IS YOUR WORKPLACE READY FOR GEN Z? WHY IT’S TIME FOR BETTER ROOM SCHEDULING SOFTWARE

In recent years, we have come to know Millennial colleagues very well – they’re the folks born in the Eighties who live the digital life to the full.  

While they want everything in their lives, including their workplace, to be connected, that ‘always-on’ attitude is known to bring its own pressures. 

So how much worse might it be for Generation Z, the newest kids on the block?

Born between the mid-90s and early 2000s, these vibrant young people make up nearly 30 per cent of the planet’s population – there are around 61m in the US alone.  

Like Millennials they expect and demand a good work/life balance, but unlike restless Millennials, these talented young workers are more than happy to be persuaded to stay – if you can make your place a place they want to be.

“Having grown up in a tumultuous time for economics and politics (they were only four when 9/11 occurred, and grew up during the Great Recessions) Gen Z-ers are incredibly focused on finding stable jobs.” – Forbes

Our workplaces are already changing to meet new needs from organizations and workers – see how the transformation is taking place.

And if you are an employer keen to avoid a constant talent drain, you need to find the right balance now, ready for Z-ers to revolutionize the place where you all work. 

But guess what? It’s going to take more than offering a good salary…

So round about now, it’s time for your workplace to get a new room scheduler. No arguments.

Here are 5 great reasons why good room scheduling software makes a real difference to this tech-hungry generation

• It supports agile working, which underpins the work/life balance they need
•  They can easily find and book workspace they need to do their job well, via an app
•  They enjoy perfect meetings every time
•  They collaborate better for innovation and team spirit
•  Tiresome manual admin tasks become a thing of the past.

1. Agile working

Flexible working is great for employee wellbeing, giving people a feeling of control over their workload. 

But when workers come into the office, if they struggle to quickly find the right space to do their work they get frustrated.

The result? Their productivity and job satisfaction both crash. Goodbye Gen Z talent…

Room scheduling software allows employees to find book their desk or meeting space before they even head into the office 

2. Finding and booking workspace 

For generations of workers who are hooked to their smartphones, room scheduling software offers an unrivalled ability to locate workspace and conference rooms on the go, and book them via an app linked to their Outlook calendar.

Room scheduling software also integrates with occupancy sensors, so space availability is shown in real time.

Workers can book in a single click, and also add resources and services such as video conferencing, AV and catering in the same transaction, even across time zones. 

Here’s how you do it with Rendezvous room scheduling software:

• Open the calendar
• Click and select ‘new appointment’ at a time relevant to the main host 
• Choose ‘room booking solution’
• Choose ‘multi-room booking’
• Add unlimited locations as you need 
• Choose locations from the drop-down menu
• Click ‘Find’
• Click ‘free/busy’
• See whether attendee and room availability in each location match
• Select the rooms you want and click the book button
•  Done – in just a couple of minutes.

3. Perfect meetings

When a meeting goes wrong, it’s frustrating and expensive – in the US, we hold 220 million meetings every month, costing over $300 in salaries alone.

Common issues include no-shows caused when details of a meeting change and no-one informs the attendees.

Room scheduling software wipes this risk out by making all the changes and automatically informing everyone – even the caterers.

4. Collaboration

You can’t get past meetings as a huge and valuable contributor to collaboration.

By making it easy for anyone to organize a meeting even in multiple locations across different time zones, room scheduling technology removes obstacles to using valuable collaborative tools such as video conferencing.

The result? Teams that come together no matter how physically far apart they are.

5. Manual admin

The room scheduling technology does all the boring stuff. It’s as simple at that. 

Workers can forget about tedious, repetitive tasks and get on with their real job. And it doesn’t matter what generation they belong to, they’re going to love that.

So what about the pressure of being ‘always-on’?

You can deal with that. The best way is by using the room scheduling software to streamline your business, but with rules in place – limit how often they check their work app, say. 

And let’s not forget all those other hardworking generations doing their best for your organization. 

Encourage uptake of the technology that benefits your business and themselves by choosing workplace management software that’s intuitive, easy to use, and which integrates fully to connect your workplace.  

It’s there to make their jobs easier, not more complicated – right?

Get your room scheduling software right and you’ll see happy workers of all generations pulling together effortlessly. 

They’ll enjoy better work-life balance in an environment that makes it easy for them to work, and they’ll feel less likely to go looking for another job. 

In return, you get ROI on your workspace management technology with better productivity, worker engagement and reduced employee churn and training costs. 

It’s a win-win-win that’s already laying solid foundations for the talented and revolutionary contribution of Generation Z to the world of work – and every business can benefit.

* It’s time for a better room scheduler – start today

CONNECTING YOUR WORKPLACE: 4 BENEFITS OF USING ROOM RESERVATION SOFTWARE IN YOUR BUSINESS

Who remembers water-cooler chat? That’s what we used to call the moments of unexpected collaboration office employees gained when taking a moment to get a drink.

But that was when offices were divided into fixed spaces. You had a desk that stood empty half the time and only used meeting rooms on formal occasions.

Today, you still chat around the water-cooler, but the way you work has been transformed. Workspaces are now much more set up to encourage interactions that spark inspiration.

In a modern connected workplace, you move about freely, making the most of agile desks. Meeting rooms have become multi-purpose and are informal meeting spaces are now far more common.

Many generations are now working together – Generation Z are now joining in – and they all have their own needs and working preferences.

Giving everyone the best space to get on with their job improves their happiness and wellbeing, and also boosts their productivity, but it’s tricky to keep all those plates spinning effectively.

The latest workspace management technology with room reservation software provides the answer.

Many organizations including large law firms like DLA Piper and major utilities are using room reservation software to streamline their operations and make agile operations genuinely flexible.

So what 4 benefits does your organization gain from using room reservation software?

1. Empowered employees
   > Flexible working is the worldwide trend coming soon to a workplace near you – if it hasn’t already hit.
   > It makes employees feel a sense of control of their workload and creates a positive working environment that encourages talent to stay.
   > That’s why a recent survey found that a third of US office workers wanted to be more trusted to manage where they work.
   Did you know:
   > More than 8m people in America were already working from home by 2017 according to the US Census – and that’s still rising.
   > But many say they lack tools and technology to work agilely – and two-thirds say they would spend more time in their office if it had better facilities. Room reservation software can make that happen for you.
2. Perfect meetings
   > The smartest organizations are turning to state-of-the-art workspace management technology to manage their working environments and automate boring and time-consuming tasks.
   > Room reservation software means your employees can spot suitable workspace and book it easily online via an app. They can book resources like AV, video conferencing and even catering at the same time.
   > Meetings are easy to organize even across multiple locations, with the technology taking timezones into consideration and automatically informing everyone if any meeting details change.
   > It’s a great way to remove tiresome admin tasks from your employees’ working day – so they can get on with their real work.
   > And in addition, keeping everyone informed lowers the risk of no-shows, a common problem that makes meetings fail and costs dearly in time and frustration.
   > The result? Perfect meetings, every time.
3. Improved collaboration
   > We know the benefits of collaboration tools like video conferencing and AV. They get teams together no matter how far apart they are physically, without the strain and cost of travel.
   > Companies love these tools and spend a lot on them, but employees can be reluctant to engage if they are hard to organize.
   > Room reservation software removes the obstacles to employee uptake by making it simple to book rooms with the right equipment and resources over an unlimited number of locations.
   > So you never turn up to your video conference only to find that the equipment is not in place – your organizer has booked it in a single click at the same time as reserving the room.
4. Better space utilization
   > Keeping tabs on a changing work environment causes real headaches for office or facilities managers.
   > Tracking how office space is utilized can be tough, particularly if your organization is based in many locations or if you need to recharge other departments within your company.
   > Room reservation software such as Rendezvous by NFS integrates with occupancy sensors that monitor space and desk utilization in real-time and provides comprehensive reports.
   > It gives you accurate data at your fingertips so you can make informed decisions about space going forward and make sure your real estate spend is justified.

What about ROI?

When the right technology is in place so that all of these elements can act together, the connected workplace gives your employees – and your managers – a previously unknown level of control over the working environment.

If you are in management, the captured data gives a complete real-time view of whether your space is being maximized, and how it can be improved.

So you get to configure your space to meet the changing requirements of your workforce – no matter how they evolve.

By making it easy for your people to find the room they need within your organization, you can also reduce the cost incurred when they decide it’s simpler to book external space.

All of this means room reservation software offers a quick ROI.

And when competitiveness and productivity are at a premium, and talented staff are hard to find and retain, that’s got to be good news for your business.

Get into the connected workplace.

NFS GOES FOR GOLD WITH MICROSOFT ACCREDITATION

The award of a Microsoft Gold Partnership is a win-win for both staff and clients alike of NFS Technology Group. For staff it means that, using Microsoft’s core technology, they have proof of their hard work in developing a compliant application deployed and managed in both the client’s environment and in a hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. For clients it means a solution that’s faster to deploy, with a level of confidence in making room scheduling easier to manage and maintain.

NFS was awarded the Gold Partnership for Rendezvous Workspace, meeting room and resource management software built around the latest Microsoft technology. It provides the ability to offer an industry standard platform that’s easy and cost effective to maintain, allowing NFS to offer a robust Cloud-based solution around Microsoft’s Azure platform.

As a Microsoft Partner, NFS enjoys core benefits that save time and money while strengthening capabilities. It enables the company to offer better service to customers and to build connections to reach full business potential. Also, more flexibility and the ability to future-proof investment comes from having Rendezvous Workspace certified across a range of Microsoft databases and operating systems.

To gain the Partnership, NFS demonstrated that Rendezvous Workspace had been tested and certified for the Windows 2012 Platform, with staff displaying their Microsoft product skills. A client satisfaction survey validated the quality of NFS products, and client references were gathered for projects that used the Microsoft platform.

NFS Chief Executive Officer Luis De Souza comments: “Many of our large corporation clients are moving down the self service route for booking resources, meeting rooms and other flexible spaces. For them, the Rendezvous software can be deployed in the most efficient manner, taking full advantage of Outlook, Exchange and other Microsoft technology available for the latest generation of tablets. After many years that have seen a successful relationship with Microsoft, we are proud to have now achieved this Gold Partnership.”

RENDEZVOUS SUCCESS AT THE FACILITIES SHOW 2015

The recent Facilities Show 2015, NFS Technology Group displayed latest state of the art room and resource scheduling software.

NFS, which featured in the popular Building Futures Group Village, presented the very latest Rendezvous Workplace portal, designed to assist organisations with the efficient management of meeting rooms, hot desks, car parking and vended spaces.

Rendezvous Space is the newest Rendezvous Module, which incorporates the latest space utilisation and planning technology. Accurate information on space useage helps deliver lower operating costs and better workplace productivity.

NFS’ CEO Luis de Souza successfully held a debate with Katharine Photiou of Barclays Bank and Andrew Hulbert of Pareto FM on adapting to changes in the multi-generational workplace and how this influences the roles and responsibility of the future FM.

Says Luis: “The Facilities Show has proven once again to be a hugely important show for NFS, not only to showcase our latest product innovations, but also to provide us with an excellent platform to display our unique ability to operate as a global solutions partner.

“The panel discussion on the multigenerational workplace also proved popular, and really brought to life the challenges faced in the workplace today. The debate provided a platform to raise awareness of the different generations (up to five different generations) that are now sharing an increasingly flexible mobile workspace, with all the issues relating to workspace collaboration.

“Overall, the show was a reflection of the many different factors influencing facilities management, such as technology innovation, presenting both challenges and opportunities for the FM community. As a technology company, we see our role as being to provide the solutions, the service and the innovation that present the FM community in the best light.”