectively can identify and troubleshoot problems quickly and efficiently.
Better work management
From being able to create simpler schedules to improving how remote workers meet deadlines, smart technology improves work management at your business. If you offer alternative work schedules where employees can split their time between remote work and time at the office, having a smart office can help your workers stay organized and focused on their tasks.
Better career satisfaction
Giving your team a sense of purpose and direction reduces the chance they’ll leave for other opportunities. When your team enjoys the work they do, they also contribute more and become more productive. When they arrive at an office that has innovative smart features, they may feel more satisfied and could repay you with better results.
Better security
Some smart features include technology that can help you identify which workers are violating your company’s guidelines and policies. Security features could make workers feel safer as well.
What to include in your smart office
As the smart office market continues to grow, new innovations will make it easier to create an office space that fits your company culture. When considering smart features for your office, consider improvements that benefit both your employees and business.
1. Environmental amenities
Environmental amenities can include sit-stand desks, smart conference rooms and indoor maps that allow newer workers to find their way around more effectively. Some benefits can include meeting your team’s health needs, making it easier to hold video conferences with remote workers and improving the onboarding process.
Smart desks also make it much easier to locate people within your office. For example, if you need to check in with someone, instead of searching the entire office for them, you can tell immediately if they’re at their desk.
2. Smart security
Video monitoring is essential to keeping your space safe and your property secure. Smart security allows you to see how your team is using the space and which workers aren’t upholding company guidelines. You’re able to use a wide range of lighting options and camera angles to better assess situations as they arise.
3. Gamification and rewards
Gamification is the concept of making work fun by using metrics as goals. When this concept is implemented correctly, it can increase productivity while employees chase better “scores” through smart apps that track their progress. Some people are more driven if they can see where they rank and how close they are to their next milestone, but this strategy can limit others’ progress if they’re stressed out by the reminders.
The best way to implement a gamification strategy is to include rewards and recognition. If your team knows exactly what they need to do to gain notoriety or cash in on a reward, it could guide them to work better.
4. Remote lighting and climate control systems
Offering your workers an opportunity to regulate their work climate may make them more comfortable and more productive. Team members may disagree on the ideal temperatures for common spaces, but smart technology allows you to implement smart thermostats in individual spaces so that those who prefer their environment at a specific temperature can enjoy enhanced control.
Workers can access and use smart climate control technology with their phones or mobile devices, and it’s also useful after your team has left the building. If someone forgets to turn the lights off or lock the doors, they don’t need to make a trip back to the office to fix it.
5. Voice recognition software
Voice recognition software gives you and your team another way to use smart features at your own convenience. If employees prefer to use spoken commands, they can access the features of their smart offices using nothing but the power of their voice. Many people already use digital assistants such as Siri and Alexa, so it wouldn’t be difficult to make the transition at your office.
6. Hot desk software
Hot desking is allowing your employees to choose where they work each day instead of giving them a defined office space. For some people, this can improve job satisfaction by allowing them to experience something a little different every day. Others can benefit if they need to move from one department to another depending on what they need to accomplish each day.
Using a hot desk program allows people to reserve their space ahead of time and know what desks are available. They can avoid attempting to use the same space someone else wanted to use by claiming it ahead of time.
Tips for implementing your own smart office
If you feel like you’re trying to catch up to other businesses in the smart office race, don’t worry. You don’t need to create the most advanced smart office overnight, and changing too many things suddenly isn’t always received well. If you’re interested in creating a smart office, consider these tips:
- Use the resources you already have to your advantage. Many smart office features can be incorporated into your existing office infrastructure.
- Consider the implications of your decisions. For example, be aware of the potential privacy violations some technologies could create.
- Security is important when you’re creating a remote work environment. You may be better served investing in cybersecurity to prevent a data breach or cyberattack before rolling out a new smart feature for your office.
- Adapt slowly. If you don’t have a huge budget, you can start with applications and programs that don’t cost a lot of money and create a smart office one step at a time.
The bottom line
A smart office can improve employee retention and make your team happier at work. You don’t need to invest immediately in the most sophisticated smart office possible and can instead take smaller steps to add smart features. If you have the budget and ability to turn your workplace into a smart office, increased productivity might pay for those improvements.
