According to Vodafone research, hot desking in the UK can help businesses save up to £34 billion every year. And it’s becoming a have-to-have in the modern office: with companies investing in digital transformation and more agile working environments, the static office arrangement is no longer viable for marketing or sales departments.
A more flexible workplace makes sense for productivity as well. When workers are given the freedom to be sociable and collaborate, they are roughly 20% more productive -- and their teams are up to 21% more profitable -- at work (not to mention happier).
In short, there are undeniable benefits to adopting hot desking tools in many modern work environments. In this article, we'll discuss different hot desking benefits for entrepreneurs and their employees.
What Is Hot Desking?
First thing’s first: what is hot desking and how does it work? Hot desking is a working arrangement where employees have no fixed workstations. Instead, employees from different departments can use any workspace at any time. This makes particular sense for:
- Businesses that have embraced the use of laptops and mobile technology
- Companies whose employees spend most of their time in the field
- Organizations looking to decrease real estate costs and their carbon footprint
- Teams looking to maximize ad-hoc collaboration while meeting modern employee expectations
A robust hot desk booking software can facilitate this kind of multi-use office space by helping employees easily find and reserve the spaces or meeting rooms that best suit their needs. With that in mind, here are the benefits of hot desking.
What Are the Benefits of Hot Desking?
Independence
Nothing motivates an employee to perform better than the freedom to manage their own schedules and run their projects. In fact, according to Gartner’s 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey. 55% of employees are seen as high performers when their organizations offer flexibility around when, where and how much they work. By contrast, only 36% of employees are recognized as high performers in organizations that enforce a standard 40-hour workweek model.
Creates Open Designs
Hot desking promotes collaboration among workers by creating an open design in the working environment. It also facilitates new interaction, unexpected connection and networking opportunities. These moments, in turn, can foster more creativity and inspiration in the workplace.
Boosts Performance
Smooth communication between workers from different teams is vital for business performance. Considering that all business departments are crucial to the company's success, bringing all the business components together is paramount.
Time spent moving from one desk to another is enormous for departments that collaborate a lot. With hot desking, your employees have the opportunity to sit together whenever they're working on similar projects, regardless of their hierarchy levels or “official” roles. These face-to-face interactions make free-flowing knowledge circulation much more achievable. It also decreases time wasted moving from desk to desk to find the people you’re looking for.
Reduce Costs
Acquiring large workspaces in commercial properties is expensive for startups and small businesses in the UK. And, with the rise in remote workers, it’s largely a waste. In fact, 60% of office desks remain empty when you have remote workers.
These businesses can take advantage of a hot desk booking app to reduce these unnecessary real estate costs. In turn, businesses can use the saved costs to improve their office equipment or invest it in employee recreation.
Fresh Working Environment
The same desk working environment can make you fall into a routine that will eventually lead to boredom and disengagement in the workplace. The flexibility to sit anywhere at work, on the other hand, keeps workers on their toes and helps them adapt to new challenges fast.
Enhance Communication
Face-to-face meetings are more efficient than Slack messages or emails. Hot desking using a space management software facilitates in person and hybrid meetings by allowing employees to:
- Invite teammates directly in their Outlook or other calendaring tools
- Connect to video tools like Microsoft Teams or Skype
- Use floor plans to find appropriate meeting spaces
- Make sure that the space they find has the right technological capabilities and capacity for them
Enhance Communication
A static office setting promotes detritus accumulation on desks. You're likely to find piles of papers, fun knick-knacks, or coffee cups in a workplace where each employee maintains a specific desk.
Although employees cannot add personal touches while hot desking, it makes workers more orderly and less cluttered. The right space management software can also help organizations understand their utilization and schedule cleaning and sanitation services accordingly.
Try Workplace Hot Desking Today
Are you looking for ways to boost productivity, book hot desks and improve flexibility at the workplace? EMS Software, LLC can help you.
Our office 365 hot desk booking software can not only help you book hot desks, but also helps you to book conference rooms, gain visibility into your space utilization, reduce real estate costs and more.
To learn more about our hot desk booking system, watch our demo or contact us to speak to one of our technicians.
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