What is Workplace Trinity?
The Workplace Trinity, consisting of the hybrid workplace, employee wellness, and sustainability, cannot be ignored in modern discussions surrounding offices. The concept of a hybrid workplace offers employees the desired flexibility while enabling businesses to optimize costs and maintain productivity levels similar to pre-pandemic times. However, it’s crucial to consider employee wellness and sustainability in the context of today’s workplaces, as all three factors are interrelated. Offices must prioritize all aspects of the Workplace Trinity to ensure a well-rounded approach to the workplace.
When companies prioritize employee wellness, sustainability, and hybrid workplaces holistically, they create a positive and productive work environment that benefits everyone involved. Employees are happier, healthier, and more productive, while businesses can save on costs and improve their environmental impact. By embracing the Workplace Trinity, companies can create a better future for both their employees and the planet.
Hybrid Work and Sustainability go hand in hand
Hybrid workplace by its definition means employees will work for fewer days from the office resulting in lower fuel consumption in travel and reduced carbon emissions. Offices, due to its centralized air conditioning and exhaustive light fittings consume a lot more energy than homes and that gets optimized as well with reduced average attendance in the office.
The hybrid workplace technology platform, such as DB Spazio, is equipped with many features that can help drive sustainability initiatives within enterprises. Few examples include:
- ‘Auto cancellation’ feature can automatically cancel unoccupied desk or meeting room bookings. This not only frees up valuable resources but can also be integrated with inbuilt Modbus and BACnet protocol adapters to turn off local HVAC and lighting units, resulting in significant energy savings.
- The platform can help consolidate employee occupancy in specific zones rather than spreading them out across floors when reserving space, which further optimizes energy consumption.
- Hybrid workplace tools provide workplace analytics that offer pattern analysis and space occupancy forecasting for the upcoming days. By extrapolating this data to overall energy consumption patterns, facility managers can effectively plan their energy loads from various sources in advance such as renewables and utility providers. You can plan on reducing fossil fuel-based consumption to a minimum.
- Correlation analysis between occupancy and energy consumption data can help identify wastage areas within the facility, such as in the ventilation system.
Why is Employee Wellness Assurance Critical in Workplaces?
In the current work landscape, where employees are hesitant to return to the office and employers are advocating for in-person collaboration, innovation, and cultural integration, ensuring employee wellness at the workplace is critical. Employee wellness initiatives encompass a range of measures, such as maintaining adequate indoor air quality (IAQ) parameters, efficient ventilation, and comfortable thermal conditions, as well as promoting a sense of safety among employees while on-site.
Research has shown that poor IAQ alone can result in substantial financial and social costs, including productivity loss, healthcare expenses, and building damage, amounting to more than $10 million per year.1 Therefore, it is essential to prioritize employee wellness initiatives, which can be achieved through the application of technological solutions.
For instance, IAQ sensors can monitor indoor settings against global standards such as WELL, ASHRAE, and trigger automated or manual responses when parameters fall below the required thresholds. Similarly, ventilation and thermal comfort can be tracked proactively using technology. One example of this is DB Spazio’s implementation for one of their clients to allow individual employees to adjust their thermal and lighting settings via their mobile devices, which enhances the overall employee experience.
The Benefits of Workplace Trinity
The Workplace Trinity is interconnected in several ways and need not be implemented at the expense of each other. For instance, by using intelligent ventilation systems that adjust airflow based on occupancy levels, businesses can reduce energy consumption, ensure proper ventilation, and improve indoor air quality (IAQ). This integration of technology into IAQ monitoring and sustainability efforts can assist companies in meeting their sustainability objectives while also maintaining a healthy workplace environment for their employees in the hybrid workplace model.
When viewed through the lens of employees, it is crucial to note that by 2025, Millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce. This generation prioritizes the flexibility offered by a hybrid work model, values wellness at work, and expects their employers to act on social issues, such as climate change. From the employer’s standpoint, these initiatives help to consolidate space, reduce costs, improve employee satisfaction, and enable companies to achieve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is crucial to take a long-term view when evaluating tools for your workplace needs. Don’t limit yourself to just the hybrid work model aspect of the tool. Instead, consider the foundational framework of the tool to determine if it has the potential to support monitoring and control of energy consumption, tracking ESG goals, and monitoring employee wellness parameters in the future. Investing in a tool that supports the workplace trinity can be a strategic differentiator for your organization, leading to satisfied employees, optimized real estate, lower energy bills, and higher ESG compliance, ultimately contributing to a better planet for us all.
References:
