Improve efficiencies and cut costs, what company isn’t looking for easy and effective ways to do this throughout their enterprise – especially considering the expense of workspace, such as meetings rooms, and desk space.
One opportunity for firms to optimize their operations is to review their workspace usage. As the diagram below indicates, most businesses assume they have 60-70% workspace utilization, but the reality is quite different.
The numbers are startling. And with real estate costs usually the second highest expense for businesses, the financial impact can be enormous. The new year is an excellent time to take a new look at managing your firm’s workspace more efficiently – and then making the case for workplace software.
Workplace Challenges Today
Let’s start with four big factors that are affecting – and changing – the amount of workspace businesses need:
1. Increasing real estate costs
Real estate costs are at an all-time high in cities all over the world. As operating costs rise, it has become imperative for companies to maximize their real estate and monitor usage to avoid wasted costs.
2. Rise in flexible workplaces and agile workers
Companies offering greater working flexibility to suit the modern worker’s needs is on the rise. By 2020, flexible working will be the main way to work for 70% of organizations. So with that dramatic change, how much space is actually required?
3. Higher performance is key to success
Productivity needs to be monitored in terms of goals and deliverables rather than how long someone spends at a desk. Adapting physical and virtual environments can foster greater productivity.
4. Attracting and retaining the best talent
The average cost to replace a team member is $40,000, so keeping your top talent is a worthwhile investment, as well as attracting the younger generation through a contemporary, adaptive workplace environment and culture that’s more in-tune with today’s work and lifestyles.
Solutions that Save Time and Space
Advanced technologies – in the form of room booking and desk booking software, digital signage for meeting rooms and workspace occupancy sensors – are helping businesses address these workplace challenges. Innovative software enables firms to simplify space management, maximize workspace usage, and minimize overall office space requirements, which in turn cuts costs. Today’s smart companies are investigating a whole range of workplace software tools to deliver the benefits of:
- Improving employee performance – your workforce will like the accuracy, convenience, and flexibility of having the workspace. Whether its meeting rooms for collaboration or an open desk for individual work, when and where they need it – decreasing downtime, increasing productivity.
- Driving better decisions – by knowing how many resources are using workspaces and how many of those workspaces are used on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis, one has the data to develop future workplace strategies and long-term real estate plans with confidence.
- Cutting costs – as a result of less wasted resources, do-it-yourself workspace bookings and better planning for and use of real estate.
But for even more specific help in bringing the benefits of these valuable innovations to your company, take a look at how they can aid key individuals and support groups by downloading our “Making the Case for Workplace Software” list. It details often-found challenges and advantages for nine roles or operational groups found in most companies.
Start the new year off right. Transforming your business with – as well as transitioning to – these new technologies can be easy with the right software and technology partner. Currently many major corporations throughout the U.S. and worldwide are realizing significant savings on real estate and resource requirements, resulting in better performance on the bottom line.
Now that’s something to celebrate in 2017!