Robin’s Workplace Operations Handbook

RTO this, mandate that.

We’ve been circling the same conversation for nearly five years now. Those headlines get clicks. Division grabs attention. But the gray area in the middle? That’s where the real story lives.

Hybrid work and flexible schedules are the middle ground. They work for employees and employers alike. But they also introduced a new variable that made workplace planning exponentially harder: human behavior.

The result? Most offices today still aren’t set up for how people actually work. Employees waste time booking desks, troubleshooting tech, and wondering who’s in. Workplace teams juggle spreadsheets, Slack pings, and manual tasks to keep everything upright.

The problem isn’t hybrid work. It’s the lack of a cohesive system to make hybrid work manageable.

That’s where workplace operations comes in.

This isn’t just a new job title. It’s a new way to run the office, end to end.

What is workplace operations?

Workplace operations is the coordination of everything required to run a functional, people-first office:

• Space and seating management
• Desk and room reservations
• Visitor and delivery workflows
  
• Meeting setup services (AV, catering, room layouts)
• Announcements and event coordination
• Office access and security integrations
• Employee experience touchpoints (kiosks, Slack/Teams, signage)
• Insights into attendance, usage, and collaboration

This work already happens but it’s scattered across IT, facilities, office managers, and HR. It needs a home base. A strategy. A platform.

Why it matters now

Workplaces need to be designed like products with the employee as the customer.

MIT research shows that sales professionals who enjoy where they work are nearly 4X as likely to be highly motivated. That motivation shows up in retention, performance, and satisfaction scores.

Hybrid work gives teams flexibility. Workplace operations gives that flexibility structure.

It brings order to chaos by:

• Replacing disconnected tools with one source of truth
• Reducing manual admin work across teams
• Giving leadership visibility into what’s working
• Ensuring people have what they need, when they need it

If hybrid is the new normal, workplace operations is the infrastructure that makes it sustainable.

The Workplace Operations Lifecycle

Workplace operations isn’t just a function, it’s a flow. From long-term planning to day-of logistics and post-visit analysis, each phase plays a critical role in shaping a seamless office experience. But without a shared system, even the best intentions get lost in Slack threads and spreadsheets.

In this section, we break the lifecycle down into four key stages, each with its own goals, tools, and tactics. For every stage, you’ll find a detailed checklist (shown as a graphic in the final version) to help your team move from reactive to proactive. Whether you’re designing a new floor plan or preparing for next week’s exec offsite, these checklists give workplace teams a repeatable playbook for running the office, efficiently and intentionally.

Let’s get into it.

1. Plan the workplace

Your office isn’t static. Your planning shouldn’t be either.

Modern offices flex to match how people actually work. But without the right systems, planning turns into guesswork. Robin turns real-time data into confident decisions.

What you're solving for:

• Fewer assigned desks, more flexible demand
• Team growth, shrinkage, or reshuffles
• Underused rooms or overcrowded neighborhoods

Robin features:

• Scenario planning (& coming soon: stack planning)
• WYSIWYG map editor
• Real-time space usage analytics

How to use this stage:

• Draft multiple layouts to test team allocations
• Align floor plans to actual attendance patterns
• Collaborate with department heads using view-only drafts

Checklist:

• Draft a seating plan that accounts for both fixed and flexible seating needs
• Layer in attendance data from Robin’s analytics to guide layout choices
• Identify and tag rooms by type: collaboration, heads-down, mixed-use
• Share layout drafts with stakeholders for feedback and approval

Metric to track: Percentage of desks used at peak vs. average days

2. Prepare the experience

Before the day begins, your workplace is already in motion.

Every in-office day has logistics: meetings, guests, deliveries, catering, setup. When your systems are scattered, you're stuck chasing requests. Robin brings it all under one roof.

What you're solving for:

• Disconnected systems and manual work
• Missed service requests and visitor surprises
• No visibility into upcoming on-site activity

Robin features:

• Meeting Services dashboard
• Visitor Management
• Delivery Management

How to use this stage:

• Pre-schedule AV, catering, and room layouts alongside event creation
• Track all incoming visitors and send pre-check-in instructions
• Centralize delivery drop-offs and notify recipients

Checklist:

• Add service menus for room setup, catering, AV, and more
• Enable service request approvals to avoid bottlenecks
• Set up arrival displays and ensure visitor registration is active
• Define delivery zones and make package notifications automatic

Metric to track: Service fulfillment rate (percentage completed on time)

3. Host the day

Great workplace experiences don’t happen by accident.

On-site days should be predictable, easy, and efficient. Robin ensures employees have what they need, guests are welcomed, and admins stay ahead of the chaos.

What you're solving for:

• Booking friction and tech confusion
• Ghost meetings and overbooked spaces
• Inconsistent guest or employee experiences

Robin features:

• AI-powered desk & room booking
• Interactive kiosks and mobile apps
• Unified workplace dashboard for admins

How to use this stage:

• Use auto-booking to reserve desks based on work location
• Guide employees with real-time maps and wayfinding
• Get alerts on issues before they escalate

Checklist:

• Set up auto-booking and preferred desk settings for hybrid routines
• Encourage mobile or Wi-Fi-based check-ins for seamless arrival
• Monitor admin dashboard for service requests, offline displays, and visitor flow
• Use presence data to validate resource usage throughout the day

Metric to track: Booking completion rate (vs. abandoned or missed)

4. Report & optimize

Good operations are invisible. Great ones are measurable.

Once the day ends, the real work begins. Robin helps you evaluate what happened, understand what worked, and confidently plan what’s next.

What you're solving for:

• Leadership wants ROI, not guesswork
• Teams want predictability
• Facilities needs to justify changes

Robin features:

• Custom dashboards
• Analytics AI Assistant
• Workplace Experience Surveys

How to use this stage:

• Pull reports on peak usage, space mismatches, and service performance
• Use survey data to prioritize office improvements
• Ask the AI Assistant specific questions to fast-track analysis

Checklist:

• Build a monthly dashboard with occupancy, booking, and feedback trends
• Use AI Assistant to identify which spaces are under- or overused
• Review meeting types and space matchups to optimize layouts
• Distribute experience surveys post-visit and track satisfaction trends

Metric to track: Space utilization vs. employee satisfaction score

Making the Case to Leadership

Workplace operations is not a cost center. It’s a force multiplier. Here's a quick list of why workplace operations support should be a priority investment:

1. Hybrid chaos is a strategic risk

Without structure, hybrid becomes unpredictable. Offices go underused. Employees disengage. RTO policies fall flat. Workplace operations creates a system that makes hybrid manageable.

2. Consolidation reduces spend

Robin replaces a patchwork of tools for booking, access control, visitor management, announcements, and more. Fewer vendors. Fewer tickets. More visibility.

3. It pays off

Companies that invest in workplace ops report higher utilization, better experiences, and faster problem-solving. This is not overhead. It’s operational infrastructure.

Need a deeper dive? Check out this resource about how to make the case internally.

A New Way Forward

Most offices were built for a world that no longer exists. Workplace operations is how we re-architect them for how people work now. It requires:

• The right people
• The right processes
• The right platform

If you’re ready to make the office work better for everyone, this is where it begins. See how Robin brings your strategy to life.