It's no secret that an influx of changes to the way people work and think about the workplace have occurred over the last 18 months since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether employees are returning to the office full time, implementing a hybrid schedule, or staying remote, business leaders must determine the best ways to support their workforce both now and in the post-pandemic landscape. They key to making the right calls when it comes to these critical workplace decisions? Although all of this data typically lives in different siloed systems, recent advancements in AI and workplace analytics allow companies to integrate and harness their data in more impactful ways than ever before. While companies often survey their employees to better understand workforce sentiments, subjective data like survey responses becomes even more valuable when measured against objective insights, such as collaboration, meeting, and performance data.

Back when activity based working (ABW) was starting to gain real traction in places like Australia in 2013, we ran some research on which companies were most influential on the organisational leaders that were driving adoption of the work style. For many technology vendors and service providers the results from our more than 50 in-depth interviews with ABW adopters (now more than 250) were somewhat of a shock. The leading influencers were: #1 workpace strategy specialists; #2 interior designers; #3 peers that had adopted ABW; #4 real estate management firms and furniture providers. On the contrary, it was considered critical to get right and pretty much underpinned everything (see our checklist for guidance here). But technology providers simply didn't have a vision or narrative that was resonating with organisational leaders that also had to consider how to best use physical space while changing cultures.