Workplace parking problems are incredibly frustrating.
They are frustrating for the employees who have them. They are frustrating for the facility managers who solve them. And they are frustrating for the managers who see the drop off in employees’ productivity when they affect team morale.
Despite the annoyance they cause, your business may have written off its workplace parking problems as a necessary evil, or just something that every company has to put up with.
However, that doesn’t have to be the case.
Workplace parking problems
With every problem, there is not only a solution, but also an opportunity.
Here, your company has the chance to not only improve its parking facilities, but also its communication strategy, along with its approach to sustainability. It is also an ideal opportunity for you to show both employees and visitors to your office that you care about their experience.
Solving workplace parking problems can be transformational. It’s connected to far more than just where your employees leave their cars.
However, before we get to that, let’s look at how most of you are managing your parking system at the moment.
Outdated solutions to modern problems
As stated, facilities managers run into a number of workplace parking problems when trying to look after an office car lot. These issues are often around occupancy and the use of reserved spaces.
Traditionally, when these elements were managed, analogue methods were used. Apart from being rigid and unadaptable in its nature, managing lots in this fashion is also plainly inefficient.
Put simply, it takes up valuable working hours of an employee. The monotony of taking notes on those who are supposed to be working on a given day also leads to human error too.
And then you have the issue of reserved spaces for senior staff members not being used. Imagine arriving to a full lot, circling it twice to find a space, only to see a spot reserved for a manager who you know is not even in the country.
These are the sorts of issues that happen. And these are the sorts of issues that lead to disgruntled employees starting their day in a mindset of frustration.
The issues of occupancy and space usage are evolving too. For instance, with the rise in hybrid working, it can be harder to predict who is going to be using the lot on any given day.
There is also the issue of companies now choosing to downsize their office space due to needing less desks. Often, with downsizing comes fewer parking spaces.
Another contemporary issue which was largely ignored in the past was the need for businesses to be more sustainable. Organizations now have an ethical responsibility to reduce their emissions.
Cars circling the lot searching for a space when they arrive to the lot is clearly in contrast with the idea of a reduced carbon footprint.
A better way for solving workplace parking
Version 1
Software delivery company Version 1 is familiar with many of the issues listed above.
Their parking problems were the result of downsizing the size of their lot and hybrid working making it difficult to predict how many staff would be in on any given day. Combined, these issues led to far too many hours working on parking admin to ensure employees were happy.
It was clear that the traditional solutions were not working for this company that prides themselves on innovation.
The whole process with Wayleadr was extremely consultative and they helped us to find a solution that was catered especially to our problem.
This cut eight hours per week of admin from their workload and led to a happier, more content workforce.
They did this by implementing booking management, revenue, and sustainability features. These features can be directly linked to staff driving to work and improved communication between the lot manager and staff.
The Interiors Group
If you were arriving to work only to realize that you have to pay for your parking off-site, you’d be frustrated, right?
Well, that was just the issue that staff at The Interiors Group ran into. For their employees, parking was unpredictable. They quite simply didn’t know if they were going to have to find their own off-site space when they arrived at the office.
As one of New Zealand’s most respected retailers specializing in flooring & window furnishing solutions, this simply wasn’t good enough.
They employed Wayleadr to help guide them back on the track of employee satisfaction. Together they came up with a plan to optimize parking bookings and allocations.
This led to improved communication with staff members, because of the guaranteed parking for staff on the days where they are working.
Castle Trust Bank
There are some companies who already have parking hardware in place and think that it’s enough. However, having a barrier, or some other kind of parking equipment in place is only a part of the battle to solving workplace parking problems.
There are still issues around communication with employees and it doesn’t stop people misusing their parking privileges. However, if you employ parking management software with that hardware, then your efficiency can immediately rise.
Take Castle Trust Bank for instance. They had a barrier in place, but the co-ordination and sharing physical access cards had made it too difficult to manage parking manually.
Wayleadr digitized & automated all aspects of employee parking management from exit & entry all the way through to allocation. When they adapted this, all employees were able to get a parking space when they needed one.
It led to a happier workforce and a happier workforce is a more productive one.
A better employee experience
Experts believe that it costs somewhere between six to nine months’ salary to replace an employee. And you don’t want parking to be the reason you have to incur this cost.
The commute to the office is part of an employee’s working day and you don’t want them arriving frustrated. Automating their parking experience, with improved communication and efficiency will help you achieve this.
Allow your employees to do what they do best and step away from tedious parking admin and confusion over car lot availability using Wayleadr. Book a demo and learn how easily you can solve your parking problems, once and for all.
