The pros and cons of hot desking
Pros
It could save your company money
As an employer, real estate is your second-biggest overhead cost. However, research shows that globally up to 37 per cent of office space is not utilised. Eliminating this wasted space and switching to a hot desking model could reduce your operating costs by 30 per cent. This would free up resources that you can spend on other projects and investments. Bear in mind that you may also need to increase your IT resources to manage hot desking. However, the savings gained from reducing your office space can easily compensate for the increased IT costs.
It may attract Generation X, Z and millennial employees
Among alternative office work desk ideas, hot desking is becoming a popular mode of working among Gen X, Z and millennial employees, who have become accustomed to using technology whenever and wherever, and who expect flexibility as the norm. So, if you want to attract these demographics to your company, you might want to consider an open-plan office layout.
It’s good for mobile and remote workers
A rise in the number of knowledge-intensive and service-oriented jobs, combined with technological advances, has afforded greater flexibility to workers, untying them from the physical office space. Offering your employees non-monetary benefits, such as flexible work arrangements, could be a great way to attract and retain talent. However, some types of employees are more tied to the office than others. Your HR and IT staff will most likely need to spend much more time in the office than your more mobile sales and project management staff. Hot desking could be ideal for the latter, who most likely already spend a lot of time out of the office. The space that you free up by switching to hot desking could be used for extra meeting rooms or breakout spaces. This will create a more relaxed office environment for your employees.
It’s well suited to the ‘new normal’
With many people discovering the perks of working from home, it is unlikely that workplaces will go back to the way they were before Covid-19. Effectively managing a new, post-pandemic workplace brings many challenges, including deciding who should return to the office. Then there is the problem of deciding what to do with the extra space in your office. With fewer people coming to the office every day, it is no longer necessary to give each employee their own dedicated workspace. Hot desking could be an effective way to optimise your office space. And while an open-plan office may not seem ideal for preventing the spread of viruses, hot desking could easily be adapted to Covid-19 protocols. Regular cleaning, social distancing between workspaces, and keeping a record of who sits at which desk for contact tracing will help to minimise the spread of the Covid-19 in your workplace.
It creates a neater office environment
When your employees share desks, it’s a good idea to ask them to completely clear the desk at the end of the day. This will create a tidy, well-organised and clutter-free workplace, which will look more professional and impress potential clients. It could also make your staff more productive, as some people might find it more difficult to focus in a cluttered environment.
Cons
It doesn’t necessarily result in more collaboration
A more collegial, collaborative workplace has been touted as one of the greatest benefits of hot desking. The idea was that the open-plan office design would create a dynamic work environment where employees would break out of their cubicles, mingle with new co-workers and come up with brilliantly creative ideas. Somewhat counter-intuitively, however, the opposite has occurred, in some workplaces at least. Some people have reported feeling more disconnected from their teams and close colleagues. The problem is that people often end up working beside complete strangers who are not working in their area or on the same projects. One study found that hot desking resulted in indifference and inattention to co-workers, loss of identity and decreased organisational commitment.
It can be difficult to find people
Hot desking can make locating and gathering people difficult. In a workplace with designated desks, you always know where you can find, for example, someone from HR. And if the person you’re looking for is not at their desk, the people sitting nearby will usually be able to tell you where they are. However, in a hot desking workplace, that person could be anywhere in the building. Hot desking also makes it impossible to have short, impromptu meetings at the beginning of the day where your employees, who work in the same physical space, simply stay at their desks and turn their chairs around. These meetings are important for coordinating tasks and making sure everyone is on the same page. These inefficiencies may be minor in a small company, but they can really add up in a large organisation.
It can eat up work time
Hot desking can result in a significant amount of lost work time. In a survey of over 1000 workers in a hot desking workplace, the average time spent looking for a suitable desk was 18 minutes per day. Almost a quarter of employees spent 30 minutes looking for a workspace. Not only was it difficult for workers to find an appropriate desk, but it also caused stress, with 67 per cent saying they felt anxious about finding a workspace. On top of this, your employees will spend about 10 minutes setting up their desk at the start of the day and another 10 minutes clearing it at the end of the day. Spread across your entire organisation, this lost work time quickly adds up. This will be more of an issue in large organisations with workspaces spread over several levels of a building. Hotelling – allowing your employees to reserve workspaces – could be a good idea if you have a large organisation with static employees who spend a lot of time in the office.
It can be distracting
The flip side of more collaboration in the workplace is more chatter. Open-plan workplaces can resemble a busy café with people moving around and chatting with the people around them more than in a workplace with a traditional set-up. This can particularly be an issue if there are not enough designated meeting rooms or breakout spaces. Many people need peace and quiet to focus on their work and come up with new ideas. People also tend to get used to the noises around them when they work at a designated desk because those noises are generally consistent, and they can block them out. So, even if the hot desking workplace isn’t significantly noisier, your staff may still find it more difficult to concentrate on their work. Each employee is different – some of your employees may enjoy the buzz of the hot desking workplace and have no trouble focusing on their work, but others may struggle to concentrate, leading to lower productivity.
It’s difficult to adapt your workplace to different needs
Hot desking may have a negative impact on your workers’ health and safety. This is because it can be more difficult for workplaces with a hot desking set-up to cater for employees with specific ergonomic needs, such as standing desks. In 2011, the Australian Taxation Office found itself in an 18-month legal dispute after an employee suffered considerable injuries caused by hot desking. Using shared working spaces could be challenging for some employees with disabilities; for example, people with autism may struggle to adapt to the lack of routine. Given the opportunities that come from creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, it might be worth spending some time planning how you would adapt your workspace to different needs before introducing hot desking.
The verdict
It is important to weigh up these pros and cons before you decide whether hot desking is right for your business. If you’re thinking about making the switch to hot desking, the first thing you should do is identify how desks are used in your organisation. You might want to conduct a survey over a busy period of four to six weeks where you look at how often desks and offices are used daily.
The size of your business is also an important consideration. In a large organisation with office space split over multiple levels, the small inefficiencies, such as the wasted time your employees spend looking for people or finding a desk, can be significant when spread over the entire company. However, hot desking may be an ideal solution in a small business where all of your employees work in the same space. Hot desking can facilitate collaboration, creativity and productivity, but there are also some substantial drawbacks that need to be factored in.
