CIOs, well familiar with wearing multiple hats, are taking on yet another role: Forging partnerships with building, facilities, HR, and real estate teams to reimagine and reequip workspaces for the hybrid work era.
Despite the draw of working from home, many employees see value in returning to the office. According to Cisco research, 86% of people want to work from the office, but only 9% want to work there full time.[1] In-office time is the preference for team building, collaboration, and connecting with peers, called out by 95% of respondents to the research.
In certain organizations, real estate managers and facilities leaders rely on badge scans to identify the number of people in a location. But this leaves a large opportunity on the table. Gaining insight into where and when people congregate provides valuable direction into how much and what kind of space is needed.
While AI, advanced connectivity, and data analytics are at the heart of these new workspaces, transformation requires more than new technologies. As building operations become increasingly digitized, it makes sense for IT leaders to partner with cross-functional partners representing facilities, real estate, and HR to design and create workspaces and office buildings that are flexible, sustainable, collaborative, and highly networked.
Such a partnership increases the odds of achieving a variety of desired outcomes—among them:
- Engaged, productive employees
- Seamless experiences between remote and office employees
- More scalable operations
- Use of real-time data insights
- Better workplace experiences and immersive collaboration
Health and safety have also become a prominent part of workplace planning since the pandemic. CIO input is crucial to the strategy to create state-of-the-art facilities that allow for flexible employee movement, monitor social density in buildings, and alert to potential problems.
Optimizing the hybrid workplace
The benefits of early conversations between IT and other teams are crucial to achieving better outcomes. Data insights made possible by IT infrastructure allow for an optimized hybrid work environment—for example, anonymous wireless data from Bluetooth and WiFi can aid in optimized space utilization or cost savings related to aligning HVAC needs to dynamic occupancy requirements.
Collaboration at the forefront can also curtail unnecessary expenditures like building a separate bespoke sensor network when leveraging the right WiFi, collaboration tools, and security cameras. In addition, IT leaders can highlight organizational environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals as they relate to outcomes like reduced energy costs, equitable collaboration, and improved air quality through data insights.
As IT leaders navigate these new relationships, they need to connect business strategy to technology needs and explain the role of digital tools in terms that resonate with facilities managers and business partners. Most importantly, IT leaders should make sure they have a seat at the table from the inception of the design process to ensure a cohesive approach and to prevent being cast as a last-minute interloper.
As operational and IT technologies converge, leadership needs to be mindful of security as there have been well-known incidents where hackers gain entrée through vulnerable equipment. By turning the management of the OT network over to IT, simplified and robust security policies can be applied across all elements that touch the network. Cisco’s security solutions can stop threats and offer advanced endpoint protection across control points to mitigate IT/OT threats.
For more information on Cisco’s solutions for hybrid work, click here.
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[1] Mastering Hybrid Work: A Comprehensive Guide for Productivity, Security, and Collaboration