Introduction:
Do you know that the design of office spaces have a great impact on the performance of the employees working there? Every now and then, a research study pops up which claims to have figured out the impact of a particular work setting on the creativity and productivity of the working people. But, have we found any new ways to organize office spaces based on this research?
Yes, we have. Hot-desking is one such way of arranging the office space. Hot-desking is a flexible office arrangement where employees do not have assigned desks, but instead share a pool of workstations on a first come first served basis. In a hot-desking system, employees do not have a particular desk or workspace to them, but instead find an available desk whenever they arrive at the office or are assigned a particular task.
Advantages of Hot-Desking:
Cost Savings:
When an office has fewer dedicated workstations, companies can make better use of available space and hire more employees to work there. This can greatly reduce real-estate costs.
Improved Collaboration and Communication:
When there are no physical barriers to stop employees communicating, this workspace arrangement can strengthen a sense of community among them. It can also increase spontaneous interactions between employees from different departments, thus encouraging knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Resource Efficiency:
Resources such as printers, meeting rooms and other shared facilities can be used more efficiently in a hot-desking setup. This can reduce operational costs and also prevent wastage of these resources. An executive, overseeing the running of a company, can look to this workspace arrangement practice in order to ensure that the resources of a company are being efficiently utilized.
Remote Work Support:
Hot-desking makes it possible for employees to not have a permanent desk at the office and yet offers accommodation by providing a flexible workspace for them when they need it. This makes the hybrid working model feasible.
Flexibility:
This type of workspace arrangement opens up choices for an employee in relation to her workspace preferences. This freedom to choose their own workspace promotes a dynamic work environment. It is especially beneficial to part-time workers who occasionally visit offices.
Promotes an Equitable Work Environment:
Hot-desking can make the office environment a fairer place to work in. It can help in flattening office hierarchies that are associated with particular workspaces. Employees would be judged less by their workstations and more by their work. It can also remove the stigma from the idea of remote work and bring it to an equal footing by keeping personalized workspaces out of the equation.
Workplace Cleanliness:
If an employee, who is working on a provisional desk, wants to wrap up his work and move away, he would feel obligated to clean up his mess before he leaves. Nobody wants a cluttered workstation when they come to work, and hot-desking provides an incentive to keep workstations clean.
Also Read: Hiring Remote Employees – An Ultimate Guide
Disadvantages of Hot-Desking:
Lack of Personalization:
If employees do not have a particular working space assigned to them, they might feel alienated from work. This absence of personal touch in this work environment can thus impact job satisfaction and the morale of an employee.
Potential Time Loss:
Employees can waste valuable time searching for an appropriate workstation, setting up their workspace, and wrapping it all up while leaving. This can mean a loss of productivity if left unchecked.
Challenges in Team Cohesion:
Hot-desking can result in a loss of team cohesion if the employees working together on a project are not physically located together. This lack of team cohesion can result in a drop of performance when it comes to ambitious projects.
Availability:
It may sometimes prove difficult to locate colleagues in a hot-desking office setup, especially if they frequently change their workstation. This can result in a loss of real-time collaboration and can lead to a wastage of time.
Potential Source of Distraction:
Hot-desking setups can easily slip into a place where distraction and gossip hold the reigns and real work takes a backseat. Due to its nature, it can incentivize people to choose their workstation based on the colleague they want to be around. This can lead to an undue dip in performance.
Also Read: First Time Manager – 6 Essential Skills For You to Succeed
Learn With DT Evolve:
Apart from using different office setups like hot-desking to improve employee performance, there are certain skills that can benefit an office worker. One such skill is decision making. If you’re looking for something that could help you upskill in this domain, DT Evolve has a course for you. This course will teach students a variety of problem-solving and decision-making skills. Here’s the link to the course, Be an Excellent Decision Maker.
Conclusion:
In this blog, we learned what hot-desking is and how it is used in a modern workplace. We also discussed the advantages of using this arrangement like increased flexibility, resource efficiency, remote work support and so on. Finally we looked at its potential disadvantages like challenges in team cohesion, colleague availability, time loss and so on. It could be used very effectively for a more dynamic work environment if you manage to tame these potential disadvantages.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Hot desking is a flexible office arrangement where employees do not have assigned desks, but instead share a pool of workstations on a first come first served basis.
Hot desking has its advantages and disadvantages. It is good for those who want to save money and make their office space more efficient, while bad for those who don’t want any potential waste of time and can’t risk the team cohesion.
This term comes from a similar term used in the US Navy called hot racking. The sleeping arrangement there was such that sailors slept in shifts, thus keeping the bed ‘hot’ for the next person who came to sleep.
Hot desking is used in offices where there is a flexible schedule of working, and not all employees are working at the same time.
It might take some time for employees to get used to this new system, especially the parts where they have to find an empty desk that is clutter-free and would be ideal to work in.
To find this out, make sure you have a good idea of employees that are in the office on any given day, and then add 25-30% more desks to accommodate ones who arrive without notice or for specific purposes.
Disadvantages of hot-desking include potential time loss, challenges to team cohesion, lack of personalization and hot-desking can also be a source of distraction for employees.
Advantages of hot desking include cost savings, resource efficiency, flexibility, remote work support and the promotion of an equitable work environment.
It can be stressful sometimes to try and find an employee, especially if deadline work is involved, and he is nowhere to be found because of this flexible work arrangement. Employees which do not use these shared desks properly can also be a cause of stress.