Management

5 Hot Desking Tips to Increase Productivity

Startup Office

Are you always looking to make efficient changes in your business to be more productive? Do you like to stay on top of business and general working trends? Hot desking is starting to become a very common practice in a lot of office spaces, and for a good reason. The practice makes people communicate more and gives smaller spaces a lot more efficiency. If your workplace is going a bit stagnant, hot desking may be the answer you are looking for.

Hot desking is essentially taking away assigned seating for some, or all, of your employees. You have to keep up with workplace innovation to succeed, so consider switching things up. There are a number of different advantages and disadvantages to this practice, so it’s a good idea to read up on some hot desking tips to make things go smoothly.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the ways you can efficiently implement a hot desking system in your office.

Keep Some Structure

While hot desking is great at mixing things up, keeping employees motivated, and instituting more social interaction, there are some parts of your business that you may benefit from keeping stationary. You aren’t going to want employees in reception, accounting, or human resources dealing with an ever-changing desk or office space. Certain departments are going to require more stability and structure, so consider the needs of different departments before you implement a blanket hot desking system.

Keep An Open Mind With Technology

Technology is our friend in business as it is in just about every other facet of our lives. Certain technologies that have developed in recent years can be utilized to help hot desking be more successful. Some employees are going to require a lot less desk time than others by using different communication technology like texting, email, and video chatting. A platform like Google Docs can revolutionize the way you complete and share work. Take advantage of the technology that is available and implement it according to your employee’s needs.

Keep The Individual In Mind

We cannot stress this enough that every single employee is going to react to changes differently. Keep this in mind before you implement a hot desk setup and try to be aware of your employees’ individual needs and personalities, if possible. Some employees may resist the change as they prefer to have their own personal space. You can offset reactions like this by providing private lounge areas and lockers to keep your employees happy.

Cleanliness And Organisation Are Essential

This may not be something that really crosses your mind when you are considering the switch to a hot desk approach. Your employees are going to transition much easier if the workspaces are kept clean and organised. Give some small incentives to get every employee to do their part in keeping things clean, it will go a long way to increase morale and productivity.

Keep Things Social And Moving

The main attraction of a hot desk setup is going to be getting your employees to become more familiar with each other in a social setting. By sitting and working with different people every time they use a desk, they will build better inter-office relationships and will be able to collaborate and work better together.

Hot Desk, Cold Efficiency

Whether you are a huge corporation with thousands of employees, or you have a small troupe of loyal workers, hot desking can improve a lot of elements of your operation. Humans have an inherent need to have more freedom and be social and people don’t really like being told what to do. Try taking a new approach to your workspace and you may be surprised with the positive results.

Would you like to receive similar articles by email?

Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. While in college he was the vice-president of the Astronomy Club. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *