If you read my post below I can now add the letter that I sent to FT and that they published on Monday the 9th! Always great to get a letter in the pink pages!!!
Pilita Clark’s article in today FT (2/10/23 The ghastly modern office needs a reboot) made me put pen to paper immediately and fire off a letter to the editor.
The problem is that post pandemic workplaces have invested in re-imagining their space for a hybrid world and most have reduced space to worker ratios. Clifford Chance move from Canary Warf to a city office a 3rd of the size is a case in point. However less time has been invested in managing new workforce patterns. We all know Tuesday to Thursday are office days and Monday and Friday are WFH.
That being the case and the office being sold to the workforce as a collaboration space meeting rooms become the key ingredient to that actually occurring. With designated desks now impractical the issue of managers needing space for privacy is competing with teams having only 3 days a week to collaborate and less available places to do it in.
Workplace services have not caught up with most firms leaving meeting room booking to self serve programs and apps that lack the nuanced sophistication to manage the complexities of prioritisation, rank, urgency and personalisation.
At ComXo one of our customers uses us to book, check, manage, curate and expedite over 800 meeting room requests everyday. We know that 80% of the self serve bookings have 1 or more errors or omissions in them, unchecked and left unaddressed these errors cause frustration, embarrassment, cost and a loss of productivity.
Our centralised, optimised and virtualised room booking service works similarly to managing tables in a restaurant. The workforce books on a self service platform with requirements and preference. The ComXo team then organise it like a giant game of dynamic Tetris maximising workspace utilisation and with integration with on site teams get rooms turned around quickly for the next use, ensure the right food is ordered from on-premis canteens, check the AV set up for the requested requirement and release cancelled rooms for on demand avaialbility.
The addition of an expert layer to drive utilisation whilst delivering ‘White Glove’ client experience makes for a better functioning workplace and a happier less frustrated one.
No restaurant owner in their right mind would let their tables run on a self serve seating basis…so why are we happy to let our workplaces function that way?