"I told my team, I want to create 'people of the future', and thought long and hard about shifting to the digital field to realise this goal."
- Serena Pau, Head of Products
Serena Pau, who harks from an IoT start-up, shared her people passion, "I told my team, I want to create 'people of the future', and thought long and hard about shifting to the digital field to realise this goal. In terms of recruiting the team, hiring start-up tech talent is challenging, especially if you're not a tech person yourself, but we quickly learnt from our mistakes and were able to formulate a great team with the diverse skill sets 
required to manage the complexities of software manufacturing, back-end and front-end app issues as well as different app requirements for Android and Apple." When Pau later joined the CLP Innovation Team (CLPIE), it was with initial trepidation and later elation. She said, "When I first hired at CLPIE, I was a little hesitant as to whether it would be like working for the Government or what. I soon realised what an exciting opportunity this was, as CLPIE is run more like a start-up within a bigger company. So you get to be an intrapreneur, but with all the financial backing and big-company support that comes from the existing CLP framework."
CLP Innovation Hub is located at Hong Kong Science Park, and they are on a mission to connect incubator organisations and start-ups with great ideas and products in an ecosystem that helps bring these ideas to life and roll them out to workplaces great across Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. We speak with Serena Pau, Head of Products and Vincent Chow, Head of Marketing at Digital Products, CLP Innovation, to get their take on workplaces of the future that help save HR time, money and staffing, as well as increase engagement, retention and workplace safety to boot.
HR workplace utilisation dashboard
A vital issue for HR right now, particularly as we emerge from a chronic period of stress during the pandemic, is workplace well-being and how to enhance office operations. Chow noted, "One of the focus areas for our Smart Energy Connect (SEC), a digital platform that offers a suite of energy management solutions, is the smart workplace. We can adopt technology solutions to help connect all the electrical appliances in the office, including lighting, air-con, projectors, meeting room booking systems, and email systems, providing integration, automation, and empowering HR to visualise the data collected. This data provides insights into how, where and when users interact with the office technology and how much electricity is used in the office at different times. These insights can then be leveraged to schedule energy tasks on an as-needs basis."
Pau noted the flexibility afforded by the SEC platform to facilitate meeting the needs of HR, "Some products are developed in-house by the CLP Innovation team, with others being sourced within our start-up ecosystem. This flexibility and scope allow us to achieve the goal of helping organisations become more sustainable."
Saving energy, time and money
This technology means that when there are fewer employees present at quieter times, the system can automatically adjust lighting and air conditioning to save energy. Also, the system eliminates the need for administrative staff to physically go around the different meeting rooms to check on utilisation and availability. Instead, this function is automated and will shut down air-con and dim the lighting in unoccupied rooms to save energy. Moreover, the system can feedback real-time room availability to HR and administrative teams—so they are always aware of room availability and have access to historical data about who has sued different facilities in the office. Chow added, "This system enables all kinds of office operations to be automated and visualised from a single user interface. Actual energy consumption can be compared with the historical data, and by leveraging machine learning (ML), the system can then make automated adjustments based on external environmental factors such as the ambient temperature and historical usage. Moreover, the platform can also provide forecasts on expected energy consumption in the office."
Pau added, "Many organisations are hungry to go green and become more sustainable, but they don't know exactly how to do this or where to go to get help with this journey. When HR wants to enhance their sustainability efforts but only have a small team to help achieve this, it can be challenging. This is where SEC can help in terms of sustainability solutions, for example, through heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system optimisation. We use automation to improve HVAC systems to give HR the best set points—that fit with the current weather and utilisation rates etc."
Reducing downtime
The platform can also leverage ML to provide predictive analytics concerning office equipment maintenance and repair. Chow explained, "Instead of waiting until something has actually broken down, then waiting for the repair team to assess the repair, order parts and make good the repair; now the platform can predict when an item is approaching the end of its usable lifespan and be programmed to schedule repair and maintenance at a convenient time, avoiding any downtime and business interruption."
Pau noted, "The predictive maintenance product, Building Scope, collates all building management system data and uses AI to predict when machines are likely to break down. Doing this not only helps schedule maintenance at off-peak times, but also eliminates the need for engineers to go searching for leakages, as they will know before exactly what the issue is and where to go to repair it. The ROI on this can be realised in about 18 months."
Help with people management
Traditionally, HR has been tasked with ensuring the workforce remain aware of energy-saving, and often issue reminders and deliver training programmes to highlight the importance environmentally and financially of saving energy. Frequently, when energy-saving tips get forgotten, they may also find themselves walking around the office and turning off lights and monitors that are not currently being utilised. Chow said, "With smart energy platforms, instead of manual 'patrols' and endless stickers and memos to remind staff to turn off lights and monitors and printers, the whole operation is now automated, which not only saves energy and costs but also frees up time for HR to focus on more strategic tasks."
Pau echoed these sentiments, "Optimising office systems for efficiency helps organisations save resources, reduce carbon emissions and achieve long-term sustainability goals. Moreover, it brings talent efficiencies; with an entire-building optimisation, HR could save 40 – 50 person-days every year. And once these days are freed up, talent can focus on more meaningful and value-add tasks such as reporting and innovating."
ROIs for Smart Office Solutions
Chow noted, "Not only can workforce operations be enhanced as HR has better control and visibility of power consumption and utilisation in the office, but the system also brings huge savings in terms of energy and more efficient utilisation of workspaces. So overall, HR can optimise their resources in the long run." Pau noted, "The HVAC optimisation can achieve savings of 20 – 25% each year, which will be realised within the first year."
Chow added, "COVID-19 influenced human resource management profoundly. HR now has to manage effective zoning or workspaces and take measures to maximise social distancing in the office—especially in co-working spaces. The smart solution offers a desktop workstation solution that helps HR more easily manage different office areas, and how many users are allocated to each area at any given time to help space out utilisation as far as possible."
Platform mobility
Recently, there has been a significant flux in how offices utilise their existing workplaces, many shifting to co-working, open plan and hybrid models. Coupled with budget limitations, this has led to a degree of HR concern over migrating such systems to a new office and up/downscale them in line with the organisation's current needs. Chow explained, "In Hong Kong, the majority of office spaces are under rental contracts, so investment in any workplace installations needs to be carefully considered in case there is a need to move office. Now because the technology adopted is more mature and leverages the Internet of Things, nearly all devices can be wirelessly connected, which is completely non-invasive—so cost-effective and completely mobile should later migration be required."
So, for organisations looking to re-size, move and enhance operational efficiency, adopting smart energy- management technology is undoubtedly a smart move. Bringing energy, staffing, time and cost savings, in addition to helping organisations achieve sustainability goals, this SEC platform helps HR better power both their people and their workplaces of the future.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
