How To Help Get Employees Comfortable with IoT Technologies

IoT-enabled smart workplaces are highly sought-after by the tech-savvy Millennials and Gen Z workers who prefer working in a collaborative environment driven by advanced technology and digital workplace tools.

According to Technavio.com, the smart workplace market is likely to grow by USD 28.66 billion between 2022-2027. Nevertheless, not all employees are tech-savvy; therefore, embracing advanced technologies can be a daunting task for employees unfamiliar with IoT.

In today's blog, we will shed light on ways to facilitate a smooth transition so as to help your employees feel comfortable with IoT applications. But before that, let's understand the role of IoT in safeguarding employees' interests.

Nowadays, IoT-enabled devices are considered crucial for businesses, irrespective of their size. It helps businesses resolve their business issues by utilising their own data. Thus, IoT has become crucial across diverse sectors, be it agriculture, healthcare, logistics, industrial manufacturing, real estate, or supply chain management.

By enabling seamless connectivity and data analysis, IoT revolutionises the functioning of these industries, besides ensuring smarter, more streamlined processes.

The Role of the IoT in Building Smart Offices

Numerous forward-thinking organisations are increasingly embracing IoT solutions for smart office automation. A smart office, also known as a responsive office, is a new-age workspace that incorporates collaborative technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud-connected networks, and the IoT.

IoT-enabled intelligent solutions make offices smarter in several ways. Businesses are, therefore, incorporating IoT into their corporate strategy to unlock more opportunities and keep pace with the changing times to stay competitive.

Advantages of IoT Solutions

• Easing Communication: IoT-enabled devices help businesses streamline their internal and external communication. Automated devices create an interactive office environment and facilitate real-time conversation to keep employees interconnected. Moreover, with remote and hybrid work models gaining acceptance worldwide, smart collaboration tools enable remote, hybrid, and onsite teams to communicate smoothly with each other, thereby improving teamwork. Additionally, voice assistants, chatbots and auto-responding emails help customer service professionals save time by delivering prompt responses to customer queries.
• Accelerating workflow: IoT-enabled solutions accelerate operations, and boost performance, enabling employees to perform challenging tasks with ease. Moreover, the analysis of data generated by IoT helps produce more sophisticated and high-quality product lines at a reduced cost, besides increasing output. IoT also helps businesses with large inventory track their physical inventory in seconds, thus, eliminating the need for manual screening.
• Enhancing Employee Productivity and Efficiency: An intelligent workspace automates tasks and optimises workflows. This, in turn, enables employees to work smart, thus enhancing their productivity. Kaspersky has also reported that 60% of companies around the world have incorporated IoT applications such as supply chain/shipment trackers to streamline their operations.
• Creating a healthy work environment: A smart workspace, powered by IoT, offers a positive work environment to keep employees motivated. IoT-enabled devices not only streamline their work but also liberate them from performing monotonous tasks, thus, creating a happy and stress-free work environment.
• Saving maintenance costs: IoT-enabled workplace solutions leverage predictive analysis to prevent expensive repairs or sudden machine breakdowns. Moreover, data generated by IoT-powered devices help businesses identify where they are wasting money, thus helping companies reduce operational costs in multiple areas.
• Saving utility costs: IoT workspace solutions help businesses mitigate utility costs by reducing their carbon footprint and making their daily operations more eco-friendly. For instance, according to Gartner, smart lighting can reduce energy costs by 90%.
• Enhances Employee Safety: According to "Smart Construction: The Future of Workplace Safety," Forbes, 2020, IoT solutions have helped the construction industry reduce accidents by 50%. Likewise, another report named "IoT in Manufacturing: Improving Safety in the Workplace," IoT for All, 2021" revealed that IoT wearables have helped the manufacturing sector mitigate workplace accidents by 35%. IoT devices build a smart environment to help businesses keep an eye on internal and external factors to ensure the safety and security of employees. Such devices can track and gauge employee behaviour to identify physical injury and other hazards.
• Boosts Security: IoT solutions play a crucial role in enhancing workspace security. They facilitate controlled access through advanced technologies such as facial recognition and biometric scanners. These systems also accurately identify employees using surveillance cameras, fingerprint scanners, and more. By leveraging these technologies, workplaces can ensure that only authorised individuals gain entry, thus keeping intruders at bay.

IoT solutions enhance employee satisfaction via several advanced systems. Here are some of the best IoT technologies list for workplaces:

• Smart Lighting: It optimises workspace illumination via customised lighting settings to create a soothing work atmosphere
• Smart Desk: It boosts comfort and productivity of employees. It also offers health benefits by monitoring the occupant’s heart rate and reducing sedentary times
• AI Chatbots: They replicate human conversation and help customers with prompt responses to their queries
• Security & Access Control Systems: These are used for enhancing safety and security by providing a real-time overview of workspaces anytime, anywhere
• Audio-Video Conferencing Systems: They facilitate seamless communication between employees
• Energy Management Systems: They reduce energy consumption and help businesses minimise their carbon footprints
• Smart Inventory Tracker: It is used for real-time inventory tracking. It also alerts you as soon as your stock runs low
• Smart Queue Management Solutions: It enhances customer experience by streamlining the waiting process and reducing wait times
• Smart HVAC Control System: It is used for maintaining ideal temperatures at workplaces to ensure comfort
• Smart Fire & Safety Control Systems: These IoT devices ensure the safety of workspaces during emergencies. They consist of several components such as heat/smoke detector, and fire alarm.
• Smart Data Integration Solutions: These solutions provide businesses with a unified picture of their operation
• Smart Logistics Solutions: These IoT solutions help product logistics/transportation providers by facilitating real-time tracking of shipments and vehicles, thus, eliminating the risk of delivery failure, product damage or theft

The applications mentioned in the above IoT devices list leverage the power of AI, 5G, and Cloud Computing to add value to organisations. Together, these IoT technologies enhance the modern workplace experience, thus multiplying employee satisfaction and efficiency.

Importance of Optimising Employee Experience

The post-pandemic era has made it more important to optimise employee experience. Before the pandemic, office interactions followed a predictable routine. However, post-pandemic, the rise of remote work, driven by advanced online tools, has reshaped this landscape. Companies now seek the right balance, deciding which tasks are best suited for in-person, online, or hybrid approaches, all in pursuit of maximising productivity. The IoT technology’s automation capabilities makes it a gamechanger for businesses. It has empowered them to bridge the gap between remote and on-site workers, thus, elevating their businesses to new heights.

Employee Resistance to Change– the Biggest Challenge in IoT Implementation

  Despite its numerous benefits, implementing new technologies such as the IoT, in an organisation can be a daunting task. To ensure the proper implementation and utilisation of IoT solutions, it is necessary to comprehend the reasons behind the resistance and employ appropriate strategies to address them.

Here are some factors that trigger resistance:

• Not all employees possess tech expertise, and their ignorance prevents them from embracing new technologies.
• Many employees are unaware of the benefits of the IoT and its potential to automate routine tasks.
• A majority of employees are often apprehensive about the added responsibilities and fear that they may have to struggle to adapt to new work methods. Furthermore, the fear of facing termination and getting replaced by advanced technology solutions prevents them from embracing automation.
• Resistance to change is an innate human nature; therefore, even with user-friendly interfaces, like IoT, some level of resistance persists in the corporate environment. 

To overcome these hurdles and misconceptions, and ensure a smooth transition, businesses must take the following strategic steps:

• Encouraging a change mindset in company culture Integrating sophisticated technologies into every area of business operations can be the biggest hurdle as employees are often resistant to adopting new tech solutions. Hence, business leaders must take measures to change people's mindsets. Shifting mindsets requires overcoming familiarity, doubts, apprehensions, and blind faith in outdated methods. It involves questioning norms, embracing sophisticated technologies, and adjusting roles. Encouraging employees to welcome change is crucial in developing a progressive mindset.
• Building a culture where employees adapt to innovations seamlessly. Before incorporating IoT into business processes, business leaders must strive to build an innovative culture or a business environment that embraces technological evolutions with open arms, without any apprehensions. To cultivate such a culture, business leaders need to place a strong emphasis on clear and reassuring communication with their employees. Simultaneously, business leaders must encourage their most hesitant employees to voice their doubts, as these individuals might be reluctant to express criticism or raise challenging questions. When employees understand how IoT can enhance their performance, their confidence grows.
• Offering Strategic Training through Workshops The best way to encourage employees to embrace IoT is through training programs and workshops. Such training sessions allow employees to test IoT solutions and their features. By providing hands-on experience, these training programs empower staff to leverage the full potential of IoT.
• Take it slow Sudden abrupt changes may end up creating chaos in a workspace. Therefore, it is advisable to chalk out a clear strategy for implementing IoT-enabled solutions in a phased manner. By doing so, business leaders provide their employees with adequate time to understand the IoT technology.
• Gather Employee Feedback Even after implementing IoT solutions at workspaces, employees might face certain hurdles while getting familiar with the new technology. Therefore, business leaders must collect employee feedback to understand and fix the existing loopholes in the solutions. Regular feedback also helps ensure that the solutions are functioning as per your expectations. Furthermore, regular monitoring of performance post-implementation facilitates issue identification and resolution, ensuring smooth IoT integration.

Streamline your business processes with Habilelabs-a leading IoT solutions company

With businesses implementing IoT as an essential aspect of their business strategy, the demand for this groundbreaking technology is reaching new heights.

At Habilelabs, we have helped numerous businesses take the advantage of IoT by streamlining their workflows with our top-notch, scalable IoT applications that support countless connected devices. Our team of experts adheres to the best practices to develop the best IoT solutions based on your requirements, bandwidth, and budget.

We thoroughly analyse your technological requirements and offer robust and feature-rich IoT solutions for different industries, which can be integrated effortlessly.