Introduction
New Headquarters with a Modern Challenge
By moving the headquarters to a new office building in Bern Wankdorf, Swiss Post stepped into a modern work environment. As part of the increasing mobility within the company, Swiss Post employees are able to flexibly choose a workplace according to their current task at the new location. In the approximately 30,000m2 office space, more than 2,000 employees can take advantage of different areas, such as zones dedicated to individual work or interaction with others. This flexibility presents new challenges for managing the office; the availability of the right number of different workplaces and the optimal use of space must be ensured at all times. For example, the following questions arise:
- Where in the building are capacities currently available?
- How do the utilization and vacancies develop in the longterm?
- Which workspaces are used when and how frequently?
Challenges Arise
The flexible work environment posed many new challenges: the availability of the right number of different workspaces and the optimal use of space must be ensured.
Summary
- The modern work environment in the new Swiss Post headquarters posed new challenges regarding capacity planning and employee experience.
- Swiss Post rolled out Locatee across 30,000m2, covering the workplaces of more than 2,000 employees.
- Smart Signage enables employees to find workspaces and resources easily.
- With Locatee Analytics the sharing ratios of desks were optimized and 15-20% of office space savings were achieved.
How it works?
The Solution is Big Data
To answer these types of questions, Swiss Post pursued a data-driven approach and therefore chose to use the data solution by Locatee. The patented technology developed by the Zurich-based company evaluates thousands of data points from the existing LAN and Wi-Fi network infrastructure in realtime to determine which desks and meeting rooms are in use. Various data visualization options make it possible to assess the utilization of the entire building. To protect the employee’s privacy, the data is anonymized and aggregated irreversibly. T
Benefits Highlights
Savings Potential
Savings potential of 15-20% of office space costs was achieved after Swiss Post’s implementation of Locatee.
Find Workspaces Easily
Smart Signage allows employees to quickly find available workspaces in the office.
Prevention of Food Waste
Notifications sent to canteen helped estimate the number of meals to prepare and prevent food waste.
The Results
Optimization of sharing ratio
Using Locatee Analytics, Swiss Post is determining how departments use their assigned areas. By improving the home bases in their headquarters, they found potential to consolidate further buildings by adding 150 employees into their headquarters. A savings potential of 15–20% of the office space costs was achieved.
Retain great workspace experience
Swiss Post started consolidating their headquarters in July 2017 and identified that employees from other locations struggle to find meeting rooms and resources. In order to improve collaboration between employees and facilitate finding free workplaces as well as shared resources, Smart Signage was rolled out. This is accessible for all employees in the intranet, and live information is displayed on screens in the lobby.
„For us, the main advantage is that we have a purely data-based solution that does not require hardware investments of any kind – this was also the reason we chose Locatee Analytics.”
Canteen notification
An automatic notification is sent to the canteen, reporting the number of people present in the office at 10am. The canteen uses the information to estimate the number of meals to prepare, leading to the reduction of food waste.
Conclusion
Comprehensive and continuous utilization data down to work zones creates the necessary transparency for workspace management. This allows vacancies in the building to be identified easily, making workspace management more simple and effective. Furthermore, the insights are used to ensure that the work environment at Swiss Post stays up-to-date with the employee‘s needs and that the available space can be managed efficiently and sustainably.
