Hot desking allows employees or students to pick unassigned seats for a workday, meeting, or study day. This kind of flexible workspace is extremely important today. For one, studies have shown that millennials -- the biggest portion of the workforce today -- don’t want to be assigned to a particular seat, and they feel more productive if they can flow between spaces and choose their hours, their focus, and their space.
Additionally, this generation of “digital natives” -- and the Gen Z users entering the workforce – ar accustomed to a variety of advanced, mobile-friendly technology. They also expect and search for companies that can offer them these tools to create a positive employee experience.
In any instance, hot desking is a workplace sharing approach. It not only allows users to effectively share physical spaces, but also simplifies the sharing of computers or other technological tools. This can maximize utilization and technological efficiency.
To implement hot desking correctly, you must keep three factors top of mind: creating the right space in your office, maximizing visibility and keeping your employees at the forefront. The right software can help, allowing your team to:
- Find a desk or space based in individual employee user permissions
- Schedule workplaces in advance or book them on the spot via web application, mobile app, or in-office points of access
- Check detailed floor plans, photos and resources tied to a particular space
- Simplify collaboration across spaces and devices
- Filter results based on location, in-room technology, space capacity and more
When executed correctly, desk hoteling or hot desking leads to many benefits, including:
- Improved networking: If you’re sitting in the same desk and interacting with the same team members regularly, it makes unplanning collaboration and connection more difficult. A hot desk booking software, on the other hand, allows employees to interact with new teammates, start new conversations, and find new inspiration.
- Lower Cost: Decreasing the amount of assigned or unused space can allow companies to reduce their real estate footprint and overhead.
- Increased employee productivity: When employees can select their own space, they are more likely to choose a space that truly meets their needs and allows them to be more productive. Have a day full of conference calls or video meetings? Choose a small meeting room or an uncrowded space. Need to brainstorm with your team? Choose a larger room with presentation software or larger tables.
- Improved employee satisfaction: Employee well-being is strongly linked to productivity and performance. Perhaps one of the largest factors of well-being is the physical workspace. As Jacob Morgan notes, employees who enjoy and like the environments they are a part of will be more engaged, productive, happy, and healthy.
Though the terms are often used interchangeably, there is technically a difference between hot desking and desk hoteling. With desk hoteling, on one hand, users can use a tool like EMS to reserve a space, a meeting room, or a neighborhood. Hot desking, on the other hand, is generally more first-come, first-serve. With EMS, though, users can take hot desking to the next level and reserve their spaces ahead of time. This increases transparency, visibility, productivity and safety for everyone working in the office.