What is Hot-Desking?

In this new era of work, concepts like the Hybrid workplace and Hot-desking are gaining a tremendous amount of traction. In our previous article, we took an in-depth look at what hybrid workplaces are. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at a facet of hybrid working - Hot Desking! 

Hot-Desking- a quick history lesson

The early traces of this concept can be seen starting nearly 500 years ago. Originally, hot-desking went by another name hot bunking. Hot-bunking was popular among the seas faring folk. Sailors would use the available bunks (strung up hammocks) in rotational shifts depending on who was off duty at the time. 

Fast-forward to the 1990s, when on-road sales were the hype, companies realised they could cut away unnecessary costs on real estate by having their sales folk rotate desks depending on when they were back in the office. This was then named- Hot Desking. 

Benefits of Hot Desking

Like all management theories, hotdesking became an in-thing for multiple reasons. Of which the three most popular ones are:

• Better collaboration and productivity: Hot desking fosters a more collaborative work atmosphere and boosts overall productivity. Surveys prove that 70% of managers and 87% of employees say flexible work arrangements increased their productivity. 
• Space utilization and cost-saving: Surveys have found that a large part of every office space is usually not utilised. With Hot-desking you can not only optimise the usage of your office space, you actually can cut down the amount of space used drastically and save quite a bit on cost. 
• Sanitary and safe: It is the aspect of cleanliness that makes hot desking so relevant today. As employees are more likely to clean up after a day’s work, it helps the housekeeping staff to sanitize the desks with lesser obstructions.

What’s the catch?

As is with every concept, hot-desking comes with its own set of challenges and complications. However, with a little bit of planning these challenges can easily be overcome. Here are some of the most common issues with hot-desking: 

• Efficiency: The lack of clearly defined space in the office can make supervising and guiding employees a pain. It can also create a rift between team members as they won’t be sharing space as often as required for them to come together as a unit. 
• On-job Training: As we mentioned before, the lack of a defined seating area could lead to folks not being able to cowork. In the case of new joiners, this undefined workspace can lead to a lot of confusion and can create a huge roadblock in integration into the company. 
• Every meeting needs to be well planned: As everyone will be seated as they wish, conducting a quick meeting like we so often do in normal office settings is not possible. So every meeting has to be planned and communicated well in advance so that your team has enough time to gather together. 

The other popular argument is that most employees dislike uncertainty and frequent changes. A fixed desk is a manifestation of stability, certainty, and belongingness. Hot desking disrupts it to a certain extent.

Do you need hot-desking?

Here is the low-down, with hot-desking you can save a lot of money! As per some studies, globally companies have unutilised space worth $15 billion every year. Given that we won’t all be going back to our offices full-time soon, it makes more sense for you to cut costs on real-estate and rotate your employees' seating. 

With a detailed plan and clarity on the objectives, hot desking is a strategy that works for many. You may pilot it with a lesser number of employees. But given the pandemic scare, ensure all safety measures are in place before acting on your plans.