Hot desking has been around businesses for a few years now, and it’s moved from being a zeitgeisty preserve of hip start-ups to common practice for many large enterprises and blue-chips.
If you’ve done any serious research into hot-desking of late, then you’ve probably been left with a fairly negative viewpoint. Plenty of surveys and feedback have suggested that hot desking actually does more harm than good for the companies putting it in place, particularly because a lot of workers just don’t like it.
The case for the prosecution may sound compelling, but the defence, as you’re about to read, has a pretty strong voice to be heard, too. Here are three vital reasons why hot desking often fails, and what you can do to implement it right and unleash the potential of flexibility it can bring to your business:
Problem 1: employees get muscular injuries from working at a badly set-up workstation
If your idea of hot desking is setting up row after row of identikit computers, desks and chairs, all conforming to a default setting, then you’re asking for trouble. People come in different shapes and sizes, and everyone’s comfortable sitting and typing positions will vary. Making them try and fit into a one-size-fits-nobody scenario, or asking them to fiddle around with chair adjustments or screen angles every time they sit down, is a sure-fire way for discomfort and injuries to occur.
Solution: flexible infrastructure and BYOD
The key to making people feel comfortable in their working environments is to make sure they’re working from the same devices all the time. By assigning hardware by employee rather than by workstation, everyone can use devices and keyboards they’re familiar with, wherever they are. All you need to do is provide the easily adjustable infrastructure for them to plug into. What’s more, this method brings the added bonus to workforce and business alike of making it easier and more flexible to work remotely as and when needed.
Problem 2: employees feel undervalued because they don’t have the workspace they’d like
The vast majority of office workers have spent years making their own workstation into their own little personal space.
Whether it’s having their favourite books on their desks for inspiration, or pictures of their kids on their monitor, those little touches can act as a comfort blanket. That’s their space and they’ve got it just the way they want it. So when you suddenly throw them into a hot desking environment, they can easily feel a bit lost and that they’ve having to conform to a workspace the way you want it to be, and not the way they want it to be.
Solution: develop a variety of different hot desking spaces
Nobody said every single hot desk in your office had to be exactly the same. And by embracing hot desking, you’ve got a blank canvas to create different spaces that serve different purposes for different working styles. Whether your workers like quiet or noisy offices, proper desks or comfy armchairs, cosy cubicles or open-plan, you can be all things to all people and give them what they want (as long as you have the space!).
What is important, however, is to engage your workforce in this process. Don’t just throw fancy stand-up desks and air hockey tables into your office if they don’t want it. How you develop these different spaces should be shaped by your workforce’s feedback more than anything else.
Problem 3: employees start fighting over the ‘best’ desks
When you get a moment after reading this blog, go onto YouTube and search for ‘sunbed wars’. The videos you’ll see there consist of people on vacation (mostly British) in desperate scrambles to get the best sun loungers next to the pool. These battles normally take place ridiculously early in the morning and are taken extremely seriously. Sadly, similar behaviour has been seen in offices where hot desking is a bit of a free-for-all, and it quickly breeds negativity and selfish behaviour that doesn’t aid collaboration one bit.
Solution: digital hot desking booking systems
All this stress can be taken away with the help of our good friend technology. A digital desk booking system means people can reserve the space they need in advance, for exactly the amount of time they need it for. It also means that those with admin credentials can see when certain workstations are being hogged, or where people are block-booking desk space they don’t need (Colin from marketing, this means you). Preventative action can then be taken quietly and professionally.
P.S. Don’t forget to look up ‘sunbed wars’ on YouTube. It probably won’t help your productivity for the rest of the day but I promise you won’t regret it…