3 ways return to office plans have evolved for landlords and tenants

Posted on by Brian Zrimsek

In the spring of 2021, the commercial real estate sector looked ahead to a bright future as the global vaccine rollout was underway, and businesses everywhere considered how best to bring their employees back into the office.

But just as all things in today’s world are subject to change on a moment’s notice, so has the thinking of landlords and tenants in the face of unexpected speed bumps in the return to “the new normal,” including the rise of the delta variant and discussions surrounding vaccine and health requirements.

MRI conducted two surveys – the first in March and the second in September 2021 – to see how landlord and tenant views on return to office plans have changed over time. Now that businesses have 2022 in their sights, let’s take a look to see where both parties stand today.

Firming up return to office timing

Our first survey from Q1 2021 indicated that a large percentage of tenants were unsure as to when they’d bring more than 75% of their workforce back into the office, and landlords, didn’t expect to go back into the office until later in the fall or winter.

Data from the Q3 2021 survey, however, shows that tenants and landlords now have stronger ideas as to when employees will be brought back into the office. 57% of corporate tenants expect to have more than half of their workforce back in the office by the end of Q1 2022, while landlords were more optimistic, with 67% expecting the majority of workers to be back onsite by the end of Q4 2021.

Return to the office policies are being cemented

In our survey from the first half of 2021, landlords and occupiers alike agreed that some time in-office should be required for employees, but plans were not yet set in stone. Our data from Q3 2021 shows that 70% of respondents planned to institute hybrid work policies that include onsite requirements, formalizing plans as return dates get closer.

Policies around hybrid work and office requirements have largely firmed up across the board, with nearly 80% of all respondents increasing the availability of hybrid work. We also see that 69% of respondents said that the worldwide shift to remote working during the pandemic has fundamentally changed their long-term approach to space usage, which is consistent with the initial survey. Nearly half of the respondents plan seating capacity for less than 75% of their workforce.

Occupiers and landlords need flexible technology to meet new challenges

In Q1 2021, landlords felt mostly confident that they had the technology in place to handle a return to the office, but this is no longer the case. With changing space requirements and the need to better understand the health of employees and visitors that enter the building, both occupiers and landlords now see a strong need to adopt technologies to handle changing requirements.

According to the data, 70% of corporate occupiers plan to adopt new technologies to manage changes in space usage. The percentage of landlords that thought their existing solutions were sufficient to manage changes in office usage dropped from 61% to 45% between the two 2021 surveys. The most recent results reveal that 61% of landlords expect to adopt new technologies to handle changing space needs, compared to 55% in the previous survey.

The latter half of 2021 is not turning out the exact way that many predicted, but landlords and tenants are adjusting their expectations and assessing new technologies and their own space requirements in order to facilitate a successful return to the office. As we continue into 2022, communication between all parties and solutions that flex to a business’s individual needs will be crucial in transitioning into a new normal.

Get the full survey data from the report:

MRI Software Market Insights: Views from Real Estate Occupiers and Landlords on the Return to Office, by MRI Software and CoreNet Global

6 ways workflow automation benefits your business

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Discover the value of workflow automation software to modern organisations, removing unnecessary manual tasks and streamlining business operations.

How much of your workday is dedicated to manual processes that you are convinced could be automated?

Despite the rapid evolution of AI technology, many companies persist with manual tasks that sap productivity, burn through resources and send employees to sleep.

Just consider the following:

  • In a survey of 2,000 work activities, approximately 45% could be automated (McKinsey)
  • 74% of business leaders and employees believe parts of their job could be automated (WorkMarket)
  • Employees spend 20-40% of their time manually searching for documents (Imaginovation)

These statistics merely scratch the surface of the problem. Too many organisations still rely on time-consuming, repetitive tasks to function day-to-day – and this has a noticeable impact on their overall performance.

To break through the bottlenecks associated with manual processes, now is the time for businesses globally to embrace the benefits of workflow automation software. Below we will showcase the advantages of automation and how project planning for all types of tasks can be applied in companies of all shapes and sizes.

What is workflow automation software?

Workflow automation is when business processes can be launched and executed without the need for any human intervention. By applying rule-based logic, each step of a task can automatically be routed to the relevant people and systems needed for it to be completed.

Emails are sent to employees, clients and customers. Reminders are organised. Tasks are always scheduled. Announcements are published. All this and more is made possible with workflow-related project management software – without anyone in your team pushing a single button.

Through these pre-built rules, organisations can eliminate many of the manual tasks and paper-based processes that were the bane of their employees’ lives. This means improved productivity, reduced costs and overall better experiences for team members, customers and more.

How does workflow automation work?

Most workflow automation software will be based on a range of if/then rules and statements, which depending on the answer will trigger the next task.

The best forms of workflow automation technology will make it easy to set up these business rules. For instance, MRI’s workflow automation module employs a straightforward drag-and-drop interface that users can effortlessly tweak and adapt as their business evolves.

As an example, consider the workflow process behind a cleaning task within your facilities:

  • An employee logs the problem with their helpdesk
  • The task is immediately created and scheduled in your facilities management software
  • It is then assigned to a relevant cleaner, who is automatically notified about the job
  • Reminders are sent to the cleaner prior to the time attached to the cleaning job
  • The cleaner is sent any resources or materials they require relating to this task
  • Once the job is completed, they sign it off on their device, instantly informing the employee and helpdesk that the task is done
  • The task is then immediately logged as complete and taken out of the active schedule

This is just one example of process automation that can be achieved through this software. The vast majority of departments can apply this to different areas of their work:

Facilities management

  • Creating and tracking maintenance tasks
  • Immediate alerts relating to business problems or incidents
  • Sharing health and safety notices or updates
  • Updating asset management data

Human resources

  • Automating recruitment processes
  • Publishing important HR announcements
  • Streamlining onboarding experiences
  • Checking compliance on project tasks

Finance

  • Scheduling payments for recurring invoices
  • Automating payroll management
  • Integrating data between accounting systems
  • Maintaining suitable stock levels

Sales

  • Building lists of potential leads
  • Guiding leads from start to finish
  • Sending emails for stronger customer service
  • Receiving regular reports and analysis

Marketing

  • Collaborating with content departments globally
  • Overseeing campaigns in real-time
  • Establishing consistent nurture journeys
  • Installing more efficient approval processes

6 benefits of introducing workflow automation systems

1. Faster task management and completion

First and foremost, introducing workflow automation software lays the foundation for a more efficient, productive organisation.

By cutting down time-consuming tasks, be it the number of helpdesk phone calls or manually updating data, employees will have more time to devote to critical tasks.

This increased productivity can have a knock-on effect on many areas of the business:

  • Less need to hire additional employees to fulfil automatable tasks
  • Employees can accomplish more every day without having to stay late, boosting their satisfaction levels
  • Workflow redundancies can be identified and removed faster
  • Tasks are conducted faster, leaving a better impression on clients and customers
  • Resource management is handled much more efficiently

80% of business leaders believe that employees could save up to 60 hours a month through workflow automation (WorkMarket)

2. Better possibilities for strategic thinking

Furthermore, the additional time unlocked by workflow automation can be utilised by management teams to guide their companies forward. Rather than be caught up in the minutiae of manual tasks, business leaders can concentrate on the bigger picture.

In addition, access to a solution that consistently monitors workflow performance allows companies to harness this insight for data-driven decisions. Instead of relying on gut instinct or guesswork, teams will have the information they require to determine their next steps.

This will also give management clearer visibility over their workflows than they would ever have had when processes were primarily manual. They will be in a better position to spot issues and promptly rectify these, which may have dragged on for months or years without this oversight.

Nearly 20% of CEOs’ time is dedicated to work that could be automated (McKinsey)

3. Clearer company-wide communication

A high-quality workflow automation system will actively centralise all company communications. Rather than resort to a confusing array of emails, webmails and post-it notes, this will enable comms to flow smoothly and seamlessly.

From urgent health and safety notices to critical updates related to certification, everything can be tracked and cached in one place. This not only streamlines activities and boosts performance, but also leaves a definitive digital trail that companies can use for reference to ensure accountability.

In addition, paperwork can be substantially reduced across an organisation. This both reduces the chances of critical information being lost and improves its environmental credentials.

4. Reduced human error

We are all capable of making mistakes. The more manual tasks that a company relies upon, the more likely they are to fall victim to these on a frequent basis. This could include:

  • Failing to pass on a message or email, causing a task to be ignored
  • Not updating a spreadsheet with the latest asset data
  • Poorly writing notes or messages, meaning they are difficult to decipher
  • Not informing people when a task has been completed or requires assistance
  • Not ordering required stock, meaning it runs out entirely

These can result in additional expenses, loss of productivity and potential compliance issues. However, automating the process of assigning tasks, logging data and communicating with employees, the possibilities for human error are greatly reduced.

This means more consistent performance and operational efficiency, and fewer chances for this to be derailed by an unfortunate mistake or oversight.

52% of business leaders believe workflow automation leads to a noticeable reduction in manual errors (WorkMarket)

5. More scalable business process management

If companies with an abundance of manual processes want to scale up, their options are limited. They can either hire more employees, increasing overheads, or increase their current team’s workload, which can affect their happiness. Both approaches also increase the risk of mistakes.

With good work management systems in place, scaling becomes far simpler. As more repetitive tasks can occur at once and with minimal human input, less manual labour is required. Not only does this improve their job satisfaction, but it enables companies to scale up without significantly expanding their workforce.

This benefit is enhanced by having the right solution in place. At MRI, our workflow automation software does not lock you into the configuration you selected from the outset. Instead, you can adapt this at any time to support your development. This ensures that you will have the ideal app alongside you now and in the future.

6. Stronger customer service and engagement

Finally, improved automation inside an organisation can have a dramatic impact on customer experiences.

Automated management tools will result in fewer errors and delays to services and business processes. This means work is more likely to be delivered accurately and on time, keeping customers satisfied and encouraging repeat business.

From immediate responses to customer complaints to preprogrammed marketing campaigns, workflow automation greatly strengthens a company’s ability to communicate with its audience.

38% of firms are trying to enhance workflows with the aim of improving customer satisfaction (BPTrends)

Is workflow automation suitable for all businesses?

As highlighted earlier, workflow automation systems can help practically all departments in an organisation work smarter, not harder. That means that, regardless of size, scale or industry any business can harness this software and feel the benefits to productivity and employee wellbeing.

If you are wondering how and where workflow automation can support your own business processes, try the following exercise:

  • Ask your employees what tasks they perform each day that are repetitive or mundane
  • Gauge your workforce’s opinion on automation – are they for or against it?
  • Define business goals and KPIs relating to each repetitive task identified – speed, costs, number of workers, etc.
  • Establish a potential workflow, listing the tasks that would need to be fulfilled for that task to be completed

Discover the benefits of workflow automation

We hope this has given you a greater understanding of the importance of workflow automation in today’s landscape. Persisting with unnecessary manual processes can have a damaging effect on productivity, efficiency and overall performance.

By taking the step to identify and design automated workflows, your business will run smoother, and can be rid of boring, repetitive tasks for good.

At MRI, our workflow automation app adapts to your exact business needs. Whether you need to capture every detail at a granular level, or prefer a simpler, top-line system, you get to make those calls yourself. The system moulds around your business, not the other way around.

Get in touch today to learn how you can reap the benefits of workflow automation.

Posted in FSI

How facilities management directly impacts employee satisfaction

Posted on by

Today, it is widely recognised that a happy employee is a productive employee. And, without question, the quality and comfort of their surroundings play a critical role in determining how happy they are day after day.

When an employee is comfortable at work, engages with colleagues and embraces their company culture, odds are good that they will go the extra mile to help their organisation succeed.

Conversely, an employee that feels tense and restricted by their workspace is likely to feel the complete opposite – demotivated, disengaged, and with one eye on the exit door.

Your facilities management team is vital in creating workplaces that motivate people to perform at their best – from the moment they arrive to the second they sign off.

Below, we outline exactly how powerful an influence this department has on employee satisfaction, and the role that effective facilities management software can play in establishing optimal working environments.

Why employee satisfaction matters for businesses

Multiple studies have demonstrated a clear link between employee satisfaction and both their subsequent performance and productivity. The happier and more engaged someone feels at work, the more likely they will work at their full potential, leading to a plethora of positive outcomes:

Increased profitability

Satisfied employees are typically more motivated to get behind your company’s cause and exceed expectations. This greater impetus to perform at 100% will have a strong knock-on effect on your finances. The more employees excelling in their role, the better the results they are generating for your business.

Greater staff retention

It is far more preferable to have an established, consistent workforce than one that is constantly changing and needing to bring new workers up to speed. The happier your employees feel while at work, the less likely they will pursue opportunities elsewhere. Staff retention goes up, boosting your performance and minimising recruitment costs.

Strong recruitment

The more satisfied your employees are, the more likely it is they will advocate for your company on social media and employer review sites. This encourages top candidates to aspire to work for your organisation, which will benefit your talent acquisition efforts.

Better working atmosphere

Finally, an abundance of satisfied employees just makes work a fun place to be for all involved. People come in with smiles on their faces, interact with others more and leave with their heads up. As the old saying goes, “If you are doing a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life”.

How employee satisfaction affects productivity and performance

Here are a few standout statistics to emphasise the importance of employee satisfaction in the modern workplace:

  • Happy employees are considered 12% more productive than unhappy peers, generating a 3% rise in GDP and economic growth (University of Warwick)

  • Organisations with high job satisfaction levels outperform those with low job satisfaction by up to 202% (GoRemotely)

  • Companies with highly engaged workforces boost profitability by up to 21% (Gallup)

  • Good company culture can result in a 4x increase in revenue (Forbes)

  • Disengaged employees typically cost a company between £2,500 to £7,500 each in salary per year (TheCircularBoard)

  • Half of employees would sacrifice up to 29% of their salary to work at a job they enjoy (HRDive)

  • 77% of employees believe a strong culture helps them perform their best work (East Hill Consulting via PR Newswire)

6 ways facilities management helps improve employee satisfaction

Below we have outlined what we believe to be 6 of the standout ways that facilities management directly influences employee satisfaction levels.

1. Better general cleanliness

Nobody wants to walk into work and see stains on the carpet, overflowing bins and dusty desks. It gives the impression that the company doesn’t care – so why should the employees themselves care about their work?

Consistent cleaning, maintenance and restocking regimes help to ensure employees walk into a clean, welcoming workplace every day. This demonstrates to staff that they work for a company that cares – and will reciprocate that by improving their own performance.

CAFM software can help facilities management teams better coordinate and structure these cleaning regimes. Without a central solution in place, it is easy for cleaning routines to be superseded by urgent tasks, and then forgotten about altogether. Placing everything into one, easily manageable hub makes it much simpler to plan and execute all cleaning duties.

Consider Cleaning Now – through this application, cleaning teams are empowered to:

  • Scan specific locations using QR/barcode functionality

  • Upload ‘route information’ on patrol tasks to give cleaners safe, correct paths to perform tasks

  • Create adhoc incident/patrol tasks on the go – even if the user is in the middle of a patrol task

  • Take/upload images from the device to tasks

  • Complete audit questions quickly with simple yes/no answers

2. Enhanced health and safety

Employees are more conscious of their safety and wellbeing than ever before. Particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, employees need greater reassurance that their surroundings are secure and pose no threat to their health.

Facilities management software is again vital to giving employees that layer of assurance. By making FM services and actions more visible, employees can always be aware of what tasks are being conducted, and how their company is taking strides to look after their wellbeing.

The software can also help your FM teams to guarantee that compliance with health and safety is always achieved. Whether this is improving your ability to fulfil your SLAs, or satisfying PFI & PPP obligations, your CAFM system can alert you to risks of liabilities, so you can then immediately take corrective action.

3. Improved office services

Employee expectations are higher than ever. With competition for top talent extremely high, organisations must go above and beyond the call of duty to keep team members satisfied and encourage new team members into the fold.

One way these expectations can be met is by providing access to useful services that matter to your employees. They might appreciate being able to book a car wash during their afternoon shift, or to arrange their dry cleaning so it can be picked up the moment they leave.

That is where an FM app like @yourService can be incredibly beneficial in upholding employee engagement and happiness. These applications keep employees informed about events and updates relevant to their building, and provide access to additional services to make both their work experience and overall daily routine much more straightforward.

  • Support and status updates provided directly through a single app

  • Immediate connections between employees, service desks and FM workforces

  • Employees can select suitable dates and times for desired services

  • Events taking place within a workplace can be set up and shared with all users

4. Dedicated space management

The layout and configuration of a workspace play an integral role in the morale and engagement employees feel towards their job. For instance, employees stationed in cubicles with high walls could quickly feel isolated and trapped at work, which will in turn negatively impact their satisfaction and performance.

Conversely, a layout that allows them to communicate with colleagues, or gives them flexibility over what desk they work from, promotes interaction and helps employees feel more settled in their environment.

Space management crucially helps FM teams optimise their organisation to minimise costs and increase efficiencies. But it can also influence decision making on office layouts and furniture to maximise employee happiness and productivity.

This could include “silent” spaces for employees to focus on work, comfortable creative zones for brainstorming sessions, and communal spaces where teams love to unwind and socialise.

For more on the extensive benefits of space management software, we encourage you to read this article.

5. Automating the mundane

For facilities managers, engineers, cleaners and other personnel responsible for looking after a building, life can become mundane in a hurry. It could be manually inputting asset data into a spreadsheet, completing regulatory compliance audits, or overseeing the progress of internal projects.

This endless cycle of inputting, replacing and recycling data can become tiresome in a hurry, and negatively impact the happiness of your FM team. It is important to remember that they are a core part of your team – if their productivity is hurt by low morale, it will impact the quality of your workplace.

In this situation, facilities management software is a useful way to streamline workloads and automate data gathering and organisation. This frees up time across your workforce, giving them more capacity for strategic thinking, and ensures your organisation benefits from up-to-date information.

  • Accurate, comprehensive asset management can be conducted in a fraction of the time it would be taken to complete manually

  • Potential cost savings and risk areas can be identified and addressed in real-time

  • Straightforward task grids, with all planned and reactive tasks listed, making project management much simpler

  • Streamlined management of purchase orders, quotation management and sales invoicing

6. Ideal working environments

We highlighted the importance of a clean, well-configured workspace earlier. But, by harnessing the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart technology, facilities management teams can create the perfect working environments for their employees’ needs – often without needing to lift a finger.

By using the data gathered across your workplace every day through sensor technology, compiled into a central CAFM system, workspaces can be automatically adjusted based on who occupies them, times of day, climate and more:

  • Heating, lighting and ventilation systems can be switched on as soon as employees enter the room, set to optimal conditions for your organisation

  • Automated task alerts for various cleaning or maintenance tasks reduces the strain on your helpdesk staff

  • Individual offices can be adapted to optimal temperatures for their specific occupants, ensuring they have the best possible working environment for them

How can workplace apps boost employee satisfaction?

This is just scratching the surface of the influence facilities management – and facilities management software – has on employee satisfaction in the modern workplace. FM is more people-focused than ever before, and its role in encouraging staff to stick around for longer should never be underestimated.

At MRI, a crucial way we help our clients create optimal workspaces for their employees is through our selection of workplace FM apps. These connect with people in a manner that has become their second nature, and gets them actively engaged in their community and maintaining the best possible environments.

Our workplace apps include:

  • Our Info – keeping employees fully informed of company-wide notices and updates

  • Our Say – encourage staff to vote on and complete surveys that will influence key decisions over their company’s future

  • Our Events – ensure everyone is aware of upcoming events scheduled across your organisation

  • ChatLog – a social conversational app directly connected to your FM teams, allowing employees to immediately highlight issues they spot in their day-to-day

  • BookIt – empowering your workforce to organise their own meetings and bookings to suit their requirements

If you are interested in learning more about our range of workplace apps, or want to discover how our all-encompassing CAFM solution, MRI Evolution, can play a key role in keeping your employees satisfied in their surroundings, get in touch with our team today.

 

Posted in FSI

Are you ready for the IFRS 16 Public Sector deadline?

Posted on by ahyrycz

Setting the scene
If you are reading this it is likely that IFRS 16 has become a hot topic within your organisation, so naturally you will be aware of the notable change to lease accounting practices, that is about to occur within the public sector and it’s impact on your organisation. However, if you are only just starting to think about IFRS 16 the new lease accounting standard for the public sector comes into effect on 1st April 2022 and fundamentally requires organisation spotlight.

As a public sector organisation, you can take advantage of a much more mature standard than when the private sector transitioned back in 2019, with countless organisations having gone through multiple interims and year-ends reporting to the updated standard. But now it is the public sector’s turn. Software applications are more mature in relation to the standard as well as accounting auditors being clearer on what scenarios and challenges are out there, whilst general best practice across the board is more apparent.

The question is: Are you truly prepared for the transition and have all areas covered?
MRI has gained insights from over 500 lease accounting implementations, whilst logging what went well, what needs to be considered and practices to avoid. Thus, providing relevant information to your organisation.

What we learnt about IFRS 16 from the Private Sector
IFRS 16 was introduced into the private sector in January 2019. This has provided valuable insights and challenges faced throughout it’s implementation. The new standard meant that leases had – and continues to have a significant impact on the balance sheet.

Therefore, MRI wants to openly share our experiences, challenges and solutions over the 500+ lease accounting implementations, with key takeaways for public sector organisations to learn from the private sector transition.

Procuring an appropriate solution and timing
With the 1st  April 2022 IFRS 16 deadline fast approaching for public sector organisations to transition to the new lease accounting standard, there are many factors that need consideration, and often many were overlooked by the private sector.

Many private sector organisations started trying to manage IFRS 16 leases via Excel or ‘IFRS 16 calculators’ only to run adrift. Challenges in term of processes, limited automation, security and double handling of spreadsheets and finance systems not only leads to data integrity problems but limited company control and insight.

Investing in lease management and accounting technology ensures that the business-as-usual treatment of leases is managed effectively, whilst automatically driving the asset and liability calculations alongside disclosure reporting for the finance team. If implemented correctly, the technology should meet and exceed the return on investment.

Not only is it important to have an appropriate solution in place to handle IFRS 16, but it is also important to have a solution implemented in a timely manner.  Robust, reliable, and scalable solutions are not implemented overnight, it takes time to get this right, and so it is vital that you do not treat this as an afterthought as we approach  2022.

Private organisations who implemented with time to test and conduct impact analysis prior to the deadline found the transition easier, cleansed their data more successfully and gained confidence within their organisation’s strategies. We therefore encourage, if you have not already, to start  assessing your data’s quality, source all required data and documents and implement a lease accounting software solution as soon as possible.

The role of technology
Technology plays a pivotal role in IFRS 16. It can automate the calculations of leases that would otherwise be a manual exercise, allowing for effective time management. It is vital to consider the continually evolving lease agreements you have with various key events, indexations, free rent periods for multiple leases across the portfolio, which can often lead to an endless effort and without the correct technology platform can, result in incorrect calculations.

IFRS 16 has demonstrated that a combination of cross departmental collaboration and technology to facilitate and automate, is the key to successful ongoing management of the standard. A major consideration is data confidence, data quality and data availability. This is the single most overlooked item on the list for organisations transitioning to the new standard. Questions like: Have we captured all our lease incentives and costs? or how do we know that our current rental value in ‘X’ without having to dive back into the lease agreement? Will be left unanswered if your organisation is non-strategic with their implementations of IFRS 16.  Data cleansing is paramount and therefore we have seen huge demand and interest in utilising our platform leveraging AI (Artificial Intelligence), to extract the required data points from your lease contracts, eliminating errors, whilst maximising data integrity and providing auditability for the transition, as you move into BAU through year-end.

More knowledge on IFRS 16 and ongoing required attention
When the private sector adopted the new standard from 1st January 2019, it is fair to say many challenges, complexities and scenarios we are now familiar with were unknown, thus by way of preparation little could be done. Although the standard had been finalised there were not any operational experiences by organisations on how this standard would work in practice.

The private sector has now learnt, that although the initial transition is important, the processes in place to handle IFRS 16 post transition is just as crucial. This is an area most private organisations initially disregarded and have since gone out to procure a solution that can handle this on an ongoing basis, thus replacing the transition solution.  Successful transitions understood the importance of end-to-end processes and controls required to efficiently manage the new IFRS 16 lease accounting standards on an ongoing basis. Approaching this in the correct way mitigates risk and needless expense further down the line.  The biggest lesson to take from this is IFRS 16 needs to be considered for the foreseeable and not just the date of transition.

This is a company-wide issue not a finance issue
With the finance department being responsible for sending off the reports to their auditors for month, quarter, or year-end, you may think that this is finance’s problem. However, from the private sector we have learnt that this is not the case. The key lease data such as lease dates, options and rental amounts are not normally held by finance, these are generally held by other departments such as the property, estates or asset teams. Successful transitions are those that have wider stakeholders involved in this process and a consolidated system/process in place that integrates various departments together.

Are you ready?
After reading the above considerations and what we have learnt from the private sector, are you really prepared for April 2022? We have implemented over 500 IFRS 16 projects varying in numerous requirements across both the public and private sectors. With an already strong history with various government organisations and NHS trusts, we can help.

Please reach out if you have any questions on how we can assist with the transition.

Food poverty: the role of technology in finding a solution

Posted on by MRI Social Housing

Across the UK, 9-10% of the population are experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity and over the past five years the need for food banks has risen by 128%. The pandemic has exacerbated these problems and expected changes are predicted to have negative effects in the coming months. A concerted effort will be needed from multiple organisations to prevent the escalation of these issues and we believe technology can support this process, making it easier to identify the most vulnerable in our communities.

In the Resident Voice Index™ Neighbourhoods & Communities survey, social housing residents were asked about the facilities and amenities they had within a 15-minute journey of their home, in accordance with the ’15-Minute City’ urban planning approach. They were also asked how important these factors were. Overall, the survey found that amenities and services related to health and wellbeing were the most important for residents to have in their communities and generally speaking, that respondents were well provisioned for.

There was only one circumstance where this was notably different; ‘access to healthy and affordable food’, which ranked third in importance but only seventh for prevalence. This suggests that there could be a gap between how able people are to access healthy, affordable food and their need for it.

The impact of food insecurity

The cost of food is rising, the Universal Credit cut is looming and a ‘Cost of Living Crisis’  has been named recently by the press. The sector can reasonably predict these issues to be one of the main threats to sustainable rents and tenancies facing social housing providers this winter. Equipped with the right data and technology however, providers can pinpoint residents in need of additional support and services. There is a strong connection between housing stability and food access, placing housing providers at the centre of the ongoing maelstrom.

People on low incomes spend more of their income compared to the average on essentials – food, utilities, rent, bus fares and so on. When they are swept into deeper poverty they have to cut back: the food budget is often one of the few areas of spending that gives that option.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2019

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s UK Poverty Report for 2020-2021 found that 37% of the social housing residents they polled had experienced a reduction in their income since the beginning of the pandemic and had subsequently reduced their expenditure on food. Worryingly, 8% of those with children reported actively cutting back on food for them. The link between housing providers and the right to food is not lost on the sector; take HQN’s Alistair McIntosh for example, sharing a picture of the food bank that was operating across the road from this year’s CIH annual conference.

The role of housing providers

Housing providers have been giving support across the country to alleviate the worst impacts of food poverty, food deserts and food instability in communities – especially in reaction to the pandemic. One of the most impactful answers given in the Resident Voice Index™ Neighbourhoods & Communities survey was a resident talking about the positive contributions made by their housing provider in the community. The respondent said that it was the, “Local community food shop that is trying to help eradicate food poverty for families forced into the Universal Credit shambles.”

An estimated 2.5 million children in the UK live in food insecure homes. Responding to statistics such as this, some providers have set up emergency food boxes for households in need, with others creating ‘lunch clubs’ with heavily subsidised meals to ensure people have at least one warm, substantial meal per day. Meanwhile, Hafod Housing in Cardiff are running their Food and Fun programme, the aim of which is to ensure primary school age children do not go hungry during the school holidays.

Social landlords are becoming involved because food poverty is on the rise and impacting their tenants.

Inside Housing 2019

Thinking to the future, providers building new homes are also pre-planning what constitutes a thriving, healthy, neighbourhood. Catalyst Housing’s, St Ann’s New Neighbourhood for example, makes residents’ health central to their proposed plans, that include on-site allotments for residents and spaces for farmers markets. This project has adopted a multi-partner approach, recognising that housing providers cannot address this problem alone.

The role of technology

Another one of the threats to household sustainability over the coming months are the expected rises in energy prices, which will disproportionately affect those on low incomes, especially those hit by the cut to Universal Credit. It’s realistic to predict that these compound circumstances will drive more people into fuel poverty and possibly rent arrears.

Someone who paid £80 per month for their energy just lost £80 per month in Universal Credit. Meanwhile, their bill’s gone up £20 due to price cap increase and gas prices. That person has gone from barely coping to £100 a month in debt in a split second.

Fraser Stewart, Strathclyde University

Fuel poverty is intertwined with food poverty; we know from the government that households experiencing fuel poverty often cut down on food expenditure in order to heat their homes. The use of data and technology by housing providers could be one of the tools in the box that teams have to identify and assist any of their residents who could be at risk of food poverty.

Data points that could be indicators that a household is in need of extra assistance might include those that have children (looking particularly at how parents might not cope during the school holidays when costs rise). Other factors could be whether they are accessing free school meals, are Universal Credit applicants, are at risk of fuel poverty, or are having trouble with rental payments and arrears.

Tracking these data points can trigger a welfare call at just the right time. Drawing from the concept of the ’15-minute city’, there are other data sets available that could assist housing providers in addressing food insecurity amongst their residents. For example, Trust For London’s ‘E-Food Desert Index,’ which identifies food deserts in the capital.

Housing providers using MRI Tenancy Analytics can identify pre-emptively the households that may be at risk of fuel poverty or financial hardship by cross-referencing the data points mentioned above. Using this solution, teams can spot red flags and begin conversations early to put suitable support in place and sustain tenancies.

Hafod Housing use Tenancy Analytics to ensure that sustainability remains at the heart of their tenancy approach. Richard McQuillan, Head of Housing Services at Hafod Housing explains how this works in practice: “We’ve already had a couple of cases where we’ve used Tenancy Analytics to check on tenants claiming to have no financial issues but who in reality, were in financial distress. Tenancy Analytics allowed us to quickly access the correct information which meant we were able to reassure them that they wouldn’t lose their tenancies and we were able to help them to rectify the situation. Early intervention really is key in these situations.”

Tenancy Analytics and the data it generates means the company can wrap the right services around individuals at the right time.

Serena Jones, Director of Homes, Communities and Services, Coastal Housing Group

This winter is going to be especially challenging to many in the UK and housing providers will be faced with huge challenges to address a crisis that needs multi-agency approaches to solve. Central and local government will be at the core of the response, as evidenced by a recent council vote in Coventry that enshrined the ‘Right to Food’. For housing providers, as much timely insight as possible into the lives of the people in their homes could be the difference between households needing to make the choice between decent food and paying rent.

Real estate investment post-COVID: Technology is here to stay

Posted on by Chris Vroman

Since March 2020, the real estate industry has experienced a large shift to a digital environment in the face of a global pandemic. As investors shift their attention to the future of commercial spaces in a tech-driven world, many are wondering which COVID-related changes can be expected to stick around.

Recently, a panel of experts from Deloitte, One11 Advisors, CohnReznick, and MRI Software shared their insights into the specific ways investors, owners, and occupiers in the real estate industry are reacting to current market trends. Here are some of the key takeaways:

1) There’s increased interest in innovation – from all parties

Even as both the traditional office environment and brick-and-mortar retail were experiencing turbulence, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology. Real estate owners and operators were forced to move their businesses further into the digital space than ever before, and many have come to recognize the benefit that these innovations can have on how their organizations are run. To quote Ken Meyer, Principal at Deloitte Consulting:

On a foundational level, everyone recognized that everything needed to be accessible, and everything needed to be properly integrated so you could drill down and see the data.

Since the pivot to digital in 2020, many of the reasons that owners and operators traditionally opted against impactful tech adoptions simply vanished. Now, with those barriers gone, companies are investigating the possibilities of tech innovation as a competitive advantage more than ever before.

2) Tech adoption can mitigate risk in strategic planning

Having access to the right data can help you make more informed business decisions, but in a world where it seems like everything is “unprecedented,” access to historical information isn’t always enough. Utilizing technology that enables businesses to analyze market trends, variables, and other external factors can provide valuable insight that can be used to drive better decision-making and optimize return on investment.

3) Investors want to understand the end users of their services

Core aspects of offices and retail centers were dramatically impacted by the loss of foot traffic at the start of the pandemic. Real estate investors have become acutely aware that they rely on more than just consistent rent rolls and cashflows – they also rely on the employees that work for the occupiers, or on the customers that retail tenants depend on for profit. In order to boost performance in businesses dependent on the human element, investors need more information on the end users of their services – customers, employees, visitors – than ever before. By taking cues from the relationship-driven residential sector, commercial real estate investors are adopting smart technologies that enable them to benchmark the behaviors of those end users in order to drive performance.

Among all these observations, the panel of experts agreed on one thing: the digital transformation in the real estate industry is here to stay, and when it comes to tech adoption, looking forward will be the only way to stay ahead of the curve. Learn more about the opportunities for real estate investors in a post-COVID environment.

Managing Mixed-Use Developments

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In the property sector, we’re seeing more and more mixed-use schemes and developments being planned and implemented. Projects like the £2.5bn Bankside Yards scheme, which will include office, retail, hospitality, leisure, and residential properties, are leading the recent surge in mixed-use developments across the industry. In addition to this, retail to residential conversion continues to push on, with organisations like Hammerson seeking to replace traditional anchor tenants with clusters of residential units.  

These schemes provide excellent investment opportunities. However, the management of different property types can be a complex and nuanced task, requiring the administration of multiple types of leases, and can lead to organisations using multiple management systems to cover all of their requirements. 

Managing a Mixed-Use Development 

Different sorts of leases require different capabilities from your management systems, meaning that as soon as you pivot towards mixed-use, the management of your development can become complex. For example: 

  • Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) management may require a residential rental management system capable of handling resident finding, tenancy progression, internal unit maintenance responsibilities and landlord accounting. 
  • Long leasehold management requiring operators to cater for ground rent billing, service charge management and year end reconciliation, s20s and a myriad of compliance requirements. 
  • For Commercial units, leases may be of larger value, with more frequent and potentially costly rent reviews, along with the requirement to bill rent and service charges.  These leases may also have rent free periods, requiring the ability to straight-line for reporting purposes. 
  • Retail units can include more complex leases still, with either a fixed rent or turnover based rent dependent on sales generated, with different break points in sales and percentage rates and different percentages on different product sales. 
  • VAT variations also need to be considered, as mixed-use sites will often require a reconciliation of irreclaimable VAT at year end.  

Finding a system to deal with mixed-use schemes can be challenging. Often, systems from a residential background can’t handle complex turnover rent, while agency specific systems are often not designed to handle service charges or the property to unit relationship hierarchy of commercial and retail properties. Vice-versa, systems designed for Commercial/Retail management lack the ability to deal with some of the nuances of residential management such as ground rent and service charge notices, billing different charges on behalf of freeholders and RMCs or the tenancy progression functions for signing up ASTs. It is also not uncommon for commercial systems to be heavily property-centric and miss the emphasis on customer interactions that permeate through the residential space.  

Because of this, it doesn’t surprise us to find many businesses using many different systems to manage mixed-use developments, which can lead to several issues: 

Fragmentation 

Using multiple separate management systems to handle mixed-use developments can lead to a fragmented, siloed, opaque way of working, resulting in a lack of cohesion across the scheme and an inability to access an overall view of a scheme or portfolio’s performance from everything to leasing, maintenance, finances, or customer issues. 

This can also cause a huge time inefficiency when reporting to clients or investors as data from disparate sources needs to be manually combined. 

In both cases, the use of Integrated systems allows for a more rounded approach, the joining up of teams and the consolidation of data and processes. This also allows senior level managers access to a fuller picture of the portfolio as a whole and allows for more informed decision-making processes. 

This also applies to the front-end challenges of a mixed-use development. With numerous different types of tenants, there is a danger of complicating the customer experience with different portals and apps geared towards commercial tenants, visitor management, and residential tenant aspects. Pushing towards a more joined-up approach to connect all tenants in a single configurable portal will allow you to foster a better community within the development and get maximum satisfaction for your customers and a better ROI from your tech.

Asset Management 

Where majority leasehold developments are reasonably easy to model ground rent income for, the inclusion of commercial and retail or Build to Rent units introduces rental income and owner expenditure that accentuates the need for understanding the potential cashflows of a development.  

With variance in rents, breaks and lease lengths, plus fluctuations in turnover rent, operators need a way to effectively project the income and model how this could change or be increased through effective asset management.  

For a mixed-use development, a much more sophisticated toolset is required, with integrated asset and investment management solutions that can consume data from your core property management solutions, allowing for more cohesive asset management strategy.

Lease Management 

Another challenge for mixed-use operators includes onboarding more complex leases. It can be a step change to manage and understand the nuances and implications within different leases and agreements. 

Even more basic can be the wasted time taken searching through to paper-based or PDF images of documentation relating to tenancies.  

AI extraction tools (like MRI’s Contract Intelligence) can help with both pain points. Firstly, through using AI to abstract key data points from lease documents for data migration back to MRI property solutions. Secondly, for users who want to reduce time spent querying leases, our OCR can convert any document into instantly searchable machine-readable text, cutting down that time to mere seconds. This allows operators to free up time and better serve their customers.  

At MRI, our property management solutions are developed with an open and connected ethos, meaning our systems are fully integrated and are designed to make the management of mixed-use developments simpler. Get in touch with our team today to find out how we can best serve your next project. 

4 essential workplace tech features to manage the return to office

Posted on by James Foster

As work-from-home restrictions ease for many countries, people around the world are beginning to think about returning to the office. This introduces some challenges for businesses to adapt office environments to a different way of working.

What will the office look like once workers begin returning? Without a doubt, there will be plenty of new safety protocols involving strict personal hygiene and physical distancing, but how do we make this transition as simple and as safe as possible?

As employers, we are all navigating new territory. The workplace we left many months ago is unlikely to be the same when employees return. Most organizations plan to increase their use of technology to manage the flexibility that will be required in the office of the future. In these unprecedented times, the reality is likely to be very different than we anticipate.

Using technology to keep your employees safe

Companies across the globe face many challenges when it comes to returning to the office, and it can be hard to know the best way to ensure employee welfare is maintained. We’ve pulled together the top four features to look out for in any people presence management software:

Employee and guest screening

Screening all employees and guests before they arrive at the property ensures that only those who meet your organization’s onsite criteria are granted access. It’s also incredibly beneficial to get alerted when you encounter a person who does not meet your criteria so their access can be restricted.

Touchless sign in/out

The fewer surfaces we touch in the workplace, the better for slowing the spread of germs. Ensure your software has the option for employees and guests to enter and exit your location using a touchless kiosk, QR code poster, mobile app, or via the front of house team. These systems reduce health risks, improve overall hygiene, and create peace of mind for anyone entering or exiting your property.

Onsite policy acknowledgement

Make sure that everyone who enters your location is aware of your organization’s requirements by using a system that allows them to acknowledge your onsite policies. This could be as simple as asking them to agree that they will use hand sanitizer or stay six feet away from other people. For any question not answered correctly, someone on your team can be notified.

Limit numbers onsite

Automatically set the number of people allowed to be onsite at any one time rather than leaving it up to an individual. This feature takes the responsibility off your receptionist or facilities team and ensures that anyone attempting to gain access after your maximum number is reached will not be allowed to enter, and one of your employees will be notified. This is a great feature to help manage density within your office space.

MRI Workplace Central offers these and other features to help you keep your organization and those within it safe and secure. Watch the webinar here to learn more about how technology can help you prepare for the return to office and beyond.