A S U R E S OF T WAR E

BUILDING
THE ORGANIZATION
OF THE FUTURE

WHITE PAPER
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 A S U R E S OF T WAR E
BUILDING THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FUTURE:
REDEFINING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
PEOPLE, SPACE, AND PRODUCTIVITY
What does the organization of the future
look like?
That’s the question forward-thinking
executives are asking themselves. Of
course, all organizations and office
spaces won’t look alike. But they will
have common qualities that reflect the
evolving needs of the workforce of the
future. Changes in how and where work is
done will continue to be a driving force in
redefining relationships between people,
space, and productivity.
HOW CORPORATE WORKSPACE
UTILIZATION IS CHANGING
According to a 2016 study of employees
across a wide range of industries conducted
by TECHnalysis Research, people only
spend about 46% of their average 43-
hour work week in a traditional office or
cubicle environment. Organizations have
been witnessing a shift away from those
workspaces over the past decade, and
the study suggests that the move is likely
to accelerate: most workers believe that
less than 41% of their time will be spent in
traditional offices by the end of 2018.
Discussion of this seismic change in
workspace usage often centers on the role
of Millennials. However, the desire for greater
flexibility and a healthy work-life balance
affects all generations in the workforce
today. With all the demands of daily life
facing today’s workers, it’s not surprising that
work habits are evolving.
According to an international survey
of employers conducted by CoreNet
Global and Microsoft, 76% of respondents
indicated that they utilize some form of a
“flexible work” program. Combined with
the enabling power of mobile technology,
these trends are driving a rapid transition
to a more flexible workforce—and as a
result, companies are embracing an equally
flexible workspace.
How you use your space directly impacts
your bottom line. According to Gartner
Group, providing a workspace to an
individual employee costs an organization
from $8,000 to $14,000 a year. Based on
those numbers, eliminating 100 workspaces
can save an organization more than one
million dollars a year. It all comes down to
utilizing space efficiently.
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 A S U R E S OF T WAR E
NEW CHALLENGES IN THE
FLEXIBLE WORKSPACE
Mobile devices and wireless access to
business systems are critical in supporting
new work-life patterns, because employees
are increasingly able to do their jobs outside
the office. They are also being given the
discretion to make their own choices about
where and when they work—creating new
organizational challenges.
MAINTAINING COMPANY
CULTURE AND EFFECTIVE
COLLABORATION
As organizations seek to provide more
flexibility for workers, teams will increasingly
span multiple office locations, time zones,
and international borders. The reality of the
reduction in traditional face-time is that
the increase in remote working has made
effective collaboration both more important
and more challenging. Additionally, mobile
employees don’t absorb the organization’s
culture as effectively as office-based
employees.
It’s crucial that employee mobility doesn’t
come at the cost of collaboration. Companies
should strive to retain the benefits of in-
person meetings—and good old-fashioned
camaraderie in the office—by providing the
right flexible spaces for their workforce.
SCHEDULING MOBILE WORKERS
IN A FLEXIBLE WORKSPACE
As organizations transition toward a flexible
future, it is easy to underestimate the
complexity of scheduling resources such as
rooms and desks. With increased mobility,
employees must accommodate a more
diverse range of schedules. Furthermore,
a lack of clear rules and processes for
reserving and using workspace can result
in double-booked spaces, employees
getting bumped from rooms, and endless
headaches sorting out the confusion.
As frustration rises, employees start gaming
the system—for example, abusing personal
relationships or status to bypass the usual
rules. This breakdown in trust disrupts
workflows and damages morale in the office,
which may have taken years to cultivate.
OPTIMIZING INVESTMENTS
IN REAL ESTATE
Even as the corporate workforce becomes
increasingly mobile and flexible, real estate
remains one of the largest expenses for many
organizations. Whether you have thousands
of workstations at offices across the country or
around the world, or a handful of workstations
at a single office, it’s important to maximize
the utilization of your space to get the greatest
return on your real estate investment.
Achieving this goal requires an accurate
understanding of how your mobile workers
function day to day—and how they use
traditional and alternative workspaces.
WHAT THE ORGANIZATION
OF THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE
Today’s workforce is moving from sitting
at the same desk every day to working
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 A S U R E S OF T WAR E
from anywhere. Consequently, the office
of the future will need less space. Leading
employers will leverage technology to utilize
real estate and assets more effectively,
allowing the organization to increase
productivity while reducing costs.
The office space of the future is also
taking on an increasingly fluid quality to
give employees freedom of movement.
Workspaces will continue to become more
open and flexible—with fewer walls, doors,
and dedicated cubicles. But as private,
personal spaces are traded for more
open collaborative spaces, the diverse
needs of different departments, teams,
and individuals will still need to be met. In
addition to providing space for employees
that still spend all or most of their time in the
office, mobile workers will need to be able
to easily reserve the space they need, when
they need it.
However, knowing what the office space
of the future will look like is quite a different
thing than creating one. Shifting gears
from a centralized and closed workplace
to one that is decentralized and open is
challenging. Moreover, the change will take
place whether an organization plans for it or
not. Organizations that fearlessly embrace
change will be the ones who succeed in
attracting and retaining the most talented
workforce.
HOW TO CREATE THE
ORGANIZATION OF THE FUTURE
Creating the organization of the future requires
both tactical and strategic approaches.
Tactically, it is essential to streamline the
process of reserving workspace so that
employees can easily find, reserve, and
use the spaces and resources they need.
Deploying a cloud-based workspace
reservation system has become a critical best
practice for organizations with mobile workers
or a mixed workforce. Having a system that’s
accessible anywhere, anytime empowers
workers to manage their daily schedule and
work in the way that’s most effective for them.
Even employees who spend most of their time
in the office benefit from the convenience.
Whether your office uses hoteling, agile
working, desk sharing, hot desking, virtual
working, or any other specific style of
workspace sharing, it is essential that you
align your system with the evolving needs of
your people.
At a more strategic level, it is critical to track
workspace utilization to gain insight into your
workers’ current and future needs. For most
organizations, leveraging technology is the
only way to gain the business intelligence
necessary to meet the needs of the mobile
workforce while simultaneously optimizing
real estate investments.
As you develop your strategy, it is important
to keep in mind that choosing the right
metrics is critical to success. If you don’t
examine workspace usage based on hard
data (e.g. the presence of employees
and frequency of cubical and conference
room utilization), you don’t know how your
valuable workspace is truly being utilized.
Without this strategic insight, tactical efforts
will fall short of your organization’s intentions.
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 A S U R E S OF T WAR E
ASURE SOFTWARE HELPS YOU
BUILD THE ORGANIZATION
OF THE FUTURE
To build the organization of the future—
one that maximizes the productivity of
the mobile worker—you must create the
right space for the type of work being
performed. Asure can help you make those
crucial decisions based on reliable business
intelligence gathered from multiple data
sources across the organization.
Asure Software provides integrated and
intuitive scheduling tools that empower your
employees to maximize the available space.
Our cloud-based booking system is available
anytime, anywhere, and on any device. By
using our resource scheduling software, your
employees can quickly and easily secure
everything from cubicles and conference
rooms to available services and support
across multiple locations.
As your organization adapts to the changing
nature of work, the relationships between
people, space and productivity will continue
to evolve. Find out how Asure can help you
stay ahead of the curve.
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