Sharing workspaces and optimizing their use has become quite trendy… before the coronavirus struck.
And now for the past 2 years, we’ve seen almost all coworking spaces go out of business, on-site businesses needing bigger spaces to accommodate new guidelines, or taking work remotely and suddenly having underutilized offices, meeting rooms, and empty buildings.
Fortunately, we’ve been developing health-first workplace management solutions for the after covid era with security in mind. And with our latest update, we’re bringing back optimized workspaces and co-working models in a safe and compliant way.
Why you should optimize your office space
Tech companies are bleeding millions to rent office spaces that are more or less empty. For example, Dropbox alone lost a staggering $416 million in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. And it’s not the only one with Salesforce losing $216 million and Airbnb $149 million in the same time period.
But the tech giants aren’t the only ones dealing with the problem. Underutilization of workspaces and meeting rooms has been persistent even before covid. Back in 2019, VergeSense did a study where they found out that the average conference room utilization was only at 11%. And that was when the face-to-face meetings were still popular.
What can a business do to stop bleeding money and utilize the workspaces better?
Sub-rent underutilized meeting rooms and desks when they’re not used by your team
The only way to plug the leak is to improve your workspace utilization, starting with meeting rooms. Here’s how to approach it.
Automate meeting workplace management
Let’s be honest, the effort of sharing meeting rooms and desks with 3rd-party businesses can’t be run in Google Spreadsheets.
They can easily become very messy, hard to track, easy to edit to steal an already booked spot, and shared with people who you haven’t approved.
To sort it out, you’d probably need to dedicate a couple of hours per week to calendar management, which will diminish the potential profit from renting out workspaces.
The best way to approach this is by automating the management process. With a meeting room management solution like Joan Room and a desk booking solution Joan Desk, added domains can easily check the availability and book a meeting room straight from the Joan app. No spreadsheets, calls, and confusion.
Add transparency to boost meeting and work quality
Opening up a workspace to outside users can become messy. When the utilization was at 11%, you had a pretty good chance that the meeting room is empty when you popped in to check its availability. It was also easier to spot at which meeting you’re supposed to be since it was the only one on your floor happening at the moment.
But once the utilization improves, growing pains will occur. Meetings will get interrupted, lowering the quality of meetings and the satisfaction of meeting attendees, and people will wander in already booked meeting rooms to claim they’ve booked them a night before.
All of these can be avoided. Joan app works best with our proprietary devices, advanced e-Paper displays Joan 6 and Joan 6 Pro, and can even be utilized with your existing tablets. It sits in front of meeting room doors, clearly displaying the current status of the meeting room, the name of the meeting, the upcoming meetings, and the meeting room’s timetable.
This will bring the needed clarity, increase the satisfaction of your users, and improve the quality of meetings.
Make sure everyone entering your building is healthy
If you’d like to ensure everyone in your workspace is healthy, enable the health screening feature in the desk managing portal. It’s a free-forever feature you can use even after the free trial.
How to start utilizing workspaces with Joan
With the latest Joan mobile app, you’re able to invite users from other companies or from a different email domain to book your meeting rooms.
For all the new Joan enthusiasts, here’s what you need to get started:
- Get Joan Room or Joan Desk subscription.
- Have a Joan Portal account. More details can be found here.
- Have a calendar connected and a meeting room added.
- Have a connected device. More details on pairing a Joan device can be found here.
Are you an existing Joan user?
Go to your Joan Portal account, and add users under Settings. We also support automatic active directory user syncing or bulk importing users.
Now that users are added it’s time to start reserving meeting rooms and booking desks.
Users can now download our mobile app, choose the location and book a meeting room in any available time slot or search for available desks on the office floor map.
Our Joan app is available on Android and iOS devices, so no one will get excluded.
– Android
Improve your workplace utilization today
Make the most out of your workplace spaces by opening them up to third-party users in a safe way. With the Joan Room and Joan Desk’s newest feature, you’ll be able to improve your workplace utilization without spending time and resources on management.
Try the solutions for free or simply enable multiple room domains in your Joan Portal account.