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Tag: employee engagement

Tired of being the ‘Check-in Cop?’ 3 new check in easy features you need to know

Posted on by Luke Christian-Farman

It makes sense to make your beloved spaces bookable, and accessible for your teams, with tools that encourage them to use them right? We think so too. You see, spaces are meaningless unless they’re being used for a purpose, and now that people are chomping at the bit to return to the spaces they love whether, for social connection or team collaboration, it would be wise to have something in place to enable your people to check in easy.

You may even be wondering that the problem isn’t in managing spaces or making bookings, but rather in making it easier for your people to book, and access those spaces, in the moment or ahead of time. If that’s you, and you’re tired of being the ‘space booking, and check-in cops’, look no further because we’ve got you covered with this latest set of features. 

Arrive early, check in early

Getting to the office early for scheduled meetings, or to use the space you’ve pre-booked is better than arriving late, fact! Sometimes it cannot be helped, but for the most part, getting in the office early doors is never a bad thing. 

An evolution on checking into spaces and a much-requested feature by many now means all Kadence users can check into their bookings early on the same day if their spaces are available. With this new feature, your people no longer need to wait for their booking to start before they can start on their day. 

More Auto-release options 

When it comes to managing your spaces, and maintaining some level of organization, and order, one fundamental problem businesses are experiencing with other platforms is knowing what to do when people don’t show up to their bookings. If there is anything in a hybrid workplace that causes as much strain on the sheer amount of wasted time having to rectify this issue it’s this one! However, in most cases, there is always a genuine reason why someone might be late for their booking, and for those that have childcare responsibilities, or had their train canceled, losing your spot to work in the office that day just doesn’t seem fair. 

Having more Auto-release options (1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours & 3 hours) gives Admins far more flexibility when it comes to managing bookings, and ensures that you and your people get the spaces you need when you need them.

Easy check-in

Book the perfect space in your favorite office every time 

When you’re planning to come to the office, and you’re wanting to see who’s there, and what spaces are available that day, this newest feature makes your preferred place to work your default location. So whenever you go to see what spaces are available on the web app, you’re right where you need to be.

Conclusion

Making it easy for your people to make space bookings, and check into those spaces is the only way to go when it comes to organizational hybrid working. It not only encourages your people to come to the office, and not waste bookings, but it means your spaces are being used in the ways that they are intended. Remember, spaces are meaningless unless they’re being used for a purpose, and now with these new features, you can make it easier than ever for your teams to enjoy them.

Interested in getting started? Kick off your free trial today or get in touch with our team for a demo.

Do you have trouble getting your teams into the office?

Safely manage your team’s return in the New Year

Posted on by Luke Christian-Farman

If you’re planning a safe return to the office for your team in the New Year, it’s important to put the right steps in place to ensure your team can be productive and safe while they work and collaborate. 

With new variants and added uncertainty, there will continue to be ebbs and flows, ups and downs, as companies open up their offices again for Hybrid…which is exactly why companies are turning to Kadence.

The solution needs to be simple to use and fast to rollout, and now with Kadence it is. With all the essential tools you need in one place, you can quickly and effectively make sure your entire office is secure, and safe for your employees to return – here’s how.

Simple health sign-in – Ensure a safe and secure re-entry to the office

Admins can set health screening guidelines to align with their company’s health and safety policies. Determine employee health instructions and include anything you want from vaccine mandates to wearing a mask. Release desk bookings for no-shows and allow employees to book spaces up to 3 months in advance. Allow employees and visitors to self-certify before checking in to their reserved spaces from 1hr, 2hrs, or 24hrs of their arrival and prevent employees from checking in if they have not self-certified. With Kadence simple health sign-in, you set the parameters to keep your people safe. Find out more about our visitor management solution.

 

Self certify Workspace Scheduling Software

Team contact tracing – Manage people’s safety in the office

Access your team’s schedule in the Teams Activity overview to see when and where employees are working and see who they’re working with on the interactive floorplan. Know which spaces they’ve booked now and in the future and block out particular spaces or neighborhoods to implement social distance space booking for added safety.

Find out more about our people coordination solution.

 

People coordination - Workspace Scheduling Software

Touchless experience – An all-in-one booking tool, all-in-one place

Employees can also book any space that’s available either near colleagues or anywhere on the floorplan with the right amenities they need for the day eg. Sit-stand desk, monitors, keyboard, etc. Reserve a private room for a group meeting, book a parking space for their ride, and admins can book on behalf of others all within the mobile app booking flow.

Find out more about our desk scheduling & room scheduling solutions.

 

 

Oversee capacity limits – Rich space usage insights for easy decision making

Easily understand space usage insights so you can set building and floor capacity limits and re-assign employees to under-used space. Control booking permission levels to anyone you choose and book on behalf of others helping you bring your team together on particular days.

 

Desk Management Software

 

 

Check out this post to learn how to set up self-certification to help meet the U.S. vaccination mandate requirements.

Interested to see how Kadence can help bring your team back to the office safely? Book a demo with one of our team today to find out more.

Hybrid Workplace Persona #3: The Culturalist

Posted on by Dan Bladen

In our hybrid workplace persona blog series, we’re taking a look at the personas you’re most likely to encounter in your hybrid working office. The four hybrid working employee personas – Soloists, Adapters, Culturalists and Traditionalists – will each approach hybrid differently. Understanding these differences will help you navigate a smooth transition from a traditional, nine-to-five office culture to a hybrid one.

Change can be unsettling for anybody. Insight into the people you’re catering for will inform the tools, systems and culture you need to put in place to keep staff happy and engaged.

In this edition, we’re looking at the Culturalist.

The Culturalist: The networking persona

The Culturalist is the social butterfly, the networking persona. This hybrid working persona loves to spend time with other people and they thrive as part of an office community. The polar opposite to the Soloist; working remotely all week in isolation is definitely not for them. Their preferred habitat is the informal meeting area or collaboration space, or you might also spot them chatting at the water cooler or office social areas throughout the day.

But don’t mistake their social nature for slacking off. Often seen as extroverts, Culturalists are energized by socializing and having people around them. They can be great problem solvers and networkers. They’re heavily invested in the workplace community and are often a driving force behind it.

They’ll be the ones organizing office nights out, baking competitions, and Secret Santa. They’ll also be the ones who are great at collaboration and working across departments, joining the dots and making things happen. Coming into the office should be an enjoyable experience for them. While the flexibility to work remotely will still be important, your Culturalists are likely to come in more frequently. 

Creating a destination workplace

Culturalists will have missed connecting with others and getting out and about more than most during the pandemic. To help them transition to hybrid you’ll need to make them feel engaged and feed their social side for the best workplace experience.

The opportunity to collaborate is important to them so make sure there’s space designed for teamwork. 

  • Collaboration hubs with interactive whiteboards, video conferencing or hybrid meeting setup to make meetings more inclusive 
  • Open areas with comfy chairs and refreshments for chance encounters, impromptu brainstorming sessions and small social gatherings 
  • Silent zones for undisturbed, focused work for those coming to the office to run away from bad internet connection, or to take care of their mental wellbeing by enjoying a peaceful cup of coffee. 
  • Adding a splash of color and plant life can help people feel relaxed and make a break from the desk, encouraging communication and creativity. 

Get our guide on ‘How to make collaboration work in the hybrid workplace’ to discover more ways to enhance workplace experience for your Culturalists.

Create a ‘social’ room and desk booking experience

When they come into the office, your Culturalists will want to be sure they can sit near colleagues and have access to spaces that enable them to collaborate.

In many organizations, the days of one-desk-per-employee are gone. Desk scheduling software such as Kadence’s Wx offers short- or long-term bookings with interactive floor plans that show which workspaces are booked, by whom, and at what time, this can help guarantee they’ll get to sit with colleagues. The same goes for room booking – people can decide exactly when to come to the office to maximize opportunities for chance encounters and collaboration.

Know where colleagues are for networking and socializing

With a dispersed workforce, it’s easy to lose track of where colleagues are working on any given day. The last thing a Culturalist wants is to make the trip into the office, only to find the rest of their team are all working remotely that day.

Putting in place a system that allows everybody to share they will be workingtheir whereabouts during the week will enable employees to sync their own schedules with colleagues’ schedules. Culturalists will value being able to plan their week around the activity of their team.

Biophilic office design

Biophilic office design brings nature into the workplace. It’s based on the idea that humans are intrinsically bound to nature and the natural environment. Workspaces more in tune with nature can make us more content and relaxed.

When your Culturalists come into the office, they’re looking for an uplifting and positive workplace experience. Office design has a key role to play in creating this for them.

Design your office space with biophilic principles in mind:

  • Use natural materials, such as wood or stone
  • Ensure access to natural light and views of green spaces, if possible.
  • Create outside areas for people to socialize and relax
  • Add indoor plants to your décor
  • Embrace a color scheme that has echoes in nature

Optimize your workplace experience

Your Culturalists need employee engagement. They will look forward to the different aspects of office life. Being stuck at home working at the kitchen table will have been particularly difficult for them. They’ll have missed getting out of the house, working face to face with others, and socializing.

They are also keen on hybrid working. It gives them flexibility and work-life balance, but they can still enjoy coming into the office. Just make sure that you take steps to ensure their office experience is a collaborative and productive one.

Give them a simple and intuitive way to book desk and meeting space, the opportunity to sync their schedules with colleagues, thoughtfully designed collaboration and socialization spaces, and a biophilic-inspired workspace design.

Reimagining the workplace with design thinking: The future of workplace experience with IBM

Posted on by Dan Bladen

As part of our ‘Future of Workplace Experience’ series, we discussed with Paul Russell, Business Development for Smart Buildings at IBM Tririga on design thinking for the workplace and the rise of community workspaces. Check out our interview and key takeaways below.

The rise of community workplaces

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  • New models emerging post-pandemic: In countries like the UK, where people might not travel like they used to, how do you make sure people can still physically meet people? One of the changes that you might see is more community workplaces appearing.
  • Close proximity technology in the workplace: With over 300,000 employees at IBM, it is easy to find out about people from different teams or regions through some of our tools currently in play, but what you can’t find out is if anyone is working close to you in the same building in real time.
  • Community workplaces in suburban areas: Instead of renting large corporate offices in the city, I think businesses, particularly in the UK and Europe, will start to regenerate traditional suburbs with community workplaces, creating new opportunities in suburban areas.

Addressing needs of younger members in the workforce

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While the older generation may prefer working from home, it’s also important to address the needs and concerns of the younger members in the team, who may prefer to have a physical office and the social experience of working in a city. Need to make sure they will have the same upwards trajectory and opportunities to grow inside of an organization.

Reimagining the workplace with design thinking

(00:13:08 – 00:24:55)

  • Understanding user behavior with touchless technology: Moving forward, there will be more emphasis on how people move through their workspace through the use of technology and deeper understanding of how people want to use their workplace. It’s opening up new lessons to learn about how we can augment their experience by providing touchless technology and Kadence’s desk and room management software is a great example of that experience.
  • Design thinking in the workplace: We talked a lot about design thinking at IBM and if we want to change someone’s behavior, there needs to be sufficient motivation, efficient ability and a prompt.
  • Enabling contact tracing: With the contact tracing example, we are changing people’s behavior because we want them to feel safe in the workplace and they’re motivated to do this because they want to stay healthy. People need to understand the value exchange and it needs to benefit employees in some way.

Workspace planning with flexibility: interview with Knotel

Posted on by Dan Bladen

As part of our ‘Future of Workplace Experience’ series, we explored the impact of Covid-19 as it relates to workspace planning with flexibility and real estate portfolio strategy with Edward Shenderovich, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Knotel. Check out our interview below:

How will workspace management and design change?

  • Integrated modes of working: Workplace trends such as flexible working and virtual communication have been accelerated. In the post-pandemic world, we will start seeing new and mixed modes of workstyles and workspace design will need to cater for both virtual and on-site modes of working.
  • Emergence of satellite offices: With more employees going to work remotely, companies will need to take into consideration where employees live and how they commute. Rather than leasing one large space, we will start seeing more companies taking up several smaller satellite offices in urban and suburban areas to enable flexible working.
  • De-densification of office design: In the pre-Covid world, a company will roughly account an average of 50 to 250Sq per employee when designing a space. Setting up satellite offices will also help de-densifying the workforce, ultimately we can also expect a de-densification of the urban environment in general.
  • Expect short-term and more flexible leases: Fewer companies will be willing to sign long-term leases as they look for more flexibility in workspace design. Many of our customers are also looking at a lease that allows their staff to access a network of Knotel workspaces, rather than one single centralized space with high density.

Working with landlords to address employees’ needs

  • Alongside office space planning, our priorities for us right now are to work with landlords and building owners to ensure employees can arrive safely to their Knotel workspace. For example, allocating different companies with different time slots to access facilities such as the elevators or stairs, setting up UV lighting or giving visitors more space in the lobby with social distancing measures.
  • We recently introduced Geometry, a collection of flexible modular conferencing furniture (e.g mobile walls, modular phone booths with UV lighting) that will help our customers to enable flexible office space design with health and safety measures.

Why is face-to-face communication important? Talking the future of workplace experience with Superhuman

Posted on by Dan Bladen

There are benefits of virtual communication tools and technology that allow us to work efficiently. With the click of a button, we can catch up with team members no matter where they are. The pandemic has taught us, so far, that we can work remotely. However, there are aspects of communication at work that make it more difficult to sustain in the long run – and show us the importance of in-person, face-to-face communication with colleagues.

As part of our ‘Future of Workplace Experience’ series, we are delighted to have Rahul Vohra, Founder & CEO at Superhuman, sharing why it is crucial to have face-to-face communication in workplaces, and some of the changes we can expect to see in the near future. Check out our interview below:

3 quick tips to work from home

  1. Have a routine – a start time and end time for your work day at home
  2. Create clear separation between work and home life
  3. Introduce ‘home office rules’ to avoid disruptions

Why do you think it’s important to be in a physical office?

  • Social interactions and bonding with the team: Communication at work can play a big part in employees’ day to day. Building real life connections with the team ensures that they feel part of a community.
  • In-person meetings and real-time feedback: Virtual calls can be challenging and getting your point across can be difficult at times, especially on a group call. Some meetings require more collaboration than just one person leading and real life communication works both ways and this is why face-to-face meetings are important.

How do you think workplace is going to change?

  • Flexible working is no doubt going to be the trend and as we are trialing this now, we will need to start thinking about making the office environment and infrastructure ready for this way of working.
  • Bringing productivity back to the office is key. I was able to manage 8 1:1 meetings back-to-back in one day, which is usually impossible when you are in a physical office settings – how can we rethink work flow and office setup to help enhance productivity?
  • Cleanliness at workplace: Make sure to conduct a professional deep cleaning before moving back into the office, plus a more intensive cleaning schedule moving forward.

Any post Covid-19 trends we can expect?

  • An uptake in collaboration tools: Tandem is a good example that has gained massive adoption recently. It is essentially a virtual office for remote teams that helps maintain effective communication with real-time video chat widgets and share files, screens, messages seamlessly.
  • Continuation of how we will rethink productivity and collaboration, the workplace industry and way we work are going to change regardless, all the changes we are seeing are simply being accelerated as a result of this pandemic.

 

Planning for seamless business continuity: interview with Aruba

Posted on by Dan Bladen

As COVID-19 spreads to an ever-growing segment of the global population, the top priority of every organization in this time of crisis should be on protecting the health and safety of its employees now and planning for seamless business continuity and the future return to the workplace. As part of our ‘Future of Workplace Experience’ series, we are delighted to have Keerti Melkote, Co-Founder & President at Aruba, to touch on just that and to share their incredible effort to support frontline health workers. Check out our interview below:

How has Aruba adjusted during Covid-19?

Aruba has over 7,000 employees globally, you can imagine the scale and speed we needed to effectively communicate with our employees and execute plans:

  • We implemented social distancing in the workplace in Singapore with our employees coming into work at designated times throughout the day with alternate desk arrangements. By March, everybody had shifted to working from home globally.
  • Help employees stay connected at home: Aruba’s remote access points allow corporate networks to be extended into their home, which allows the company to establish a working from home process fairly quickly and deliver the same seamless work experience at home.

How do you think the office environment is going to change?

  • Healthcare needs and employee wellbeing will be key: expect a more intensive cleaning schedule, keeping office and surfaces clean at all times to ensure a safe environment for our staff.
  • Expect a rise in ‘mixed meetings‘, meaning we will need to consider how people will be using workspaces differently when work life returns to normal. With home offices being an accepted workplace now, meeting areas will need to be designed and equipped with technology that enables both in-person and virtual interactions, especially bringing reliable and quality video capability into meetings.

How have companies addressed remote working differently?

  • Working from home is no longer a choice and technology is the enabler to this – but the key is to do it securely.
  • Aruba has been using Wifi-based location technology as data input for workspace planners, meaning the real estate and workplace team can now use real-time data to plan ahead and make suggestions. For example, our data doesn’t tell us who that person is, it just tells us where that person is. With the Covid-19 context to practise social distancing, this real-time data can help with our future space planning in regards to our employees’ health and safety.

“People move, networks must follow”

  • In the era of IoT and flexible working, and even more so now with everybody working remotely, ensuring seamless connectivity and power will allow people to work from anywhere, anytime.
  • Network will need to follow you to your home and as things return to normal, places in between such as coffee shops will also be important to ensure people stay connected.

What has Aruba done in response to COVID-19?

  • Connectivity is key to healthcare workers: Wifi enables doctors to examine patients safely at a distance, and also allows network connectivity at pop-up hospitals and testing sites.
  • Leveraging our Airheads community by setting up volunteer groups across 40 countries to help deploying Wifi at testing sites and pop-up hospitals.

How to stay connected with your work-from-home employees: interview with CXApp

Posted on by Dan Bladen

COVID-19 is impacting enterprises all over the world and we are currently experiencing the world’s largest work-from-home experiment. The need for collaboration and employee engagement is going to be more important than ever.

Now is the time to understand what impact COVID-19 has on future ways of working, ensuring that your workplace has the right infrastructure and tools to enable the next level of mobility, productivity and engagement.

This week on our ‘Future of Workplace Experience’ series, we are honoured to have Leon Papkoff, Founder & Chief Strategist at The CXApp to share his recent observations across the enterprise workplace industry during this pandemic situation, but also how things are going to change in the workplace. Some key takeaways and check out our interview below: 

  • Communication remains crucial to ensure your team have the right tools to allow effective communications during this time or investing in ‘Smart Campus’ app that allows employees to have access to real-time communications.
  • ‘Remote working’ will become the new normal so make sure remote employees don’t feel left out by investing in virtual technology and seamless work tech integrations – these are going to be more important than ever.
  • Creating a ‘touch-less’ environment and workplace hygiene will become priorities for companies to make employees feel comfortable going to work.

Top tips adjusting to ‘Working from Home’

We are technically in the largest global remote working experiment, here are some of the top challenges and tips to remain productive at home:

  • Communication is key: Make sure you and your team have the right tools to allow effective communications during this time, we have been using a variety of tools within our team and with our customers – Zoom, WebEx, Skype to Slack – you name it!
  • Plan your day ahead: Avoid back-to-back meetings, make sure to plan your day and make time to be away from our desk, it could be as simple as stretching your legs, dial in calls with your mobile phone rather than sitting at your desk.

How do you stay connected with your remote employees?

  • Increased demand for workplace apps: We have been getting a lot of interest in our ‘Smart Campus’ app, essentially a workplace experience platform that allows employees to have on-demand access to real-time communications and interactions with their office environment – from company updates, scheduling meetings to food ordering, it can be all done in one app and more resources need to be in the hands of employees to assist with remote working.
  • Keep work flow simple and provide easy-to-use tools, this can help keep employees engaged and productive while being away from the office. Take Adobe as one of our customer example, our Smart Campus app allows employees schedule and access their BlueJeans meetings instantly anytime, anywhere. This will remain seamless and integrated when things return to normal, employees can still easily book rooms and schedule meetings in the same way with our BlueJeans integrations.

How have companies reacted differently to Covid-19?

  • Company culture definitely plays a key role on how I have seen companies reacting differently to the current situation, it is really about the ability for business leadership to embrace the situation and make the best out of it.
  • Adobe workplace example: Adobe recently started a video feed on helpful tips for employees to adjust working from home – from adding natural greenery to their at-home work environment, flexible work station set-up to recipes from their corporate chefs.

How do you think the office environment is going to change?

  • Making interactions with work environment more seamless by allowing employees to access all resources in one app – from on-demand food ordering to meeting room booking.
  • Company policy changes to allow ‘remote working’ arrangements, meaning investing in virtual technology and tools is going to be more important than ever.
  • Creating a ‘touch-less’ environment will become a priority for companies, such as using mobile app or badges for meeting rooms check-in to reduce the amount of physical contact with work environments or surfaces.
  • Cleanliness will be a basic requirement in the workplace – a lot more cleaning and sanitization can be expected to make employees more comfortable being in the office and interacting with other colleagues.
  • Employees will be expecting ‘at home’ technology to be available at the workplace such as on-demand food delivery and wireless chargers.

Gearing up for the new workplace

If you’d like a chat with one of our team about getting your workplace ready for the new era of work, why not pick a time in our calendar to suit you?

3 tips for remote working from HPE Aruba

Posted on by Dan Bladen

The need for remote working in recent times has impacted businesses in myriad ways and has forced us to rethink the way we work. If there is anything we have learnt from this, it would be that flexible working is now more important than ever – allowing staff to work from whenever, wherever they want. Mobility is and will be a key part of workplace experience strategy and now could be a good time to re-evaluate your strategy and offerings.

We caught up with Jon Howell, Smart Workspaces EMEA Lead at HPE Aruba to hear about his recent observations across the enterprise workplace industry, vision on future of work, and what adds value for both employees and employers to enhance workplace experience. Check out our interview below:

3 ways to facilitate remote working for your staff

There is currently an accelerated interest in aggregated employee solutions, here are some of my observations for better remote working:

  1. More resources need to be in the hands of remote staff: An app based intranet for corporate news, campus shutdown info, virtual conference call management (organise virtual meetings and sharing invitations from their device) and general diary management to assist with remote working.
  2. Virtual access and connectivity is key to remote working: Leading cloud-managed Wi-Fi providers such as Aruba are well positioned to help remote workers with Remote Access Points and Virtual Gateways. This means an organisation can send out an access to point to a remote worker and connect it directly to the corporate network. Simply put the home worker is now working on the campus network as if they were actually there!
  3. Rethink about the value of office/campus apps: Organizations now have the time with workers and app developers at home to focus on scoping and preparing campus applications for when people return to work.

There’s certainly been a shift in mindset towards flexibility and mobility, and employees will now demand more in these areas, so what does this mean for the future of workplace experience when employees repatriate the offices globally, how can these needs challenges be addressed? Here’s a few of my thoughts on that below.

Enabling workplace mobility and better workplace experience

With increasing real estate costs, more and more enterprises are now ditching assigned desks and moving to hot desks to maximize the use of spaces. Workspaces are transforming and employees are opting to move freely from desk to meeting rooms to huddle spaces, finding appropriate quiet spaces away from their desks to concentrate on tasks.

Maximizing space utilization

But with all these new spaces and resources, how can they be managed and tracked accurately? By aggregating multiple sources of data such as WiFi, sensors, meeting room systems together with data (usage, dwell time, hyperlocal data) (such as that provided by Kadence’s desk scheduling software), workplace managers can then find out how spaces are being used with a holistic view.

Adding value to employee experience

When employees are away from their desks, they spend most of their time in meeting rooms. Meeting rooms are the perfect example of times in the working day when a top-up of power is in high demand. Being free from messy cables and not having to worry about bringing a cable add to a better experience for employees and help them remain productive.

Enhancing meeting room technology

The workplace has gone mobile and access to power is a deal-breaker for those looking to stay connected 24/7 – employees demand the same, intuitive and fully connected experience throughout all aspects of work and leisure time. With more collaborative workspaces, smart meeting rooms and smarter buildings require companies to rethink technology – one that should empower the mobile-first generation.

The future of work is going to be defined by better, smarter experiences and no doubt technology is going to play a much bigger role – and now is probably a good time to re-evaluate how workplace experience can be enhanced for when they leave home comforts behind and head back to the office.