The proliferation of smart devices and the rise of flexible working is creating a massive digital and cultural shift that is changing our expectations of the workplace and defining new standards for the future of work.
Today’s office buildings do a lot more than provide shelter. Instead of the soulless standardisation synonymous with offices of the past, today’s modern developments prioritise flexibility, reconfigurability and personalisation. Row after row of desks in open spaces are giving way to connectivity enabled building features that help the environment to adapt to workers’ needs.
The success of some of the world’s newest buildings — such as Societe Generale’s new state of the art building, One Bank Street in Canary Wharf — truly showcase how technology can be seamlessly integrated into the fabric of our buildings to improve the user-experience.
Far from being technological window-dressing, today’s connected building frameworks support the creation of intuitive, choice-led and personalised environments that support how work is done to help businesses drive productivity. They are allowing users to change their working methods in profound ways which, in turn, is driving remarkable cultural shifts within organisations.
User-led design and space maximisation
From enabling connecting of multiple BYOD devices; touch-screen kiosks to assist with wayfinding or the location of colleagues; integrated smartphone apps that allow employees and visitors to view interactive building maps, book meeting rooms and hot-desk spaces; and AV equipment for videoconferencing and wireless sharing – truly ‘smart buildings’ allow a high level of user-flexibility and agility as well as the personalisation needed to make shared spaces feel owned during their use. These more connected buildings can also make use of geo-location systems and a complex array of behavioural and movement data to understand how space is used on a real-time basis. Not only does this allow occupiers to identify under-utilised spaces it prompts more informed user-led office design that reflects how work is actually done.
People management
Digital-enabled buildings that offer choice and personalisation are typically home to happy, thriving, sociable work communities. With the talent war raging those employers with the best environments and workplace cultures will naturally attract the best talent, while those not keeping pace with digital change will struggle. Digital buildings give occupiers some of the tools they need to improve their technological offering and make flexible, personalised work experiences more possible.
Wellbeing
Workplace absence costs the UK economy £18bn in lost productivity each year. By enabling the creation of personalised environment preferences fully integrated IoT-enabled buildings can also have a hand in creating a happier, healthier workforce.
Clearly there are many complex market forces driving the digitalisation of the built environment, but the increasing value on personalisation and the human experience shouldn’t be underestimated. However, creating these experiences relies entirely on having the right infrastructure in place — a reliable backbone of connectivity capable of supporting a building throughout its lifecycle without restricting future technology choices.
This is where LMG excels. Our flexible deployment model and robust connectivity platforms allow you to turn a beautiful building into a fully digitised, connected workspace for employees and visitors, rich in personalised services that are fit for the future.