Popular software you should recommend to every facilities manager

Considering making flexible working the new normal for your business? Have you considered the impact this will have on your real estate bill? There’s one area I bet you haven’t considered yet, parking. Read on to learn how to manage employee parking in a modern workplace with flexibile working software.

In the US 3.6% of employees work remotely half a week or more.

“Post Covid-19 this is expected to rise to 56% of employees in companies that have remote work options. (Global Workplace Analytics) “

Workers worldwide are reflecting on their workplace experience. Traditional work culture impacts their lives, from child care to long commutes. The hardship and expense of being present at the office is coming into focus.

Is this the best way? Can remote and office working be balanced for the benefit of everyone? For many employers, it is becoming clear that flexible working is here to stay. Flexible working software systems are needed to smooth this transition.

Benefits of flexible working

Committing to flexible work brings key benefits for people, planet and profit.

• Less time spent commuting
• Higher retention of employees
• Access to wider pool of talent
• Lower costs

Working remotely allows employees to work from home or work from co-working spaces. With differing timezones often in-play, workdays are often much more fluid than 9-5. An emerging generation of talent expect this experience. The onus is now on companies to facilitate this new normal.

Flexible working can revolutionise some of society’s main issues such as;

• Housing: The decentralisation of offices allows people to live across wider geographical areas.
• Infrastructure: Traffic congestion caused by commuters will drop in-line with office attendances.
• Environment: Reduction in commutes means less carbon emissions for companies and employees.
• Wellbeing: Commuting time contributes significantly to an individual’s stress levels. Studies show that each minute commuting leads to physical and mental disturbances. This includes back problems, headaches, fatigue, high blood pressure and lowered concentration. (Scientific American)

What flexible working means for your real estate bill?

You mightn’t have considered that less people in the office means less office space is needed. This has a direct knock effect on your real estate bill.

Companies are embracing hotdesking software to reduce floor space and real estate costs. Yet, companies struggle to manage parking in a flexible environment.

There is no point paying for all that car park space, if demand is going to be significantly lower. However, you still need to have sufficient space for the days when people do need to be in the office.

Looking for some real-life examples? Check out how companies like Colliers International, Version 1 & Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt have solved their parking problems.

How employee parking works now?

Business parking problems can be complicated, we’ve troubleshooted them in detail here.

“As it stands most employee parking lots are stagnant and full of empty, reserved spaces. Often times, the empty spaces exist alongside a massive demand for parking. It makes no sense.”

Frustrated employees spend up to 15 minutes a day driving around trying to find a parking space. For a company with 100 driving commuters, that is a lot of wasted time and carbon emissions.

Any flexibility in car parking spaces needs labour intensive and time consuming spreadsheets. There is no automation to allocate spaces based on common sense.

This is frustrating for those looking for spaces. While issues ensue if someone takes a free space which isn’t theirs to take.

These problems are exacerbated in a flexible working environment. It becomes harder to predict who will need parking on any given day. Car parks become blackspots, with massive space wastage as reserved space lie empty 2 or 3 days a week.

How car parks can work in flexible working environments?

Managing car park occupancy can be simple, let’s take a look at how some companies are parking smarter.

• Companies and landlords are implementing employee car park management software.
• Each week, employees request a parking space for each day they need to park the following week.
• Software allocates parking spaces to staff based on criteria chosen by businesses.
• Car park occupancy is tracked in real time to show employee’s parking availability.
• Parking spaces which are not needed by individual employees are released at the tap of a button.

Wayleadr is the leading parking management software for offices in the market.

Wayleadr allows businesses to cut parking costs without decreasing availability of parking. Our software is trusted by flexible employers like Sanofi, Indeed.com & CBRE.

“Wayleadr monitors who is due to be in the office on what days and manages their parking needs. It automates all the tricky bits of parking management in a flexible workplace. While also managing all car park communications in real-time.”

The beauty of the software is the data which it gathers. Track car park occupancy and usage over-time. This gives companies the insight to decide exactly how many parking spaces they need. While providing businesses with the information needed to reduce their real estate spend over time.

This smart approach saves companies and employees massive amounts of time and money.

What can you do with spare space?

Some companies are locked into long-term leases. This means that even when they optimise space usage they are still left with a surplus of space.

Wayleadr also works with tenants and landlords to solve this problem. Using the software, businesses can rent out spare space on a daily basis to other tenants in their office.

This is attractive as it’s highly flexible and very secure. Companies only rent out space on days they have it to spare. While they are only renting to people who have security access to enter their office block.

The numbers can rack up quite quickly. Let’s say a company was charging €15 a day for 50 spare spaces. That is €15,000 a month, which will go a long way to supplementing a facilities budget. Or alternatively will be a lucrative new revenue stream for landlords.

How to make the change?

“Change management can be daunting for companies of all sizes. Yet COVID-19 has shown us societies’ and business’ ability to adapt and change quickly.”

Software services allow companies to change their processes in a matter of minutes. With Wayleadr it is as simple as sending an email to all employees asking them to download the app. An admin can be trained in an hour to oversee parking and add guests or new users as required.

Digitizing parking removes any need for expensive and bulky hardware manage parking. Have a requirement for barriers as a security measure? Wayleadr can easily integrate to control barriers directly from the Wayleadr app.

Key benefits of flexible working to employee parking

The great news is that flexible working can reduce the demand for parking at your office at a given time. So put in place a parking solution to suit the modern workforce, your employees and business will benefit.

As your organization changes so will your car park. Give yourself the flexibility to manage:

• Real estate costs
• Employee satisfaction
• Carbon emissions

As your needs become more nuanced, employing parking management software is key. Wayleadr provides easy to use software tailored to your organisational needs.

What does this mean for your employee car park facility management?

“Facility managers and car park managers are arriving at a crossroads. If they keep the same approach, parking will become more inefficient and a bigger headache.”

If they use this to catalyse a sea-change in their organisations, life can become easier. Easier for facilities professionals who will automate stressful part of their jobs. Easier for employees who will get increased transparency and certainty around parking.

While businesses and the environment also benefit massively from a more responsible approach. This will save money and unlock massive reductions in carbon.

Join thought leaders from companies like Sanofi, Indeed.com & CBRE, schedule a demo with Wayleadr.com today.