How Smart Workplace Tools Improve Wellbeing and Performance

Twelve minutes into a meeting, the room starts to feel heavier. Concentration fades, people shift in their seats, and the pace slows. Often, the cause isn’t what’s on the agenda, it’s the environment. Research has shown that higher indoor carbon dioxide levels and temperature fluctuations can impair cognitive performance, yet most offices have little visibility into these conditions. That’s changing fast.

A new generation of workplace platforms is turning environmental data into a core part of how businesses manage space, energy, and wellbeing.

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Cisco Spaces

Cisco Spaces gives businesses a real-time view of what’s happening inside their offices. It integrates data from Meraki sensors, such as the MT-15 for CO₂ and air quality, or the MT-10 for temperature and humidity, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beacons. This data feeds into live floor maps that show occupancy, environmental conditions, and usage trends across rooms and buildings.

What makes Cisco Spaces stand out is its ability to automate action. Teams can set thresholds that trigger ventilation changes, send alerts when air quality drops, or adjust lighting based on occupancy. It transforms buildings from static infrastructure into responsive, intelligent environments that actively support comfort and performance.

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Logitech Spot and Sync

Logitech’s workplace tools bring a hardware-first approach to room health. The Logitech Spot is a discreet, battery-powered sensor that tracks presence, temperature, humidity, CO₂, and airborne particles. It communicates wirelessly over low-power networks, making it easy to deploy in any space, no rewiring or complex installation required.

Data from Spot flows into Logitech Sync, a central dashboard used by IT and facilities teams. Here, they can track how rooms are used, monitor environmental conditions, and identify spaces that consistently underperform. Combined with Logitech’s AV ecosystem, it creates a holistic view of room utilisation and wellbeing, helping teams manage occupancy and indoor quality at the same time.
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Microsoft Places

Microsoft Places brings together scheduling, desk booking, and hybrid planning into a single system. By pulling data from Outlook, Teams, and workplace sensors, it gives employees a clearer picture of who plans to be in the office, where they’ll sit, and which spaces are available.

For facilities and HR teams, Places offers insights into how different parts of the workplace are being used day-to-day. This allows for smarter coordination of teams, avoids overcrowding, and ensures spaces are aligned with actual work patterns. When paired with environmental data, it helps create spaces that are not just available, but also comfortable and suited to the type of work being done.
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Adoption is accelerating

Australian companies are increasingly investing in workplace analytics platforms to support hybrid work and employee experience. According to JLL’s 2025 Global Occupancy Planning Benchmark, 74% of large organisations now capture space utilisation data regularly, compared to less than half before the pandemic. CBRE’s latest findings show that 92% of companies are operating under hybrid models, with a strong emphasis on technology to support coordination, wellbeing, and energy efficiency.

This momentum is driven by more than just operations. Leadership teams are looking for ways to improve retention, reduce complaints, support ESG goals, and make more informed decisions about how their buildings are used. Workplace data is no longer optional, and it’s becoming a fundamental part of business strategy.
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Why the numbers matter

CO₂ levels that silently rise over the course of a meeting. Rooms that feel too hot by mid-afternoon. Floors that are half-full but fully lit. These things don’t show up in a calendar, but they shape how people experience work. And without data, they’re almost impossible to fix.

World Wellbeing Week puts a spotlight on a simple truth: healthy spaces create healthy work. Fresh air, steady temperature, and the right amount of room to collaborate all feed directly into focus, creativity, and morale. With the insight provided by Cisco Spaces, Logitech Spot, and Microsoft Places, leaders can design environments that protect those conditions and show their impact in clear numbers. Wellbeing in the workplace is more than a benefit program, and should be a core driver of performance, retention, and reputation.

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