Hot Seat

Izwar Muis/Pixabay

After numerous disruptions in real estate, proptech is now tinkering with shaping office environments. 

The pandemic has got many companies re-thinking their office spaces and why or how should their employees use them. 

How Does That Work?

After core product and employee costs, the third cost for enterprises is the real estate that its people occupy, and that is not an insignificant cost by any standard. 

It is thus natural for many organizations to relook at their offices to better understand space-planning, scheduling, and space utilization, to optimise their business costs and performance. 

New tech is now using employee hardware IDs within the office to understand where they spend most of their time - at their desk, in meeting rooms, collaborating with other colleagues or at the chai vending machine. 

This is done by either using the ethernet or by triangulating wi-fi signals. 

Sounds Intrusive!

Proptech startups creating such software reiterate that the technology is not so much about identifying who is in a location/seat at any given time, but rather the longer-term patterns of how staff use office space in general.

Did Any Good Come From It?

Here are some cool takeaways. 

📌 Due to holidays, illness, out of office meetings and other stuff, at any given moment, 20% of desks are always unoccupied.

📌 Employees are delighted by the live-data application that tells them which meeting space is available at a given time.

📌 Aircons, lights and other power consuming activities can be controlled in real time, based on the number of employees in a particular section of the office.

📌 50% employees-only or other statutory restrictions due to health hazards can be automatically enforced and tracked. 

While numerous applications and analytic tools are being developed, it seems tracking people is one way to solve pain points to make working spaces safer and more delighting.