Last week, Walkabout Workplace scooped our RemoteWork360.com Innovator Award in the category of Virtual Office Platform.  We bagged 5 minutes with Lennard Moons, Chief Experience Officer at Walkabout Workplace to get the lowdown on what problems their technology solves and what their secret sauce is for effective remote working:

What problems does Walkabout Workplace solve?

First and foremost, we solve the critical challenge of having a Place and Presence to go to work every day and Collaborate for remote workers to ensure they keep engaged, are able to socialise and work effective and efficiently while working remote and/ or in a hybrid environment.

Zoom, video conferencing, collaboration tools, distance e-learning tools, and the internet have kept businesses and schools delivering products and services. However, more and more remote workers/ students have “Zoom fatigue”.

Although people like working from home and have embraced distance learning, they struggle with the challenge of trying to balance work and life in their home office and staying engaged and committed to a longer term project and/ or team effort is becoming a struggle and no longer working well.

People feel isolated and disconnected from their company and their colleagues.  There is a lack of connection between people and a corporate culture is emerging where people feel like they are but a red, yellow or green dot in a chat tool or map with having to attend endless pre-scheduled video meetings.

At school, teachers and students struggle with asynchronous learning without collaboration or a place to work on projects as a group and the ability to socialise.

People need a ‘place’ to go to work or to school with rooms and offices where they have a sense of belonging and a way of making individuals feel a part of a community, a classroom, a team, a system, a company i.e. ‘presence’.  Walkabout Workplace gives them that.

What’s your remote tech stack?

A fully customizable and brandable digital office environment including (1) Heads up display for a schematic floor/ building/ campus overview with Enterprise grade (2) video, (3) audio, (4) chat/bot, (5) Application Console for quick access to any and all remote worker used online tools and/ or data repositories while providing a true intuitive navigation around the user offices, common areas/ rooms, floor(s), building(s), campus etc.. Users and Guests experience a true in-office work & meet experience.

What’s your top tip for effective remote work?

Use a remote office environment, which provides a PLACE and PRESENCE to connect and see each other daily (scheduled AND unscheduled) to stimulate engagement, socialising and collaboration and thus builds a strong remote-/ hybrid company community and supports your company culture.