Activity Based Working or the New Way of Working is a dynamic workplace concept, adapting to the many demands of the future workplace strategy of organisations around the world. Reconfigurations of workspaces require an equally dynamic locker management system that can keep up with the changing environment. This article explains how a smart locker management system encourages the dynamic use of a workplace the way it was designed.
With a smart locker management system, managers are in control of the dynamics of locker use. The desired dynamics varies per type of organisation and the amount of experience with Activity Based Working environments. The dynamics also vary from person to person within an organisation.
Optimising the amount of cabinet space
At Vecos, we have extensively researched locker usage from more than 1 million users worldwide in Activity Based Working. The conclusion: 95% of all available lockers are occupied, but only 50% are actually used over a 3 month period.
The reason? Employees have started using storage space differently and by working paperless they don’t need as much of it anymore. Instead of a lot of personal storage space, employees increasingly need temporary storage space which is not bound to a specific location.
With the Vecos Releezme locker data management system, the allocation of fixed, dynamic, visitor and team lockers is freely configurable. A fixed or appointed locker particularly suits people and organisations that are still committed to a fixed zone or workspace. A dynamic locker is more fitting for people and organisations that have already grown accustomed to the dynamic use of office space. With a dynamic locker, a time restriction can be connected to the locker use. A dynamic locker with for example time restrictions is suitable for people and organisations who use their workplace as a meeting point. In Releezme, fixed and dynamic lockers can be mixed and used simultaneously.
"Vecos is a very good option to have a locker system which is able to provide data and with that data we can manage and assign the storage space. We also wanted to reduce our storage capacity by 40% and that worked very well.” Andreas Thiem, Workplace Lead of Germany Central, Accenture Germany
Save time required for locker management
Furthermore, each change of owner requires involvement of the facilities manager. The inspection and emptying of lockers of which the owner is unknown or has already left, is the most time consuming. Without Releezme the amount of work regarding locker management increases quickly when an organisation becomes more dynamic and more familiar with the concept of Activity Based Working. With Releezme the amount of work actually decreases.
Releezme is not only easy to use for employees, but also for the facilities manager. Releezme can operate on a self-service principle. Employees are made responsible for safe locker use, whereas the facilities manager remains on top of things by means of actionable information contained in the reports.
