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Eptura, the global worktech software leader, announced the release of its first annual 2023 Workplace Predictions Report based on insights from more than 16,000 customers. In recognizing the need to create more certainty in the workplace, this report compiles insights to help business leaders understand the emergence of the worktech category and better plan for 2023 and beyond as the industry continues to experience monumental shifts in how people work. Key takeaways point to the permeance of flexible work, improved orchestration of in-person collaboration, and actionable data feeding facility management.
“2022 was heralded as the year of ‘the new normal,’ as businesses across the globe welcomed employees back to the office for the first time in months,” says Brandon Holden, Eptura CEO. “However, what we soon realized is work is constantly adjusting to accommodate to new needs of people, spaces, and assets, and business leaders are still trying to make sense of it all, while also providing a sense of certainty their employees crave. This report is intended to showcase the biggest trends impacting where and how the world works.”
Eptura’s 2023 Workplace Predictions Report pairs insights from its 16.3 million users and third-party industry research with Eptura’s new survey that polled 6,000 global employees on their employer’s implementation of worktech. Findings include:
2023 will be the year of more deliberate and effective hybrid policies.
• Data shows companies that update their policies to accommodate a flexible, work-from-anywhere approach experience positive employee sentiment, which can help with talent attraction and retention.
• In fact, new data by Eptura found those who are aware of and understand their company’s hybrid policies show a positive correlation with how they feel about their organization. Of the employees in the US that have a remote/hybrid policy, 80 percent are satisfied with their employer’s remote/hybrid work policy and only 4 percent do not have a remote/hybrid policy at all.
• In 2023, leveraging worktech will help organizations refine and employees adapt to refreshed policies by enabling physical, shared workspaces to exist on demand. This will give employees the flexibility they crave, while allowing companies to optimize space.
2023 will be the year to magnetize the workplace with in-person collaboration.
• Many organizations have yet to formalize what it means to be together and have yet to become as purposeful during in-person interactions – but the benefits of fostering human connection at work are inarguable.
• According to Eptura’s new survey, 45 percent of employees see the improved ability to meet with colleagues, clients, vendors, and more as a value of going into an office. This was followed by getting noticed by management/help progress career (42 percent), improving company culture (36 percent), providing a productive/well-equipped environment (35 percent), and helping with work/life balance (32 percent).
• 2023 will be the year where clear hybrid work policies, coupled with formal teambuilding, will connect people in companies together by strong, interpersonal bonds. Worktech will emerge as an essential tool for organizing and inspiring collaborative hybrid working days and reinforcing team participation.
Actionable data science will feed facility operations and asset management.
• This is a lot more than micro-integrations, or siloed data applications. 2023 will be the year where data comes alive and digital twin technology moves beyond the hype. For example, through digital representation of an office, digital twins will provide the context for how employees use that space.
• Data will be more easily shared across disparate workplace, asset, and inventory systems through operationally rich, continuous data feeds integrated with built-in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• With proper worktech, organizations will become more conscientious of people and places via asset performance and take actions automatically to reinforce and synchronize business outcomes. This will allow them to spot trends and optimize resources based on how they were originally designed and predict issues before they occur.
Organizations will become more adept at anticipating and addressing the associated challenges of workspace demand.
• It’s time to tame the mid-week mountain, a phenomenon where employees gather in the office Tuesday – Thursday, as organizations simply do not have enough collaborative spaces, personal spaces, meeting rooms, quiet areas, and amenities for employees and visitors on these same mid-weekdays.
• While worktech is poised to help manage workspace demand, Eptura’s survey found not every organization is up to date on its worktech or its training. As many as 43 percent don’t have a way to reserve individual or collaborative spaces in advance, and 41 percent don’t have a way to reserve spaces on demand. What’s more, 26 percent can’t work the IT equipment to connect with remote colleagues.
• With proper training, worktech will help synchronize information across workplace management systems, ultimately translating to improved real estate and operational need forecasting and better cost management.
Smarter automation will facilitate change management.
• While workplace and asset leaders recognize the need for fully integrated solutions, they realize this will also affect workflows and disrupt ingrained behaviors.
• To cope with the transformation, they will increase smart automation and facilitate change management with worktech at the core.
• In result, the workplace will experience a breakdown of silos, with the integration of data extending beyond single apps to the tight integration of space optimization, digital twins and AI/ML, IoT smart sensors, resource scheduling software, and preventive maintenance.
To download the full 2023 Workplace Predictions Report by Eptura, click here.