Do you want to save on real estate in Edinburgh & Glasgow?
Do you want to save on real estate and improve the efficiency of the way your staff use your office space?
While new ways of working and pressure from rising rental costs in London are impacting on how CFO’s look at their Corporate Real Estate costs, what is happening in Scotland and are we likely to see the same conditions at some point in the future?
Saving on real estate in Edinburgh & Glasgow
Recent large new builds suggest that the thinking is still very much that companies provide 1 desk per employee, thereby giving them the assurance and comfort of a place to go in the office.
Worktech and AI in Smart Offices
However, is this really driving the best outcomes for these organisations? At a recent WorkTech conference, the MD of a large London law firm suggested that in the not too far distant future, his own job in HR Law could be done by Artificial Intelligence. His scenario was real – when presented with an HR related legal problem, he asks a number of logical questions from which advice can then be given based on case law and experience.
So, what does this suggest for the property market and large organisations in Scotland? A space revolution is happening already and it is revolutionising both the space we use and how we use it.
Office Occupancy
If the work you need to do on a given day is of a repetitive nature, requires access to files via your laptop and you don’t need to be interacting with your colleagues then save the commute and work from home. This is a shift in thinking for both managers and employees alike, but it is the future.
Coming into work to spend time with various colleagues in meeting rooms and leaving your jacket and laptop bag at your desk with a brief 20-minute stay first thing and then back for half an hour at the end of the day? How inefficient is that?
Agile Working
What if you used a concentration space for that first 20 minutes and then thought about your need for meeting rooms? Are the conversations of a confidential nature or is it just the fact that in order to sit with colleagues you have to use a meeting room? What if you used the collaboration area and told your colleagues where you are sitting and that there is space around you for them to come and work with you for the day? Agile Working can cause a huge shift in how meeting rooms are used and the saying we hear most ‘there is never enough meeting rooms’ can become a thing of the past.
Activity Based Working Environment
A reorganisation of the office space to provide environments that facilitate the different types of work and give employees the opportunity to select and move between these environments is well underway. Also available now is the technology to allow everyone to access real time information showing them where and what space is available and where to find their colleagues.
Connected Workplace and Internet Of Things
In todays fast paced and ever changing world of technology, why should companies have to be spending vast amounts of money on static furniture and office layouts that will not be able to react to these changes?
With iOt Space we can provide a plug and play system that turns an existing ‘dumb’ building into a genuinely smart office building, overnight. It can interact with the users of the building and start providing the data required to transform the way that space is viewed. Facts and data set you free and with our unique approach we can improve the efficiency of how you use space, potentially reducing the floorplate and that obviously saves money.
The second largest balance sheet cost after staff is Real Estate and if we can reduce this whilst keeping the staff happy then no CFO should overlook the chance to investigate and explore the options.
Edinburgh is after London the second most expensive place for corporate real estate
