workplace lockers
return to work
A look at how lockers will help enable your return to the office strategies.
redesigning & rebuilding from the inside
Many companies are evaluating and planning to completely redesign and rebuild the inside of their headquarters around a new vision for office work, betting that the pandemic has changed how we work. It is unknown exactly what return to work will look like, it is clear that safeguarding employees’ well-being will be paramount because no plan to resume normal operations can succeed without them.
leading with empathy
One thing that proves to be consistent in our findings is that management teams should lead with empathy and demonstrate an understanding that while all of their employees have experienced this crisis, they haven’t all experienced it the same way.
Businesses will need to make significant changes around health and safety in the workplace. By using data and insights to drive decisions, businesses can manage new operations, technologies, and ways of working, while meeting the needs of their people and business as they move forward.
flexible solutions will prove to be the most successful which is why
smart workplace lockers will shift
from 'nice to have' to necessary
Check out a summary of how smart lockers address the return to work.
trends emerging as we look to
Return
To
Work
Hybrid Workforce
Smart Workspaces & Digital Adoption From Nice-to-Haves to Must-Haves
The pandemic has rapidly elevated many digital workplace technologies from ‘nice-to-haves’ to ‘must-haves’.
A smart workspace leverages the growing digitalization of physical objects to deliver new ways of working and improve workforce efficiency. Smart Lockers for both personal storage and delivery (or exchange of goods) fits nicely into the overall smart building and smart workplace movement. With the adoption of smart workspace technologies such as: IoT, digital signage, integrated workplace management systems, virtual workspaces, motion sensors and facial recognition — using old school ‘dumb’ locks doesn’t make any sense. Businesses would have a hole in their digital strategy and potentially lose valuable insights along with creating a less than optimal user experience.
The built environment of workspace we know today cannot survive because its form disturbs the workflow, productivity, and efficiency levels that the “smart” world has dubbed the future of workspace design.
Smart Lockers for Agile Offices, Hoteling, and Hub-and-Spoke Models
On the other side of the pandemic, offices will still exist, but with a new purpose. Rather than being taken for granted—a place where employees automatically report every day—they will become corporate centers specifically meant to spur innovation and connection. Most likely, employees will not have assigned desking going forward, which will require a place to store personal belongings.
Rather than using a shared keypad on a locker door, employees can reserve smart lockers via a phone app — allowing them to choose their size, location and duration of use. With a hub-and-spoke model, employees can use the same ‘key’ across all locations to access lockers. Or exchange of good, also known as delivery, can help facilitate a touchless exchange of equipment, materials, or packages.
Visitor Management
Seamlessly integrate workplace lockers with the visitor management system. Managing visitors effectively will be incredibly important as we return to work. Accounting for their movements and allowing visitors an easy, seamless way to store their personal belongings. Handle multiple credentials on one locker bank or integrate a barcode scanner or other readers that integrate into your visitor management system.
flexibility, speed, & adaptability
Smart Workplace Lockers Iterate with You — and it's the Data that Allows it to Happen
Lockers may seem like an inconsequential part of the overall equation. But we have seen time again that lockers aren’t important until they are. How can you modify and work on frictionless experiences with lockers that are rigid and unforgiving? Lockers that have to be predetermined at the time of purchase to be assigned or unassigned prior to ordering? Or lockers that give you no data on usage, capacity or individuals.
You can’t have a smart workplace with dumb lockers.
There is No “One Size Fits All” Model for Returning To the Office
We have learned so much about productivity, flexibility, resilience and compassion over the past year. So many articles reference flexible work and citing surveys about the desire to remain flexible and provide hybrid solutions — from co-working spaces, to hub-and-spoke models, to coming in to the office for collaboration time. From what we have gleaned is that most people want to return to the office in some capacity to regain the sense of team, camaraderie, and innovation that only happens when collaborating. But that’s the thing — there is no prescribed formula for success or “way of doing it right”. Flexibility, speed, ability to iterate and tweak will be key to learning what works best for your organization, your culture, space, location, and more.
empathetic & people-first design
Giving Employees the Tools to Put their Well-Being at the Center of Their Daily Lives
Putting employees first, companies will notice improvements not only within the company, but a ripple effect reaching across communities, the environment, and — if you are an optimist — the world.
Motivated, engaged employees are not only more content, but research shows they are more productive. Anything around employee engagement ultimately is fed also by how good your network is and how secure that network is to deliver those applications efficiently for that employee to carry out their tasks in that frictionless way.
Happy Employees Lead to a Healthier Bottom Line
It’s not just about coming back for five days a week, eight to five. It’s about, “Can I come in for four hours?… Book my time in that physical space, carry that out, and then I can go home and do the research-based work in the safety of my own environment.”
Smart Lockers are a part of enabling the strategies necessary to help employees feel safe, secure and comfortable coming back to the office.
cleaning expectations & smart materials
The COVID-19 Pandemic Will Change How We Clean, Disinfect, and Sanitize the Workplace
Organizations are considering what materials they should be looking at going forward. The good news is offices are not limited to just a few options that may feel clinical, just because they need to clean and disinfect with a bleach cleanable product. While cleanable materials are important, the number of crevices, touch points and ease (time and cost) of cleaning is key.
Lockers with locks hanging off the front represent a petri dish of crevices, touched surfaces and difficulty to truly sanitize. Without data to know which lockers were used, you have to clean and disinfect each locker every night (or after each use).
The cleanliness of your workplace plays a tremendous role in how employees adapt post-COVID-19. If they feel comfortable in surroundings that feel clean, they’ll face fewer obstacles as they ease back into work. They’ll do better work and feel good about your organization’s emphasis on cleanliness.
With smart locking systems for lockers — the locks can be set up to go into cleaning mode, meaning they can be disabled for use, after each use or after a shift of use. Giving your employees a sense of confidence knowing that their locker for the day, hour or week is clean and disinfected. This may not seem like a big deal — but sharing spaces with others, their coats, shoes, bags, computers, etc. may cause a sense of anxiety for some after the pandemic.
extraordinary partnerships
ease of partnering
Partners are increasingly important in dealing with the pace of change, complexity, and disruptions that are becoming the norm. The rate of technological and business-model innovation alone makes it nearly impossible for any single organization to do everything itself. Furthermore, the connected world is breaking down the traditional boundaries between buyers and suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, and employers and employees.
Allow partners to seamlessly access and use lockers as if they were their own. Allow multiple credentials and formats to be used on the same locker bank. Seamless integration and no need to make special rules.
Let's discuss how smart workplace lockers can help support a safe #ReturntoWork
Interested in learning more about the various ways to apply a smarter locking system to your locker applications? Contact us and we will get in touch with you to learn more about your unique needs.
