Posts by Luke Christian-Farman

7 Essential Features To Help Companies Implement Hybrid Work Policies

Posted on December 4, 2024December 4, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

It’s happening! Businesses are cracking down on remote work in 2025. Amazon has already done it, and soon many will follow the hybrid enforcement regime, and implement hybrid work policies.

The challenge they’re now facing is that their people are point-blank refusing to comply. A study by Resume Templates found that 3 in 4 companies are struggling with this, and the reason they’re struggling is because they don’t know how to manage their people’s return. They’re not ready, they don’t have a Return to office policy in place, and they don’t have the space anymore, nor the infrastructure to handle the needs of their people.

Luckily, that’s exactly what Kadence is here for. Helping companies optimize their spaces to facilitate team tasks, and save on their real estate footprint. Let’s first talk about what Hybrid Work Policies are, how to get it up and running, the tools you’re going to need to help you make that happen, and a framework to use as a guide.

What are Hybrid Work Policies And How Can You Enforce It?

Hybrid Work Policies are a company’s plan for mixing remote and in-office work, balancing flexibility with business needs. Companies can enforce this policy by setting clear expectations, such as required in-office days or core hours for online availability.

The key is creating a policy that’s fair to both the business and the people who work there. A system that boosts productivity, and keeps employees happy – whether they’re at home or in the office, and meet business objectives at the same time. Team managers play a key role in ensuring that team members follow the policy to make it successful for everyone.

The Challenges Employers Face

Without a tool in place, hybrid enforcement is impossible. How can you communicate consistently across remote and in-office teams with such a tool? Ensure fairness, visibility, and opportunity across all teams, and train managers to lead hybrid teams effectively.

Focusing on outcomes, being noticed for your work rather than physical presence, or getting to grips with how your office spaces are used so you’re not wasting space. It’s a huge challenge companies are dealing with and we’re here to help with 7 essential features every employer needs under their belt!

From Policy To action: 7 Essential Features To Enforce Your Hybrid Work Policies

1. Create A Desk Booking Process For Your Hybrid Work Policies

Desk booking is a crucial tool for companies implementing hybrid work policies. If your policy says 2-3 days in the office, then ask your employees to book a desk using Kadence before coming in. That way you can measure your hybrid policy success, control the flow of office traffic, and your Employees won’t end up disappointed with no available desks.

The great thing with Kadence, is you get to see an entire view of your office spaces and all the available desks within it. So all it takes is a simple click on an available desk to make your booking. By streamlining the process of finding and reserving appropriate work areas, space booking tools ultimately contribute to improved employee satisfaction, better resource management, and a more efficient hybrid work environment.

Check out how GWI solved their Return-to-office challenges here

💡 Kadence Tips: Establish clear guidelines and communication channels to ensure all employees understand the hybrid policy and how to navigate it effectively. Gather your teams, set up a town hall, and present your plans.

2. Issue Booking Credits To Stop Wasted Bookings

Every office will have areas where teams like to work from the most, as well as areas where teams like to work from the least. These could be areas near the coffee machine, comfy break-out areas, sit-stand desks, or even parking spots outside. What usually happens is that these highly sought-after spaces get booked up so early in advance it makes it impossible to book a space. And then to make matters worse, when no one shows up but forgets to cancel their booking, a popular space lies dormant and wasted.

Example of a Booking Credits notification on the Kadence platorm.

💡 Kadence Tips: Another way to help hybrid enforcement and get people to honor their bookings is to reward and issue team members with credits as a bonus. Gamify the experience with a 100% successful booking streak without any cancellations or no-shows at the end of the month might warrant some sort of incentive.

3. Automate Desk Check-Ins With WiFi Integration

A huge challenge most companies face with a flexible work model is employee attendance not matching up with the space bookings they’ve made. It results in a poor view of hybrid performance, inaccurate office use data, and wasted spaces, and is typically caused by employees not checking into their bookings.

Automatic booking check-in solves this problem. This streamlines the office experience by automatically checking employees in when they arrive at their booked workspace, eliminating the need for manual check-ins.

For Employers, it helps maintain accurate real-time occupancy data, which is crucial for space management. For employees on the other hand, it reduces friction in their workday, allowing them to start work immediately upon arrival. By reducing no-shows and zombie bookings through functions like ‘Auto-release’ to make wasted bookings available again after a period of time, this feature ensures optimal use of office resources and supports a more efficient, flexible workplace.

💡 Kadence tips: The best way to do this is to deploy an automated system for checking in and out of booked spaces. You can do this through your building control system and badging system via Kadence’s API or you can set up WiFi check-in to streamline the process, improve accuracy of occupancy data, and enhance the overall office experience.

4. Load-balance Your Office Use By Setting Up Office Neighborhoods

Office neighborhoods are a key component of successful hybrid work policies. They allow companies to organize their office space into designated areas for specific teams or departments, fostering collaboration and improving space utilization.

By creating these defined zones for different teams, employees can easily locate colleagues and resources relevant to their work, enhancing productivity and team cohesion. It supports a more structured approach to hybrid team scheduling, ensuring that teams who need to collaborate are in the office simultaneously.

💡 Kadence Tips: Designate office neighborhoods for different teams or departments, and plot those on a schedule over a week. That way, multiple teams can share the same neighborhood but on different days to avoid conflicting bookings. This will help to foster collaboration and make it easier for teams to find and work with their colleagues. Discover how it works here

5. Use Team Kadences To Manage Hybrid Expectations

The route to hybrid enforcement success is to bring your teams together for a common purpose. Yet trying to organize something at a mass scale is time-consuming.

As part of your policy, it’s also helpful to establish the required days you expect your teams to come to the office based on team tasks, company objectives, and schedules.

With Kadence, Team Managers can organize team days. Simply choose the day of the week you want to establish as a team day, and how regularly you want your teams in the office, and your team members will receive a notification to let them know so they can book a space well in advance.

💡 Kadence Tips: Set up your Team Kadence by selecting the teammates you want to stay in sync within Kadence. Once you do that, you’ll get notified every time they’ve made a booking so you can join them. You’ll even get notified when they’ve changed their booking or canceled so you can adjust your schedule too.

6. Create Purposeful Events To Boost Office Traffic

Organized events help to bring your people back to the office with purpose. Not only a fantastic method in which to help with your return-to-office policies but also a great way to bridge the gap between remote and in-office work.

By organizing and managing workplace events, companies can ensure that employees have opportunities for face-to-face collaboration, networking, and team building, which are essential for maintaining company culture in a distributed work environment. Workplace events provide a structured way to bring teams together, boost office occupancy on specific days, and create a more dynamic work environment.

💡 Kadence Tips: By using workplace events alongside the tools mentioned above like space booking and team scheduling, companies can optimize space utilization and ensure that these events align with overall hybrid work strategies, ultimately contributing to a more cohesive and productive hybrid workplace.

7. Use Workplace Analytics to Validate Your Hybrid Work Policies

The last and final step in this framework is to resort back to your original hybrid enforcement goals to see if they’ve been met. Workplace analytics is a critical tool for companies implementing hybrid work policies. Without it you have no valuable insights into how office spaces are being utilized!

By utilizing space booking, and management alongside usage data you’ll quickly pick up recurring patterns in your office use and employee attendance. You can use these analytics to identify trends in work patterns, assess the effectiveness of your hybrid policy, and make informed adjustments to slash office costs and scale back your real estate footprint.

💡 Kadence Tips: Regularly review workplace analytics weekly to gain insights into space utilization and employee patterns. Then use this data to refine your hybrid policy and office layout for optimal efficiency. You can track metrics such as desk occupancy, meeting room usage, or popular in-office days, which helps you optimize your office layout and capacity to match actual needs.

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Author Bio

Luke Christian-Farman

Luke heads up product marketing at Kadence, where he’s all about unveiling cool new features to help customers smash their hybrid workspace goals. When he’s not shaking up the office scene, you’ll find him roaming the Sussex South Downs in the South East of England with his family, sipping tea and chasing pheasants with his boys.

Are Front Desk Receptionists Necessary? 3 Reasons You Might Not Need One

Posted on November 8, 2024November 11, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

Should your business still be hiring front desk receptionists? Or could other options save your company time and money without sacrificing customer service? Many companies have moved away from traditional reception strategies, and the trend is expected to continue well after the pandemic. Here are three reasons you might not need a front desk receptionist…

Times Have Changed – Hybrid Working Is the Future

Until about a decade ago, most offices had receptionists. However, with the emergence of various tech solutions, more companies have realized the advantages of using visitor management systems for handling repetitive tasks.

There are clear advantages to having dedicated receptionists for large corporations and other businesses that can afford it. But what if you are a small or micro company with limited resources? Chances are, you must strategize every hire to reach your goals. Few things can cost your business more than interruptions, like greeting a guest, answering the phone, or helping a delivery person. That is especially the case if your employees are pulled from their primary roles to fill an empty reception desk.

Three Types of Human Receptionists

A dedicated receptionist (A.K.A. “front desk receptionist”) serves as the face of the company, and their job is to greet and assist people who come through the doors. This might include answering questions, facilitating sign-ins, directing a guest to refreshments or somewhere else in the building, or any number of other tasks.

A semi-dedicated receptionist handles all the responsibilities of a dedicated receptionist, except they have other duties to tend to between visitors. Office managers and administrative assistants often serve as semi-dedicated receptionists and are charged with tasks like data entry, schedule management, event planning, inventory management, and so forth.

Think about it… If a company ceases to keep dedicated or semi-dedicated receptionists on staff, a visitor will find the closest person they see for any questions or requests they have. It’s not difficult to see how constantly being interrupted can significantly hinder productivity and job satisfaction.

Hybrid Working Technology Is Better Than Ever

Consider how much work it used to require to book a vacation. There are so many moving parts in a solid travel plan, which is why many people once hired travel agencies to do it for them. Travel agents are still relevant, but now many people make their travel plans using online resources.

Likewise, new technologies continue to emerge for reception and office services. For example, a visitor management solution that enables you to create invites and space bookings simultaneously. That scratches the surface of the technology available to organizations that want to cut costs without losing customers.

Let’s take a look at several different forms of digital reception and the tools used for them:

Gateway receptionists are systems that control access to a building or a specific area of a building. Apartment buildings often use this kind of technology to monitor guests; if you visit a friend at their apartment and have to buzz in and wait until they let you in, you are going through a gateway receptionist. Many businesses use this technology, usually through a phone or intercom system.

Visitor management systems are also known as digital receptionists. Offices are beginning to purchase these technologies by the droves because they are becoming more helpful and affordable by the day. Essentially, a digital receptionist is a visitor sign-in app that guests can access through a tablet, laptop, or kiosk in an office reception area. Many systems even allow visitors to check themselves on their smartphones before appointments and meetings.

Digital receptionists are showing up in hotels, medical facilities, airports, and many offices. These systems can take care of many reception and office tasks, including:

Gathering valuable visitor information (e.g., name, contact information, the purpose of the visit, check-in and check-out times, etc.).
Capturing photos and print badges for visitors.
Allowing visitors to complete and sign important paperwork.
Automatically notifying host employees of visitor arrivals through phone, email, or team chat apps.

Virtual receptionists are human beings who handle nearly all the tasks of a dedicated receptionist, except they work remotely. A virtual receptionist will field phone calls, answer customer questions, schedule appointments and meetings, direct customers to specific departments, and more.

A Check-in notification from Kadence's Visitor Management Software

What Are the Perks of a Virtual Receptionist?

Switching from a human receptionist to a virtual receptionist (aka Visitor Management System ‘VMS’) has some noteworthy advantages:

A VMS saves time: Using a virtual receptionist streamlines the booking process for visiting your workplace. Letting your VMS manage booking and check-ins makes it easier than ever to invite visitors while booking meeting spaces at the same time.

In addition, your VMS knows who is visiting your office in advance and in real-time, letting you optimize the utilization of your space and avoid maxing out the capacity in your office.

A VMS is more affordable: Switching from a human receptionist to a VMS eliminates a major expense for your company. With a VMS instead of a human receptionist, you can fulfill the same tasks for much lower costs. You can transfer calls, contact people, and perform similar tasks more efficiently without keeping your employees from completing more urgent jobs. Furthermore, technology removes the prospect of human error when collecting information while also allowing guests the freedom to enter their information at kiosks.

Turning to a VMS to handle booking and check-ins can elevate your visitor experience while keeping your workplace safer. Your visitors and employees’ safety is always a top priority, which makes switching to a VMS one of the best moves you can make for your business.

Luke Christian-Farman

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5 Ways to Make Hybrid Meetings More Inclusive

Posted on October 31, 2024December 3, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

Long live the meeting room. In a world where remote work has reshaped our offices and hybrid workplaces are the new norm, it’s easy to wonder if the traditional meeting room has lost its relevance. The reality? It’s far from obsolete. Meeting rooms, in fact, are evolving into essential hubs for connection, bridging remote and in-office team members to keep collaboration alive.

Yet, hybrid meetings—those where some team members join from a distance while others gather in a physical space—come with their own challenges. Chief among them is ensuring that remote attendees don’t feel like secondary participants. With a few deliberate changes, however, we can make these meetings not just functional but genuinely inclusive.

What’s a Hybrid Meeting Anyway?

At its core, a hybrid meeting brings together in-person and remote attendees. The virtual participants often join through platforms like Microsoft Teams or Zoom, while in-office attendees are in a meeting room, perhaps with shared screens or on individual devices. It’s a setup designed to keep the work flowing seamlessly, even when people aren’t all physically in the same space.

Hybrid meetings allow us to keep physical attendance lean, reducing the risk of crowded spaces and helping people feel more comfortable. What’s more, hybrid meetings can boost time efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint—cutting down on unnecessary commutes by giving employees the choice to join from home. They’re good for the planet, good for team morale, and just plain practical.

But how can we make sure these meetings are truly inclusive? Here are five practical ways.

1. Consider Asynchronous Options

The first question to ask yourself is whether you need a meeting at all. Many organizations fill their days with meetings to maintain communication, but as we’ve gained experience with hybrid work, we’ve learned that sometimes, asynchronous tools can do the job just as well—if not better.

Platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams are great for sharing updates, collaborating on ideas, or moving a project forward without waiting for everyone to sync up at the same time. Asynchronous communication lets people work on their own schedules and reduces the pressure of trying to accommodate time zones and commitments. So, before you hit “Schedule,” pause and consider if a live meeting is essential or if a few well-timed messages will suffice.

2. Be Intentional with Planning

In a hybrid setup, meetings take on a new level of importance, and with fewer of them, it pays to plan. When you do gather your team, aim to make every second count. Take a few moments to outline the meeting’s purpose, the decisions to be made, and any pre-reading materials.

Additionally, assess your meeting room setup: does it have the right tech for remote attendees? With Kadence, book a meeting room that meets your needs in advance.

Ensure that your agenda, shared ahead of time, is as clear as possible. Knowing what will be discussed allows everyone, remote and in-office, to prepare meaningfully. Thoughtful planning respects everyone’s time and keeps hybrid meetings productive and inclusive.

3. Be Mindful of Timing

Virtual meetings, while necessary, can be exhausting—especially when stacked back-to-back. Long video calls require intense focus, and remote attendees can quickly lose energy without the subtle energizers of in-person interaction. Scheduling hybrid meetings with a firm start and end time, plus clear breaks if they run long, is essential.

To make things easier on remote participants, avoid starting late. If in-person attendees are waiting for the meeting to begin, they can chat or grab a coffee, but remote attendees are often left staring at their screens. A structured schedule keeps everyone engaged and eliminates those “waiting room” moments, which can make remote team members feel left out.

4. Create an Equal Platform for Contributions

Without a plan, it’s easy for some voices to dominate a meeting, especially when certain people are physically present while others are remote. To counteract this, introduce structured points in the agenda where everyone is invited to contribute. Go around the virtual table if needed, calling on each participant to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

You might also consider a rotation of meeting roles, like a facilitator, who ensures smooth transitions between agenda items and encourages participation, and a timekeeper to keep discussions on track. This way, each person has a clear role, and no one is left out of the conversation simply because they aren’t in the room.

5. Level the Playing Field with Technology

To create a unified meeting experience, use technology that allows everyone to participate in the same way, regardless of location. For example, if you’re using a digital whiteboard like Miro or a shared document for notes, make sure every participant has access. It can be tempting for in-person attendees to use a physical whiteboard, but this can exclude remote participants from seeing or contributing to what’s written.

Ensure your meeting room tech supports quality audio and visual connection. Clear sound is critical, so consider investing in desk or ceiling-mounted microphones that can pick up voices without background noise. Similarly, high-quality video feeds can bridge the gap between remote and in-person attendees, making everyone feel as if they’re in the same room. It’s all about creating an experience where every participant, no matter where they are, can engage fully.

Looking Forward: The Future of Meetings

The modern meeting is here to stay. It’s an essential tool for decision-making, collaboration, and team building. But as workplaces change, our approach to meetings must change, too. Inclusivity and access are paramount, supported by the right blend of technology, thoughtful planning, and the recognition that some meetings are better left as emails.

When we get it right, hybrid meetings not only keep our teams aligned but also foster an inclusive, connected workplace that respects every participant’s time, contributions, and preferences. By making intentional adjustments, we can create meetings that aren’t just effective but enjoyable and meaningful for everyone.

If you’re looking to streamline your hybrid meeting setup, consider Kadence to help coordinate your teams, book your meeting rooms and send announcements to all attendees.

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Luke Christian-Farman

8 Tips To Making The Most Of Your Office Space

Posted on October 24, 2024November 7, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

Ever wondered why it’s so important to understand how your office space is used? It’s not about being nosy – it’s actually pretty important for making sure everyone has a great place to work.

The Challenges

Imagine you’re trying to plan a party, but you have no idea how many people are coming. Tough, right? That’s exactly what it’s like for companies trying to manage their office spaces. With some people working from home and others coming in, it’s hard to know how much space is really needed.

Ghost Desks: Sometimes people book a desk but don’t show up. It’s like saving a seat for your friend who never comes to lunch.
Invisible Workers: When people work from home but don’t tell anyone they’re not coming to the office, it’s hard for their team to know when they can chat or collaborate.
Inaccurate Data: If people don’t check in properly, it’s confusing to know how the office is being used.

In a nutshell, the core problems are spaces being wasted when they could be used, and teams not knowing who’s around to collaborate. Even if most of you are working remotely that day it still makes perfect sense for your team to know when you’re around to make planning and collaborating easier.

Why Check-ins Are Important

It brings colleagues closer together! If you’re coming into the office, then being able to locate your work buddies who are there too fosters spontaneous interactions and conversations with those you might not regularly encounter.

The improved visibility helps you to quickly identify who’s available for in-person catch-ups or who’s working remotely so collaboration can continue.

Even when working remotely, maintaining a strong connection with your team by indicating your availability for virtual chats is just as important in creating a more dynamic work environment, bridging the gap between in-office and remote work experiences.

8 Tips To Make The Most Out Of Your Office Space

Now that we’ve talked about why checking into your workspace is so important, let’s dive into some cool tips and tricks to make your hybrid work software work even better for you. Whether you’re a newbie or a pro, these hacks will help you level up your hybrid work game!

1. Check In and Collaborate in The Office Or Remotely

Easily indicate your availability for collaboration from any location—whether you’re at home or in the office. Kadence offers a range of personalization options to make the process uniquely yours. You can set up your regular working schedule so when it comes to booking a desk, it works around when you’re available

You can also indicate where you’re likely to be on a given week by setting up your Personal Kadence. And now by setting your Kadence status to ‘Working Remotely’ that day, you can check in from wherever you are to let people know you’re around to collaborate.

Am illustration of employe profiles work preferences.

2. Boost Your Team Coordination

Boost your team coordination by creating “neighborhoods” for different teams, establishing deeper team dynamics that foster a sense of belonging and unity.

Implement a scheduling system to assign these neighborhoods to various projects or teams, so you can see the best places for you to book that day, and where in the office they are.

To keep everyone in sync, introduce ‘Hybrid Huddles’ – regular, brief video calls that bring together in-office and remote team members for quick check-ins and updates. Simply book a meeting room using Kadence and add a virtual meeting link in your invite so everyone can join, even if they’re not in the office.

An illustration of a team neighborhood scheduler

3. Maximize Space Utilization Data

Set up Automatic check-ins through your API to provide insights into how different spaces are utilized. This is also great for access control, and making sure that your office is used correctly by only allowing those who have bookings to enter.

This information is crucial for ongoing improvements. Additionally, encourage your team to check out of their booked lockers, pods, or parking spaces so you can log how these resources are being used.

By consistently providing this data, you’re playing a key role in optimizing resource allocation and creating a more efficient, comfortable workspace for everyone.

4. Integrate with Your Workflow

Seamlessly integrate with your existing tools to create a more efficient and automated workflow. Connect your work calendar to automatically update when you book out a meeting room, ensuring your team always knows where you’re working from.

Set up notification updates in your preferred chat app, such as Slack or Teams, to reflect your check-ins and keep everyone informed of your availability.

5. Send Company-wide Announcements

Make regular announcements to your entire company, teams or individuals on reminders to check-in.

Set a challenge to maintain a flawless check-in record, creating streaks to win rewards, fostering friendly competition among teams by gunning for the title of most consistent check-ins.

Just another simple hack to not only make the check-in process more enjoyable but also encourage consistent use of the software, ultimately improving overall workspace utilization and team coordination.

6. Use Kadence AI to Enhance Remote Collaboration

Stay connected with your team even when working remotely by asking Kadence AI who’s going to be in the office and when.

Use Kadence directly inside Slack or Microsoft Teams and Create digital water coolers by communicating directly inside these tools.

Set up a #random-chats channel, where casual conversations can flourish for example to help maintain team cohesion, and encourage informal interactions regardless of physical distance.

7. Optimize Your Scheduling

Star your favorite teammates so you can stay completely in sync with their schedules. Once you star a colleague you can see exactly when they’re going to the office.

You also get instant notifications letting you know when they’re going to the office. Not only that, Kadence alerts you every time they’ve made a booking with a suggestion to make a booking nearby.

By optimizing your schedule around when your colleagues are going into the office, you can plan your week, and only commute when you need to.

A smart booking suggestion notification.

8. Leverage Analytics for Downsizing Your Office Space

Gain valuable insights into your team’s work habits. Regularly review booking patterns to determine where your team are more productive when they’re in the office, helping you optimize your spaces to facilitate their work.

Identify the most popular areas of the office using the heat map, and discover potential areas to downsize on your space to make huge cost reductions.

The Benefits to Knowing How Your Office Is Used

When everyone knows who’s working where, this is when the magic happens. It leads to:

Faster Problem Solving
More Fun
Stronger Bonds

When everyone’s work location is transparent, a magical synergy emerges in the workplace. Quick questions find immediate answers as you know exactly who’s available to ask.

Social connections flourish with easier planning of lunch dates and after-work gatherings.

Most importantly, frequent interactions with teammates, whether in person or virtually, strengthen bonds and enhance collaboration, ultimately boosting overall team productivity and job satisfaction.

Managing Your Spaces Effortlessly

Your check-ins don’t just help you and your team – they make the office wizards (aka facility managers) super happy too! Resulting in:

Smart Space Planning
Huge Money Savings
Happy Teams

Check-ins benefit not only you and your team but also delight facility managers, the unsung heroes of office management. These “office wizards” gain valuable insights into space utilization, identifying popular areas and optimizing less-used spaces to create more appealing workspaces.

This data-driven approach leads to significant cost savings by eliminating unnecessary real estate expenses. Ultimately, a well-designed office environment, tailored to actual usage patterns, enhances employee satisfaction, making the workplace a more enjoyable destination for everyone.

Final Thoughts

Checking into your workspace, whether it’s at home or in the office, is like giving a high-five to your whole company. It helps everyone work better together, makes the office a cooler place to be, and even saves money that could be used for fun stuff!

So next time you start your workday, take a second to let everyone know where you are. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference. You’re not just checking in; you’re helping create an awesome work environment for everyone. How cool is that?

Author Bio

Luke Christian-Farman

Optimizing Your Spaces by Automating Bookings

Posted on October 22, 2024October 24, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

Optimizing your spaces has become a critical challenge for millions of organizations worldwide. The issues center around ensuring your office spaces run smoothly with accurate occupancy data.

The Challenge of Inaccurate Occupancy Data

Before we dive into the solution, let’s address the elephant in the room: the headache of inaccurate occupancy data. Thousands of employers face a big problem: employees are simply not checking in or out of their workspaces regularly. This results in a long list of problems in and of itself. Here are a few:

Skewed Space Utilization Metrics: Without accurate check-ins with your desk booking API or room booking API, it’s impossible to gauge how office spaces are truly being used.
Poor Resource Allocation: Inaccurate data leads to poor decision-making about resource allocation, potentially wasting valuable office space and amenities.
Booking Conflicts: When check-outs are missed, spaces appear occupied when they’re actually available, leading to booking conflicts and frustration with your workplace API.
Inefficient Cost Management: The inability to optimize real estate costs due to unreliable occupancy information.

IT Managers' Challenges in the Modern Office

Optimizing your spaces for IT managers brings its own set of challenges in today’s hybrid work environment:

System Integration Complexity: Integrating various workplace management tools, access control systems, and employee databases can be a technical nightmare.
Security Concerns: Ensuring data privacy and security across multiple platforms and devices used for remote and in-office work.
User Experience: Balancing robust security measures with a seamless, user-friendly experience for employees.
Scalability Issues: Many employers face a big problem. Employees are not checking in or out of their workspaces regularly. Solutions need to grow and adapt as the organization changes. needs change.
Maintenance Overhead: Managing and updating multiple systems and ensuring they work harmoniously.

The Solution: Automated Check-ins via Public API

To address these challenges head-on, we’re thrilled to introduce some new improvements to our public API for optimizing your spaces.

1. Seamless Integration

Our public API makes it easy to connect with your current systems. This includes your mobile app, smart building tools, or any platform you use to manage your workplace.

2. Comprehensive Booking and Check-in Capabilities

With our API, users can automatically book and check into various workspace elements:

Desks
Meeting rooms
Lockers
Private pods
Parking spaces

3. Flexible Check-in Methods

Depending on your company’s setup, check-ins can be triggered through multiple methods:

Door access systems
Wifi connection
Geofencing
Occupancy sensors

4. Real-time Data Updates

When a check-in or check-out happens, the system updates right away. This keeps your occupancy data accurate and current.

Why This Matters

Optimized Space Management

Accurate occupancy data empowers organizations to optimize their workspace effectively. By understanding how office spaces are truly utilized, companies can make informed decisions about layout and size, identifying underutilized areas for repurposing.

This data-driven approach not only enhances efficiency but also presents significant opportunities for cost savings in real estate management, allowing businesses to allocate resources more strategically and create a more productive work environment.

Enhanced Employee Experience

Automated check-ins revolutionize the hybrid work experience by eliminating common frustrations like double bookings and unexpected workspace occupancy. This system provides a seamless transition for employees moving between home and office environments, ensuring they always have access to the resources they need.

By empowering staff with user-friendly tools to manage their hybrid schedules, organizations create a more efficient, flexible, and satisfying work environment that adapts to the diverse needs of modern professionals.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Leveraging real-time occupancy data provides organizations with invaluable insights into workplace usage patterns. This data-driven approach enables companies to make well-informed decisions about their hybrid work policies, basing strategies on actual utilization rather than assumptions.

By continuously analyzing this real-time feedback, businesses can iteratively refine and adapt their workplace strategies, ensuring they remain responsive to evolving employee needs and optimizing resource allocation for maximum efficiency and productivity.

The Benefits of a Public API in Hybrid Working Software

Customization: Tailor the check-in process to fit your unique organizational needs and culture.
Scalability: Easily adapt the system as your organization grows or your needs change.
Integration: Seamlessly connect with other tools in your tech stack for a unified workplace management solution.
Innovation: Open the door for creative solutions and integrations that can further enhance your hybrid workplace.

The Impact of Kadence's API on Organizations

Kadence’s public API is transforming how organizations approach hybrid work:

Streamlined Integrations: Our API makes it easy to connect with current HR systems, access control platforms, and collaboration tools. This creates a unified system for managing the workplace.
Real-time Data Synchronization: The API allows instant updates for all connected systems. This keeps occupancy data, bookings, and check-ins accurate and current.
Custom Workflow Automation: Organizations can create custom workflows and automation for space booking and check-ins. You can tailor these to your specific needs and processes.
Improved Reporting Features: Companies can access raw data directly through the API. This allows them to create custom reports and analytics dashboards. These tools offer deeper insights into how people use the workplace.
Mobile and IoT Integration: The API allows easy connection with mobile apps and IoT devices. This enables features like contactless check-ins and smart building controls.
Scalable Architecture: The developers built the API on a modern design. It can handle many requests at once. This makes it suitable for organizations of all sizes.
Developer-Friendly Documentation: Comprehensive API documentation and developer resources make it easy for IT teams to implement and maintain integrations.
Webhooks for Event-Driven Actions: The API supports webhooks. This lets systems respond quickly to events like check-ins, bookings, or capacity changes.

Final Thoughts on Embracing the Future of Work

The introduction of automated check-ins through our public API marks a significant leap forward in hybrid workplace management. By tackling important issues like wrong occupancy data and tricky IT problems, we are not just fixing issues.

We are creating new ways for organizations to enhance their spaces. This will improve employee experiences. It will also help them make smart decisions using data.

Hybrid work presents challenges and tools like these can help create workplaces that work well. They will meet the needs of both employees and organizations.

Ready to revolutionize your hybrid workplace? Check out our public API today to start optimizing your spaces. It’s the first step to a more efficient, data-driven, and employee-friendly workplace.

Watch the full demonstration here to find out how easy it is optimizing your spaces.

Author Bio

Luke Christian-Farman

Welcome to Beyond Hybrid

Posted on October 1, 2024October 4, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

My name is Dave, and welcome to Beyond Hybrid. Each month I’ll be “peeking around the corner” in a humble attempt to deliver the latest insights about the next chapter of work straight into your inbox.

Together, we’ll wrestle with the changing landscape of work as we seek to understand what might lie beyond this undeniably “hybrid” moment. We’ll dive deeper into the biggest online conversations and further explore insights from thought leaders on the future of work so you and your company can continue to have fresh ideas to explore.

Sound good? I hope it’s a marked difference from where we all were when the pandemic hit. Back then, we got thrown into an experiment and we’ve only just managed to find our feet. Let’s not make that same mistake again.

I’ve just got back from Running Remote – a conference in Lisbon focusing on how companies can make remote work successful. What’s my big takeaway from that event? They can’t. Or if they can, it’s just not going to be as successful as the hybrid solution. Since the beginning of the pandemic, big companies resisted full-on remote work (understandable). But now, more and more of us are sobering up to just how hard the mass adoption of remote work truly is.

Running Remote

Leaders are starting to accept that even if remote work at scale results in a much better society at scale, we can’t will it onto Fortune 100+.

Sure, Sam Szuchan might go viral on LinkedIn every day preaching the good word of remote—but that doesn’t mean his “sermons” are the reality of the present moment.

We had our moment of revolution (which we REALLY needed!) but now we are settling back into evolution, albeit with the veil having been lifted—a very clear before-and-after moment.

This is a Hybrid Moment

On a panel at Running Remote, I said ‘This is a hybrid moment. Period.’

Office-First is dead and, at least for now, so is Remote. Returning to the past is now a quantifiable business and talent risk. The stock performance of in-office companies lagged behind their fully flexible peers by 16% between 2020-22. And while companies like Atlassian are operating on the other end of the spectrum (their remote hires have increased 4x since 2020) it’s completely unrealistic to expect average enterprises to adopt what they define as Distributed Work.

Companies like Atlassian and Dropbox not only don’t have the resources but also the know-how to shift the “tectonic plates” of work. As time goes on, more and more companies will fit this newfound company ethos but for now large enterprises need to focus on incremental change. They need to shift from in-office to hybrid. They need to shift from top-down mandates to team-led agreements.

Now, that doesn’t mean we should sit in neutral and accept a “structured” approach to hybrid work (ie. everyone comes in Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) as a final destination. Far from it.

But it does mean that we have to recognize much like the pursuit of personal growth, the future of work is going to be a game of inches. Step by step, we can explore together what lies beyond the traditional hybrid model. Think no mandates, human flourishing, optimal rhythms of digital and in-person experiences.

We exist in strange times—we were shown what the world could look like in 10+ years but it was revealed during a period of massive trauma.

So it feels important to get back to more realistic, incremental change while also exploring what lies Beyond Hybrid.

Will you join me? I hope so.

Stay tuned for more insights about the next chapter of work, straight into your inbox next month!

Dave

Luke Christian-Farman

Dave is Kadence’s Future of Work Strategist. He foresees what’s unfolding in the world of work and advises our customers on how to prepare and adapt to the latest trends easily.

What’s next for the future of work?

Join our Kadence community to stay on top of latest news and trends in the future of work.

Understanding Room Booking Software and Its Benefits

Posted on September 9, 2024September 11, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

61% of meetings in the office are still hybrid — inclusive of in-person and remote attendees, and in the U.S., 54% of meetings fall into that category.

What’s even more interesting is that it’s not likely to change. There are more distributed teams than ever, making bringing people together to collaborate in these meeting spaces one of the biggest challenges for organizations day-to-day.

It’s proof that if you want to make sure you’re not wasting money and resources in meeting rooms, managing them efficiently is more important than ever.

For those who know, Room booking software is a game-changer, allowing you to quickly reserve the rooms you need so you can focus on what matters—productive meetings that drive your business forward.

What is Room Booking Software?

Room booking software is a digital tool that transforms how you book and manage meeting spaces. It offers real-time visibility of room availability, an effortless reservation experience, and seamless calendar integrations so everyone’s schedule is in sync.

Why use Room Booking Software?

Simplifies Room Reservations

Imagine needing a room for an impromptu meeting or a planned brainstorming session. With room booking software, you can easily find and book available rooms using your mobile or desktop app, saving you a tonne of time, and reducing stress.

Integrates with Calendars

Room booking software needs to sync seamlessly with popular calendar systems like Google and Outlook because more often than not, these are the tools companies use the most. This means you can manage your room bookings right from your calendar, ensuring that your schedule, and your teammate’s schedules, alongside your room reservations, are always working in tandem.

Improves Meeting Space Efficiency

By providing real-time data on room usage, room booking software should help you optimize your spaces for better use. Enabling you to see which rooms are frequently used and which ones are often left empty. That way, you to make informed decisions about space your resources, and your spaces.

Benefits for Hybrid Teams

Book your ideal space with Flexible Scheduling

Whether you’re working from home or in the office, book rooms from anywhere. This flexibility is crucial for hybrid and distributed teams, allowing members to coordinate meetings regardless of their location.

Enhance Collaboration in Productivity-Boosting Spaces

Easily coordinate meetings with team members, ensuring everyone is on the same page and able to attend in-person or remotely. Room booking software facilitates communication and collaboration, making teamwork more effective.

Gain Insights for Cost-Effective Space Management

Use data to optimize room usage and reduce unnecessary expenses. By understanding how your spaces are used, you can make strategic decisions that save money and improve efficiency on a daily basis.

Key Features

1. Quick Comparison and Booking

No more endless searching for an available room. With just a few clicks, you can instantly select, compare, find, and reserve any available room for your meetings, ensuring you always have the space you need when you need it.

A meeting rom comparison dashboard showing bookings and availability.

2. Room Visibility

Get a clear view of all available meeting rooms and their schedules in one place. This transparency helps you avoid double bookings and ensures that everyone on the team knows which spaces are free.

An interactive live office floor plan of the London HQ.

3. Room Booking Displays

Use displays outside of your conference rooms to make it easier to check in or see whether it’s in use, or when it’s next available so you can book that meeting space for the time you need.

An illustration of room booking kiosk software on an ipad.

4. Real-Time Data

Access insights into room usage patterns, helping you understand how your spaces are being utilized. This data can be invaluable for optimizing your office layout and ensuring you’re making the most of your resources.

5. Amenities

When booking a room, you can add necessary amenities like projectors, whiteboards, or video conferencing equipment. This ensures that your meeting space is fully equipped for whatever you have planned.

Filtering rooms for comparison by amenities.

6. Auto-Release

If a meeting is canceled or there are no-shows, automatically free up the room, making it available for others to use, maximizing room utilization, and preventing wasted space.

Space management insights and statistics.

7. Catering Options

Planning a long meeting or a working lunch? Include catering needs with your room reservation, so everything is ready when your team arrives.

An illustration of room booking software information.

8. Check-In Reminders

Receive notifications through Slack or Microsoft Teams to remind you to check into your booked room. This feature ensures that reserved spaces are used and helps prevent no-shows.

An illustration of check-in and booking reminders within Microsoft teams.

How it works

Find a Room: Search for available rooms based on location, size, and amenities. Invite who you want to attend, add a time, date, and any catering options if you have that set up.
Book a Room: Once you’ve found the ideal room, and you’ve invited who you need, reserve it directly from your calendar or through the app. The process is quick and straightforward, minimizing the time spent on logistics.
Check-In: Confirm your reservation by checking in when you arrive. This step ensures that the room is marked as occupied and ready for your meeting.
Free Up Space: If you no longer need the room, release it for others to use, maximizing the efficiency of your meeting spaces.

How to book rooms with Google and Outlook

Google Calendar: Create an event, add meeting details, invite teammates, and select an available room. Your room booking is then reflected in your calendar, keeping everything organized.
Outlook: Click ‘New event’, and choose an available room from the drop-down. Give the meeting a description, invite your guests, and hit send.

How to manage Meeting Room Bookings

Define Room Capacity

Establish the capacity and amenities for each room helping users choose the right space for their needs. It also ensures that rooms are used appropriately and for their intended purpose.

Implement Booking Processes

Help teams see available rooms, book them, and check in, streamlining the booking experience and reducing confusion.

Analyze Usage Data

Understand which rooms are most used to make necessary improvements. By analyzing data, you can identify trends and make informed decisions about space management making huge cost-savings in unused space.

Final Thoughts

By leveraging advanced room booking software solutions, you can revolutionize your meeting space management processes, creating a seamless and efficient environment for hybrid teams to collaborate effectively.

Room booking software goes beyond simply streamlining the logistics of room booking; it transforms the way teams interact within their workspace.

By providing real-time visibility into room availability, facilitating easy reservations, and offering powerful insights into space utilization, you’ll discover teams making the most of their physical and virtual meeting spaces.

The result is a significant enhancement in overall efficiency, productivity, and employee satisfaction across the organization, adapting to the evolving needs of modern workplaces, and ensuring that you can remain agile and responsive to the needs of your teams.

To understand more about how Room Booking Software can elevate team productivity, book a demo.

Author bio

Luke Christian-Farman

What’s next for the future of work?

Join our Kadence community to stay on top of latest news and trends in the future of work.

Streamlining Space Management with Kadence’s Additional Space Types

Posted on August 21, 2024August 30, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

Efficient space management is crucial for fostering a productive and collaborative work environment. With the rise of hybrid work models, companies need to adapt to the changing landscape of employee needs by streamlining space management effectively.

This is why we are excited to introduce our latest feature: Additional Space Types. Alongside being able to book out Desks and Rooms, this innovative addition empowers office managers to seamlessly integrate parking, lockers, and private pods into their floorplans, allowing employees to book these areas for their daily use.

No matter where your team members are located, our new feature enhances streamlining space management, accessibility and convenience, creating a more unified and efficient workspace.

What are Additional Space Types?

Additional Space Types allow office managers to add and manage various space options—such as parking spots, personal lockers, and private pods—directly within their floorplans.

This functionality simplifies the booking process and enables organizations to maximize their real estate usage efficiently.

Imagine being able to reserve a parking spot ahead of time or securing a private pod for a focused work session, all with just a few clicks. This functionality transforms your workspace into a tailored environment that meets the diverse needs of your team, fostering both collaboration and individual productivity.

5 things you can do with Additional Space Types

1. Select and book the resources you need for that day

Book out a pod for private calls, a locker for your luggage, and a designated spot for your ride all from the interactive floor plan.

A list of bookable resources that you can select

2. Create and configure each space type how you like

List resources in order of priority within the booking flow. Create neighborhoods with any space type, including rooms. Set capacity limits, maximum booking durations, and limit repeated bookings for high-demand spaces.

An illustration of parking, lockers and private pods users can book

3. Fine-tune access restrictions for each space type

Customize who gets access to each space type. Assign lockers, pods, and parking spots to team members. Give individuals priority access. Book in advance, and repeat any booking for as long as you need.

The resource section under settings within the Kadence web app

4. Enhance the efficiency of how your spaces are used

Manage lockers, parking spots, and pods in all of the same ways you could before. Set up auto-release for no-shows or cancellations, enable early check-in or via access control

Available car park spaces users can book out

5. Uncover usage patterns for each new space type

Improve the use of your spaces by utilizing Kadence’s intuitive heat map to identify the most popular space types.

An illustration of a heat map that shows the most popular area area of the office

The Impact of Additional Space Types on Your Organization

Efficient Space Management

The integration of Additional Space Types within Kadence allows teams to continue streamlining space management more effectively. By centralizing all space bookings and communications, organizations can streamline operations and improve overall productivity.

Savings on your Real Estate

With the ability to track and optimize space usage, companies can achieve a significant reduction in real estate expenses. This functionality allows for better resource allocation, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to employee satisfaction and organizational success.

Enhanced Employee Experience

Kadence’s user-friendly features, including easy booking options and clear communication, enhance the overall experience for employees. By providing the amenities they need, organizations can cultivate a more engaged and motivated workforce.

Impactful Communication

The platform’s integrated communication tools ensure that all team members are informed about space availability and bookings. This promotes transparency and fosters a collaborative atmosphere, essential for modern workplaces.

Why Space Management is Important

Effective space management is vital for several reasons:

Cost Efficiency: By optimizing space usage, organizations can significantly reduce real estate costs, ensuring that every square foot is utilized effectively.
Employee Satisfaction: Providing employees with easy access to amenities like lockers and private pods enhances their work experience, leading to greater job satisfaction and retention.
Flexibility: As hybrid work becomes the norm, companies must be agile in managing their physical spaces to accommodate fluctuating team sizes and work styles.
Productivity: Well-organized spaces contribute to improved focus and productivity, allowing employees to thrive in their roles.
Collaboration: A well-managed workspace encourages teamwork and communication, breaking down barriers and fostering a culture of collaboration.

5 Benefits of Using Kadence's Space Management Tools

1. Enhance Flexibility for Your Teams

With Additional Space Types, office managers can create a dynamic environment that adapts to the needs of the workforce. Employees can easily reserve spaces that suit their work style, whether it’s a collaborative area or a private setting. This flexibility ensures that everyone can work in a way that maximizes their productivity and comfort.

2. Optimize Real Estate Costs

By leveraging the Kadence platform, organizations can reduce unnecessary expenses associated with underutilized spaces. The ability to track and manage all types of spaces ensures that companies are only paying for what they actively use, leading to significant cost savings.

3. Simplify the Booking Process

Gone are the days of complicated spreadsheets and miscommunication regarding space availability. Kadence’s intuitive interface allows employees to book desks, rooms, parking, lockers, and pods effortlessly. This streamlined process minimizes administrative burdens and enhances the overall employee experience.

4. Drive Employee Engagement and Satisfaction

Providing employees with the resources they need—like secure lockers for personal belongings or quiet pods for focused work—demonstrates a commitment to their well-being. This fosters a sense of belonging and engagement, contributing to a positive workplace culture.

5. Improve Logistics and Communication

Kadence’s centralized platform ensures that all space-related communications are streamlined. Office managers can easily inform teams about available spaces, changes, or updates, reducing confusion and enhancing overall coordination.

Final thoughts

The introduction of Additional Space Types marks a significant step forward in the evolution of streamlining space management within organizations. By equipping office managers with the tools they need to optimize their environments, Kadence is paving the way for a more connected and productive workforce.

This feature not only addresses the current demands of hybrid work but also anticipates future needs, enabling companies to thrive in an ever-changing landscape. For organizations looking to enhance their space management strategy and create a more efficient workplace, Kadence stands out as the premier solution.

To see how Additional Space Types can transform your workspace management, book a demo today and experience the difference firsthand.

Author bio

Luke Christian-Farman

What’s next for the future of work?

Join our Kadence community to stay on top of latest news and trends in the future of work.

Unify Your Teams, And Company Culture With Kadence Events

Posted on July 17, 2024August 30, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

Efficiently managing and coordinating events is key to successful team and culture cohesion. Introducing our new feature Kadence Events, designed to help companies and team managers bring their teams together, and unify their teams by helping them plan, organize, and schedule events efficiently.

No matter where your team members are, Kadence Events helps everyone come together, boosting collaboration and efficiency. It’s an essential tool for modern event management, seamlessly fitting into the dynamic needs of hybrid work environments.

What is Kadence Events?

Kadence Events is a robust events management tool designed to optimize productivity and streamline operations across various workspaces.

It transforms every workspace into a vibrant hub where teams thrive and innovation flourishes, making it an essential tool for managing both in-person and hybrid events.

Want to tell your team about a charity donut sale? How about organizing a weekly team check-in with drinks after work including a poll with the best spots nearby? Or perhaps a company offsite filled with seminars, updates, and presentations?

Create any event you like, invite who you like, and notify them directly in one click.

Why bringing your teams together matters for your organization

To unify your teams successfully is crucial for the success of any company. When teams are cohesive and aligned, they can collaborate more effectively, share knowledge, and leverage each other’s strengths. This increases productivity, better decision-making, and a more positive work environment.

By fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose, companies can tap into the collective intelligence of their teams, drive innovation, and adapt more effectively to change. Additionally, cohesive teams are better equipped to handle challenges and support each other, ultimately leading to higher employee satisfaction and retention. Overall, a united team can propel a company towards its goals and create a sustainable and thriving organizational culture.

Why bringing your teams together matters for your people

Bringing your teams together is essential for the well-being of your people. When teams are unified and connected, it fosters a sense of belonging, support, and camaraderie among team members. This creates a positive work environment where individuals feel valued, motivated, and empowered.

Collaboration and effective communication within the team lead to increased job satisfaction, personal growth, and a strong sense of community. Moreover, a cohesive team can provide emotional support during challenging times, boosting morale and resilience. Ultimately, when you unify your teams successfully, it enhances the overall well-being and happiness of your people, leading to a more fulfilling and rewarding work experience.

5 Benefits of using Kadence Events

1. Easily bring your teams together for a common purpose

People gather around shared values and beliefs, so the main way to instill your company vision, and goals, is to actively promote those shared values amongst your team.

Additionally, a great way to unify your teams, help make your employees feel included, and a powerful sense of belonging is to center events around a common theme.

That’s why with Kadence Events, you’re able to create events for anything you like, and for any occasion.

Whether it’s a regular town hall meeting or yoga club at lunch on a Friday, Kadence lets you plan, and invite team members and external guests via Slack, Microsoft Teams, Email, or within the Kadence App.

An illustration of a Kadence Event invite

2. Plan, organize, and schedule events all in one platform

One of the biggest challenges organizations face when it comes to bringing their teams together is event management. Whether it’s Excel spreadsheets, notion docs, or long lists of emails bouncing back and forth, it’s almost impossible to keep on top of.

The great thing about Kadence Events is that it streamlines all of your planning and invitations in one place.

Simply create an announcement with all the details about your event, including dietary requirements, and a Google Maps location. Send it out to all of your attendees through Slack, or MS Teams, or make an Announcement through the Kadence App to ensure your team members receive it.

Then collate all of your accepted invites in one place so you can see who’s able to come.

It couldn’t be easier.

An illustration of the location of an event

3. Drive meaningful connections outside of work

Connecting at work with your teammates is great, but most of the time, it’s about work. And although this is great, what we’ve found with many of our customers is that those connection moments that happen outside of work environments enable in-person work to flourish even more.

With Kadence Events, you’re able to see an entire catalog of everything that’s happening near any location.

Whether it’s 5-a-side soccer on Fridays, Movie night on Mondays, Chess club on a Tuesday or a Wellness seminar on a Wednesday, you can be sure to find something that’s right for you.

An illustration of the latest events in Kadence

4. Understand and promote employee engagement and belonging

Organizing any type of event at scale is time-consuming. On top of that, it’s equally hard to know whether the event was a success or not.

That’s why Kadence Events are so powerful.

With every event you organize, you can create feedback polls to let you know how people felt about the event.

You can also see detailed Events Analytics where you can see how many showed up in person or online to help you understand whether the event was a success or whether it needs improvements.

An illustration of Kadence Events insights

5. Streamline event and logistics communications

If there’s one thing that makes organizing an event difficult, it’s telling people about it.

With so many comms coming from different angles it’s near impossible to ensure your event can cut through the noise.

With Kadence Events, you can not only create an event announcement letting everyone know all at once, but you can also choose to send it via Slack, MS Teams, or email to ensure that everyone gets the invite.

The result of using Kadence Events

Increased Efficiency

Kadence Events significantly streamlines the event management process to unify your teams by integrating with tools such as Slack, MS Teams, and your preferred calendar, enabling you to manage attendees directly from Kadence. Kadence Events not only simplifies the process but also enhances productivity, as evidenced by a 44% monthly growth in space bookings and an average of 5-6 bookings per employee each month with one of our customers.

Cost Savings

By optimizing the use of office space and reducing booking conflicts, Kadence Events has helped organizations achieve a 70% reduction in booking conflicts by effortlessly bringing their teams together. Additionally, the use of Kadence Events creates unparalleled team dynamics ensuring that when your teams are together for work or social activities, they’re thriving.

Improved Attendee Experience

Kadence Events enhances the attendee experience by offering user-friendly features like a Google Map Block for easy venue location and galleries from past events to encourage signups. The platform also ensures that event information such as the name, date, location, and time are easily accessible and presented in various formats to prevent any attendee confusion. This attention to detail ensures a seamless experience for all participants, making the event more appealing and engaging.

Collaboration and Communication Enhancements

Kadence Events enhances team collaboration and communication by allowing you to send announcements with key updates directly through the platform. This feature reduces email clutter and ensures that critical information is easily accessible on your Homepage Dashboard. Effective internal communication fosters a positive work environment and aligns everyone towards common goals, which is essential for boosting productivity and reducing turnover in any organization.

Final thoughts

Throughout the exploration of Kadence Events, we’ve uncovered its profound impact on event management, particularly within hybrid work environments.

The platform’s capabilities extend from simplifying meeting coordination and desk booking to fostering improved collaboration and efficiency, all vital for the success of modern businesses.

The significance of Kadence Events goes beyond its immediate benefits, acting as a catalyst for innovation and growth within organizations.

By integrating essential tools for management and communication, not only addresses current needs but also anticipates future demands, paving the way for more connected and productive workspaces.

For businesses looking to elevate their event management strategy and harness the power of hybrid working models, Kadence Events stands out as the go-to solution.

To explore how Kadence Events can transform your event management process, book a demo and see it in action.

Author bio

Luke Christian-Farman

Introducing Advanced Features for Desk Management Efficiency

Posted on June 12, 2024June 17, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

Let’s get straight to the point. In today’s hybrid work environment, flexible hot-desk booking and the use of Desk Management Tools have emerged as a crucial tool for teams to collaborate effectively.

It provides an efficient way for teams to organize in-person meetings and brainstorming sessions, while simultaneously enabling Office Managers to optimize the use of office spaces.

In essence, it has completely revolutionized the way hybrid teams operate, making the logistics of office management significantly simpler and more streamlined.

Given the importance of such a tool, we’re excited to announce that we’ve taken Desk Booking to entirely new heights.

Our team has been working tirelessly to enhance its features, and the result is a more robust, user-friendly solution that will make the lives of Office Managers even easier.

Whether it’s overseeing the use of office spaces or coordinating team meetings, our improved Desk Booking Software is designed to handle it all with the utmost efficiency.

Create Maximum Booking Durations

Make exclusive areas of the office more available

Do you know those frequently visited areas in your office? The ones that are always buzzing with activity, filled with an assortment of snacks and surrounded by the latest trendy office furniture? It can often be quite a challenge to find available slots in these spaces because they’re almost always completely booked.

But, there’s good news!

You can now implement Maximum Booking Durations.

This function ensures that everyone within your office has an equal opportunity to make bookings in these highly sought-after areas, fostering a sense of fairness and inclusivity.

Stay compliant with health and safety regulations

And while we’re on the topic of trendy office furniture, let’s talk about ‘leaning stools’ and ‘high seats’. They may be stylish, but have you ever thought about how long your employees are sitting on them? Whatever the seating may be, prolonged use could potentially lead to health issues, and that’s where our new feature comes in handy.

With Maximum Booking Durations, you can limit the time your employees spend on these seats, helping you not only maintain a trendy office but also comply with health and safety regulations.

This way, your office remains a place of comfort, productivity, and safety.

Learn more here

Set limits on how much you can book

An example of a warning on kadenc for booking too many spaces at once.

Make more spaces available by reducing over-booking

When it comes to the topic of exclusive areas within the office space, have you ever experienced a situation where a desk appears to be available, but in reality, it’s already been reserved by another colleague?

Perhaps your team managers are booking multiple desks on behalf of their teammates which tends to be quite common in hybrid workplaces.

Now, office managers have a solution to this problem. They can Limit Concurrent Bookings ensuring that their teams are not over-booking desks that aren’t required.

It’s a smart way of preventing individuals from booking multiple desks on behalf of their teammates who may not even turn up to the office.

By doing this, you can make sure that everyone in the office who truly requires a workspace will get one.

Get more accurate space usage data

Over-booked desks can also play havoc with your data. When desks are booked on behalf of teammates who may or may not show up, there’s no way of knowing how your spaces are actually being used.

Thats why placing a Limit on Concurrent Bookings is so important. It helps enforce the right procedures for booking desks, leading to accurate space usage data, and maximum desk management efficiency.

Here’s a more detailed guide

Author bio

Luke Christian-Farman

5 Space Management Solutions for Transportation Companies

Posted on June 6, 2024June 18, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

If you’re a manager or employee at a transportation company, you’ll be more than familiar with the challenges of hybrid work. With employees moving between home office and in-person work at will, it can be difficult to understand how your spaces are being used — and where your opportunities for optimization lie.

And yet making the best use of your space is easier said than done. The reality of hybrid work is that people tend to come and go at will — even if you have rules already in place. With this unpredictability, how can you ever fully understand how your office is being used?

In this article, we’ll look at some of the most common challenges transportation companies face in managing their spaces and explore how space management software can help you optimize your use of physical space.

1. Introduce Desk Sharing

One of the most common challenges faced by transportation companies is the inefficient use of desk space.

The quick rise of hybrid work has meant that, in many cases, employees continue hanging on to their own permanent desks – despite visiting the office infrequently. The result is empty office floors and a plain waste of useful space.

Do you really need your own desk if you only plan to come into the office once a week?

The Solution

Space management tools are designed to organize people and spaces efficiently with smart desk sharing. With a simple booking flow, desk sharing can transform your use of your physical office space by reducing the overall number of desks and streamlining the experience of office-based work. Some space management tools even offer office neighborhood planning, which means you can design certain areas of the office around tasks, roles or departments. Desk sharing will help you save space which can be used for more critical functions, like meeting or training rooms — while also bringing your space back to life and boosting your company culture.

2. Utilize Your Office Efficiently

As a transportation company, you might be grappling with the idea that don’t use your space efficiently enough. Although you may have some basic functionality for desk booking or room scheduling, you still fail to understand which areas of your office are being used, and which are not.

Perhaps some floors are bursting with life, while others are quiet and underused. The uneven distribution of your people in your spaces leads to inefficient management of resources (energy that’s used to power parts of the office that are always empty) and frustration among employees, who may find it difficult to access the spaces they need when they need them.

So how do you stay on top of the day-to-day use of your space?

The Solution

Introducing a space management tool into your workflow will immediately help you utilize your office more efficiently. Look out for tools that come equipped with data and analytics, providing valuable insights into space utilization trends and patterns. By seeing how your spaces are used throughout the day, week, or month, you can identify problems and opportunities and make decisions that benefit everyone involved. Perhaps you’ve noticed that you could stop powering a certain zone in your office to save on your energy bills — or seen an opportunity for building a new meeting room in a quiet corner of the building.

Insights allows Office Managers see how space is being used.

3. Cut Down Real Estate Costs

In today’s tough economic climate, your transportation company is most likely looking for ways to cut down unnecessary costs attached to the business. One of those costs — perhaps your biggest fixed cost — is your real estate lease.

But downsizing office space is a big decision — and it takes a great deal of confidence to arrive at. With employees spread between home and the office, you might not know how your spaces are being used — and therefore what action you can take to downsize and reduce your real estate bill.

Ultimately, you might not have the answer to a simple question: what size office do we need?

The Solution

Transportation companies could benefit greatly from implementing desk booking management tools. Desk booking tools give you a proper understanding of the use of your office space and help you come to decisions about how you manage your space. By implementing a desk hoteling system, you no longer need permanent desk space and instead gain a clearer picture into how many desks your office floor actually needs. Working with space management software ultimately empowers transportation companies to optimize their space usage and make important decisions on where and how to downsize.

4. Introduce Office Neighborhoods For Face-to-Face Collaboration

At your transportation company, you might be facing the challenge that your office zones are poorly organized and compromise on proper collaboration and quality face-to-face time.

In a hybrid work system, employees can sometimes end up dispersed around the office floor in ways that don’t make sense for team cohesion and connection.

Although you are set on implementing a desk booking tool that helps you organize your people better, you want to make sure this comes hand in hand with the right people working alongside each other.

The Solution

Make sure to implement a space management tool that offers office neighborhoods and permissions. These tools allow admins to assign specific neighborhoods (groups of desks) to specific teams and set permissions to control who can book or access these spaces. Say goodbye to isolated employees working floors away from their teams! With office neighbourhoods, you’ll ensure the right people and working alongside each other whenever they are in the office – making for the best collaboration possible, and the quality social time that makes up your company culture.

5. Uphold Security and Privacy Standards

You’ve heard it before: privacy, privacy, privacy. As a transportation company, protecting the security and privacy of your employees is another big challenge, and not one you take lightly.

Not only are you responsible for protecting sensitive information related to your employees, you’re also always having to make sure you uphold the highest industry standards for data protection — and not fall behind.

The Solution

Go for space management software that takes security and privacy seriously. Your tool should be SOC 2 compliant, maintain Cyber Essentials certification, and data should be encrypted both in-transit and at rest. Partnering with a space management tool that maintains the highest data and privacy standards will give you peace of mind when integrating a new tool into your transportation company workflow.

Kadence: The Smart Space Management Tool for Transportation Companies

The best space management tools go above and beyond room and desk booking capabilities.

Tools like Kadence have a track record in helping transportation companies solve the challenges presented by hybrid work, offering a holistic space management solution tailored to all kinds of use cases.

Our platform leverages AI-driven desk booking and flexible scheduling, data analytics, powerful integrations, and robust security measures to organize your people and spaces and get the most out of hybrid work.

Trust Kadence to provide the tools you need to create a seamless, efficient, and secure environment for your employees.

Luke Christian-Farman

5 Space Management Solutions for Utilities Companies

Posted on May 30, 2024May 30, 2024 by Luke Christian-Farman

If you’re a manager or employee at a utilities company, you know full well the challenges that come with adopting hybrid work. As your team grows and adapts, you are tasked with managing your office space effectively, so that it’s both functional and enjoyable for your employees.

But making the best use of your space is easier said than done. People are unpredictable, and their use of your workspaces doesn’t follow a simple set of rules. With so much complexity, how do you make sure you’re on top of your management of hybrid work?

In this article, we’ll look at some of the most common challenges utilities companies face in managing their spaces and explore how space management software can help you optimize your use of physical space.

1. Do Hybrid Right

The transition to hybrid work can seem like an uphill battle at the best of times.

As a utilities company with employees spending their time between home and the office, there are so many things you might feel you need to get on top of: having a system for scheduling and booking rooms and desks, managing your evolving teams and spaces, encouraging use of your office, and finally just knowing if it’s all working or not!

The pile of tasks keeps getting bigger and you don’t know where to turn. Is there someone or something out there that can help provide clarity and simplicity?

The Solution

Space management tools are designed to organize people and spaces efficiently and remove all of the headaches associated with hybrid work. With scheduling software, insights, software integrations, and office neighborhood planning, the best hybrid work tools are designed to make going into the office an enjoyable experience — where everyone is on the same page. Hybrid work can get messy when it’s left to the people themselves, but when it’s managed properly with a dedicated tool, it can make a huge difference to the health and success of your business.

Space Management data and insights help drive team productivity

2. Use Your Space Effectively

As a utilities company, you may well be feeling like you simply don’t use your space effectively enough. Though you may have implemented some basic infrastructure for desk booking or room scheduling, you are still struggling to connect the dots and make sure that every inch of your office serves a purpose — and keeps your employees both focused and engaged.

Certain desks or meeting rooms might be neglected, while others are constantly in demand. This uneven distribution ultimately leads to wasted resources (powering parts of the office that never get used!) and frustration among employees, who may find it difficult to access the spaces they need when they need them.

The Solution

Integrating a space management tool into your workflow will instantly help you become more efficient with your use of the office. The best tools come equipped with data and analytics that provide valuable insights into space utilization patterns. By seeing how different spaces are used throughout the day, week, or month, managers can identify trends and make informed decisions that benefit everyone involved. This could mean “switching off” certain areas when not in use to save on energy bills or reorganizing desks to distribute workers more efficiently.

3. Reduce Real Estate Costs

In today’s economic climate, your utilities company is most likely on the lookout for ways to get leaner as a business and cut down unnecessary costs. Your attention may well be turning towards one of your biggest overheads — your office lease.

But with your employees spread between home and the office, it can be hard to see exactly how your office space is being used — and therefore what action you can take to downsize and reduce your real estate bill. It seems like a big step to break your lease when you don’t know what size office your company actually needs!

The Solution

To address this challenge, utilities companies can implement desk booking management tools. Desk booking tools give you a clear understanding of the actual use of your office space and help you make decisions about how you manage your space. By implementing a desk hoteling system, you remove the need for dedicated desk space and instead gain a clearer picture into how many desks your office floor actually needs. Working with space management software ultimately empowers utilities companies to optimize their space usage and make crucial decisions on where and how to downsize.

4. Designate Office Neighborhoods

It’s likely that your utilities company is also looking for ways to get smarter about how office zones are organized for a layout that encourages collaboration and cohesion.

Sometimes hot-desking can come with the unfortunate side effect that team members are strewn across different areas of the office floor, unable to work with each other as effectively as before.

While you may be preparing to implement desk and room booking software to get more flexible about how you work, you don’t want this to come at the expense of team cohesion and productivity.

The Solution

Implementing a space management tool that supports designated neighborhoods and permissions can help utilities companies manage your spaces efficiently. Space management tools allow administrators to assign specific neighborhoods (groups of desks) to particular teams and set permissions to control who can book or access these spaces. This ensures that teams can go about hybrid work flexibly without losing one crucial aspect of their work: collaboration.

5. Robust Security and Privacy

In a time where privacy concerns are high of mind, ensuring the security and privacy of your employees’ data is another major challenge — and not one that should be ignored.

Utilities companies are tasked with protecting sensitive information related to their employees and ensuring any new tools uphold the best security standards available.

The Solution

Make sure your chosen space management software comes with next-gen security infrastructure and measures. It should be SOC 2 compliant, maintain Cyber Essentials certification, and data should be encrypted both in-transit and at rest. Joining forces with a space management tool that upholds the highest data and privacy standards will provide peace of mind when integrating a new tool into your utilities company workflow.

Kadence: The Intelligent Space Management Tool for Utilities Companies

The best space management tools don’t just provide a neat solution to room and desk booking.

Tools like Kadence have a track record in going above and beyond to ensure that utilities companies gets hybrid right, offering a comprehensive space management solution tailored to all kinds of challenges.

Trust Kadence to provide the tools you need to create a seamless, efficient, and secure environment for your employees.

Luke Christian-Farman