As more workers return to the office this year and Australia’s security threat levels remain elevated, employers and commercial landlords are prioritising new ways to keep people safe and secure, while enhancing the workplace experience.
Facility Management shares insights from Steve Katanas, head of physical access control solutions for Australia and New Zealand at HID. Katanas reveals how Australian buildings are becoming more environmentally sustainable while enhancing security and optimising the employee experience.
New smart office infrastructure is emerging in Australian cities, where buildings are getting smarter in controlling access, and automatically tailoring lighting and climate control to best accommodate workers who are on site. These buildings also support Australia’s mandate for compulsory environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance reporting by optimising energy use and collecting real time data.
According to a new HID Global 2025 State of Security and Identity Report, 75 percent of security leaders are actively seeking and implementing building access technologies to minimise energy consumption, support green building certifications and reduce waste.
In 2025, most Australian employees will get a tap on the shoulder to return to the office or increase their days in the workplace. However, as workers have become accustomed to the comforts and security of working from home, some people may be concerned about physically returning to their workplace.
The smart office, driven by next generation AI technologies, is alleviating such issues for employees, employers and commercial landlords, while simultaneously helping organisations meet new ESG compliance requirements.
Unlike traditional offices, smart offices are highly responsive because of sensors throughout the building that monitor factors such as occupancy levels, temperature, humidity and lighting. Smart offices also automatically optimise energy efficiency and meet the ambient comfort needs of workers.
A safer workplace
A key concern for employees returning to the office is other employees accessing their workspace. This is where the smart office can enhance the employee experience by making it easy for them to access their authorised workspaces, while automatically denying access to unauthorised people. In this way, it immediately eliminates tailgating, where people without the right authentications can no longer follow employees into workplaces to gain unauthorised access.
In addition to making employees feel safer, these technologies collect data about who is in the building and their location in real time, so that if there is an evacuation it is easy to know how many people need to be at evacuation points or if a space becomes over capacity and poses a security risk
This data can also be used to optimise the use of workspaces through real time updates about the availability of meeting rooms and hot desks.
Sustainability at the core
Businesses are increasingly prioritising sustainability to align with the demands of climate-conscious customers. The security industry is following suit by adopting eco-friendly practices and technologies for building access such as building access cards.
Rather than employees receiving a physical card, new technologies enable employers to allocate digital credentials on the employee’s mobile devices, which immediately reduces waste generated by physical access cards. At the same time, digital credentials can be immediately updated to increase or decrease access to certain areas within a building as the employee’s role requires.
Smart offices can also automatically dim lights and reduce air conditioning capacity when no one is on a particular office floor. Additionally, they can provide predictive maintenance, which reduces maintenance costs and extends the life of building assets.
At the same time, the real time data collected by the smart office can prove valuable for ESG reporting, which is now mandatory for enterprises, specifically with regard to energy usage and the use of office spaces.
The future of the smart office
The HID report provides a sneak peek into the next evolution of the smart office. According to the report, we will see an increased use of AI agents, as well as further enhancements to mobile access, which all support how the smart office functions. Biometrics will also have a role in authenticating the credentials of workers, but may take more time to achieve widespread adoption, with the report citing concerns about high implementation cost and data privacy.
However, the benefits of the smart office are quickly outweighing concerns because of its ability to quickly detect threats of unusual movement or unauthorised access in a building, as well as its ability to scale to improve energy and cost efficiencies and personalise the employee experiences.
The smart office will encourage employees back to the workplace and inject new energy into inner-city life, which is good news for employers, employees and commercial landlords.
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