Facility management: why is the use of technology so crucial?

Does your office layout match your employees’ needs? How can you lower the company’s costs and provide a safe and enjoyable work environment at the same time? Which tech solutions can you rely on to improve facility management (FM)? In a world that is constantly changing, you need to be aware of the latest work trends and use tech to support and enhance employee experience. How can workplace technology help your business function properly, reduce expenses, maintain facilities and support workers? Digital tools enable more productivity and are a major component of the workplace experience. Discover how Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and other technologies are becoming a real asset to keep an efficient, safe and well-maintained office space. 

Collect relevant data for a better facility management

The role of a facility manager

Facility managers are vital for a company to maintain safety and security, ease processes, support people, ensure smooth operations, reduce costs and preserve a positive workplace experience. Obviously, this requires being aware of what is currently happening in the office, observing and analysing to find relevant solutions. But how is it possible to be everywhere and work on several missions at the same time? Many aspects need to be treated and taken care of. For example, do teams have access to the necessary equipment? Can hybrid employees easily book a desk when they come to the office? What is the overall experience of the workforce? A lot of information has to be taken into consideration and analysed to ensure efficient facility management.

Data centralisation

Fortunately, technology is becoming major support for facility administrators.   It can also provide relevant data about everything occurring in the workplace. Are your employees happy with the workspace facilities? Do they prefer to book a table in collaborative workspaces or individual desks? When is lift maintenance due? A centralised data system can provide answers to all these questions. Other technologies are also essential to form a smooth and efficient working environment. A desk booking software helps you analyse which workspace is the used most by your workforce, for example. An equipment maintenance software informs when the next check-up is due for all your tech devices.

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➡️ How does a desk booking app work? Request a free demo of the deskbird app to discover a user-friendly digital solution for hybrid businesses!

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Employee experience

All this data is not only very important for maintaining security and safety on-site but also for improving the whole employee experience in the office. The needs of your staff may evolve and a working system that was succeeding for years may not answer their requirements any more. For instance, hybrid work has totally reshuffled our way of working over the last few years. Gathering data about hybrid work practices allowed businesses to realise that remote work has many advantages. Collecting and analysing statistics is a key resource for office space management and the implementation of positive changes. 

Reduce office costs

Real-estate costs and company bills

As we mentioned, thanks to digital tools like a desk booking app or a week planning software you can observe how your workforce is utilising the workspace. If your employees are operating from home 50% of the time, you may want to review the size of your office space. The same goes for your parking area. After the analysing data, if you discover most of your employees are using public transport, you can probably withdraw this expense from your budget. Is your building equipped with IoT sensors? They are also a smart facility management solution to reduce real-estate costs and electricity bills, for example.

Automation and Artificial Intelligence

Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are quickly making their way into many businesses. These technologies help us get rid of insignificant tasks and therefore improve productivity and effectiveness. Additionally, automated solutions and AI systems reduce the risks of human error and prevent losing time and money fixing them! Moreover, you decrease your expenses by automating repetitive operations with low value, including facility management tasks. Your workers can finally concentrate their energy and skills on the assignments that bring worth to your company.

Employee turnover

Do you know the average age of your workforce? How is your employee turnover rate? Whether you are a startup or a corporate company, digitalisation is playing a big part in workforce retention and talent attraction. Therefore, using facility management software is a great way to show your team members and potential candidates how you embrace the future of work. With an average annual workforce turnover of 57% and an average cost of 1.5 to 2 times the employee’s salary per worker, reducing employee turnover is a major issue for businesses. (Source: The True Costs of Employee Turnover by Kate Heinz, Builtin.) 

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➡️ Do you want to learn more about the impact of new generations? Read our article about Gen Z in the workplace.

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Improve employee experience with workplace technology

Communication and collaboration tools

As a facility manager, you are in charge of the office building as much as the employee experience. For this reason, people-centric communication software is also an important aspect to look at. The number of online communication and collaboration tools is skyrocketing since hybrid work has become the new way of working for most organisations. From Slack to Zoom and collective whiteboards, you need to find the digital solutions that are matching your employees’ needs the best. 

This software needs to enhance smooth communication and collaboration when employees work from home and on-site. A desk booking software with a week planning system like deskbird is a great example of a coordination tool that enables teams to meet at the office on the same days and book the workspace they require. The deskbird app is also easy to integrate into your existing communication platforms such as Slack and MS Teams to enhance your workflow. 

Workplace management apps

How do you manage your office space? Do your workers have access to different workspace types (single desks, meeting rooms, collaborative areas, open spaces, etc.)? Are they sitting anywhere in the office or can they book their favourite spot to focus better on their projects? Workplace management apps are ideal to provide workers with a digital solution that helps them enjoy their time in the office and make the most of it. They can book a meeting room in a few clicks to collaborate with their team on an upcoming project, for example. They can also check the interactive floor plan before arriving to know where their colleagues are sitting and therefore join them.

From the facility manager’s point of view, using office space management software is a very reliable tool. It creates a better employee experience in many aspects (engagement, productivity, work-life balance, well-being, etc.) while promoting a safe and enjoyable workspace. These digital solutions also support maintaining and improving the office in general. By collecting data and feedback from users, the facility administrator can help the company make the right choices for its workers. It can result in turning an unoccupied room into a chilled area for your workforce to switch off and recharge when they need it, for example.

Like any other department, facility management is now highly dependent on tech solutions to make the office space better. From IoT sensors to smart building tech, tools based on automation and AI are helping facility leaders in their daily job with hard FM. How do you currently manage your hybrid workspace? Do you want to know more about week planning and desk booking?

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Discover the deskbird app and its user-friendly features which support your employees as much as your facility management team!