How to support
employee connectivity
without sacrificing
workplace flexibility

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, many businesses were forced to take their teams remote overnight. While more companies are transitioning back to in-office work every day, there is still a significant number of employees working from home. As a result, the average American is connecting to their work using more modern means than ever before.

Innovations in mobile devices, bandwidth and software have made remote work possible for nearly every sector. However, the transition to hybrid work is not always straightforward.

The companies handling this transition successfully know that their technology capital must work harder to help colleagues connect.

Office space no longer stops at the office

Today, employees say they want to be back in the office three days a week on average. Plus, 61% of the workforce craves in-person interactions, meaning offices are now more important than ever for fostering employee engagement and collaboration. 

As companies figure out what version of a “new normal” work setup is the most fitting to their business, a well-thought-out technology stack must be included in their future workplace planning.

Design your workplace of the future

Leaders in every organization play an important role in defining their new workplaces. To ensure all voices are recognized and heard, consider how to equip each employee—regardless of whether they’re working from home, on the go, on the manufacturing floor or in the office—with the tools they need to contribute.

Because work no longer needs a shared physical space to happen, business owners are challenged with finding a balance between efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to selecting a new workspace or redesigning their current spaces.

Some important questions business leaders must consider as they design their workplace of the future include: Are you taking a holistic approach to the health and wellbeing of employees? Are you taking the extra steps necessary to address the expectations of your people in this new environment? Are you striking an adequate balance of flexibility and accountability? Most importantly, will the investments you’re considering empower your people?

Evaluating technology solutions

With so many new and maturing technologies to choose from, how can one cut through the noise and determine which solutions are right for the company or the property?

Some solutions to consider include:

• Utilization tools enable companies to safely monitor capacity within the workplace. Data from these technologies provide valuable insight into the number of employees coming in, when they’re coming in and how to make your workplace better by optimizing for employee usage.
• Room booking technology is growing in popularity as more companies implement hot-desking and hoteling. These tools offer employees the flexibility to reserve space to work, (possibly a desk, common area or conference room) when working in the office.
• Space planning technology offers varying levels of complexity depending on a company’s needs. Forward-thinking leaders are using these solutions to create workplaces that meet all employee needs. It can provide the next steps to help transition “me” spaces to “we” spaces, reconfigure spaces for safe social distancing and redesign an office layout for a hybrid workforce.

Regardless of the solutions you move forward with, employee engagement, flexibility and connectivity must be at the core of all decisions.

Accelerate your firm’s transition to the hybrid workplace intelligently and efficiently. JLL helps you discover which technology solutions can transform your workplace and your property to deliver a smarter employee experience.