Free lockers: a step towards flex-office for your employees
With the advent of flex-office working practices, new issues have arisen that can cause problems for your employees. In addition to the lack of office space, poor communication on the reservation of available workspaces or the presence or absence of certain employees, there is also the question of where your belongings can be deposited. You no longer have a dedicated office, and therefore no place to safely store your bulky belongings. For this reason, some organizations offer free connected lockers that allow your employees to deposit their belongings for a day, or more if the number of lockers allows. But this option, which is decided by the companies that set them up, is still not widely available.
A new method: flex-office
Before we talk about solutions, let's talk about the process behind all these changes. Flex-office is a hybrid way of working that enables you to save on workspace and offer your staff greater autonomy through telecommuting, often advocated by employees and much more popular since the pandemic. This method of working is based on the professional responsibility of each individual, and can be governed by rules put in place by the company that accepts its deployment and to support your teams in this sometimes difficult transition requiring a great deal of autonomy. Solutions like Hamilton Deskbooking are available to adapt to your needs and help your teams acquire the discipline and autonomy they may lack when setting up a new work system.
New challenges: no more fixed workstations
Although this evolution has many advantages, it is not without its problems, which you need to learn to manage to make it a pleasant experience for your teams. One of the most important problems to solve is the absence of a fixed workstation. No fixed workstation means no place to return to the next day, as each workstation can be reserved. This poses a problem for your employees, who may find it difficult to leave their personal belongings on site without any real assurance of finding them in good condition the next day, or even finding them at all. But there's a double side to the problem: for fear of losing or needlessly damaging their equipment, some of your employees may refuse to bring back certain work tools, making their on-site work less efficient - the very opposite of the objective of setting up a flex-office.
The solution to these problems can be found in the installation of more secure and practical equipment for your teams: free and connected lockers.
A solution to a problem: free lockers
A free and connected locker is a hardware device, a space dedicated to the deposit of your personal effects or your professional equipment, in short, a corner with lockers for your employees.
But not only that, the free and connected locker is the extension of the flex-office, applied to the locker. In fact, the set of lockers you place on your premises is, like your offices, free to access and reserve for each of your employees. Employees will be able to leave their belongings in the locker, either reserved or once on site, and will have the option of keeping it reserved even for one night to deposit work-related items they don't want to take home.
Thanks to the application from one of our partners, BeeCase, you'll be able to reserve a locker for a set period of time to keep your belongings safe before retrieving them at the end of your day, taking away the unnecessary stress of tidying up your belongings so as not to disturb your colleagues, or of losing your personal effects.
Conclusion:
Implementing a flex-office involves more than just a change in working habits. It also involves transforming office organization and layout. The primary objective of this type of operation is of course to rationalize and optimize the use of space, but it must not be limited to simply saving square meters for the company. It also means rethinking the spaces dedicated to employees, so that they are adapted to this new way of working and meet their concrete needs.
It's unreasonable to ask employees, some of whom have been used to a fixed, stable environment for years, to turn everything upside down from one day to the next, without support. Intelligent, accessible solutions, such as Hamilton Deskbooking, which make it easier to book and manage workstations, are essential to the success of flex-offices, as are ergonomic and educational facilities that make it easier and more natural to adopt this model.
Beyond digital tools, it is essential to create spaces adapted to the new practices induced by flex-office: zones for concentration, collaborative spaces, places for conviviality, or even isolated workstations for moments of reflection. These features contribute not only to employee comfort and productivity, but also to the credibility of the company's approach.
Ultimately, a successful flex-office cannot be decreed, it has to be built. It requires a clear vision, appropriate resources and genuine human support, so that the company and its premises are truly aligned with this working method, and not simply labelled as such.