3 office management trends that should be on your radar
In today’s hybrid working world, office management is so much more than, well, managing an office. You need to create a space where employees can be productive. You also need to cultivate an on-site environment that gets folks excited about coming to work. How? By craftily blending workplace design, culture, and technology. To manage your workplace well, you need to stay on top of the latest trends in office management. If you’re successful, not only will you be able to provide employees with a great workplace experience, you’ll also help retain top talent and create the best space where employees can do high-quality, collaborative work. Keep reading to learn about modern office management and the three key workplace trends you should know about.
Trend #1: Responsive work environments
Understanding how people want to work and what they need to excel is critical to making good office management decisions. Today’s hybrid workforce wants to work in an environment that’s as flexible as their schedules. To find out how to best make your office space more responsive to your peoples’ needs, conduct an employee survey or hold a focus group. Ask folks what they need to thrive on-site.
This will give you the information you need to lay out your space in a flexible, responsive way. It will help you decide what areas you need to expand or remove, and how you can best organize people within your workplace. For example, you may find that you no longer need larger conference rooms since fewer employees work on-site on any given day. You may also discover that smaller meeting spaces are more popular since folks who work on-site need space to meet and do heads-down work. To make your space even more responsive, use hybrid work software to help employees take control of their flexible schedules and effectively use the workplace. Your hybrid work technology should enable:
Hot desking
In a hybrid work environment, having 250 employees doesn’t mean you need 250 workstations. Depending on people’s schedules, you may only need 100 on any given day. Hot desking is one of the biggest current trends in office management. It accommodates fluctuating numbers of on-site employees by allowing folks to reserve a desk ahead of time.With hot desking, you can:
- Adapt your space for flexibility and collaboration
- Make it easy for employees to find and book a desk
- Use your workplace space efficiently
- Seat teammates by function or project team
Hot desks will continue to grow in popularity as more companies adopt flexible working models. In fact, hot desk bookings grew 95% between April 2020 and May 2021.
Meeting room booking
Like hot desking, meeting room booking helps employees work flexibly. For example, conference room scheduling software enables employees to:
- Maximize their days on-site
- Easily find and book a room
- Reserve rooms in advance
- Free up working space for others when a meeting is canceled or ends early
Plus, you’ll be able to:
- Gather data on meeting room usage
- Plan your office space more effectively
- Empower folks to work productively
Meeting room booking increased more than 3X in the second half of 2021 compared to the first half. These numbers will continue to rise as more folks head back to the workplace on a regular basis.
Trend #2: Healthy and safe workplaces
Emerging trends in office management reflect people’s growing desire for sound health and safety protocols. To meet this need, today’s workplaces should include the following features:
- Touchless access control: This technology helps manage the health risks posed by surface contact while keeping your workplace safe. With a touchless entry system, only authorized employees and visitors can enter the workplace via their mobile devices.
- Capacity management: This technology provides a real-time picture of how employees use the office, helping you make appropriate policies. For example, to keep employees healthy and safe, you might cap capacity at 50% on any given day.
- Visitor registration: This technology keeps track of who’s coming and going from the workplace. It should be able to verify the health of everyone who comes on-site through proof of vaccination, weekly COVID tests, or daily health checks.
With open floor plans, shared workspaces, and a flexible working model, workplace health and safety will continue to be a key piece of modern office management.
Trend #3: Employee mobility
Finally, to encourage employees to work on-site, you need to make it easy for them to do so. That means empowering them to set their hybrid work schedules, book a desk on the go, or find a room for their last-minute meeting with a few clicks on their mobile devices.
As workplaces continue to receive more visitors, employees should also be able to easily invite guests to the workplace via their mobile devices. Nothing about working on-site, including inviting folks to join them in the workplace, should feel tedious.
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Current trends in office management include flexible spaces, integrated tools, and automated systems. These features all work together to create a thriving hybrid workplace. Employees feel heard and empowered, and workplace managers have the tools and data they need to continue improving the workplace experience. The latest trends in office management are always changing, so be sure to keep a pulse on employee needs to stay ahead of the curve.