Client
WorkfromHub is a new business providing neighbourhood-based workspaces. Their mission is to transform how people choose to work and offer hybrid workers the opportunity to work away from the office. They do this by transforming underused spaces in local areas to create highly productive, well-connected, and distraction-free hubs.
The challenge
The number of remote workers in the UK has increased gradually over the last 20 years. However, over the last few years there has been a dramatic increase in employees working remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with almost 60% of all British employees now working remotely in some way. This has caused a massive shift in the way people work and where they can work from.
There’s a growing trend for coworking or remote working spaces which offer an alternative to the traditional ‘work-from-home’ model. WorkfromHub wanted to explore these trends to ensure they were effectively meeting the demands of the hybrid workforce and offered an opportunity for employees to collaborate and communicate effectively.
They also needed to find a way to integrate their remote working system with technologies such as live streaming, video conferencing and IoT devices while ensuring user data was secured.
What we did
The Digital Innovation for Growth (DIfG) programme partnered WorkfromHub with academic experts from Sheffield Hallam University’s Engineering Department who reviewed the businesses overall system design and architecture.
They created a full report with recommendations that helped to identify high priority activities that could improve the efficiency of their hub spaces. The Engineering Department then worked with WorkfromHub to integrate the recommended technologies and enhanced their network security.
The project has helped them streamline their business model, offer a positive employee experience to their users, and provide organisations the opportunity to connect with their employees in real-time.
The results
Since the project, WorkfromHub have launched their business and set up three hubs across South Yorkshire:
- The Dearne – Swinton Rail Station
- The Sheaf – Sheffield Bus Interchange
- The Rother – Halfway Park and Ride
The support provided through DIfG has helped WorkfromHub provide accessible, remote workplaces which offer hybrid workers a high-quality space to work while ensuring sensitive information is protected.
They say
“We really enjoyed working with Sheffield Hallam University’s Engineering Department. As a new start-up, there are so many actions to take to push the business forward. The extent of possible research makes it challenging to explore specific aspects in the depth we would like to. The expertise provided through the Digital Innovation for Growth (DIfG) programme gave us access to deep sector specific knowledge. This support accelerated our understanding of the market and disruptive technology which we can use to support our service. The approach to working with us has been very collaborative. We were able to focus the research as it evolved and continue to explore opportunities to collaborate with the University.” – Neal Byers, WorkfromHub