In this article, we will quickly summarize why smart offices become more and more important even in this world that is full of remote and distributed work.

Smart offices help build relationships among employees 

PwC’s US Remote Work Survey shows just 13% of executives are prepared to let go of the office for good.

Meanwhile, 87% of employees say the office is important for collaborating with team members and building relationships — their top-rated needs for the office.

A smart office provides collaboration tools for staff to have collaborative work smoothly. 

Big Companies are seeking smart offices

LEGO and LinkedIn are committed to transforming their smart offices to support hybrid offices.  They provide lots of virtual technology and office management system in their workplaces.  

Coca-Cola also has already redesigned their office in Singapore. The aim is they want to offer some multi-functional communication tools and technology for employees, allowing them to communicate and collaborate with various colleagues and support remote colleagues back in the office work seamlessly.   

Smart office further develops towards sustainability 

Some smart offices already use renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions. 

David Watkins, solutions director at Virtus data centres, says that in addition to the data centre sector as a whole having its own net-zero by 2030 pledge, pressure to hit that target comes from customers. 

Smart offices not only drive environmental protection, but it is also a big business 

In order to promote smart offices, it is necessary to establish some data centres to store relevant data to enable the smooth implementation of electronic management. 

Google and Microsoft have committed to three-quarters of data centre energy consumption being renewable or carbon-free by 2025. 

The push for data centre sustainability can also be big business. The green data centre market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 per cent from $36bn in 2021 to $55bn by 2027. 

Work more flexibly in a smart workplace 

As mentioned above, a smart office allows remote workers and office workers to work together and provides lots of flexible facilities for them to work. 

According to a report from Omdia, 48% of the total workforce will work in a mobile or hybrid fashion over the next 2 years. The reason is employees think that working in a flexible workplace makes them happier at work so improving their work quality and productivity.     

Meeting rooms are not useless at all 

Based on The Economist poll, only 10% of respondents think meeting rooms are useless in the post-pandemic office. Meeting rooms are here to stay in the hybrid working era.

For how to create a perfect smart office, there is no standard answer, and neither is its office space. To summarize some reports, in terms of building the size of meeting rooms, you can refer to the following article. 

Step by Step: Determine the right office size and system for your new office – ONEs Blog 

A smart office can help to reduce the operation cost 

Some companies use a variety of flexible work equipment to replace fixed office facilities such as hot desks. Thus, this can help them to reduce their budget for buying furniture and pay lower rent while saving space.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals has reduced the number of fixed workstations by hot desking in order to create more meeting rooms and community spaces. Its redesigned workspaces were made available to employees at the beginning of this year.

As Inc. studies found out that 40% of an office’s dedicated desk space sits unused on a given day, hot desking can highly help companies to reduce their office costs by freeing up these dedicated workstations.

Creating work targets and a working guideline  

With the help of smart office, employees can follow some work guidelines for hybrid work, this can ensure they have positive work performances.   

In HP Teradici’s survey, 85% of respondents said existing company policies have already changed to reflect the new hybrid working environments, which means including setting some hybrid work guidelines for employees.  

Providing a full working guideline for your employees can make sure them to have specific work targets and ensure their productivity.   

An office management system is a must for any smart offices

One of the HR challenges is management procedures and 15% of respondents agree on this point, according to HP Teradici’s survey. 

The reason is the admins usually take much time for monitoring the staff’s performance or manage office resources, which makes the admins can’t focus on their work and difficult to maintain good performance.   

Therefore, business leaders should think about how to optimize their employees’ work process and Omdia’s report suggests organizations should plan and deliver technology to help their workers be productive from wherever they are.    

One of the best solutions is for companies should implement some office management systems, for example, meeting room booking. 

Few suggestions for office management systems 

The followings are the popular choice for your office management system: 

• ONES: A system provides a comprehensive set of office management functions, including hot desks, room booking service, visitor management, and hardware configurations. 
   
  ONEs work with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Viva. Also, ONEs can work the IoT sensors, therefore the misused rooms will be auto-released, preventing office resources from being wasted. 
  
• The Receptionist: It creates a personalized check-in experience that makes a great first impression. However, it is just a visitor management system and does not provide other office management systems.   

• Envoy: A company dedicated to optimizing visitor management systems. The initial activation plan is free, but it has some restrictions.     

• Robin: Offers all the basic visitor management features, such as custom permissions and floor plans. A free trial is available, but some features are restricted.   

• Condeco: A system that provides a variety of office management systems, including room booking, hot desks, and a visitor management system. It can be chosen at various prices depending on the needs of the office.  
   

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/. 

The post 10-minute summary of smart office for 2023 first appeared on ONEs Blog.

However, some of people seem not favorable about the new flexible workspace arrangement such as hot desking.

Mobility, flexibility, autonomy

The daily commute is now a thing of the past, and many organizations have switched to hybrid working styles that foster high levels of mobility, flexibility, autonomy, and nomadism.

While many employees benefit from a hybrid work arrangement that enables them to work from home a few days a week, many workers still need and desire to visit the office.

However, many organizations consider typical individualized workstations, team areas, and manager-only offices to be out of date and have attempted to revamp employees’ “in-office” working experiences as well.

For example, Meta recently reduces its office space as its hybrid work transitions. It has offered most employees the option to do their jobs remotely full-time or to select a mix of in-office and homework. 

The vice president of global facilities and real estate at Meta, John Ternanes said that while reviewing Meta’s office space, he discovered that some of the existing office leases were about to expire. He is planning to combine the floors of several existing buildings into one floor after the leases expire and allow employees to continue to work remotely. 

Hot desking is a “Hot option” for company

Organizations have implemented “hot desking” into the office design as one strategy. Hot desking is an organizational workspace system in which desks are used on an ad hoc, first-come, first-served basis by different people at different times.

The phrase refers to a clean, uniform, shared workspace that promotes nomadic and flexible work styles and cannot be claimed by any one individual.

These new workspaces and the practice of teleworking symbolize the ideals of flexibility, independence, and autonomy while also purportedly bridging the hierarchical divide that currently exists between management and employees.

(Learn more: Hot Desking 101: a quick guide)

Not everyone like hot-desking

Hot-desking means that all employees would need to share their workstations all the time, and no longer have a specific workspace. This could probably diminish the external signs of status or positional recognition.

Because these workspaces deprive employees of their personal space and essentially block them from personalizing or owning a space, some people have high concerns about these new arrangements.

David Courpasson, the Professor of Sociology and Director of the Organizations, Critical and Ethnographic perspectives research center, recently did some research on a large Belgian organization alongside colleagues from Université Catholique de Louvain.

Based on their founding, some employees are employing creative strategies to stop this new manner of working, such as putting supplies and tools on desks or even keeping their own desks messy or untidy in order to keep the same desk as their own.

The reason behind this is that these workers felt that hot-desking stripped them of their personal space, dehumanized their workplace, and damaged working relationships.

They also grumbled about how difficult it was to move their heavy work equipment from meeting to meeting and how little storage they had. They also complained about how difficult it was to unpack and pack every day.

Take more care of people, not the workplace

Hotdesking has several advantages for the workplace, including flexibility and the flattening of hierarchies. However, it is evident that many employees react unfavorably to the change to a hot-desk workplace due to the difficult transition to a new workspace layout.

Employers must take the time and make the effort to interact with their staff members to discover what working practices are most effective for them, which ones they are least likely to object to, and which will be most beneficial for the organization as a whole.

Professor David Courpasson suggested that organizational management should see spatial changes as more complicated than mere geographical transitions.

For instance, accepting that specific occupations may require a specific use of space, instead of considering flexiwork as ‘good in itself’, is a relevant approach too. The office space should work best for those working in it, and therefore organisations must ensure that this is their focus when redesigning for the future.

David Courpasson, the Professor of Sociology and Director of the Organizations, Critical and Ethnographic perspectives research center

Learn more about hybrid working: https://ones.software/blog/category/hybrid-work/

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information about implementing your own hybrid workspace: https://ones.software/.    

The post Why are some people against hot desking? And what should employers do about it? first appeared on ONEs Blog.

Reasons for return to the office 

Due to the COVID-19 border restrictions, Singaporeans are aware of the benefits of flexible working. Some reports reflect that remote work allows Singaporeans to work-life balance. Although there are lots of advantages to remote work, some people would still like to return to the office for work.

A working paper researched over 70% of workers said they were returning to workplaces on most days when polled between Apr 1 and Apr 11. The reason is the researchers noted that workers can enhance their work efficiency when they work at a suitable workplace. 

Joanne, a marketing manager, said that she doesn’t like to work from home because it makes her work lonely and interruptions too much at home.

She then seeks an office setting for human interaction and better productivity. And finally, she decided to work at a co-working office that provides hot-desking and thought that is better than working at a regular office. 

So what are the benefits when working in a co-working place?

Benefits of working in a co-working place

Connection with different kinds of talents 

In a co-working office, there are lots of talents from different kinds of industries. People can increase their knowledge and skills by interacting with these talents.  

Work more flexibly than ever before

An anonymous HR professional aged 35, who works at a co-working office, said: “I could work in a different environment for five days a week.” 

As he said, co-working is flexible because people can choose the work location in which they most enjoy working through some office management systems, for example, hot desking and meeting room systems. 

Provides friendly facilities to encourage more creative ideas 

Co-working office has a friendly environment because there are lots of comfortable areas. For example, a brainstorm room and a gym room. They help employees to reduce stress and have a positive impact on creativity. 

Cheaper rent, less operation cost 

Freelancers prefer to rent co-working offices because the rent is more affordable. Also, many companies are also starting to use hot desking and increasing co-working space to reduce unnecessary office resources and operating costs. 

Welfares for working at a co-working space 

The basic benefit of a co-working space in general is that all resources in the space are shared, and there are also free coffee and snack bars provided. 

In Singapore, there are various types of shared offices that offer different benefits. 

• Cocoon Space has an in-house sewing studio and a resource wall for those in the fashion industry to explore the use of different fabrics; 
• Gather Cowork allows members to bring their pets into the workspace; 
• WeWork promotes a “healthy workplace” and therefore has facilities dedicated to wellness, including centers run by Just Jym and The Living Cafe. 

Apart from hot desking, what else of office setup does co-working space need? 

Co-working office is one of the perfect facilities for hybrid work, and there are more and more co-working office systems in Singapore. ONES is one of the famous management systems in Singapore that can help you to easily implement hybrid working with ease.

To learn more about the functions associated with co-working office systems, Room Booking, and Visitor Management, please visit https://ones.software/sg/. 

The post Blooming co-working and hot desking space in Singapore now first appeared on ONEs Blog.

Up to 150 employees can work in the new 5,000-square-foot area in Tanjong Pagar, which is intended for hot desking.

A new Singapore headquarters full with hot-desking

The new headquarters has 5,000 sq ft space, is designed for hot desking in Singapore, and provides a variety of flexible facilities to create an inclusive environment.

Learn more about hot desking: Hot Desking 101: a quick guide

The feature of hot-desking in Singapore is that it allows workers to use any available desks immediately so that they can have flexible work locations and work flexibly. 

The primary work zone becomes a co-working area, providing open-plan seating, and versatile discussion spaces. The aim is to facilitate collaboration and cooperation, while meeting rooms and quiet cars will enable team discussions and focused work.    

Moreover, the new office has other flexible arrangements which are providing some comfortable lounges for workers to gather and chat and a spacious pantry area for relaxing or taking a tea break.   

Why does Redhill implement hybrid working?    

Founder and CEO of Redhill Jacob Puthenparambil said they always focused on initiatives that promote the well-being and welfare of its employees and encourage their skills enhancement and career development.

This new space better accommodates our rapidly growing team and enables us to hire additional talent to service our growing client base and to provide industry-leading support. Our new office was designed to inspire collaboration, innovation, and team spirit– acting as our base of operations as we further our mission to tell authentic stories across the world

Jacob Puthenparambil, Founder and CEO of Redhill

Serval studies showed that the well-being and welfare of Singaporeans are that they would like to work-life balance by working flexibly. Hot desking can help Singaporeans to fulfill their needs.  

Thus, Redhill launched its first diversity and inclusion program in 2021, which includes improving the pay structure and working environment for employees.

The new working environment should provide flexible working areas, such as a hot desking zone, and co-meeting areas for gathering or training new staff.  

This new working approach helps their workers to foster a sense of community while preserving individual well-being and then makes employees happy to work and helps Redhill retain their talent. This has a positive impact on increasing employees’ productivity at the same time.   

Recognization of productivity growth 

Redhill’s first diversity and inclusion project, which featured a redesign of its pay system to put an emphasis on pay parity based on skill and experience rather than a person’s most recent drawn salary, was introduced in 2021.

The agency’s inclusion in the Adland’s Diversity and Inclusion Index 2021, an industry-recognition award program that recognizes companies that improve the quality of their work environment for their employees, was the result of these initiatives.

Moreover, these approaches help Redhill to attract many new talents to join them, and their workers are increasing to over 150 people now. 

Build your own hot-desking area

Hot desking is one of the best setups for a Singaporean smart office. It is an organizational workspace system in which desks are used on an ad hoc, first-come, first-served basis by different people at different times. 

By using hot desks, management can reduce the number of fixed desks and reduce the amount of office space or rent. Those reducing spaces were redesigned as co-workspace for employees to do collaboration work. 

Video on hot-desking introduction: How Does Hot Desking Work? | ONES – YouTube

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/sg/.    

The post Full with hot desking: Redhill Singapore unveils new global headquarters  first appeared on ONEs Blog.

Hotdesking is a hot topic that frequently comes up in conversations with our clients as companies continue to determine their best approach for supporting hybrid work to save operational costs.

What does hot-desking mean?

Hotdesking simply means that to create workspaces that employees who come into the office for individual work can use as needed while they are present. Those spaces aren’t always reserved for specific people’s exclusive use, but they can be reserved for people to use on a regular basis.

Metrigy, an innovative research firm focusing on the rapidly changing areas of Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC)/digital workplace, recently conducted a survey of 935 businesses in Europe, North America, Australia, and parts of Southeast Asia to determine how they approached hotdesking within their organizations.

They discovered a wide range of implementations in the following areas among the approximately one-quarter of organizations that have already implemented hotdesking.

Following are some tips that can help you to successfully set up your hotdesking strategy in the office.

(Learn more about hot desking: Hot Desking 101: a quick guide)

Desktop check-in and out and provisioning management system

Approximately half of those who support hotdesking have deployed an application to manage reservations, space provisioning, and device management.

Some of the all-in-one smart office systems that have collaborated with Microsoft Teams and Outlook, like ONES, recently added hotdesking capabilities or established integrations with the previously mentioned dedicated workspace management apps to enable space and device reservation and provisioning.

Hot desk Scheduling

One issue they discovered among companies that support hotdesking is matching availability to demand.

If users only have enough available space to support half of their potential in-office workforce and everyone wants to come in on Wednesday, users will quickly reach capacity.

To address these issues, some businesses have implemented workgroup-based schedules. Sales teams, for example, can use hotdesking space on Monday and Tuesday, while product teams can use it on Wednesday and Thursday.

Desktop provisioning applications are critical for providing insight into historical utilization, such as a user-friendly scheduling calendar, customizable desk policy for advanced rule setting, and data analytics for forecasting future utilization.

Metrigy also recommends that employee surveys or collaboration with team leaders can help to establish appropriate policies.

Device Provisioning

Metrigy discovered no specific consensus on the types of devices that businesses provide to their hotdesking locations. Monitors are the most common, allowing those who bring their laptops to work to benefit from a large screen. Other commonly available devices for videoconferencing include desktop telephones and high-quality webcams.

Some companies provide headsets, but many people are uncomfortable wearing a headset that has been worn by others due to hygiene concerns. More than half of companies with employees who regularly work from home will provide them with two headsets, one for the office and one for home. Only about a quarter of companies require employees to bring their headsets.

Lockers are effective in this scenario for allowing employees to store their personal devices in the office.

Provisioning of all-in-one desktop devices from vendors such as Cisco, DTEN, and Poly is an emerging option for hotdesking equipment. When combined with a hotdesking management system, these devices enable employees to sign in to the device when they arrive and have easy access to meeting and other collaboration apps, as well as high-quality video and audio experiences.

Finally, approximately 35% of businesses provide USB speakerphone devices, which enable high-quality audio experiences via noise cancellation.

More information about Poly: HP is now strengthening its industry opportunity in hybrid work solutions

Hotdesking security

Companies that use dedicated devices must ensure that user information is erased and employees are automatically logged out after a reservation expires or after a period of inactivity. This can be done by a smart office system that supports auto-checkout and occupancy sensors.

The last thing any company wants to deal with is an employee sitting down at a hotdesking location and seeing the previous occupant’s calling, messaging, and other collaboration information. A hot-desking display is the most favorable solution to show the information about the desk and related reservations.

More information for e-ink solution: Minew wireless e-ink label 

When properly implemented, hotdesking can be an effective way of maximizing available office space by ensuring that those who require individual work locations have them and can reserve them before coming into the office, with appropriately available collaboration capabilities.

Smart office in a simple tool: How ONES can help your office

Effective change management is required to ensure the effectiveness of hot desking. ONES is here to help if you are ready to adopt your new smart office setting but do not know how to begin.

Our all-in-one smart office management software enables your employees and visitor to rapidly find, choose, and reserve the workspace that best meets their needs.

Schedule a demo of Bookings ONE now for more details.

The post Tips for Hotdesking Strategy Set-up in Smart Office from Professional first appeared on ONEs Blog.