Strategic HR Workplace design
The foreseeable future
DAN WATSON outlines the emerging technologies
likely to be coming soon to an office near you,
and the implications for HR
Enhancing the employee
experience by providing an
enjoyable and efficient working
environment is a common goal
for most firms. Technology is a
key part of workplace design,
but new systems or devices must
be properly considered, taking
into account the impact on
all employees.
Here’s a lowdown of five of
the top tech trends making their
way into workplace design.
5G
What is it?
5G is the next
evolution in
cellular
network for mobile devices, with
speeds of around 600MB per
second and very low latency. At
present 5G rollout is in the early
stages and is limited to certain
handsets, but soon enough it will
be as common as 4G.
How will it affect the
workforce?
The increased speed of 5G
could enable significant advances
in the use of collaboration tools,
such as high-definition video
conferencing and potentially even
holographic meetings. Vodafone
has demoed this in public and the
potential is huge – from meetings
and catch-ups to complex training
scenarios or professional
development courses.
What should HR do?
As the public moves to 5G
networks new services using them
will no doubt appear. HR should
consider how these could be
used to speed up processes in
the workplace.
White
noise
tech
What is it?
Also called
sound masking, white noise
tech involves introducing audio
into a work space to provide a
continuous background noise to
mask other distracting sounds or
create privacy for conversations
when in public spaces.
How will it affect the
workforce?
The technology could become
common in large open-plan offices
to help avoid sound overlap
between different departments.
Penelope Harrell, marketing
lead at Remark Group, which
provides this, gives the following
example: “If the sales team is
directly next to the accounts team
their areas can be split into two
zones, and the sound masking
within the zone that needs most
confidentiality can be turned up
to provide more privacy.”
What should HR do?
Environmental psychologist and
honorary senior lecturer at
University College London Nigel
Oseland says HR could use this
tech to get around the challenge
of balancing the collaboration
and networking benefits of
open-plan offices, with concerns
around keeping confidential
conversations private and
employees free from unnecessary
or unwanted distractions.
“It could be good where you
want to reduce speech intelligibility
in open-plan spaces or in
rooms where you want privacy,”
he adds.
Li-Fi
What is it?
Li-Fi,
or Light
Fidelity, is
a wireless
connection that uses LEDs to
transmit data incredibly fast.
It’s also secure as the data is
transported by light and encoded
in subtle changes of brightness
that humans cannot detect.
How will it affect the
workforce?
The security benefit of Li-Fi is its
biggest selling point, as Bharat
Mistry, principal security
strategist at security firm Trend
Micro explains: “Li-Fi is
significantly more secure than
other wireless technologies
because light can be contained in
a physical space or room and
cannot pass through solid objects
such as walls,” he says.
“Both the light source and
device must be visible, not hidden
or covered in any way. This makes
Li-Fi ideal for environments
where sensitive data needs to be
shared between wireless devices
but confined to a physical room.”
What should HR do?
Sensitive employee and HR data
can be kept more secure on a
Li-Fi connection. However, given
the need for proximity between
devices and the Li-Fi source, HR
may need to reconfigure office
layouts and desk locations so
the benefits of the technology
can be realised.
Voice
assistants
What is it?
Voice assistants
such as Google
Home, Amazon’s
Alexa and Apple HomePod are
already common in homes, and
businesses may start deploying
similar services.
How will it affect the
workforce?
Workers could ask voice assistants
to print documents, remind them
of forthcoming meetings, or
control environmental functions
in offices such as lighting, heating
and air conditioning.
What should HR do?
Introducing these tools into office
environments while maintaining
privacy and minimising
distractions will be the biggest
issues to consider, although
workers are likely to adapt quickly
to using them, says Oseland. “If
people were shouting out requests
HR might have to introduce a sort
of ‘light touch’ office etiquette
guide. But in time it would
probably become the norm and
people would adapt to it.”
Virtual
reality/
augmented
reality
What is it?
Virtual reality
(VR) and augmented reality
(AR) systems such as headsets
and gloves provide immersive
experiences that accurately mimic
real-life scenarios.
How will it affect the
workforce?
VR and AR’s potential within
training is huge – enabling
complex training to be
undertaken remotely, or for
product designs to be assessed in
3D environments from anywhere
in the world.
Jeremy Dalton, head of VR/AR
at PwC, adds that there are other
HR applications beyond training.
“HR can assess applicants in a
data-driven manner as they solve
complex problems in a virtual
environment or new joiners can
take a tour of the office they’ll be
working in. The potential is vast.”
What should HR do?
HR will need to consider where
VR and AR systems would be
installed, especially as they could
take up a lot of room, Oseland
notes. “The issue we have in the
UK is that space is at a premium,
so will organisations have
sufficient faith in the benefits that
they will invest in the space to put
them in?” he asks. HR
42 HR November 2019 hrmagazine.co.uk
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