Working from home isn’t working for everyone. According to McKinsey, 87% of Americans want to work in a flexible environment that allows for work in an office setting as well as virtually.
Speaking in Forbes magazine Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings pledged to return to widespread office working “12 hours after a vaccine is approved”.
He’s not alone, leading real estate expert James Mulhall recently remarked in an exclusive interview with the Wayleadr podcast.
“In the early stage of this (COVID), the approach was very tilted to what the employee wanted and naturally so with health guidelines. Nobody wanted to be seen to be doing the wrong thing but I think everybody realises that there are certain sectors and certain companies that need to get back to the office to be more productive and to generate more revenue”
James Mulhall
As the conversation in many companies continues to surround getting back to the office, commuter management continues to become a massive focus. With employee confidence in public transport down and increased flexibility around days working from the office, companies are now faced with a host of new issues when it comes to managing their employees commutes.
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Learn MoreObviously things are different across the globe. We reached out to three workplace leaders from around the world to see what changes they are making to get employees back to work safely.
Chris Clarke, Business Operations, Version 1 (Northern Ireland)
At Version 1, we are ready to begin our first stage of return to work. We have opened one floor of the office at reduced capacity with marked safe desks. We have also developed our own desk booking app on Microsoft Power apps to facilitate the booking of allocated safe desks for our staff members who wish to work from the office.
From a commuting perspective, we have added bicycle storage. By sacrificing a car park space we have put up a cage which can store a number of bikes secured by the same access pass system as all other doors in the building.
“Wayleadr is critical to managing this phased return to the office. It allows us to seamlessly reduce and increase the number of car parking spaces available to staff in line with the available number of desks.”
Matt Walter, Systems Administrator, CV Global (Australia)
We moved offices (from unlimited to limited parking) just as the lockdown commenced, so that has had a bearing on how things changed. Wayleadr was a key solution to help us manage this transition.
CV Global has been very intentional in promoting choice for each individual. Staff are allowed to select when and how they attend the site. In essence the office is just an additional location which employees can choose to work from.
People know that they need to be prepared ahead of time if they need to be on site. Many are starting to book ahead of time as opposed to on the day.
“With the fully automated nature of Wayleadr, we have delegated the responsibility of managing the parking to each individual and team. The system works very well as people co-operate and abide by the shared commitment to being honest.”
Employees are starting to take ownership of the management of the parking system. They use Slack to remind people to release booking and police parking infringements. We have been able to use the analytics to track trends and find ways to better utilize the parking and office space.
Pavel Vavrinek, Head of Key Accounts, Sodexo (Czech Republic)
Prior to COVID we had a relatively normal office. We had a very small portion of hot desks, the majority of the employees had their own table. Meeting rooms were reserved through shared calendars. Parking slots were mainly for small groups of people.
Looking for some real-life examples? Check out how companies like Colliers International, Version 1 & Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt have solved their parking problems.
A lot has changed. The majority of our employees depending on their roles are still working from home. We have introduced full hot-desking with the appropriate sanitization measures.
“We’ve used Wayleadr to broaden the availability of parking. We’ve made parking available to staff who previously didn’t have any access.”
We’ve also used Wayleadr to change parking allocation. Employees now can book space before 1pm on the day prior to the day they need the space. Prioritization is given to certain senior staff and employees can also check on the day to see if any space popped up at the last minute.
In the office, we’ve created more breakout spaces, moving away from formal meeting environments. Board members have given up their private offices and these are now used as focus rooms for staff who need privacy.
Wayleadr is trusted by world-leading employers like Uber, Universal Music, CBRE, eBay, Sanofi & Colliers International. Schedule a demo with Wayleadr.com today and solve your parking problems in the click of a button.
