Property technology, or PropTech, promises to digitalize the most tangible of physical assets: property. As discussed in an earlier post, PropTech startups are active in commercial and residential property; they can be divided into solutions for buying, selling, and renting property as well as for managing it.
For insurers implementing return-to-office plans, the “property management” variety of PropTech holds some interesting solutions for increasing efficiency and worker safety. What’s more, many of the same solutions could put companies in good stead to respond to changes arising after the pandemic finally subsides.
PropTech and Returning to the Office
PropTech offers companies multiple ways to do more with fewer people in the office and with reduced face-to-face interaction. Consumers have made extensive use of e-commerce and food delivery during the pandemic, and employees are likely to get more delivered to their workplaces than before. This will partly be due to newly formed habits, but it may be reinforced by things like continued retail store closures and cafeterias that are closured or running below capacity (e.g., no salad bar).
The last thing any employer or building manager wants is employees rifling through piles of boxes in the building lobby. Social distancing guidelines will only exacerbate the lack of space at front desks, making extra staff to handle deliveries not just expensive but impractical. Delivery lockers offer one solution. Amazon offers lockers for businesses willing to make them publicly accessible, but there are solutions designed for private use by apartment complexes and offices that work on a similar principle.
Sensors and cameras offer other ways to make workplaces safer during this and any future pandemics. There are solutions (such as Nantum) that can monitor the occupancy of a building’s gym, cafeteria, or lobby to ensure they have adequate ventilation and are not filled beyond recommended levels. Facial recognition sensors (e.g., for unlocking doors), like those offered by Silent Sentinel, can include thermal imaging to take a person’s temperature to detect fever. Gesture- or motion-based controls for opening doors and for contactless operation of restroom fixtures can reduce disease spread and increase comfort. All these features could reduce productivity losses due to seasonal flu as well, providing a return beyond the end of the current pandemic.
Beyond the Pandemic: Privacy and Sustainability
Insurers will have to weigh risks as well as benefits beyond preventing the spread of infectious disease in their facilities. The potential risks include emerging data privacy rules in many states that restrict the gathering of biometric data, which could affect the implementation of facial recognition and body-temperature-checking technology. Insurers will need to ensure regulatory compliance, but they should also prepare to have open discussions with employees to ensure acceptance before implementing technologies like facial recognition or occupancy monitoring.
Many of the above technologies would also improve efficiency, and some of them can double as solutions for boosting a building’s sustainability. The occupancy sensors that prevent overcrowding and boost ventilation system flow during a pandemic can also turn down heating and air conditioning systems and turn off lights when a room or entire building is vacant. Many such systems can also be extended to monitor water use and detect equipment that is running sub-optimally or may need maintenance. In other words, pandemic PropTech investments may pay dividends for years to come.
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