Going to work today should look a little like this. The night before, you open an app to see which colleagues will also be in the office that day and reserve the table you want to sit at. In the morning, after stamping your badge in the lobby, you go and pick up your coffee order made last night. It is ready and waiting for you. Once you’re at your desk, remember to register the customer you’re seeing as a visitor so they can enter the building. You’re in luck – the conference room with the best view is available for your meeting, so you book it.
Each of these actions gives workplace owners and managers a hint about how people structure their workdays now. From which desks and meeting spaces they prefer to whether they’ve signed up for on-site fitness classes, these interactions can all be captured and used to bring people back to the office regularly. After all, this is what will ensure that revenues and valuations do not suffer due to unused buildings and unhappy tenants. Instead of property investors, owners and managers working separately to increase time in the office, they can collaborate and share data with each other to understand what experiences make the trip worth making.
“There are more than 8,000 high-tech companies out there today. Our job is to create a technology stack that helps you understand everything that is happening in the building in one place, not only for property managers, but also for investors and real estate owners,” said Andrew Mezheritskiy, Senior Director at JLL Technology Council.
One of the first changes Mezheritskiy recommends is choosing a single app for people to use in the building rather than two. Typically, people are forced to have a building app to check in visitors and complain that their office is too hot or cold, and another company-specific app to navigate their workplace (link to printers, reservation of conference rooms, etc.).
These two types of applications are becoming one thanks to HqO, which is removing the wall between the tenant and employee experience. Mezheritskiy explains, “HqO connects people to the building itself, plus their corporate workplace in one place. People can book conference rooms, order food, communicate with their team outside of email, and focus on benefits that are a priority for a company’s culture, all without having to switch apps or remember who does what. “
Ultimately, this data can help real estate owners and investors make better decisions about which capital improvements will have the greatest impact on retaining existing tenants, attracting new ones, and achieving investment objectives. general income. Why change general office layouts or invest in new equipment if it’s not what people actually want in the building? Instead of simply copying what other nearby buildings are doing or guessing what people’s new office expectations are, analytics from apps like HqO give investors and asset managers data to base their investments on. their capital. These analytics can be as simple as tracking which days or times are most popular for programming and amenity usage via RSVPs and reservations on a tenant experience platform.
This data can also identify any connections between amenities and programming with daily use points for the entire building and for an individual tenant. The opposite is also true. Property managers can identify at-risk tenants who have office space sitting largely unused because their employees aren’t being lured back to the building and, more importantly, make a play for protecting that revenue.
In addition, understanding the use of space thanks to reservations and sensors in place enables property managers and workplace managers to modify designs and new space offerings based on actual use. Rather than relying on shared preferences in survey feedback alone, beacons throughout a building tell decision makers exactly which seating configurations are preferred and which conference rooms are most popular.
“People say one thing in the survey and then do the opposite,” noted Kevin Anderson, JLL’s Senior Vice President of Sales for Flex. “Relying solely on this information to justify real estate decisions—usually a company’s biggest bottom line after your people—means your strategy will inevitably be rooted in speculation rather than facts about how people are using space today.”
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This closer collaboration depends on a new level of separation not only between the property manager and the tenant, but also between the buildings in a portfolio. The assumption that asset management teams have enough time to do this on their own is not realistic. Instead, the common portfolio technology group needs to know which buildings are similar in a given portfolio. The stack can then aggregate performance data and automatically share learnings about what programming, space designs and other offerings are positively impacting occupancy, tenant satisfaction and net operating income.
HqO, for example, gives asset owners and property managers visibility across their portfolios to see which types of tenants – size, industry, and even employee demographics – are accessing the building more, using amenities and follow the programming. This information helps leasing teams target their marketing and business activities to appeal to tenants, reducing the time and cost to win over a prospect and increasing the likelihood of winning long-term, happy tenants.
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Perhaps the most significant impact of technology on existing tenants is the removal of friction points during their workdays. Even the lobby experience is being improved with convenience in mind. Apps like HqO and the Swiftconnect access control system allow people to enter the building with their phones – no security badge required. Mezheritskiy explains, “People shouldn’t stop by a security desk if it’s their first time working in that office. They can go from building to building and, if they have access, use their phone to walk through the turnstiles. It’s all about convenience and speed.”
To some, this may seem like excessive technology, but the lobby experience is the first impression for people returning to the office, many of whom did not work at their company before the start of the pandemic. Eliminating this anxiety about entering the building is one less barrier to getting people back to the office. By making it easy for everyone to do things like book a conference room, check in visitors, and request services, residents can have more control over their workplace and construction crews have more insight. how to create travel-worthy experiences.