Implementing a workplace experience platform: Onboarding matters

Businesses that can effectively engage their staff with workplace solutions will experience better outcomes, including enhanced teamwork and higher office utilization.

We had a conversation with Alixe Roodhuyzen, Onboarding Specialist, about Mapiq's efforts to minimize the workload required from customers to implement our product. As a result, the onboarding process runs smoothly for everyone involved.  

What are some common challenges when implementing workplace solutions?

First, it is essential to understand there are two sides of Mapiq that need equal attention during the onboarding. Workplace leaders can use the admin portal to manage and optimize the physical workplace, while employees can use the application to streamline their workday and let Mapiq arrange their office routine. To get the full advantages of the solution, they need to work in a continuous feedback loop. This is why we chose to focus more on onboarding in each stage of the product adoption.

Ensuring that all stakeholders align on their common goal is essential. Suppose you have an unoccupied office. In that case, you may consider reconfiguring the workspace to better align with the requirements of your employees while also being cost-efficient. If your office is busy, it's important to focus on optimizing the use of resources.

Another important takeaway is involving your technical teams early on. For enterprise organizations, maintaining high-security standards is crucial. Although Mapiq is compliant and easy to integrate into your IT landscape, IT teams will require some time to thoroughly examine it.

How do you make sure Mapiq clients experience a smooth onboarding?

It all starts with understanding the workplace challenges our customer is facing. We work together with our customers to outline success criteria. To create achievable and measurable goals for individuals, it's important to understand their ideal workplace experience and work towards that. Based on those success criteria, we design a custom onboarding.

To ensure a successful onboarding experience, it’s essential for customers to have a thorough understanding of our product. We strive to make all customers experts in Mapiq while highlighting the features that will be most beneficial to them. A Facilities Manager and a Real Estate Manager, for example, may have different needs and uses for Mapiq, and a positive onboarding experience will help all stakeholders engage with the features that are most relevant to them.

 Every onboarding is an opportunity to learn and improve our product. We invite our customers for validation sessions and collect feedback from end-users to customize our solutions to their needs.

What are the different stages of product adoption? How do you move from one to another?  

Onboarding is a process that guides users by providing relevant information when needed. And it goes beyond the first product visit.  

Mapiq uses the ADKAR model to guide product adoption, which identifies the five necessary stages for a successful change. These are:  

1. Awareness. We explain Mapiq’s key features and explore why the company has chosen Mapiq and how this will benefit them in their daily activities.

2. Desire. We identify the champions and the group of people that are resistant. The goal is to show them how the change will benefit them by addressing their concerns.  

3. Knowledge. This is where we educate and train all our different groups of users first-hand, so they start to experience the added value of Mapiq.  

4. Ability. Together with the customer, we test the performance of Mapiq. Is it used in the right way? And do we need to put extra focus on specific topics to leverage the knowledge?  

5. Reinforcement. We look at how we can make sure that Mapiq becomes business as usual. This means identifying blockers and looking at how we can continue to match the product vision with our customers’ ambitions.  

What can customers that already finished their onboarding expect?

Onboarding must be a continuous process, an ongoing mindset, and a strategy that adapts over time.

Mapiq is introducing in-app onboarding to engage administrators in our product and ensure the quality of our continuous onboarding journey.

With in-app onboarding, customers will be able to:  

• Get in-app product tours
• Discover new features released in Mapiq
• Find answers to common questions and troubleshoot issues in a self-service portal
• Get extra help with features that need more onboarding and support  

Do you have any advice for leaders who want to implement a workplace experience platform?

1. Identify your goals and needs: Before implementing a workplace platform, it's essential to identify your specific goals and needs. What problems are you looking to solve? What features and functionalities do you need? Which metrics will you use to measure success?

2. Involve key stakeholders: It's essential to involve key stakeholders from across your organization in the implementation process. This can include managers, employees, IT staff, and other groups affected by the platform. By involving these stakeholders early on, you will address their needs and concerns and get their early engagement.

3. Develop a plan: Implementing a workplace platform can be a complex process, so it's crucial to develop a detailed plan that outlines the steps involved, timelines, and responsibilities. This plan should include milestones and checkpoints to ensure the implementation stays on track.

4. Provide training and support: To ensure that employees can use the platform, it's essential to provide training and support. This can include online tutorials, in-person training sessions, and ongoing support from IT staff or vendor support teams.

In the workplace, change is inevitable. That's why we make sure that leaders are equipped to handle changes and can easily adapt to them.

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