Today, office lockers are a necessary and integral feature of modern, smart, and dynamic workplaces. No longer an optional add-on to an office, smart locker systems now form an important pillar of office design and can also transform client and employee experience.
While you may already have smart lockers in your facility, it’s worth giving them a little tender loving care if they have not been updated recently. Organizations and property managers need an idea of what employees want, and managers should continually look for ways to optimize space in the office and create a more organized and efficient working environment.
Before we begin talking about the things you may want to include in your office locker setup, let us talk about HOW an office locker can improve your property. Hot desking or hoteling is a flexible workspace system where desks are used by multiple employees at different times, on an ad hoc basis. Hot desking can be a great way to boost staff satisfaction and productivity, but you must provide tools and equipment to support the new way of working. For instance, having a secure storage solution is essential when staff don’t have a permanent desk and drawers to keep their personal items.
If you are interested in hoteling or hot desking, the most basic equipment you’ll need is some form of smart locker system or other office locker setup. Consider some of the below features and strategies to improve your smart locker setup. You just might revolutionize your whole business in the process!
1.Identify underutilized equipment
Do you have that one meeting room that nobody seems to gravitate to? Or perhaps office furniture that simply doesn’t get any use? Office space is not cheap, and anything that’s not being used or not contributing to a better experience for clients or team members should be rethought. If you already have smart lockers, they usually come with usage logs. This way, if you’ve invested in too many smart lockers, you can either get rid of them, reuse them, or save them for future growth.
2.Think of smart lockers as design elements
Unlike high school lockers or gym lockers – smart office lockers don’t need to be relegated to the sides of walls. Forward-thinking designers are now turning smart lockers into partitions and islands – great use of space and also a fantastic way to increase storage. But let’s say you have a dark hallway that you’d like to brighten up – what do you do then? It’s possible to install a row of bright, light-colored lockers. This would instantly brighten a hallway while also opening it up for storage capabilities.
3.Consider how clients or employees will be able to access lockers
While keys and pincodes can be helpful, they can easily be lost or forgotten. You may want to consider investing into different, more secure and user-friendly technologies such as fingerprint scanners, RFIDs, or keypads. Smart lockers with fingerprint scanners will only unlock if it registers the owner’s fingerprint ID. The technology is similar to the ones available on today’s smartphones, and not all that expensive anymore. Digital lockers can also work with RFID tags. They are much easier to manage and carry compared to keys.Employees can keep a tag in their wallets and show the wallet to the locker’s RFID scanner to open it.
4.How will you track who is using the lockers?
While you could ask employees to sign a logbook, that’s not easy for them or yourself as a property manager. Digital lockers don’t require signature logs. The locker will automatically generate logs when accessed and save the data to a central database. Since it can store the data and access time, users cannot tamper with the digital lockers in any way. Using a digital logbook not only protects you as a property manager, it can help solve problems when items are lost, misplaced, or even stolen. Without the need to enter into a logbook, everyone using the parcel locker system will save time.
5.Embrace modularity!
What we mean is that you can experiment with different numbers and types of lockers. When you’re ready to install more of the same type, or perhaps try something new, the installation process is simple. The ability to easily add more smart lockers – all connected by the same software – is something that business owners enjoy when the business shrinks or grows. While modular designs have been said to be repetitive and uninspired, you can always apply different materials or color schemes to switch things up.
Smart locker systems can come with as many (or as few) bells and whistles as you want. Some lockers can be accessed via a smart phone, and some lockers allow mobile devices to charge inside of them. The options are endless. Consider a few of the below features for your smart locker setup:
- What kind of material will the locker be made of? Consider between wood, steel and plastic laminate.
- Will the locker need to be ventilated? This prevents mold and mildew, most common in gym settings.
- Will temperature control be helpful for storing perishable items? Those working in food service or the grocery industry may find this helpful, but pharmaceutical products often need to be kept at a certain temperature as well.
- How will the lockers be managed? Will you be able to assign lockers to employees remotely? Will you be able to grant access remotely?
- How easy or difficult will it be to clean and sanitize lockers?
Investing into a smart locker system not only improves the appeal and design of your facility, it makes employees and clients feel more comfortable and welcomed. Studies regularly show that smart locker systems or parcel locker systems reduce clutter, improve productivity and provide easier, more centralized control.
When you work with DeBourgh, we carefully consider your needs and can design a locker of any style to fit your needs. Whether you need athletic lockers, academic lockers, or military-grade all-welded construction, we have a variety of low-maintenance models with a Lifetime Limited Warranty.
For more information, contact DeBourgh Lockers and our team of experts will meet with you to discuss all the best options for your location.