Keeping the office secure

As more employees demand hybrid working arrangements, offices are faced with a new challenge

There’s been an enthusiastic return to the workplace over the past few months, but it’s not quite the same as it once was. While workers have been keen to re-engage in the office environment, a huge number are maintaining at least some of their working week at home.

According to the Office of National Statistics in the UK, 84% of those who had worked from home during lockdowns planned to hybrid work long-term – working part of the week at home, and part in the office.

While workers are motivated to get back to their offices to connect and collaborate, they’ve also realised the convenience of working from home, and aren’t ready to give that up entirely. This creates a unique opportunity for businesses, and a unique challenge.

Hotdesking – a trend that’s not going anywhere soon

With fewer people in the office each day, the workplace has become quite different. Hotdesking is nothing new, but it’s never been implemented to quite the extent it is today. Now, the modern office is all about Activity Based Working (ABW).

No, that’s not one of those weird exercise bike desks you see advertised online. It’s about having more flexibility to work in different places, to collaborate or be alone, to be formal or more comfortable. Research firm JLL estimates that, due to changes in workplace management and use, by 2030, 30% of all office space will be flexible.

Simon Howorth​, marketing and design manager at Dams Furniture, says that the hotdesking trend is good for the overall ambiance of the office. He told Dealer Support, “With employees not having a fixed desk, this can actually lead to a cleaner, more organised, and professional-looking workspace that can help inspire productivity, focus, and engagement. Workers can finish their tasks for the day, leave the work area with their laptop and phone, collect their personal belongings from a locker and no clutter is left behind, ready for the next working day.”

Aside from aesthetics, studies have shown that most workers feel more creative, productive and efficient when they have more flexible spaces in which to work. That’s great, but what’s not so great is the complications that arise from people having no desk to call home.

Protecting personal property

The first issue is employee belongings. While phones and laptops may travel with the person, other things they’d probably prefer to leave at work, and that means offices must provide somewhere safe to store it.

Howarth recommends locker storage for keeping personal effects safe, having the added benefit of keeping the office free from clutter. He notes that lockers can be a feature, available in a range of designs and finishes, and can serve a wider purpose in the open plan office environment. He says, “In addition to enhancing workplace security, lockers can also be used around pillars and posts in workplaces to help create zones in the office environment, by using the locker units as a dividing wall and a visual barrier between departments and working groups, perfect for the modern, hot desking workplace.”

Aesthetics continue to be important, and dealers have an opportunity to provide less industrial, more homely options that are still effective storage methods. Modern businesses want options – in colour, style and functionality. 

Imaging and electronics company Rioch has even introduced digital smart lockers – lockers that can be programmed to be opened by smartphone, allowing keyless and contactless entry. Businesses can gather usage data remotely, allowing the reassignment of personal storage in the event that a space is being under-utilized.

Keeping data safe

As people move between home and office, the potential for sensitive information to go walkabouts increases. Physical documents need a home, and one which can be secured in an effective way. In a recent whitepaper, Steve Hickey, head of European marketing for workspace solutions at Fellowes Brands, highlighted the problem, saying, “Half of our participants in the study believe that hybrid working may have increased the amount of sensitive information being lost or in breach of GDPR rules … This raises important questions about confidential paperwork and how we’re protecting it, in a world where a lot of employees no longer work in just the corporate office.”

It seems barely a week goes by without a major company confessing to a data breach, often costing hundreds of millions in fines. But it’s not just the financial damage that kills the company, it’s the reputational damage. Lawrence Savage, UK marketing manager at ExaClair, discussed the importance of keeping data safe. “Maintaining document security is of paramount importance to the avoid negative impacts of any breaches … A survey by Verizon highlights that 52% of customers stated that they would avoid businesses who had experienced a data breach for four to six months, with 29% saying that would never use the same brand again.”

All this presents a unique opportunity for dealers to supply the right products to deal with the problem. Savage says one of his top selling products is a great solution for this, “Our lockable MODULO unit is a popular model within the office workplace. Unlike many alternative drawer sets, they only require one turn of the key to lock all the drawers at once, allowing sensitive documents to be stored securely, which can also assist with GDPR compliancy.”

As well as security for the office, employers have been looking for smaller solutions for home offices too, as Leon Haigh, UK sales manager at Phoenix Safes explained, “Pre-COVID there was a big emphasis on businesses becoming GDPR Compliant … as COVID continued for longer than many expected, that emphasis returned, but this time, to make sure that employees working remotely were also GDPR compliant at home too. We saw our smaller fire and security safes cupboards and lockers being used for that purpose.”

What we’d be happy to have in our homes can be wildly different from what we expect in the workplace. Contemplating options that look nice as well as being functional can pay dividends in the ‘new normal,’ bringing a fresh touch to office furnishings. As for Leon Haigh, white is a colour that never goes out of fashion.

“The majority of our fire safes used in the workplace are white, so they quite easily blend into the background and don’t stick out like a sore thumb,” he quipped. 

He did note, however, that some clients have been known to vinyl wrap their lockers and safes with branded designs – a quick and cool way to modernise the office.