Business Link

Published on 29 May 2006

If you’re reading your issue of FMJ at work, it’s likely that most of the desks around you are empty. So where is everybody and what are they up to? Freddie Steele goes in search of the UK’s invisible workforce.

Business Link At any time during a normal working day, over three quarters of desks in the UK’s workplaces are empty. And this is good news for lots of people, including facilities managers, according to Daniel Lister of, Guestnet, a supplier of wireless technology solutions. ‘Surveys constantly highlight the increasing mobility of UK executives,’ explains Lister. ‘Most workplace analysis carried out by designers arrives at this typical figure of around one-quarter occupancy for workstations. The reason for this is simple - for large numbers of the workforce, the main office is seen as a base and a place to meet colleagues, a lot of their work is now done away from the office.’

So where are they all then? Well, a lot of time is spent in meetings in the office with the average manager spending up to half their time each week in meetings. More importantly, a recent survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit of 600 executives discovered that the average respondent spent a third of their time away from their main place of work. Over 80 per cent of managers confirmed that they had a laptop to allow them to work anywhere. All had mobile phones.

‘These are the people we now refer to as ‘road warriors’’, explains Lister. ‘The technology allows them to be physically disconnected from their main place of work for much of the time, but at the same time it provides the umbilical link back to work that they need. And they’re more than happy to work like this. I saw a survey from the Chartered Management Institute that found that 45 per cent of managers now voluntarily stay in touch with work while they’re on holiday. It is very important for managers that they feel they are in constant touch with the world.’

So where is everybody and, how are they staying in touch with their main place of work? Increasingly, according to Lister, they are finding new bases from which to work. For those corridor warriors still inside the building increasing mobility is reflected in the provision of more ‘third space’ including meeting, project and breakout areas. For the road warriors outside the building what is needed are ready-to-identify and easy-to-use locations to connect to the internet to stay in touch. These can range from the obvious such as client and supplier premises but increasingly also include public spaces such as coffee shops, motorway service stations and hotels. Modern workplaces can come with an endless supply of almond croissants and latte.

Appropriately, the way public places offer connectivity to business travellers is changing radically and it is the hotel and hospitality industry that is responding most progressively to the burgeoning demand for wireless access. Traditionally, hotels have provided internet access primarily to guests in their rooms and in dedicated business centres (and even in this regard there have been large numbers that have failed to offer this as part of their service. Nortel estimates that only around 20 per cent of London hotels offer Internet access in any form), but an increasing number see the use of wireless access as the way ahead. The same is true of many other public spaces.

‘The advantages of wireless are clear,’ explains Daniel Lister of Guestnet. ‘And it is about far more than a mere additional revenue stream, although that is important. In the US where the upmarket hotel chains have pioneered the use of wireless, 87 per cent of business travellers now say they believe the provision of Wi-Fi affects their choice of hotel. It also makes internet access in the public spaces in a hotel easy for visitors and conference delegates who can buy airtime, generating additional revenue for the hotel and encouraging visitors to spend more time in the hotel and making use of other services. It is also cheaper than Ethernet cabling, which has up till recently been the choice for hotels offering high speed internet access.’

Lister believes that in a typical 200 bed hotel, the cost of providing blanket wireless coverage is around half that of using wiring alone. For these reasons, the rate at which hotels worldwide are installing Wi-Fi is increasing at an exponential rate. There are currently an estimated 6,000 hotels around the globe offering wireless connections, but that figure is expected to leap to around 35,000 by 2008. ‘The demand for wireless is coming from two forces,’ explains Daniel Lister. ‘The pull is coming from customers, especially business users, who are coming to expect it as a standard part of the service. But it is also being pushed by the development of new technology. Around 80 per cent of all executives now have a laptop and Intel claims 90 per cent of all laptops are shipped with Centrino mobile technology. There will be over 700 million wireless equipped users worldwide by 2008. It’s important also that issues about the security of wireless connections have now been resolved. So the visitors are increasingly equipped to access these services and it’s more and more important for the hotel to offer the means for them to use them easily, quickly and cheaply. The alternative is for hotels to miss out on this huge section of their customer base.’

According to Lister, the move towards wireless is being driven by four and five star hotels. Appropriately, his own company, Guestnet, is responsible for implementing wireless at Malmaison hotels across the UK, and recently completed its latest installation in Belfast, which uses a combination of both wireless and wired systems as is the norm in upscale hotels. It is currently finishing at Hotel du Vin in Henley.

‘There are already signs that the use of wireless is beginning to trickle down to other parts of the market,’ says Lister. ‘As the technology becomes standard, we will soon reach a ‘tipping point’ where demand from guests will make it essential to offer wireless access for many hotel groups and especially those that target business guests and conferences. What is also increasingly apparent is awareness of the problems caused by unstable connections. It is pointless offering wireless to hotel users if the connection is flaky. If that’s the case, it would be better to make no claims for it at all really. I’m aware of one well known chain that is having enormous problems with the service offered by perhaps the best known wireless service provider. But they won’t be able to get away with it for much longer. As hotel owners become better informed, they are placing a greater emphasis on the stability of the services.’

‘It’s also important to understand that the battleground for guests is not just about access,’ he continues. ‘Increasingly it is also about content. What we are seeing now is the integration of high speed wireless with other guest and visitor services, local information, messaging, internet access and entertainment. These are all services that have been offered by hotels for some time, but wireless allows them to become an integrated package available throughout the hotel in both rooms and public spaces and so takes them to a new dimension. It also allows guests to enjoy services that are branded and tailored to each hotel rather than as a generic bundle. This will become an increasingly important part of each hotel’s service offering as they compete for the loyalty of customers. As a result, the customer’s experience will be extended from the physical aspects of their stay into the virtual world.’

So what are the implications for facilities managers? According to Lister there are several key issues, each of which presents the profession with new opportunities. ‘The most important impact that technology has on our lives is the way in which it erodes barriers and creates new linkages,’ he explains. ‘What we are witnessing here is a trend that strengthens the often talked about links between the job functions of facilities management, human resources and IT. People, place and technology are so closely linked in this respect that organisations have to look at them in a sophisticated and holistic way.

‘It also means that the future of facilities strategy lies as much outside the office as it does inside. As the provision of internet connection and information services in places like hotels becomes better understood and more widely available, it is inevitable that organisations will see these places as external extensions of their main workplaces. It’s common practice now for firms with a large number of road warriors to have negotiated deals with hotel chains on room rates. What is happening now is that firms will only have those deals with chains that offer their staff a place to work as well as rest.’

According to Lister, that will mean far more than giving them the chance to do the inevitable, undignified scrabble around under the table to plug in a modem. It will mean offering them a wireless connection for all areas of the hotel and a package of services. ‘The challenge for facilities managers is to embrace this new and complex world. You only have to look at the explosion in the use of always-on connectivity products like the Blackberry to understand that the demand for instant connection with the workplace already exists. So while it’s tempting to see issues such as global wireless connectivity as a trend for the future, in reality they’re happening now. The challenge for facilities managers is to embrace these changes and forge closer links with people working in IT and personnel. The opportunity is there for them to drive this change and enhance their position of strategic influence.’