Realty technology companies help increase productivity in hybrid mode

Corporates are seeking help from real estate technology companies as the focus shifts from hygiene to improving productivity to get employees back to work, said Sandeep Dave, Global Head Digital & Technology, CBRE.

Corporates are using artificial intelligence (AI) to figure out how to make an employee’s day more productive.

“Now how can a company ensure that an employee will be effective when he decides to go to the office,” Dave said.

Corporates are now using data to increase employee effectiveness.

“We have a product that ensures that employee calendars are the same, so you can see who’s going to the office that day. People in the office can also see availability in real time. They can see if they’re social distancing. Among other things,” Dave said.

According to CBRE’s “2022 India Office Occupancy Survey”, 73% of India’s workforce is considering hybrid work arrangements.

The trend emerged after the Covid-19 pandemic forced companies to opt for flexible work arrangements.

Soon after the outbreak, office applications became a communication vehicle, and during the second wave, they were used to ensure the safety of employees. After that, it was all about monitoring sanitation and getting real-time insights about habitat.

“In the last five to six years, this was a manual industry, but technology and automation became part of the industry even before Covid-19. It accelerated with the onset of Covid,” said Dave.

Corporates are also using technology to achieve net zero goals.

“Most of the solutions available on the market are good for getting data for a single building. But if you want to do it on a portfolio scale, which is needed to achieve net zero goals, the company needs data on energy efficiency and workplace experience,” said Dave.

And customers are demanding deeper insights.

“Commercial real estate is a sliding data environment, where data comes from different places, it doesn’t merge together. There is a property registry in 15 different places,” said Dave.

Corporates are using data to assess operational performance, energy use, health and safety records, occupancy levels and more.

The experts who stated that return to work is currently a global issue, are all working to find out what the future of work will look like.

“The future of work will be distributed. The workplace is not just a place for people to come in to do work, but to collaborate more. So now the design of the space is not just ordinary workplaces, but also. Agile rooms, wellness rooms and collaboration rooms,” said Dave.

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