There’s no doubt that we’re living in an age of hybrid work. But even today, there are still problems preventing this work model from reaching its full potential.
That’s why we should ask ourselves: “What’s the purpose of the office?”.
The role of the office has changed, so to make it worth the commute, employees need a good reason. It turns out that the most important reason is human connection and good relationships with their colleagues.
However, it is difficult to predict when co-workers will arrive. As a result, some employees regret coming to work since they end up being alone in the office, doing work that they could have done at home. To make matters worse, when workers return to the office, they frequently find spaces that haven’t changed since before Covid.
Meanwhile, leaders lack the necessary tools to manage employees’ changing habits and have to improvise on policy and infrastructural decisions without understanding whether the changes will improve things. Leaders have the right to know if the workplace spaces they invest in are appropriate for how workers perform best.
The Connected Workplace
Reinventing the workplace to allow for true adaptability will involve the use of technology to overcome the gap between the digital and the physical. To make this possible, a new type of technology known as Connected Workplace is being developed.
The Connected Workplace assists in the creation of modern offices that are equipped with tools that enable every employee to accomplish their best results. It then leverages the data gathered from modern workplaces to learn how to adapt to peoples evolving needs.
Employees want to work in environments that are tailored to their specific requirements. The corporate real estate industry is divided into many sectors that focus on the workplace environment. Space use, building infrastructure, space design, strategic planning, and much more are among these segments.
Microsoft Places
People coming together, connecting, and sharing experiences is what makes an office something valuable. Microsoft Places is a connected workplace platform that reimagines hybrid and traditional work.
The platform provides solutions for coordinating where work takes place, modernising the office with advanced technologies, and optimising workplaces for ever-changing needs. Let’s take a closer look at each of these topics to get a better understanding of Microsoft Places.
Hybrid Scheduling
Microsoft Places hybrid scheduling uses simple data signals provided by Teams and Outlook to show you the whole week. In this way, you can know when your favourite co-workers will be in the office. You can also change your schedule to prioritise important in-person relationships because you’ll be aware of the days with the highest in-office attendance.
Intelligent booking will assist you in discovering available places with the appropriate technology to match the purpose of your meeting and the mix of in-person and remote attendees. You’ll also get suggestions for the quickest commute times, as well as alerts reminding you precisely when to depart based on the current traffic and booked meetings that day.
Booking and Wayfinding Technology
Technology can significantly improve the office experience, particularly in locations not designed for hybrid work.
You won’t lose time hunting for the proper meeting room or following out-of-date building signage with wayfinding. Instead, you’ll be able to use your mobile device to obtain a map that will direct you to the correct location.
Hot desk booking allows you to see where your co-workers are seated and choose a desk accordingly. And, once you’ve found the ideal space, Microsoft Teams Rooms‘ intelligent features enable everyone to join regardless of location.
Microsoft Places will also support unplanned meetings, allowing co-workers to easily establish unscheduled meetings and share them with others in the office, with the purpose of rebuilding and strengthening ties. Offices are more attentive to everyone’s requirements because of Places.
Dynamics Cost and Space Optimisation
Leaders want space analytics, including utilisation statistics, energy-saving potential, and occupancy patterns, to improve space management. These vital insights are what drive dynamic space alterations on a given day, such as converting excess meeting rooms into collaboration rooms.
Thanks to occupancy prediction, leaders can take space optimisation further by limiting available floors on lighter days, conserving energy, and more.
Leaders may also aggregate trends regarding employees and places across their whole portfolio, resulting in more agile and sustainable work environments that promote new ways of doing business.
Finally, Microsoft Places is fully compatible with Microsoft 365 solutions that we use on a daily basis, such as Teams and Outlook. It combines people and location signals to harness and enrich a large amount of data accessible on the Microsoft Graph. Unifying such data assets will improve first and third-party solutions while addressing the most pressing issues concerning when and where employees work.
All data collected by Microsoft Places follows strict privacy guidelines. Users are aware of the data collected and have the option to opt-in or out.
Final Words
The process of transforming a space into a place begins with better employee experiences, followed by data collection from those experiences to generate insights that direct future space optimisation.
Microsoft Teams Rooms makes all this possible. It takes hybrid work to the next level by assisting you in creating adaptable and dynamic workspaces.
