Today, innovation has reached unprecedented levels of exploration and adoption. As it provokes serious social and economic disruptions globally, the COVID-19 pandemic remains a key driver in this pursuit. Businesses have found digital transformation an effective response, with innovation nestled at the heart of its agenda.

The debate around innovation here is less about its medium for novel ideas. The success of technologies is determined by the positive impact they create, correspondingly fostering a culture of innovation among enterprising communities all over the world. A peek into the new world of working is enough to put the point across.

The New Way of Working

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a seismic shift in the way people work by normalising flexible arrangements like work from home (WFH) or remote working. Geographically-dispersed teams rely heavily on telecommuting tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meets to stay connected. The tools’ ability to eliminate distance in both time and space has allowed employers to recognise the merits of such flexibility.

For one, telecommuting allows them to make better use of employees’ time — reduced travel meant that employees could get an efficient start to the day and eliminating unnecessary face-to-face meetings puts the focus back to productive work. While WFH has proven to be a good short-term alternative, it is not a sustainable model. Remote work has posed several limitations such as increased isolation among employees, drop in employee morale and unity. More importantly, the blurred boundaries between work and life has led to WFH burnout, ultimately causing a dip in productivity.

A 2020 report by Quartz and Qualtrics, however, revealed that 54% of employees liked WFH, and 68% would prefer some level of remote work moving forward. Evidently, employers are pivoting towards a hybrid work model for a more sustainable workplace solution, simultaneously leveraging it as a talent attraction and retention strategy.

By providing employees more choices in remote workplaces while maintaining business visibility in a right-sized headquarters office, this model best supports individual work styles, while balancing the benefits of both flexibility and operational efficacies.

Effectively shifting the discourse on WFH to ‘work from anywhere’, the demand for flexible workplace solutions is telling. Beyond innovative telecommuting tools, what more can space providers do to support this growing trend?

Workspace Innovations With Technology

The nature of work is constantly changing as a result of advances in technology, and this brings greater opportunity, drives productivity and speed to individuals and businesses alike. For example, with the increase in virtual meetings, having a conducive environment decked with effective tools is a must. Moreover, the preference for a proper workspace set-up over noisy cafés to hold business meetings further drove the need for on-demand spaces.

Our partnership with Switch, the world’s first workspace on-demand platform, hits the spot as it offers users with a super flexible, non-committal and pay-as-you-use solution to complement their workforce deployment plans. Switch partners with different real estate players such as shopping malls, commercial buildings, and flexible workspace providers like JustCo, to offer multiple workspaces in the form of hot-desks, meeting rooms or even private suites.

Additionally, crowd levels are also captured at each location through spatial sensors connected to an AI-powered tool, SixSense, allowing users to select JustCo workspaces that better suit their needs. Aside from user benefits, SixSense also offers many operational advantages. The real-time monitoring of crowds has allowed our operations team to ensure safe-distancing compliance and also leverage on space-usage data to make innovative improvements in office designs to cater to member needs.

Convenient access to well-furnished work environments and collaborative spaces underpin daily work productivity. Companies can now leave the workspace management in the good hands of JustCo’s professional team, enabling them to channel resources to better focus on innovating for business growth.

Reimagining The Workspace of Tomorrow  

JustCo recognises that flexibility in workspaces will remain a cornerstone to productivity, and we are reshaping the future of work by leveraging technologies to transform the way workspaces are being delivered and consumed. By deepening our technological capabilities, we want to ultimately support our community’s innovations so they can explore horizons not fathomed before. To learn more about our solutions, click here.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn, by Kong Wan Long, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of JustCo.