Introducing on-site status: Connect in person with confidence

Being back in the workplace has so many benefits: in-person collaboration, problem-solving, connections, and happy hours! But those things only happen if your key collaborators and work besties are on-site with you and not working from home that day. You might’ve checked their schedule and saw they’ve reserved a desk for that day but, alas, they did not show up. Perhaps your coworkers weren’t feeling well that morning and decided to work from home last minute. Or they booked a desk and forgot to cancel it. In any case, this frustration contributes to a poor workplace experience. As a workplace leader, you want to prevent this issue from becoming a pattern for your employees. Instead, you want to create a thriving workplace where folks can easily get together! That’s why we’re excited to introduce a new feature on the Envoy mobile app that will help your team know with certainty when a coworker is in the workplace: on-site status.

Introducing on-site status

Now when employees sign in to the workplace on the Envoy app, a green dot will appear next to their photo within the app. This means that they’re on-site.You can tap on coworkers with a green dot on the schedule list and in the directory to see where they’re sitting on the map. You can even change your desk to sit near them. Or just swing by to say “hi!”

When you tap on an employee on the map, you’ll also notice something else has changed besides the green dot. You can now view their profile along with their upcoming scheduled days on-site directly from the map view.

Sign in automatically

To make it even easier for employees to note when they're on-site, we've released automatic sign-in. Once employees are within 100 meters of the workplace, the Envoy app will update their status based on their location—automatically. (Your employees can also continue to sign in manually on the Envoy app too).

To enable automatic sign-in, employees can go to “Settings” on the Envoy app. Then toggle on “Sign me in based on my location.” They’ll need to set the device’s location access to “Always” with Envoy (more info). This is important for the app to know when that person is near the workplace. Envoy does not store employees’ location data (see our privacy policy).Enabling automatic sign-ins can help employees start their day seamlessly. It also helps workplace leaders make the workplace run smoother. Here’s how:

• Easy building access. If your company has integrated access control, your team can open doors and elevators without needing to open the Envoy app to sign in first.

• Holding your desk reservation. When someone forgets to sign in to their desk by a certain time, the desk frees up for someone else to book. Signing in automatically ensures your desk remains reserved for the person who needs it.

• Logged on-site days. No matter what your office attendance policy is, it's important for your folks to have a convenient way to log when they’re in the office. With auto sign-ins, your team won’t need to worry about forgetting to log their days on-site.

• Accurate attendance reporting. With fewer people forgetting to sign in manually, you’ll have more accurate data on how many employees are on-site, which days are most popular, and which team comes in the most often. Use this data to make confident decisions on space optimization and desk and neighborhood setup.

• Exact lunch orders. Having the wrong count of how many employees are on-site on any given day means that there might not be enough lunch for everyone. With automatic sign-in, everyone’s meal would be accounted for.

Connect in person, with confidence

You can have a more collaborative workplace when teams can confidently come on-site on the same days. And for workplace managers like yourself, having accurate foot traffic data allows you to optimize the use of your meeting spaces.Here’s how you and your team can use on-site status:

• Replace meetings with impromptu conversations. Not every discussion needs to be a planned meeting. Sometimes you just need a few minutes with someone. If you see someone has the on-site status, you have the option to swing by their desk to chat. This saves time for everyone—and frees up a meeting room as well.

• Book the right meeting room. Speaking of meeting rooms, you might have reserved a meeting room that fits 10. But on the day of, you see on the Envoy app that only 4 folks are on-site. Knowing that, you could switch to a smaller room so other teams can use the bigger space.

• Reduce “ghost” rooms. Similarly, if you booked a room for 4 but you see that you’re the only person on-site, you can free up that room ahead of time. Workplace managers can also proactively unbook meeting rooms early during the day if they see that no one attending that meeting is “on-site.” This reduces “ghost” rooms, which are booked rooms that no one shows up to use, and ensures that those who need a meeting room can get one.

• Switch desks to sit near work friends on-site. You might’ve booked a hot desk expecting to sit next to one of your work friends. But they ended up working from home that day. Instead of sitting alone, see who else is on-site and easily switch to a desk near them with just a few taps.

• Connect with coworkers you don’t normally see. For big companies especially, it can be challenging to connect with colleagues that work in another building. If you’re visiting another office than your normal homebase, you can swing by to say “hi” if you know they’re on-site.

• Use workplace groups and favorites to build community at work. Within Envoy’s app, employees can create workplace groups of their key collaborators, work friends, and favorite coworkers. This allows them to easily see each other’s on-site status and where they’re sitting on the map.  

Get started with on-site status

Empower your employees to connect in person using the new on-site status feature. Update to the latest version of the Envoy app (iOS | Android) today to access it. And get more accurate attendance reporting by encouraging more people to enable the new automatic sign-in feature.

‍Share this template with your employees to help them get set up.