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Let the Data Decide: Using Wifi to Inform Your Hybrid Workspace

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Hybrid Workspace|Let the Data Decide: Using Wifi to Inform Your Hybrid WorkspaceAs organizations talk about the pivot to hybrid work and what it means for workplaces themselves, let’s look back at where our modern-day concept of 9-5 work even came from.

In 1908, according to this Atlantic piece, a New England factory started to give its Jewish workers two days off around Saturday sabbath. That is believed to be the start of our “weekend” concept. A few decades and a Great Depression later, the trend of working five days a week took hold across the U.S.

Even as office work started to evolve, and technology started to accelerate decade by decade, that old notion of when we work continued strong. This century it seemed like we might be edging toward possible acceptance of a four-day week as even big companies sparked conversation. Google’s Larry Page wondered aloud if by dropping one day from the workweek, would it be better for employees and businesses. Entire countries have trialled the concept.

Today all that seems forever ago. Because a pandemic has compelled corporate chance as it lays bare the foundations of how and when we work. Companies now have to see how they can navigate change and make hybrid workstyles work for them.

The Office Must Serve A Purpose

Employees now seek the flexibility to commute to offices on specific days for specific purposes. The office is no longer a place to simply perform work. Instead, it is the destination to serve a wide range of specific needs for each employee, and each department.

It naturally follows then that an office space designed to serve the “office as a factory” mindset can’t adequately serve the “space as a service” mindset that’s now front and center in a hybrid work model.

Hybrid employees require spaces that drive efficiency, promote collaboration, and enhance comfort – elements your typical office was not necessarily designed to do. For some, this rethink of space is an opportunity to right size real estate portfolios. Others are seeking to reconfigure in new and better ways, being flexible and thinking holistically about what a business and its many different teams need from that real estate – now and into the future.

To that end, it’s important to know:

  • Do you have the space you need to support your teams?
  • How could your existing office space in fact serve more people?
  • How can you make the greatest, and most cost-effective impact to your workplaces?
  • How can your real estate best serve employee experience, helping the team be productive and working together?

Data For A Functional, Efficient, Strategic Space

Understanding how people use a space is essential. This is where data is invaluable. Insights such as visit frequency, new and returning visitors, and the levels of interactivity between employees provide a rich tapestry to design the office, assign resources, inform policies, and, if needed, rationalize the overall portfolio.

The good news is the infrastructure to strategize efficiency and empower growth is already available using always-on WiFi-powered indoor location technology.

Since WiFi already exists in most workplaces, these solutions are quick to implement and easy to scale across large portfolios. A solution from InnerSpace works by tracking the movement of anonymous smart devices throughout a building from the time that device enters to the time it leaves. As you can imagine, patterns in how people are using the space are quick to emerge, challenging assumptions or validating changes to layout or function.

The platform was recently installed in the main office of a global leader in lodging and hospitality. The client wanted to design the space efficiently, putting resources where they were needed most.

But first they needed data to understand the true needs of their teams. Using WiFi signals, we identified how two distinct teams of employees used the space differently, demonstrating unique needs for their environment. In fact, we also identified sub-teams within those departments whose movements etched predictable patterns over time.

In this particular case, the client was able to use these insights to inform office design, resourcing and seating assignments and notably, to find room within its existing footprint for 100 additional people, saving themselves the enormous cost of office real estate expansion.

In any workplace change project, it is essential to measure and continue to adapt the office space as needed. In a hybrid scenario, this typically means collaborative space must increase and office designs made as flexible as possible, with room versatility a priority. To both chart course now and tweak direction over time, WiFi-based indoor location data can paint a clear picture and provide a strong foundation for all future transformation.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor |James WuJames Wu is the CEO and Founder of InnerSpace, a thorough space utilization and analytics platform that goes beyond people counting backed by proprietary technology and advanced data science. InnerSpace enables their enterprise-class customers to optimize their two most valuable resources: people and property. Download Blueprint for a Hybrid Workspace to learn how indoor location data can empower you to make better decisions about your workplace.

What Should Business Strategy Look Like Post-COVID19?

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StrategyDriven Strategic Planning Article |Business Strategy|What Should Business Strategy Look Like Post-COVID19?The world isn’t getting back to normal. The world is establishing a new normal. That means businesses need to make sure that their strategy accounts for this change. With that in mind, here are some points all businesses should consider.

Strength comes from the roots

In business, your roots are your “why”. Your “why” is your value proposition. It’s what determines the level of relevance you have in a person’s life. Just as different plants have different types of roots, so different businesses can have different types of value propositions.

For example, some businesses have a high level of relevance to a small number of people. Other businesses have low relevance to a great number of people. Many businesses are somewhere in between. The key point is that long-term sustainability depends on your business having enough relevance with enough people.

Part of making this happen is developing the ability to move with the times without losing sight of your core identity. This is particularly important right now because many people are likely to make changes to their lives, possibly significant ones. For example, if remote-/hybrid-working goes mainstream over the long term, then it will have huge implications for many businesses.

Businesses should always be paying attention to what their customers (past, present, and future) are doing, saying, and thinking. Ideally, businesses should be interacting directly with their customers as much as possible. In-person interactions are great but social-media/online interactions run a close second and can be much easier to organize.

An engaged customer base is a company’s biggest asset

In the real world, very few customers need the best product or service. In fact, they don’t even need the best product or service for their situation. They may want it but then again they might not. What most customers need is a product or service that does the job they need it to do. Anything else is negotiable.

For most businesses, therefore, it’s actually far more important to invest in building a strong community than to invest in building the best product or service. You build a community by forging human connections with your customers. In short, you position yourself as a valued friend who has products and/or services to sell rather than just another business.

The more people want to buy from you, specifically, because they like you, the more protection you have from threats to your business. This doesn’t just have to mean competition from other businesses. It can mean disruptions of all sorts or even broader social changes.

Essentially, if people like your brand, there’s a good chance that they’ll continue to like it if you branch out in a new direction. This is particularly likely if you’re clearly responding to changes they’re feeling themselves. Post-COVID19, there’s likely to be a whole new emphasis on community especially in the real world but also online. Think carefully about what this means for your business.

You need to go where your customers are

This has a literal meaning and a figurative one. The figurative one can actually be easier for businesses to grasp. You need to find your customer base and let them know who you are and why they should care. In principle, it doesn’t really matter if you do this through old-school leaflet drops or ecommerce marketing. In practice, the latter tends to be easier to target.

It’s the literal meaning which tends to catch out businesses. You need to get your product to your customers. There are lots of ways of doing this. The three main ones are in-store, home delivery, and digital delivery.

After COVID19, you may be tempted to pull back from in-store sales, at least as much as possible. This could be a reasonable course for some businesses. Just be sure that you’ve made a mindful decision and not had a knee-jerk reaction. Be aware that the logistics of mass home deliveries have long been a problem for the ecommerce sector.

Firstly, there’s the challenge of choosing the right courier company to get your item where it needs to be in one piece. Secondly, there’s the challenge of managing customer returns. Effective business processes can go a long way to minimizing these but they will inevitably happen.

Despite the impression you might have been left with from the pandemic, digital delivery isn’t always the answer to everything either. It isn’t so much the fact that it depends on your customers having a decent internet connection. It’s the fact that it often depends on them having decent technical skills – or you guiding them through the steps they need to take.

Your supply chain plays a huge role in your success

Prior to COVID19, it seemed like nothing could stop the trend towards leaner, more agile businesses. Agility is still a highly desirable trait in many, if not all, businesses. The pandemic did, however, demonstrate that it was very definitely possible to have too much of a good thing.

The most obvious example of this was the news-making shortage of key items, particularly in major stores. This was, however, just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Many businesses had their operations disrupted through a lack of supplies.

This was partly due to many producers having to shut down. It was, however, also due to issues with transport, especially long-distance transport. Going forward, businesses are going to have to choose from one (or more) of three options. Firstly, you can stick with your current arrangement and take your chances.

Secondly, you can actively prioritize suppliers who either operate or warehouse close to where you are based. Thirdly, you can keep more inventory yourself as a buffer against disruptions. If you depend on perishable supplies then you may want to see if there are options for switching to less perishable alternatives.

A lot of success comes from showing up

This is one of the oldest business adages there is, particularly in the entertainment industry. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve probably grasped the fact that there’s usually a long, hard slog to success. You’ve probably also grasped the fact that the work doesn’t end when you complete your early growth phase. You have to maintain your gains.

Post-COVID19, however, many businesses are going to need to find a balance between stability and adaptability. On the one hand, it’s unlikely that many businesses are going to have to change their business model completely. On the other hand, it’s very likely that businesses are going to need to make significant adaptations to cope with changes in consumer behavior.

It’s vital that you have robust systems for measuring the effectiveness of the key areas of your business. You also need to have a fair way of comparing the “before and after” of any changes you make. This includes giving both a try for a suitable length of time rather than chopping and changing between them.

Keep in mind that there is a huge difference between a product or service and a business model. There may be little to nothing you need to do to your core offering. You may, however, need to make changes to how you deliver it. These may entail changes to how you price it.

Leveraging technology may be key to your post-COVID19 success

It’s probably fair to say that many businesses use technology but don’t really leverage it effectively. This is especially likely in the SMB sector. Unless technology is your business, you may struggle to understand what it could mean for you. The transition to the post-COVID19 “new normal” could be the ideal time to address this.

Every business has pain points. The key to success is to minimize both the number of them and the pain they cause. A lot of business pain points ultimately boil down to delays in key areas. In fact, possibly the single, biggest pain point of all is delayed payment. The only way to avoid this completely is to get cash upfront for all purchases.

In the real world, however, this is simply not possible for many businesses. What’s more, even if it is, there are massive security implications plus customers tend to be moving away from cash. Fortunately, this is such a major issue for so many businesses that it’s also a major area of innovation within IT.

The introduction of new means of payment has met with highly variable levels of success. Think Bitcoin versus Libra/Diem. The introduction of new means to collect payments, however, is becoming a very exciting area.

It could be well worth doing some thorough research on what options are currently available for our business. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on the space in general as it develops. Similarly, if you invoice for payment keep an eye on invoice-tracking/credit-control solutions as these are improving all the time.

Try to build flexibility into your business

The businesses which did best in the pandemic tended to be the ones that showed the most flexibility. Appropriately enough, the fitness industry was a shining example of how to move quickly when circumstances demanded it.

In business, as in fitness, it’s easier to work on flexibility continually than to have to develop it suddenly. Post-COVID19, therefore, flexibility should generally be a core part of all business plans and strategies.

Remote Positivity: Emulating Optimism for Your Work-From-Home Employees

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Work From Home| Remote Positivity: Emulating Optimism for Your Work-From-Home EmployeesThe work from home dynamic has come into our society in full force. Since the pandemic’s effects have significantly impacted our ability to congregate in groups, many companies have used remote work to keep their workflow on a proper level and collaborate with employees working from home.

There are numerous ways that technology has adeptly adapted to this, with apps and services across multiple platforms able to aid in employee communications no matter their location. However, one must remember that there are psychological effects on social isolation, ranging from anxiety to sleeplessness.

It starts with a company leader addressing these issues and taking the initiative to create a realm of positivity for his or her working community. Once done, employees can more easily thrive in a workplace with core values of workplace strength and support.

Collaborate and Listen

The applications that the tech world has developed have been a mainstay in the work from home atmosphere. No longer do people need to leave messages, wait hours for contact, or wonder which roles they have on a company project. Whether utilizing instant messaging, video conferencing, or campaign tracking, apps like GoToMeeting and Slack have all been heavily downloaded and integrated into remote work environments. Digital transformation will only continue to evolve with further refinement of workflow customization tools.

However, it’s important to note that “collaboration” is an integral part of these workflow collaboration apps. That means rising together towards the desired group result–but more than anything, it means a leader willing to step up and create a constructive and enthusiastic environment.

Project management is an essential part of any brand, for example, but proper communication with employees is necessary to steady productivity. Make sure that your working community knows that they’re valued on a personal level. Checking in for friendly workforce chats weekly, making employee onboarding a priority for future work efforts, and rewarding especially excellent efficiency with warm messages are all ways in which you can exemplify your positive work atmosphere.

Zooming the Right Way

If you’ve been working from home, then you’ve probably been using Zoom: the video communications service that’s connected a multitude of remote work employees through web conferencing. However, during the past few weeks, there’s been a concern over the notion of excess comfort in personal home office use with Zoom.

The concept of “Zoom etiquette” is one that has recently been in conversation across multiple sectors. Specifically, there is debate about how many behaviors one may or may not allow when videoconferencing in groups. Addressing this topic with your employees will eliminate any chance of discomfort for them during video conferences.

For example, if one hasn’t had the time for a lunch break and needs to eat during a long meeting, should one wait and not interrupt? The consensus seems to be that it is alright. However, temporarily switching off one’s camera and muting one’s microphone so as not to disturb the other members with possible sound interventions is best.

Other possible scenarios involve establishing that social media alerts or other interruptions don’t divert your employees. These will limit their ability to remember aspects of your video meeting, as well as demonstrate a lack of professionalism that other employees might catch onto.

However, ensure that your workforce member isn’t excessively stressed if a child or pet causes a minor interruption. Know that there are some elements in the new normal that you can control as an authority leader and some aspects that you cannot. Your working community will notice you, and your bolstering environment, more for it.

Communicate and Know the Purpose

With an untold amount of startups in the current atmosphere and a market that seems to change every second, there is a measure of instability that can occur when a company operates on an unstable foundation. Profit may be coming in with a trending product or service, but long-term success is built upon leadership that understands its key areas of skills and fortitude. Having each of your employees understand your brand’s–and your own life’s–mission will give better clarity to your organization, helping align short-term wants with long-term goals.

But communication doesn’t just come from one direction. Through videoconference, asking your employees what they believe their strengths to be and what they want to achieve in life will open up mental pathways on both sides. It will give them a sense of purpose and resolve, knowing that you have a sincere interest in their skillset.

They’ll see that they can chat with you if they notice an additional lead or avenue that the business can take in the future. And for you, as a leader, you may learn an additional power area from one of your working community members that you can now count on moving forward.

Communication has evolved to a level that few of us expected to see a year ago. With digital transformation, we’ve seen video conferencing and webinars take hold in our day-to-day work experiences. However, this doesn’t mean that the foundational aspects of a positive work environment need to lessen. Using the proper strategies, an optimistic working community can advance and lead to a brighter future for every work-from-home member.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor |Veronica BaxterVeronica Baxter is a legal assistant and blogger living and working in the great city of Philadelphia. She frequently works with Todd Mosser Esq., a busy criminal appeals lawyer, Philadelphia PA.

Pros And Cons Of Letting Employees Work Remotely

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Work Remotely|Pros And Cons Of Letting Employees Work RemotelyIn recent months there has been an increase in employees working remotely. This has largely been instigated by the pandemic crisis, and employers the world over are now getting the opportunity to see how remote working is possible for them.

Not every business has the means to offer remote working, of course, as many are not office-based. However, thanks to the cloud solutions now available, those businesses that can still function through remote working have the greater opportunity to survive into the future. For business owners, they might decide to focus more on this style of working, even after the current pandemic is over.

But here’s the thing. Remote working has its advantages, but even for those businesses that can allow for it, there still needs to be consideration of possible pitfalls.

These are the pros and cons of letting employees work remotely.

Pros

Flexibility – Employees don’t have to be tied down to a 9-5 working pattern when working from home. Provided they stick to their agreed contracts, they can work flexibly. This could include evening work instead of daytime shift patterns, and it can also include weekends. For those employees who need this flexibility, such as those who have a young family, a flexible working pattern can be a blessing.

A greater work/life balance – The rigors of the daily commute and long hours in the office can take their toll on some employees. Their work/life balance is lopsided towards the former, and this can be stress-inducing and frustrating for some. But with remote working, there is the opportunity to spend more time at home, and so some stresses can be avoided. This is great for improving the employee’s health and wellbeing, as there will be more opportunities to rest and relax outside of their working hours.

Financial benefits – For the business owner, it can be comforting to know that savings can be made. Remote working negates the need to rent office space, and there will be savings on utility bills too. This equates to a higher profit margin and more money to put away in case of another emergency situation.

Cons

Productivity – On the one hand, employees should be more productive if they can work from home. With no need to commute, and with fewer office distractions, it can be argued that more work should get done. However, there is the danger that the employee might work less when not being managed. Thankfully, this can be overcome with computer monitoring software, as the employer will then be able to track their employee’s progress.

Cybersecurity risks – The business network may be protected with antivirus software and other cybersecurity solutions, but the employee’s home network may not be. This could result in a data breach. There are ways to reduce security risks, however, such as a reminder to the employee of safety processes that need to be put in place, but there could still be added problems down the line.

Finally

We have only covered some of the pros and cons associated with remote working, so if you’re a business owner, you should continue your research online. For the short term, it can be fruitful, especially during this present time, but deliberate over the advantages and disadvantages when looking at the long term future of your business.

How to Handle Working from Home Stress

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Work from Home Stress| How to Handle Working from Home StressWere you one of the 49% of British workers who worked from home during lockdown? If so, you might not be heading back into the office just yet.

For some workers, moving to home turf to do the day job has been a largely positive experience. However, for others, this shift has had a negative impact on their mental wellbeing, causing stress levels to rise and an increase in feelings of isolation – and these feelings are nothing new.

According to a 2017 study by the United Nations, which looked at 15 countries including the UK, US, and India, 41% of employees who mostly worked from home said they were highly stressed. And in his 2014 report, ‘Wat als we Nieuw gaan Werken?’ (What if we Start Working New?’), Belgium-based academic, Henrik Delagrange found that there is a higher risk of burnout for those who work longer hours remotely.

While the stats are negative here, there are ways to find the balance. If we’re feeling overwhelmed while working from home, here are some ways to handle those stressful feelings.

Have something to look forward to

When did you last book a holiday? Lockdown has meant that many of us aren’t taking the holidays we usually would, but it’s important to have a break, even if you’ve not got anything planned.

Also, there are some big events coming up that can help to restore some sense of normality. Halloween and Christmas are just a few months away so why not start shopping for these? Have a look at sweet treats, such as Christmas chocolate hampers, to really get into the festive spirit.

Take a time out

It can be easy to not take any breaks while you’re getting through your daily to-do list. But walking away from your computer and doing something unconnected for 10 minutes can help you switch off for a while. By doing this, you are resetting your mind and you may find that you’re able to focus on what you’re working on in a more productive way.

Set a schedule

We’re connected to work 24/7, thanks to technology. This makes it increasingly difficult to switch off our computer when the working day is over.

However, if you’re finding that your work life is creeping into your downtime, it might be worth setting yourself a schedule – and sticking to it. Decide on what you’ll be doing at 9am, 11am, and after lunch so that you have tasks to do and a rough time to complete them by and this will allow you to methodically get through your to-do list and give you the chance to plan ahead for the rest of the week.

Download an app

There are lots of mindfulness apps that are available right now, and, while they’re all slightly different, their common aim is to help you feel calmer and less stressed. Calm, Headspace, and Aura are just some of the apps that are available on iOS and Android devices, and as they’re designed for your phone, you can take them with you and access them when you need a break or are starting to feel overwhelmed.

Speak to someone

If you’re finding things tough, speak to colleagues or, if you feel you need to let your manager know, arrange a meeting with them. Your manager should be able to offer some advice or point you in the direction of support services.

Should you feel that you need professional support, there are lots of services to help. Mind has a lot of resources online that can help you take the steps to manage stress.

Working from home doesn’t have to have a negative impact on your wellbeing. It’s important to know that you’re not alone.