What is Hot Desking? The Good the Bad & the Ugly
You may be familiar with the term but actually, what is hot desking? Hot desking is a workplace or office organisational system that allows employees to work from the same desk/workstation at different times. Each person will have access to a shared desk or computer without being assigned one in particular. This gives more flexibility to both staff and business owners in terms of office hours and hiring. Hot desking is a practice that smaller businesses and office spaces will often use as a method of saving space and resources. It can also be used to encourage collaboration and social interaction within the team to inspire novelty and innovation.
The Advantages of Hot Desking
Introducing hot desking into your business can be highly beneficial if structured efficiently. Although not everyone may enjoy sharing their space with others, it opens up a number of opportunities. Which can include:
Flexibilty & Efficiency
Due to recent times and the change in modern business structures, the way in which we work and conduct business has seen a huge rise in popularity for remote working. This means that structured office plans have no use in current times. Promoting open office plans and the system of hot desking encourages flexibility and efficiency in modern-day business. When people have the flexibility to choose which days and how many they would like to spend in the office, hot desking allows employees to feel more in control of their schedules and shows that companies can trust their employees to carry out work in their own spaces. For businesses that experience a regular turnaround of staff, then hot desking offers a flexible and efficient working environment.
Cost Effective
Hot desking is highly cost-effective and one that more and more businesses are incorporating into their practice. With employees working different days, hours and areas within a team, hot desking provides an effective solution that will save you money in the process. When people are working flexible hours and locations, why assign individual desks to employees who may not be in the office five days a week! By allowing staff to control their own schedules and office hours, you will actively save money whilst benefiting both the company and your employees.
Encourages Collaboration & Building Relationships
By introducing hot desking into the office space, it encourages employees to collaborate with each other and interact with members of different teams that they may not engage with usually. This opens up the opportunity to build new working relationships and both offer and receive help from different departments. This systematic method improves communication between teams and allows for new skills to be learnt and shared. By allowing team members to understand each other’s responsibilities and skillsets, strengths can be utilised and teamwork enhanced.
The Disadvantages of Hot Desking
Whilst hot desking offers many benefits, there are still some disadvantages to the system, so thinking about the bad and the ugly is also important before making the change. These can include:
A Less Comfortable Working Environment
Having a lack of structure in an office environment and non-assigned desks can result in employees feeling less comfortable in the space that they are working in. People have tendencies to be creatures of habit and thrive on routine practices, therefore having a new area to work in each day can erupt feelings of discomfort and have a negative effect on workflow. This structure also means less personalisation of ‘their’ desks with items that many use to create a safe and comfortable space. If this is the case for your business and it is causing an unproductive workflow then perhaps hot desking is one to reconsider.
Hygiene & Mess
Many people will enjoy a nice cup of tea or coffee at their desk, whilst perhaps snacking on some biscuits before taking their lunch break in that same space; leaving behind crumbs, spills and any other creators of mess. A hygienic environment is essential for hot desking. Sharing a desk or workspace with others is becoming a popular practice for businesses however, it is important that people are respecting the shared workspace and cleaning up after themselves before they leave. With hygiene and sanitation becoming a more critical part of businesses, both internally and externally, promoting a clean-up-after-yourself rule is vital in ensuring a positive, clean working environment.
Circumstances that Require Structure
Some employees may be working on daily projects that contain highly sensitive information and will need a more discreet area to work in, leaving hot desking as an inefficient system. Teams such as these who require consistent structure and frequent collaboration with specific members throughout the day, could grow tired and frustrated from the constant changing of desks and as a result, cause unproductivity.
Hot Desking: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
So, what is hot desking? And is it right for your business? Hot desking is the systematic practice of sharing workspace and desks and can be a great asset for businesses with flexible working structures. When introducing hot desking into your work environment it is important to consider the scale of implementation and how you plan to structure the scheme.
Will it benefit my employees? Will some people work remotely? Many people still prefer their own designated workstations to create a comfortable working environment for themselves, so discussing the idea with your employees first is a great way to build trust and address their needs before implementing. If catering to a divide will improve workflow, perhaps allocating only specific desks to be part of the shared workspace system would be a good place to start. This would allow people the option to work more collaboratively whilst still saving some desks for the people who need access to specific areas and resources.
To ensure you have made the right decision for your office, weigh out the pros and cons of hot desking with your team and discover the best structure for your business.
Our Cleaning Services
Worried about the hygiene of hot desking? At Alliance Cleaning, we offer regular office cleaning up to 7 days a week to create a pristine working environment. We will work with you to create a tailored, bespoke cleaning specification to perfectly suit your requirements. Our office cleaning services include:
- Daily office cleaning up to 7 days a week
- A tailored cleaning specification that best suits your needs and hours of operation
- Office equipment cleaning
- Washroom cleaning services
- Kitchen cleaning services
- Internal and external window/partition cleaning
- Hard floor and carpet cleaning
- Emptying waste bins and recycling
- Touchpoint cleaning
- Janitorial supplies
- Feminine hygiene
If you have any questions then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or call us on 01992 700073. Our customer support team are always happy to help.
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