For all those who think that Activity-Based Working is just a buzzword and will soon fade out, let us take you back to 1996 when this term was first coined by Erik Veldhoen. In his book, ‘’The demise of the Office”, he mentioned that workplaces need to become smarter and start embracing change. And a crucial factor in accomplishing flexible activity-based working experience is smart storage. In this blog, we speak about what ABW stands for and how smart locker solutions make or break this strategy!
What is Activity-Based Working?
The traditional workplace model says that employees need to come to the office every day and work from an assigned seat and desk, no matter what! But this style of working is quickly starting to erode as employees today look for more autonomy, flexibility, and agility in their workplaces.
Activity-Based working means enabling employees to utilize office space based on their activities for the day. If they need to attend a meeting, they have dedicated meeting rooms; if they want to make a sales call, they have call booths, and if they want to relax and have a friendly conversation with a colleague over coffee, there's space for that too.
The entire Covid-19 crisis has been a key factor in redefining workplace flexibility and making dynamic working the new standard. With most employees working from home for more than a year now, dynamic workspaces are becoming a key asset in organizational performance. And thanks to technology, providing the employees with scalability is no longer an issue.
Why Activity-Based Working?
1. Enabling flexible working for your people
Forbes called ''flexible working'' the way of the future in 2019. A year later, Covid disrupted all normal work processes and pushed everyone within the corners of their homes. This is when a lot of companies as well as employees discovered that flexibility is a boon. They can work when they want, how they want, and wherever they want to work from. Standing in late 2021, nobody wants to go back to the way it was.
Activity-based working breaks the shackles of a 9-5 way of working and provides autonomy and flexibility to your people. It helps suit every employee's needs.
To know more about Flexible Working, read: https://blog.vecos.com/en/what-is-hybrid-working-and-how-to-transform-your-workplace
2. Saving floor space
Did you know that fixed workplaces are typically used for only 50% of the time? Think of the savings in terms of square meters, operation costs and, of course, sustainability! Activity-based working takes advantage of this and makes sure that there is an optimal use of space in the offices. It is understanding that employees, during the day, engage in many different activities and they must have the freedom to work where and when and how they please. This style of work promotes innovation, collaboration and productivity – thus making work and office, both fun!
Read more: Why changing towards Activity Based Working in your office
There are some elements that can make or break your dynamic workplace strategy. One of them is smart lockers.
What are Smart locker solutions?
If you have been following our content, you already have a whole lot of ideas about smart locker systems, but let’s revisit this for a quick recap. Smart locker systems are self-service, smart storage solutions that enable organizations to optimize workspace, save time, and automate manual, mundane administrative tasks.
Take a look at this short video to have a better understanding of Smart Lockers :
But, what do smart locker systems have to do with Dynamic Working or Activity-Based Working?
Well, it turns out that smart locker solutions for activity-based offices are quite crucial. Let’s look at a scenario: You have an employee work on the first floor of your office building today and they book the locker on the first floor. Tomorrow, they might work on the third floor and book a locker there without releasing his locker on the first floor. Another day, he might work on another floor and book a locker there. That’s 3 lockers already for one person and without you realizing, your locker space is wiped out in a month. So, you have to order more lockers! Not anymore, not with dynamic locker management! Vecos can help you there!
Why Smart Lockers are Becoming a Must-Have for Activity-based working spaces?
Having a locker management solution motivates both employees and visitors to work anywhere in the office without having to worry about their personal belongings or confidential documents. Also, cluttered desk spaces with coats hanging on the back of a chair, or bags and personal belongings lying on the table don’t really promote a modern and smart working culture.
Being a key enabler of dynamic working, storage has taken a spotlight in workplace design. Besides flexible storage and increased autonomy to choose where to work from, here are the top 3 reasons why ABW and dynamic locker management solutions go hand in hand:
A self-service storage system that improves operation
If you are still stuck with a traditional key or pin code lockers, you know how much work it is - hassle with issuing and re-issuing keys, keeping a manual record of locker usage, and then let’s not even go to when people lose the keys! With smart locker solutions, you can say goodbye to these inconveniences.
Vecos’ smart lockers are self-service storage solutions that are user-friendly and one can use company access cards, smartphones, and facial recognition to assign, release as well as operate these lockers. The technology adapts to your organization and enables the desired way of working. It saves time as well as significantly reduces administrative work while improving productivity and employee-wellbeing without compromising on equipment security.
Efficient utilization of space
Our research says that 95% of all available lockers are occupied, but only 50% are used over 3 months! Unbelievable!! Think of all the space you can save! Smart locker management software provides real-time data and insights on locker usage and one can use the data to continuously optimize their storage.
In this data-driven world, visibility is crucial when it comes to space management. Understanding, who the lockers are assigned to, how long were they using them and how often were they using them opens a whole different dimension to space utilization and hence, space-saving!
Easy third party Integrations
Your business needs to respond to market demands quickly. Whether it is to improve workplace productivity or customer experience or security, integrations play a crucial role in refining your business processes.
Our smart locker systems can seamlessly integrate with external third-party applications and easily fit into the overall workflows of your company. After all, technology should help streamline and centralize processes, not clutter them with an endless catalog of app options.
Read More: Seamless integration with any IT ecosystem
In Conclusion :
Employees working in activity-based workplaces use the office for shorter periods, or functionally – based on the agenda of the day, leaving offices vacant or unused most of the time. One important aspect herein is the ability for the employees to use the workplace dynamically – this being directly related to the freedom to get storage space when and where required.
Smart lockers are a growing trend that is all set to modernize and innovate workplaces in the coming years. And because it is a relatively new technology, you need to make sure that you work with a company that is a pioneer in this state-of-the-art technology and can assess your needs to provide you with the right solution. Find out how Vecos helped numerous companies enable flexible working and smart locker solutions all over the world! And if you think that your company needs to be on the list too, Book a demo here.
