Your 2021 recap: The most-loved Envoy features that launched this year

Does anyone else feel like 2021 just flew by? Compared to 2020 where most people around the world experienced what felt like the slowest year of their lives due to shutdowns and quarantines, 2021 was full of reopenings, resurgences, and reacceleration. Workplaces especially experienced a massive amount of change. Most offices were closed in some capacity in 2020, but workplace traffic picked up exponentially throughout 2021. Large cities, in particular, saw an increase in traffic: New York City and San Francisco workplace traffic rose 183% and 101% respectively since the start of the year. If you were a part of reopening your workplace, or making sure it stayed open throughout the year, your team hustled to implement new technologies to help your team stay safe and productive on-site. Somehow, you also found time to share your best practices and provide feedback on how Envoy needed to change to support you. As you prepare for 2022, discover the most loved features that came to Envoy dashboards and mobile apps this year—thanks to your help.

Stay compliant with proof of vaccination or COVID tests

In a year where vaccinations rolled out across the world and OSHA mandates seemed to change by the month you needed a way for your business to keep up and keep your team healthy. Now, your employees can upload either their proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test result in the Envoy mobile app and submit it for admin approval. You can then choose to exempt employees from the hassle of a daily health check for a more seamless sign-in and have a record to keep your business in compliance. Learn more about how to capture proof of vaccination and test results.

Return together with workplace schedules

If your company adopted a hybrid work model then you’ve probably felt the frustrations of coordinating days in the office with your close collaborators or teammates. Envoy makes it easy to sync your workplace schedule with your co-workers, so every day spent in the office is productive. See who plans to work on-site each day before you set your schedule. Reserve a spot in the workplace to make it known which days you plan to work on-site, so your team knows when they can catch you in person. Learn more about workplace schedules.

Save time coordinating by inviting co-workers

Hybrid work makes it tricky to find a day that everyone can meet up in person. Rather than message each person “Want to work together in the office on Tuesday?”, now you can invite co-workers to join you on days you plan to work on-site. Let your team or a work friend know which days to work on-site and rest assured you’ll have a buddy when you go back. Tell your team how to easily invite coworkers in the Envoy app.

See where your coworkers are sitting and book a seat nearby

Embracing a flexible workplace that satisfies a hybrid workforce is easy with Envoy Desks. However hot desking can make it tricky to find where coworkers are actually sitting that day. Rather than messaging “Where are you?” or running around the office looking for them, now you can see where your coworkers' desks are directly in the map within the Envoy app. Easily search for coworkers to see where they’re sitting and reserve a desk nearby with just a tap. Tell your team how to search for and sit next to coworkers.

Find out who’s working where in Slack

When it comes to working with others—whether that be asking a simple question or holding a meeting—it helps to know your collaborators’ locations. Now with the Envoy app for Slack, your location will automatically sync to your Slack status to show that you’re at the workplace when you sign in. If you book a desk, the Envoy app updates your status to include your desk number as well, so it’s easy for co-workers to find you. Learn more about how to sync your location status in Slack.

Give visitors the info they need before they arrive on-site

Visitor management has changed. It’s not just about creating great experiences for guests, it’s also about creating safe experiences. And a huge part of safety for visitors is providing every visitor type the information they need to know before arriving on site. Using our new email templates, you can customize the look, feel, and information of your visitor emails—without diving into code. You can also promptly communicate updates with visitors if anything changes before their visit. Equip every visitor with the right information and build excitement for each visit by configuring your visitor invitation and welcome emails with just a few clicks. Learn more about configuring visitor emails.

Deliver consistent experiences across every location with global sign-in flows

When it comes to visitor management, consistency is key to creating great and safe experiences. No matter if you have one location or hundreds around the globe, you can now manage all of your visitor sign-in flows at scale. Get a holistic view of all your sign-in flows and easily configure a template that can be used across all locations, or modify one to fit the needs of a specific visitor type or location. Learn more about global sign-in flows.

Make it even easier to find and book available meeting rooms

Envoy Rooms makes it easy for anyone to book a meeting and gives you insights to manage your space and budget. It’s like air traffic control for your meeting rooms. Now, Rooms supports lighted cases to make it even easier for employees to find and book available meeting rooms on the fly. Lighted cases use colored LEDs to show that a room is free, currently occupied, or has an upcoming reservation, so your team can see the status from across the office. Get started with Rooms for free or learn more about room scheduling software.

Join Envoy's developer platform to shape the workplace of the future

Build tailored experiences and workflows that meet your workplace’s exact needs using Envoy’s open API and developer documentation. Quickly set up your own private, custom integrations with Envoy or build apps that help companies run their workplace available for anyone to use. Envoy’s developer platform hosts a suite of tools and resources to help you create apps, hardware, and integrations to make workplaces work better.

Connect Envoy with other tools to reopen and stay open

Thanks to the technology partners using Envoy’s developer platform, our integration directory grows larger every month. Check out a collection of all of the great integrations that enable a smooth and confident return to work. From automated food ordering based on real-time employee registration with Cater2.me, to secure and touchless COVID-19 verification with Bindle, we have all the integrations you need to seamlessly manage the hybrid work experience in one place.

And that’s just the start! You can find a complete list of everything that’s new in Envoy’s changelog.

There will be more change in 2022 with workplaces around the world continuing to reopen, adapt to hybrid work, and keep up with changing health and safety protocols. Start preparing now by getting your business set up to support a new era of workplace productivity, safety, and collaboration.

Not sure where to start or looking to learn how other workplaces plan to adapt? Contact us or send us a chat and we’ll be happy to help.