Understandably, discussions have centered on hybrid workplaces, as companies reopen campus doors to workers. Because the workforce will be spread across many locations, on-site and off, office space will be handled differently. Unassigned workspaces, for example, are coming to the forefront as a required change to streamline operations and smooth a fragmented team.
Picture this. You've been away from the office for a week or more, laboring from the confines of a home office. You come in to find that the entire space has been reconfigured, and for good reason. Desks are spread further apart to honor social-distancing guidelines. There are fewer workstations overall, and there's almost no way to tell who's assigned to what office, desk, or terminal. You're going to spend most of the day trying to discern when and where you can work, as opposed to getting down to business.
Now imagine that same scenario, repeated for hundreds, if not thousands, of additional workers.
Uh oh. That's a lot of time wasted.
As the digitally transformed workplace embraces a flex office concept - practicality and usability need to go hand in hand with employee expectations.
The term "agile" is something you hear a lot about these days. Conceptually, it can be applied to many different operations, departments, and situations. An agile workforce is one that can seamlessly transition their workday and get work done in a work-from-anywhere world.
A flex desk, hot desk, or shared desk — yes, there are that many names for it — are terms used to describe a workspace, room, or terminal that is unassigned and open to everyone. Most importantly, the space is tied to a hoteling system, usually managed via mobile services, so users can reserve and claim it as needed.
Before the system can be established, the entire workplace must be restructured to accommodate smart-desking and coworking opportunities. Desks, offices, conference rooms, and all manner of workspaces must be outfitted with the appropriate technologies and solutions. Sometimes, not much is needed to make that happen, while alternatively a complete overhaul may be required, it just depends.
Despite a general back and forth between terms, there is a clear difference between some of the most talked about flex or flexible work environment concepts. Hot desks or hot-desking, for instance, refers to on-demand access to these spaces, with the appropriate solutions to reserve, utilize, and free them afterward. Desk hoteling, on the other hand, generally deals with more advanced reservation protocols and workplace experience platforms that don't require the employee to be at the station or a kiosk to reserve it.
They are often used interchangeably, but the differences are certainly something to keep in mind. Both types of seating methods can be used as part of a robust desk management strategy to accommodate both 'in advance' and 'on demand' access to seats.
Many emerging workplace trends are bouncing around. Some existed before the pandemic, some didn't, and more still have accelerated due to the current landscape. Flexible work environments and hot desking are one of the trending concepts, but that's because they provide a lot of value for workplace reentry tactics, such as:
While these benefits seem promising, surely there's a right and a wrong way to do it?
To serve a distributed workforce - it's about creating a desk sharing protocols that are simple and efficient.
Here are some tips to get you started:
Setting up the proper framework for a desk reservation system company-wide requires a good foundation.
With a good foundation, operation efforts become more streamlined and the desk reservation system becomes an easy to use tool, but connected IoT devices make the whole system smarter.
With an agile workforce and dynamic workspaces, it's even more important to be transparent, contextual, and simultaneously all-encompassing with your communications.
For employees working in a shared desk office space, it's helpful to keep some rules and etiquette top of mind to make the co-experience better for everyone.
When you're using a desk booking system with advanced rules and reservation capabilities, a lot of the confusion and frustration in choosing who sits when and where evaporates. It becomes so much easier to manage not just people but also spaces. When individual plans change, it doesn't matter, teams are not left scrambling trying to find a place to work.
Desk booking solutions improve the environments where employees work and collaborate giving greater flexibility to choose a place to work that best matches each employee's needs. Most importantly, when emerging from a 100% remote workforce, desk scheduling software allows companies to expand and contract in-office availability instantly - to accommodate major changes in density.
By following the tips above, you can be sure that you're providing an innovative and satisfying experience to your teams.