by Jeff Roof — Despite the news earlier this year that Yahoo! and Best Buy retracted their telecommuting programs, reports consistently show that the workforce is becoming increasingly mobile. In fact, IT advisory firm International Data
Corporation predicts the worldwide mobile worker population will exceed 1.3 billion by 2015. This movement is supported by a proliferation of and advancements in smartphones and tablets, improved Wi-Fi infrastructures and other factors.
Another driving factor is the next generation workforce’s demand for flexibility. Providing the flexibility to work when and where employees want is becoming a critical component of attracting and retaining top talent. A Harris Interactive 2012 study found that one in three employees rank the ability to work from home higher than perks such as company cars, so an adjustable work initiative is essential for any forward-thinking company.
For facility managers and corporate real estate executives, this evolution in the workforce is causing many to rethink their current approach to the workspace and how this can translate into real cost savings.
Less office time means opportunities to reduce or optimize space
The dynamics of an increasingly mobile workforce are changing organizations’ physical office space demands. Companies have added nearly two billion square feet of office space since 1980. Now, many facility professionals are keenly aware that their existing space is underused — especially by the growing number of mobile workers who may no longer need a “permanent home” at the office.
Also, staffing levels at most organizations have been trimmed to such lean levels over the past several years that space — typically an organization’s second-largest expense after personnel — is the next logical frontier to explore for cost savings. Even as some companies are ramping their workforces back up, facility professionals are being tasked with discovering ways to enable organizations to increase headcount without expanding real estate.
A strategically planned and designed mobile worker program can be a win-win for employees and their organizations. Employees get the flexibility they want, and employers can enhance their recruitment and retention while reducing space needs and the related costs. In fact, with the average cost of accommodating an office worker typically running between US$10,000-15,000 per year (cubicle/office space, landline, desktop, etc.), the emergence of the mobile workforce has produced opportunities for significant real estate cost savings.
Facility professionals can play a key role in planning and supporting an effective mobile workforce. The trick is to do it right by helping remote staff remain engaged while allowing the organization to optimize its space in order to reduce or manage real estate expenses. Space utilization and scheduling technology is a key tool that facility managers can use to provide data and analytics to the C-suite demonstrating their support of the organization’s mobile worker population and bottom-line cost reduction strategies.
This is an especially good time for facility professionals who have leases due within the next six to 18 months to explore utilization technology to measure and analyze their organization’s space usage and needs.
Use technology now to measure and plan for changes ahead
Trends of increasing mobility, including activities such as business travel, off-site meetings, vacations, leaves of absence, teleworking and other factors, are in some cases resulting in workspace utilization rates of less than 40 percent. Meeting/conference rooms often fall victim to no-shows and may rarely be used to their designed capacity.
Historically, approaches such as room reservation systems and “bed checks” have been used to assess utilization. However, reservation systems only show that a room was booked, not whether it was actually used or how many people used it, and bed checks only provide snapshots of the workplace at given points in time, extrapolation of which can lead to inaccurate data.
Very simple yet powerful technology can provide facility professionals with robust data and analytics on office space utilization and traffic levels to help them identify opportunities to reduce space or repurpose existing spaces to optimize functionality.
Activity and traffic sensors are technologically simple devices that can be used to passively detect utilization more accurately and to show patterns over time. Activity sensors can detect and report when a space was used and for how long. That data can be collected and analyzed over time, enabling FMs to determine actual workspace utilization rates, which can be particularly helpful for planning spatial configuration projects. Activity sensors can also be used to determine when and for how long meeting spaces are used. Traffic sensors provide a deeper level of data in larger spaces, enabling FMs to measure and track the capacity to which those spaces are used.
Merely collecting data isn’t enough, however. Accurate measurement of actual space usage can help facility professionals make informed choices on how and where to trim or repurpose existing space for efficiency, but the data must be analyzed to identify patterns, trends and opportunities.
Spreadsheets can be static and cumbersome, and may not be sufficient to win the C-suite’s attention. Robust, graphics-based dashboard summaries with real-time interactive capabilities that enable facility professionals to quickly zoom from macro to micro levels of space utilization are effective tools to demonstrate the efficiencies and cost-saving opportunities that have been identified.
Utilization technology supports mobile worker hoteling and related space planning
While a recent survey indicated that three out of five workers say they don’t need to be in the office to be productive, telecommuting also has its drawbacks. Mobile staff often report feeling isolated, overlooked and invisible. Those who manage mobile workers often feel they have a lack of control.
Most telecommuters still need to spend varying amounts of time in the office for meetings, to connect with colleagues and for “face time” with managers. The office remains a central hub or nerve center where mobile and on-site staff must continue to gather at times to collaborate and interact. So while a mobile workforce initiative presents opportunities to cut real estate costs, the space must be planned carefully so organizations can benefit from the best of both worlds: less office space and a mobile staff that remains engaged and productive.
Office hoteling initiatives, which provide shared workstations for mobile workers to use for their office work time in lieu of assigned workstations, can enable organizations to achieve worker to workspace ratios of four to one or greater. However, prior to planning workspace reductions, it is essential to first track current utilization levels of the organization’s mobile workforce over a period of time. This establishes a baseline of the maximum and average volumes of mobile workers who are in the office in order to determine the appropriate amount of workspace needed to accommodate mobile staff. Space reductions can then be planned accordingly.
Reservation technology supports productivity
Next, it’s important to make hoteling workspaces accessible and convenient for mobile staff. In general, most businesses lack an effective system for managing, reserving and tracking real estate, office equipment and services. Many organizations offer office hoteling for teleworkers with workspace available on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s up to the user to hunt down the available space upon arrival and take the chance of finding a spot to work. This can waste productive work time and the hassles may deter mobile workers from visiting as often as they should.
Work and meeting space scheduling technology can help mobile workers to reserve office/workspace, meeting space, meeting equipment and other amenities on their own in advance using the Internet or mobile devices so they can arrive at the office ready to hit the ground running. It enables them to be productive and feel like a welcome part of the organization, rather than an unannounced guest, and ensures that all staff members have proper access to work and meeting spaces whenever and wherever needed.
On-site kiosks can be incorporated at the office so that when mobile workers arrive and check in, they can view the floorplan to see exactly where their workspace is located, which is helpful if they’re unfamiliar with the environment. Touch-screen panels outside of meeting spaces also can be helpful to show room availability and enable on-the-spot reservations to be made.
C-suite leaders may be convinced to invest in scheduling technology but only if they understand how it contributes to the organization’s bottom line. As an example, if a mobile worker comes to his/ her corporate headquarters for a weekly staff meeting or other important function and spends 10 to 15 minutes each time trying to find an unused office or empty cubicle where work can be conducted, the individual will waste 12 hours of productivity each year. At a US$100,000 annual salary, that’s US$575 in lost productivity. In an organization with 500 mobile workers, that equates to nearly US$300,000 in lost productivity per year.
As an added bonus, cloud-based scheduling technology enables mobile staff to access scheduling systems anytime and from almost anywhere via the Internet or mobile devices, providing them with the same level of real-time access as their on-site colleagues. Furthermore, cloud-based software requires minimal support from IT staff, whose key priority usually is mission critical enterprise systems. The vendor ensures the technology is constantly updated so IT staffers do not have to worry about patches and updates, and the software operates via the Internet on the vendor’s hardware, so hardware needs are minimal to none. The end result is greater efficiency among the mobile employee population, combined with significant savings in IT overhead year over year.
These room and workspace scheduling tools also help companies make wise short- and long-term space decisions. Facility managers can use workplace analytics built into the software to obtain a better understanding of workspace utilization and patterns, clearing the way for enhanced financial and organizational direction.
Using technology and data to create better spaces
Progressive leaders know that people innovate and perform better in an inviting work environment, so they must find the right balance between offering the flexibility that employees demand while providing a common purpose and an office environment that fosters productivity and collaboration. Th is won’t result by simply putting people next to each other or painting walls with brighter colors, and savings mean little if employees aren’t happy with — or productive in — their work environment.
Facility managers must take the lead in creating space that has the type of flexibility to accommodate what the next-generation employee is looking for. This means open floor plans as well as meeting spaces that encourage impromptu discussions in a comfortable and effective way without disturbing other workers. A welcoming, collaborative and accessible environment will encourage and promote drop-in visits and the proper balance of home/office time so that employees remain engaged with their supervisors, team members, other work colleagues and the organization in general.
Facility professionals who use innovative space utilization tracking systems to capture and analyze actual usage trends can make educated, cost-effective decisions about the amount and types of workspaces the organization needs, and help their organizations find the right balance between the mobile workforce’s workspace needs and the C-suite’s cost-reduction demands. With the right scheduling tools, space utilization analytics and buy-in from all areas of the organization that are impacted by a mobile workforce strategy, productivity will increase, space use will be more efficient and cost-effective and the facilities professional will demonstrate technology savviness and business acumen. FMJ
Author biography
Jeff Roof is AsureSpace vice president,
product development at Asure Software. With more than 20 years of technology product management experience, Roof joined Asure in July 2012 as part of the company’s acquisition of PeopleCube.
Using his creative problem-solving skills, Roof leads Asure’s product management team to develop new software solutions and maximize existing Asure offerings for customers around the world.