The concept of ‘work’ has continued to evolve the more we navigate a post-pandemic world: recent data by Leesman, an HqO company, reveals that 60% of employees currently work in a hybrid way. Similarly, 37% of employees are likely to use the physical workplace for less than one day per week.
This evolution begs a few questions. For example, where does this leave employers who are still looking for the best way to adopt flexible or hybrid work policies? What about the employers who already support hybrid, but are trying to refine their existing approach to engage and retain talent? And how do companies create a strong workplace culture that is both productive and inclusive of employees everywhere — whether they’re in the office, at home, or elsewhere?
The answers to the above questions are highly dependent on investing in modern workplace experiences. Employers can take advantage of a unique opportunity to engage with employees and help them do their best work from any location. Additionally, they can foster stronger connections between people and place — more specifically, the workplace — while optimizing their investments through data and insights. Strategies that balance these objectives will be successful in not only engaging employees, but drawing them back into the office.
The Technology Evolution
The workplace technologies of just a few years ago certainly aren’t as impactful in today’s hybrid landscape, and thus require thorough evaluation.
Historically, companies used integrated workplace management solutions (IWMS) to focus on space planning in the physical workplace. More recently, however, companies have begun to focus on resource scheduling applications (RSAs) or desk booking capabilities, to make sure that employees would have a place to work when they come into the office — especially among growing hybrid work models.
This strategy is not perfect. Many companies have fallen into the habit of adopting a new app every time they need to solve a workplace problem. The end result? Employees are overwhelmed by too many disconnected apps, making it harder than ever for companies to benefit from these technology investments.
Ultimately, this has caused a modern need for two things: a platform approach that serves as a “single pane of glass” for various workplace solutions, and more programmatic experiences that drive people back to the office.
These insights explain why workplace experience technology — which has the potential to host modules, integrations, and capabilities in a single, unified platform — is moving the industry forward. By consolidating product suites that offer both IWMS and RSA capabilities, alongside offering experiences that go beyond systems management and resource booking, employers can target the specific challenges around hybrid work and effectively differentiate their offerings while optimizing their workplace investments.
Unifying Experiences
Streamlining and unifying digital tools and capabilities should be a key business imperative for modern workplaces, one that has not gone unnoticed with many industry leaders. “Hybrid working can only work if the necessary technology infrastructure is in place to support the flow of work across different locations and, possibly, time zones,” explains Leesman.
Thus, investing in multiple apps or tools actually poses a significant challenge to hybrid employees and the workplace. It is much more beneficial to invest in a full end-to-end platform that can consolidate these features into one easy-to-use interface. This will:
- Create one place where employees can find everything they need, making it more likely that they will find what they need.
- Ensure that each interaction with your chosen platform provides new opportunities for serendipitous exploration of other features.
- Provide faster and consolidated real-time access to analytics for many of the capabilities contained in the platform — encompassing both behavioral and sentiment data.
- Provide a single administration console to do more of your work so you can work in fewer systems.
Working Smarter with HqO
The HqO platform can not only deliver on the above requirement, but also help enhance your employees’ workplace experience through its dedicated services team.
Alongside our world-class technology, our proven methodology includes:
- Pre-sale consultation focused on maximizing the HqO ecosystem to benefit client’s business objectives.
- Ensuring a smooth onboarding and implementation process to accelerate time to launch.
- Ongoing technical consultation for implementing best-in-breed technologies for workplaces focused on maximum interoperability.
- Ongoing engagement and employee programming creation for each customer including global programming and customized calendars available to drive engagement.
- Continued alignment with customer business objectives throughout the lifecycle of the partnership through activities such as quarterly business reviews, data analysis, roadmap reviews, and training.
- Live, frontline end-user support, offering quick response times for technical and nontechnical inquiries from both property teams and tenants.
Want to learn more about workplace experience technology that delivers business success? Download our latest guide here.
