With tech companies such as Facebook and Google becoming well known for their “activity-based” office setups, the allure of going above and beyond with employee benefits has never been stronger for SMEs – cue the Foosball tournaments. Most recently, Amazon constructed a dog park at their new headquarters in Seattle, now home to over 2,000 office dogs.
As extravagant as some of these initiatives may be, one aspect of flexible office setups that’s growing in popularity is hot desking.
We’ve discussed in previous blog posts the benefits that hot desking provides. These include collaboration, new business opportunities, camaraderie and productivity. In fact, so many benefits, it almost sounds too good to be true!
However, like so many shiny new things, the devil is in the detail. There are some people who quite simply are not suited to hot desking – especially if you’re the type of person who likes their stapler ‘just so’ on their desk – and there’s nothing wrong with that.
So how do you know if hot desking is right for you? It all comes down to how your business functions and the type of work you do.
4 Hot Desking Considerations
There are four factors you should take into consideration:
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Do you have a team?
Hot-desking is great for teamwork because you’re free of the walls and doors of traditional offices, allowing better communication. If your work is predominantly individual and requires a lot of concentration, you may find it might be less productive for you.
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It’s important to think about you (and/or your team) and how you/they react to the environment.
Hot desking is suited to extroverts that love to be around people. It helps them with bouncing ideas off others and generally feeling part of the broader tribe – listening in to others conversations as a way of sparking ideas. As an introvert, however, you may not feel as comfortable. But there are always noise-cancelling headphones under which to seek solace from time to time whilst still feeling connected to other people.
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You may not need as much office space as you once did.
Especially if you’re looking to save on costs because some of your employees are part-time or you’ve started to implement more work from home policies. Bringing everyone who’s in the office together when they’re there can be a great thing for camaraderie and building team culture. And a hot desk can provide a considerably cheaper, yet still corporate-esque space for you to do your work if it’s just for you. Plus there’s always someone else to take care of all those annoying things like ensuring there’s toilet paper, electricity, coffee and constant wifi).
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Think about how much you and/or your team really need to collaborate.
Recent research by the Harvard Business Review shows people in open-plan office settings are increasingly demanding quiet spaces where they can focus and concentrate. So it’s important to make sure you have access to private spaces to meet, take a call, or for confidential conversations to be held – or to just lock yourself away for a solid hour of ‘get it done’ time with no distractions.
And that’s where we might be able to help. SOI has a range of hot-desking options to suit, complete with meeting/quiet space if you need it.
You’re thinking hot desking might be the answer for you and your business, right? We’d love to chat with you about how you can create the perfect hot desking environment to maximise your productivity. You can call us on 1300 318 680 or drop us a note.
