By Steve Newman, Codelocks Sales Manager
In October, Codelocks had the pleasure of being an exhibiter at NeoCon, a leading commercial design trade show held in Chicago. We noted a central theme prevailed throughout the show halls - furniture and design companies focused on what office spaces are going to look like in the years to come. What we gleaned from this show was that traditional nine-to-five desks and cubicle layouts, are quickly becoming a thing of the past and steadily evolving into an open-space, collaborative environment. With a new generation of executives and workers, and square footage becoming even more expensive, the advent of open-plan offices and co-working spaces have become very popular, and often a necessity due to high rent rates.
Today’s office spaces now reflect a more casual setting, with separate work zones depending on what’s required - common and quiet areas, team tables, conference rooms and shared desks. Progressing further, the use of laptops is more prevalent as opposed to fixed PCs, which usually means smaller work areas per person – typically down from 6.5’ x 2.5’ to 4.5’ x 2.5’. With these changes, offices can usually fit the same number of staff within a smaller footprint, allowing for either extra space or the ability to move into a smaller space and reduce leasing costs.
These contemporary, open floor offices are likely to become more common as COVID-19 drives employers to consider a hybrid of interchanging scenarios including working from home and coming into the office. With office layouts changing, which now include social distancing, one basic consideration is how to provide a dedicated area for employees to store personal belongings, since individual desks and cubicles may be eliminated altogether. As a solution to that necessity, many companies are developing expansive storage walls with individual cabinets which also serve to divide the various working areas. Usually, these storage cabinets are not assigned, so when an employee comes into the office, they can use any available cabinet, on a situational basis, knowing that an easy and secure locking solution is in place.
KitLock by Codelocks is an ideal locking solution for storage cabinets. They are stylish, standalone keyless cabinet locks that are easy for users to manage and operate using a keypad, card or smartphone. They are simple to retrofit, have a long battery life and employees don’t have to worry about losing or forgetting a key.
The locks can switch between two functions:
Private Function
Allows the same user code to be repeatedly used, such as an employee with a personal locker in an office.
Public Function
Allows for short-term, multi-occupancy applications and operates with a single user code. The user enters their own four-digit code; this locks the lock. The same code is entered once only to open the lock before being erased and ready for the next new user.
While not every company has made the change to provide collaborative work areas, employee storage will always be a need no matter what your office looks like. Whether it’s pens and notepads, family photos or that special coffee mug, employers want to continue to provide spaces for their employees to store their valuables while at the office.
08, Oct 2021
