5 headaches at work - and 5 productivity solutions

70% of workers waste 15 minutes a day trying to find a room while 20% of booked rooms are empty. Hybrid work has increased uncertainty about the future demand for office spaces and planning is difficult. 

Here are a few hybrid headaches that are now common. Do you recognize them?

1. Finding a meeting room when you need it takes forever.

2. The need for rooms and desks is fluid and flexible. The booking systems? Not so much.

3. Dodgy workplace tech creates frustration and gets in the way of creativity.

4. Planning the right balance of meeting rooms and focus spaces is a nightmare. It just keeps changing.

5. We want to get our employees to the office, but they seem stuck at home.

If these situations sound familiar, consider these 5 steps to better hybrid productivity.

1. Provide employees with instant insights about room & desk availability

   Clear, uncluttered information saves time and energy at work. Many systems for room & desk booking are not user-friendly. The reason is often just bad design. You shouldn’t need a manual to use a piece of workplace tech.

2. Make room & desk booking at work smooth, simple and secure.

   When a room or desk is unavailable, there has to be an easy way to deliver quick guidance to other, free ones. But it also needs to be easy to unbook and rebook. Otherwise, your people will end up frustrated and you will not be using your meeting rooms and facilities optimally.

   Avoid patchworks of separate bits and pieces. Instead, choose end-to-end-solutions when you can. Bits-and-pieces-solutions seldom live up to high security standards. Plus, an end-to-end-solution saves you time by having one point of contact who takes responsibility for any questions or issues you might have.

   See to it that your supplier gives you full control of all hardware components and software code. And make sure they run regular penetration tests to keep your environment safe and secure.

3. Support workplace focus with clean, helpful and intuitive technology.

   Well-designed tech should work like a clock on the wall that helps you at a glance when you need it, but otherwise stays out of your way without demanding your attention.

   Don’t introduce new apps and solutions without analyzing whether they are really needed or whether they do the job properly. The average office worker only wants to put energy and time into learning new tech if they know that it’s really worth it. And if you do introduce new tech, ensure that support is premium.

4. Optimize the usage of existing office spaces before making big changes.

   In the midst of this transformation to more hybrid workplaces, many facility managers struggle with knowing what the future will look like. How many people will work from home, how big will demand be for meeting rooms, how much and how often? 

   Before changing offices, optimize what you already have. Make sure it’s easy to get an overview of current usage of visitors, meeting rooms and desks. Expand the amount of meeting rooms by adding foldable doors to larger meeting rooms, and make these divisions available in your current booking system. 

5. Manage your office spaces with adaptable, smart solutions.

   As many large companies enter a reality with roughly a 50/50 division between office work and remote work, the workplace is transforming. Companies who are investing in turning their offices into culture and identity builders will attract talent by making the return to the office more appealing to workers.

   Choose a partner for workplace solutions that can offer you an open API and integrations with market-leading user solutions like Microsoft Teams and Google. In a fast-changing environment, you need seamless and scalable integrations that evolve along with your work processes and your tech ecosystem.

Read about Humly Workplace Solutions here.