The phrase ‘hot desking’ tends to strike fear into the hearts of many an employee. The idea of not having your own desk can cause a large amount of anxiety for certain staff members, and it takes away a feeling of belonging, their sense of having a ‘base’.
Of course, hot desking isn’t all bad by any means; hot desking is a great way to increase productivity and ensure that the right working environments are available for different tasks at hand. The problem is, if your employees are all totally against hot desking, implementing it against their will is not going to do much for morale. In that case, what other working systems can you try, which have the same collaborative and flexible outcome?
The good news is that there are a few systems which your staff might be more open to, but it’s a good idea to sit everyone down around the conference table and discuss options with them. This means you’re involving them in decision making, and that in itself will take away anxiety and worries and increase morale too. Most new office systems require high quality office furnishings to be in place, to create a suitable working environment, no matter what the format, but this shouldn’t be a huge problem, provided you do your homework into the right types of office furniture for your needs.
Let’s check out the other types of modern office solutions you could implement into your space.
Flexible Working/Remote Working
Opting for a more flexible working ethos means a total shift in the culture of your workplace, but it does have some major advantages too. By allowing your staff to work flexibly, you’re creating a far better home and work balance for them.
This can mean working from home or somewhere else for a portion of the time, and in the office for the rest, or it can mean being totally remote, and communicating with the office via telephone, video call, messaging etc. Employees can also make use of co-working spaces remotely, working from a co-working desk for set hours, if that fits in with the company’s needs better.
This is a shift away from the traditional office scene, but more and more companies are opting for this choice.
The Implementation of Zones
Another option is splitting your office into zones; this means areas for quiet working, areas for learning, areas for breaks, and areas for collaboration. By doing this, you’re giving your staff a place to go no matter what type of task they need to complete, and whilst you can allow them to maintain their own desk, they are able to choose the right space for the job they need to complete.
This system requires functional furniture which suits each type of zone, and you can also look into noise-reducing endeavors for collaborative areas, such as acoustic panels around that zone, and office screens for the quieter areas.
A small office may struggle to separate their space up into these zones, but a larger space will have no issues, and the benefits are quite far-reaching.
Agile Working And Activity-Based Working
We’ll explain these two together as they are quite similar in some ways. Agile and activity-based working are similar to hot desking, but they take away the panic of not having your own desk, which suits many offices. They are both quite flexible options too.
Agile working allows staff to work from anywhere they want within the space, be it a breakout area, a cafe, a quiet zone, or their own desk, and is about teams within the workplace, rather than individuals. The idea is that team work is a more functional and productive way to work, and as such, teams will be situated close to each other within the office, with movement encouraged.
Activity-based working is similar, but instead of focusing on teams, it focuses on the actual task at hand. This is where quiet and collaborative zones will come in useful, as staff are able to choose the environment which suits the task better.
Choosing the right desking style, or working style, for your employees is a personal choice, and one which will differ from office to office. Talking to your employees is vital, to ensure the change is seamless and that nobody feels unnecessarily threatened or anxious about any changes ahead. You should also incorporate suggestions for different working styles into your staff development reviews, or appraisals. By doing this, you’re helping staff to find the right working style for them, which increases productivity for the business.