Since the internet, the world’s ever-increasing interconnectivity implies that in the future, everything, including offices, will all be connected. Smart technology will have a huge impact on cleaning and hygiene at work.

The internet has many huge benefits; the first and perhaps most beneficial one being that it saves us so much time. Google allows us to buy and pay for goods online in minutes – we can get basically anything we want delivered to our doorstep that same day.

The internet’s constant simplification of our lives, and saving of our time, has only increased over the past 20 years – but in the workplace, where time is money, there is still a lot of room for improvement in connecting everyday processes through the internet.

The biggest time wasters in the office are the easiest to solve. Searching for an empty room to hold a meeting, trying to find supplies in the stockroom, even finding an available toilet… these small and insignificant tasks take a large chunk of working time out of the day. If everything was connected through the internet, these activities could be streamlined, decreasing time wasting in the workplace.

The Tork Trend Report polled the views of 8,000 office workers, and carried out interviews with many key industry players. The report focused on finding out how the office environment is changing, and to gain insight into ways efficiency and employee wellbeing could be improved.

According to the results of the report, connected offices would be welcome in the workplace by both employers and employees. 73% of the survey thought increased connectivity would improve their working lives, and the industry players interviewed felt that it would increase efficiency.

Microsoft productivity was vastly increased recently, through having a connected office space. The company discovered huge energy inefficiencies at one of its major campus’s, and so connected a large network of sensors that allowed management to discover and fix inefficiencies , such as air con and heating counteracting each other and wasting energy.

Global ICT Company Ericsson recently developed an app, which allowed employees to locate an available meeting room through their phone. The next step is an app allowing employees to locate available toilets, as office hygiene should be the focus of the next stage of office connectivity. Office hygiene is a significant worry for employees, with over half of the workers questioned said they often worry about being infected by unwell colleagues, and around 40% of workers believe that connected office systems could have a positive impact on hygiene.

Furthermore, the survey found that four out of ten employees often come across inadequately cleaned facilities, which have empty soap and paper dispensers. However, Tork has developed a new app to inform cleaning staff of when something needs refilling, an idea which would greatly improve efficiency and hygiene, and free up more time for adequately cleaning facilities.

With new offices including cafés and canteens, and often a gym, it is becoming increasingly important that hygiene standards remain high. Furthermore, with the new technique of hot-desking, where no one is assigned a desk so their working environment changes every day, it is vitally important that employees have the means to clean desks themselves, to avoid infections spreading and further increase employee wellbeing.

Interconnectivity could have a huge impact on the cleanliness of offices, with the introduction of apps being used to increase productivity and maintain a consistently high hygiene level.