Recently, we spoke with Avison Young, one of our long-standing customers, to learn more about the reopening of their 17 UK offices and their drive to provide safe workspaces for those employees that need to return to the workplace. 

As with many organizations we have spoken to over the recent months, Avison Young — a full-service commercial real estate firm — have adapted their office spaces to ensure physical distancing and introduced staggered working hours with more rigorous cleaning and hygiene protocols. 

Pre COVID, Avison Young operated a flexible, collaborative workspace environment for its 1600+ employees, but with greater workspace control needed to manage 1200 desks, the firm chose the FlexiDesk and Mobile Booking modules of Trimble’s ManhattanONE solution.

The reopening of the real estate advisor’s 17 offices in the UK will take a phased approach — with Trimble real estate technology being used to help protect the wellbeing of employees who wish to return to a safe physical workspace.

Avison Young already takes advantage of the room booking module of ManhattanONE to manage the reservations of over 110 meeting rooms and associated services. When speaking with Jason Shaw, Avison Young’s IT Director for UK and Europe, he said:

“After successfully working together for a number of years, it was natural for us to engage Trimble’s help in safely returning our employees to the office.”

He also added that the firm chose the Mobile Booking app. The app has been deployed to provide staff with easy access to interactive floor plans and search functions to enable them to quickly find an available safe space and then confirm the booking via their mobile device. 

Social distancing is clearly not a one size fits all approach. The firm identified that they can only accommodate about 25% occupancy initially, but mandatory pre-booking through FlexiDesk and the mobile app will allow them to allocate those limited workspaces fairly and safely. The flexibility of the system means they can quickly make more desks available if the UK’s safe distancing guidance is changed.

Another way the mobile app is helping to keep people safe is by minimizing unnecessary movement around each site. The app enables Avison Young employees to easily find a colleague or book a safe desk in the same area as someone they need to collaborate with.

Contact tracing is a crucial part of any organization’s return to the workplace strategy. Jason said: 

“As a key part of keeping our offices Covid-secure, we needed to be sure we would always know which employees are on-site—and where they are seated—in case we have to use the information for Covid-19 ‘track and trace’.

The QR code check-in through the FlexiDesk module allows them to accurately capture and hold that data should one of their employees fall ill and they need to find out who they may have come into contact with.

To learn more about how you can leverage our technology for optimal space planning and deployment please contact us to book a demo or post your questions to us here.