Smartphones, smart home, smart cars … in some few years, the “connected” has invested every corner of our lives. Measuring the quality of sleep, monitoring sports performance, analyzing the air quality of the house and even clothes connected, nothing escapes the digitalization of uses.
Or almost.
With an average of 38 hours spent in the office each week in France, the impact of the workplace in everyday life is well established. Yet, it seems that certain spaces are still anchored in a dated reality: that of sedentary, individuality and control.
Many employees are working in pure open spaces products from the mid-90s. These could also seem outdated if their design does not cause malaise and dehumanization of work.
The antipodes of this organizational philosophy stands the bubbling Smart Office. And there is no shortage of arguments: better management of shared spaces, loyalty of employees, increased productivity, etc. Here is the face of tomorrow’s offices.
Smart Office: a change of paradigm at the origin
In a rich infographic, the professional insurer Hiscox told us that 93% of young workers no longer wanted a traditional office and 73% of French employees preferred collaborative workspaces. It was in 2016.
Mobility at work, the rise of the digital world, the connection between private and professional life, the search for meaning, the reasons that explain these opinions are many. A better view, however, makes it possible to quickly understand that these (not so) new requests are not whimsical but reflect a change in the relationship between staff members at work.
Well-being, inseparable now of the world of the work
The generalization of the practice of teleworking and the possibility of exercising one’s profession outside the office constitute a first prism through which the need to design innovative workspaces is emerging. The 2018 collaborator has never been so nomadic. This nomadism also includes several meanings: from work in “home office” to mobility within the premises. The success of the “sit-stand” offices and the presence of in-house sports coaches testify a desire for well-being.
But the quality of life at work alone does not explain everything. From a purely material point of view, how can one not see the inefficiency of the traditional office in the different work situations that the employee faces every day?
Rigidity has no place in the company of 2018. On the contrary, the innovative office must be able to metamorphose easily and adapt to every professional context, be it a creative meeting, an intense period of closure, meticulous audit work, etc.
Finally, there are few companies that the battle of innovation does not concern. R & D poles and fierce competitive intelligence are no longer enough. Innovation is now everyone’s affair and must combine all the talents of the organization. This change in philosophy has two direct impacts:
- The end of the vertical organization and the birth of a flat hierarchical structure;
• The birth of the era of ideas in which individuals no longer work alone but in almost permanent collaboration.
This desire to innovate at each stage of a project is illustrated for example in the provision by the company of its vacant spaces. The goal? Welcome new partner structures such as start-ups to bring talent together and foster “open innovation”.
The office does resistance
If homework continues to expand in France with 25% of the employees concerned, the importance of the office should not be devalued. The head office, for example, still appears today as the heart of the company, the one that brings together all the players in its sphere: employees, customers, suppliers, investors, etc.
When workspaces serve the brand employer
As such, the office must reflect as faithfully as possible the values and culture of the organization. Its role is decisive in the construction of the feeling of “first impression”, that it is necessary to convince a prospect or a future collaborator. Hiscox’s computer graphics also teach us that workspace is decisive in the choice of the employer for 40% of French people.
Faced with such challenges, the answer cannot be purely cosmetic. We are no longer talking about a simple stroke of paint, but a flattening of the very concept of workspace. It must integrate into the QVT approach of the company and fit into its time. The key: an improvement of well-being and therefore… of productivity.
If we look a few moments at the essence of the classic workplace, we quickly realize that it goes beyond common sense. While the rooms of the home are ordered according to obvious principles of utility and practicality, the office does not seem to respond to a very limited spectrum of tasks.
Even if the innovative workspace does not have the ambition to make the employee feel at home, it must at least allow him to exercise his activity serenely. This involves the design of places made to punctuate different times of the day: phone room, brainstorming room, rest, lounge area or playful square.
The search for acoustic but also visual comfort must be omnipresent. Good soundproofing of the premises and the revegetation of the shared spaces contribute to this. Because beyond the social role, it is its environmental role that the company can no longer ignore. There are countless hives and insect hotels on the roofs of commercial buildings.
Eco-design and management of resources (water, electricity, etc.) are now studied upstream of each real estate project. IOT and Big Data, for their part, position themselves as the guarantors of behavior analysis, fault correction and the detection of optimization points.
iOffice: from e-mail to virtual reality
The integration of new technologies into the world of work is not new. Emails, Intranet, Wi-Fi, videoconferences, our communications are now mostly digital.
New technologies : work 2.0
Just as it allows us to manage our agenda, to exchange with distant staff or to indicate our time of presence in the office, the high-tech has all the legitimacy to make our daily work more efficient and more playful.
It is from this premise that the entire Cowork.io team left to design a solution dedicated to complete shared and collaborative spaces. We studied the whole journey of the collaborator, from his arrival in the company until taking his coat to return to his home.
A realistic and efficient vision of the Smart Office is articulated around several key applications:
- Reservation of spaces in real time
- Scanning the access badge and use in Bluetooth or NFC
- Guest check-in
- Indoor geolocation
- Service Marketplace for Employees
- Internal social network
The reservation of rooms, for example, is an issue that is still underestimated. A fine management of the vacancy makes it possible to better understand the logics of occupation of spaces and, ultimately, to increase their performance.
In some cases, this management even makes it possible to detect unnecessary square meters and thus… to save money.
The provision of an application to all employees is also an effective method to gain responsiveness. For example, imagine that a printer is suddenly out of service. It will only take a few moments for the user to report the problem to the department concerned via the application. Collaboration is thus at the service of everyone’s comfort and productivity.
And the innovative uses do not stop there. At this level, virtual reality appears as one of the most promising technologies with the ability to create much more faithful meeting environments than conventional videoconferencing services can offer. It can even be considered in the context of welcoming new employees or customers and training staff.
Smart Office therefore appears as a pragmatic response to the changing lifestyles and aspirations of millions of men and women that the economic argument can no longer convince. Faced with the rise of corporate malaise and the difficulty of attracting younger profiles, Smart Office becomes a harmonious mediator of QWL and profitability.
