The Importance of a Smart Office for Better Productivity

source: forfend.net

Organizations often contemplate how to make their employees work smarter and harder, but they rarely look at the workplace itself. Think about that — isn’t that strange? Isn’t it strange that in their endeavors to increase productivity and efficiency, they’re focusing on everything but the one place where the work is actually being done? Not only strange but contradictory as well when you consider those small things like physical discomfort can greatly impede productivity, such as when an office is too hot or a chair too stiff.

Instead, the workplace should be used as a tool that improves an employee’s experiences and enhances their output, resulting in a competitive advantage for the organization as a whole. To this end, technology and IoT (Internet of Things), the interconnectivity of devices through a network without human-to-human or human-to-computer interactions, can serve both as the driver and enabler they need to increase productivity, streamline routine tasks and create more efficient work environments.

That is to say that with an injection of modern technology, a workplace can be transformed from normal into a smarter workplace.

What Is a Smart Workplace?

So, what is a smart workplace? For one, it’s an office that uses the latest smart workplace technology to enhance productivity. Second, it’s an office paired with IoT devices and an ecosystem of connected devices used to monitor and control office operations. Putting it all together, a smart office is:
● Centered around the people working there. What attracts and motivates them? What do they need to be able to perform at their best?
● Based on the activities that are to be performed in the workplace. Where and how are these activities best performed?
● A place designed for flexibility. Flexible in a way that it is accessible and used every day depending on different activities and that it is open to changes and innovation over time.
● Enabled and enhanced by technology, which efficiently supports the needed ways of planning and performing work.
● Sustainable in every possible way, balancing both economic, environmental and social aspects.

With all of this backing smart offices, it’s no surprise that the smart office market is growing at a CAGR of 12.94% between 2017 and 2023, with an increase in value from $22.21 billion in 2017 to $46.11 billion by 2023. And now we arrive at a new question: why should I enact smart workplace solutions for my business? Simple, because it leads to the following things.

Streamlined Processes Made Easy with a Connected Office

On any given day, we use a wide array of tools and devices to get work done — this is both good and bad for, ironically, the same reason. It’s good because it means we have all of these tools at our disposal that makes our jobs much easier. It’s bad because we have all of these tools at our disposal that doesn’t operate in concert with each other, increasing the time we spend moving from one to the other.
Fortunately, this doesn’t hold with IoT and smart office technology that reduces the friction between different systems. In other words, IoT is creating connected spaces where multiple systems come together in one that’s more efficient than the sum of its parts. The idea behind this is that when everything works in sync with each other, you create a more connected and adaptable workforce that’s ready to handle whatever challenges come its way.

Employees Working More Efficiently

Apart from the efficiency that more connectivity brings, smart workplace solutions include the ability to control the office’s environment. For example, greater control over the temperature, humidity and light exposure. When employees can tailor these things to their preferences, their comfort levels will increase, simultaneously increasing their productivity.

Conservation of Money

To the pleasure of executives everywhere, smart offices also lead to smaller bills and the conservation of money. How? Energy savings, for instance. By installing systems that adjust the temperature or light throughout the day, an optimal room temperature and brightness can be set that conserves the most energy. Along the same lines, sensors can detect when no one is in the room and automatically shut off the systems to prevent waste energy.
Additionally, smart office technology can also streamline or completely automate low-level tasks, allowing employees to focus on those that require more brain power. For example, consider a solution that automates some tasks and leads to a 1% increase in productivity. This may not sound like a lot, but when you realize the amount of money and production that goes into any given business, that 1% can translate to millions of dollars.

Final Thoughts

In today’s day and age, the importance of the smart office cannot be understated. We have access to cutting-edge technology that leads to increases productivity and efficiency, something businesses everywhere want. In fact and as we covered today, a smarter workplace can lead to:
● Streamlined Processes Made Easy with a Connected Office
● Employees Working More Efficiently
● Conservation of Money

Good luck!