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CoreNet Global, TechCrunch Disrupt, HR Techxpo, and IFMA World Workplace. We’ve spent the last few months hitting the conference circuit—chatting it up with our friends in commercial and corporate real estate, facility management, human resources, and green tech about their top concerns, make-or-break business factors, and pain points. Across the country and across industries, one big idea dominated the conversation—employee experience.
Employee experience is the entire history of you at your place of work. It starts from the moment an employee applies for a job to the moment they leave. This experience is impacted by every interaction an employee has with their colleagues, the tools they use, and their physical environment. A company that successfully creates a positive employee experience reaps incredible rewards in the form of increased employee engagement, happiness, productivity, and retention.
Human resources, facilities, and IT working together.
At HR Techxpo, we saw new and emerging job titles like “Head of People Operations,” “Culture Evangelist,” and “People and Culture Director.” These new roles aren’t just title shifts, they have revised scopes of work requiring HR to call on facilities, IT, and corporate real estate—all in an effort to create an environment that empowers every employee to do their best work every day.
This holistic approach is being reflected in companies large and small. Just last year Airbnb’s Chief Human Resource Officer, Mark Levy, changed his title to Global Head of Employee Experience. These once siloed departments are coming together to create systems where all elements of work—physical, emotional, intellectual, and aspirational—are orchestrated to inspire.
Increasing demand for smart solutions that empower workers.
When attending TechCrunch Disrupt, we were astounded and reminded of how rapidly consumer technology is advancing. As we all become increasingly accustomed to advanced tech while commuting and in our homes, we come to expect the same ease, connectivity, and personalization in our workplaces. In their latest study on the Future of the Workplace, Dell noted that “Employees are generally happy in their jobs, but as communications and productivity technology advances, they are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with workplace capabilities.”
Here are the hard numbers. 44% of employees worldwide feel that their workspace isn’t smart enough, 42% of surveyed millennials said they would quit a job with substandard tech, and 82% said workplace tech influences what role they would take. These digits make a convincing point and employers are taking note. Our conversations at CoreNet confirmed that more and more companies are investing in workplace tech and smart solutions to attract and retain top talent.
Exploring new frontiers in operational efficiency.
Every demographic is looking to invest in tech that will help them do more with limited resources. At IFMA, facility managers described their struggles to satisfy occupants' needs while staying under budget. At CoreNet, corporate real estate teams were hungry for data on how employees use space, in order to optimize operations and better inform business decisions.
CRE tech and smart solutions, like Comfy, solve common workplace issues (temperature, lighting, scheduling, and room reservation), offering on-demand gratification for employees and saving time for busy workplace managers. But they also provide powerful data insights into what people actually want out of their workplaces, and that’s invaluable.
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The year's not over yet. We'll be in Los Angeles for NAIOP’s O.CON and in San Francisco for BisNow Bold West. Drop us a line at getcomfy@comfyapp.com, we'd love to hear about how we can help improve your workplace experience.
