Recently, executives at Europe’s largest bank also told to try ‘Hot Desking’, noting it comes as the bank pursues plans to shrink its office space by 40% in a post-pandemic shake-up.

In this article, we will explain deeply how hot desking affect the world and why you need hot desking in the future.

What is hot desking?

Hot desking is an organizational workspace system in which desks in a workspace are used on an ad-hoc basis. 

Instead of having only one designated space or permanent desk, hot desking allows employees to use any available mobile desk and is a strategy that helps increase flexibility and encourages collaboration.

The benefits of using a hot desk are that it maximizes space efficiency and reduces redundant office space to save on operating expenses.

Hot desking: A major trend of the hybrid working

Hybrid working is an arrangement in which a company’s management and employees alternate between working in a physical office and working remotely. The transformation is now evolving as many firms adopt hybrid working practices to accommodate an increasingly digital-based workforce.

According to the Accenture Future of Work Study 2021,  hybrid work looks set to go from strength to strength thanks to the autonomy and flexibility it offers and as 83% of workers prefer a hybrid-work model, it appears that hot desking could be the latest workplace trend making a comeback.

The report from Envoy shows a surge in employees using hot desks under the trend of hybrid working. In May 2021 alone, 110,000 desks were reserved—up 95% from April 2021. 

Do you really need a hot desk?

As previously said, hot-desking is designed to boost employee flexibility and make better use of space, as well as to improve staff communication.

Employees may have the chance to meet individuals from different departments whom they would not have met otherwise, which may result in a more social workplace atmosphere and a personal connection that may enhance cross-departmental work.

However, the practice must be managed carefully. While this may be an effective solution for employees who aren’t in the office very often, there are several health and safety concerns that come from numerous people sharing a single workplace throughout the day.

For example, office workstations should be configured to meet the needs of each employee, and suitable equipment should be given. It’s also worth mentioning that there are hygiene concerns that arise when employees use the same piece of equipment, as well as psychological issues that arise when employees are separated from supervisors or colleagues.

Statistics about hot desking and flexible working

Permanent desks become unnecessary

The permanent desk is unnecessary for an office. Based on data from Inc. survey, 40% of an office’s dedicated desk space sits unused on a given day.  

(Inc.)

Only a few employees need their own desks

When they return to work following the coronavirus pandemic, only 19% of employees do not want any hot desking. (Gensler U.S. Work From Home Survey 2020)

Hot desking is cost-effective

Hot desking can reduce their office operating costs by 30% while saving 15% to 25% on the amount of space they require.

(BBC)

Hot desking price drops

Indicating the growing availability of new flexible offices and how increased competition is resulting in even more inexpensive solutions for businesses and professionals, the global average price per desk decreased by 2.14% between 2019 and 2020.

(coworkingresources)

Hot desking regional monthly price

The trend of falling pricing is seen in various parts of the world as the coworking sector gains popularity. Europe is the lone exception, where prices have risen by almost 12% in the previous two years.

(coworkingresources)

The workspace will be consumed flexibly in the future

JLL estimates that, as a result of COVID-19’s impact on real estate and workplace management, 30% of all office space will be consumed flexibly by 2030. (JLL)

Companies decided to increase flexible workspace after the pandemic

A report by Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc (JLL) found that 37% of global organizations plan to increase their use of co-working or flex space after the pandemic. (JLL)

Employees prefer to work flexibly

Global HR and recruiting firm Adecco reported that, in the wake of COVID-19, 77% of professionals want greater flexibility in how and where they work. (Adecco)

Employees would join the flexible offices and leave the traditional offices

In a Gallup survey, 37% of employees said they would leave their current job in a traditional office to join a company that offered a flexible office environment. (Gallup).

Low efficiency of traditional office space usage

Most workplaces had vacancy rates of 20-50% prior to the coronavirus pandemic. (Work Design Magazine)

Some employees often do not work at offices before the pandemic

Half of all global employees worked outside their main office headquarters at least two and a half days per week prior to the pandemic. (IWG)

Flexible work arrangements will be employees’ major consideration in the future

77% of employees consider flexible work arrangements a major consideration when evaluating future job opportunities. (Zenefits)

Hot desking around the world

As Zenefits mentioned, 77% of people consider flexible work arrangements a major consideration. If the companies still work in traditional working methods,  37% of employees said they would leave the traditional office. 

Moreover, most workplaces had vacancy rates of 20-50% prior to the coronavirus pandemic and 40% of an office’s dedicated desk space sits unused on a given day. This shows that a large workspace is unnecessary for an office and the empty permanent desks are wasting the office resources.

Therefore, if the companies become hybrid offices, it can help them to keep their talents and save the operation by reducing the workspace, while hot desking allows them to work flexibly and prevent office resources from being wasted.

Hot desking in the U.S.

Employees at Square’s San Francisco office can choose from a number of settings thanks to the office’s entirely open floor plan.

Entry-level employees can communicate with their CEO at high-top tables in an activity-based arrangement, and personnel from different departments find themselves working together much more frequently.

I love how flexible it is, and that there are always different people sitting at my desk. It makes me feel more in touch with my co-workers and what’s going on in the company.

Maja Henderson, Office Manager at Square

Hot desking in the APEC region

The Singapore Newspaper – TODAY has interviewed 10 firms, 6 firms said that they would retain their present hybrid work arrangements after the Covid 19 pandemic. 

Tech firm SAP implemented a complete hot desking strategy in Singapore when it began renovating its offices in April 2021, with the goal of increasing collaboration among its 1,200 or so employees while also providing flexibility in how employees work.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Singapore has reduced the number of fixed workstations in order to create more meeting rooms and community spaces. Its redesigned workspaces were made available to employees at the beginning of this year.

Hot desking in Europe

The BBC notes that it comes as the bank “pursues plans to downsize its office space by 40% in a post-pandemic shake-up,” adding that “banking giant HSBC has announced that top managers in its Canary Wharf HQ have lost their desks and will have to hot-desk on an open-plan floor.”

My leadership team and I have moved to a fully open-plan floor with no designated desks,

Noel Quinn, Group Chief Executive of HSBC

In order to reduce its worldwide head office expenditures by 40%, Noel Quinn, CEO of HSBC, told the Financial Times that HSBC wasn’t renewing several of its leases in city centers that are up for renewal in the next three to five years.

Noel Quinn claimed that the idea of hot desking sprang from a genuine desire to be back in the office with everyone, mixing and exchanging ideas. He said that the bank would implement a rule requiring two personnel to work at each desk, with the exception of branches.

Other UK banks, including Lloyds and Standard Chartered, have also announced plans to dump expensive office space and offer flexible working arrangements to employees.

How does hot desking work?

The employees can reserve the desks that the employees want to use through the Office Management System. The employees can find the available desks anytime by the system.

Office Management System is a system that can manage all the desks and rooms in the office. There are lots of the best office management systems in the world, such as ONES, Envoy Desk, and Cloudbooking.

A perfect system for your hybrid office: ONES 

A hybrid office should use a comprehensive office management system, which helps employees use office resources efficiently, such as rooms, desks, and office equipment, and support them to have remote work and virtual meetings with their colleagues in the office.   

ONES is one of the famous all-in-one smart office systems that can help you to easily implement hybrid working at ease.  You can easily perform virtual meetings, desk-hoteling, and digital office management with our Room Booking, Desk Booking, and Visitor Management features.  

ONES Software now has a dedicated page to introduce a series of hybrid working measures to help you solve problems. You may wish to go to https://ones.software/hybrid-workspace/ for further reference.  

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/. 

The post Hot desking statistics & trends you must know in 2024 and onwards first appeared on ONEs Blog.

Banking giant HSBC has confirmed that hybrid working is the thing the whole bank will embrace, with hot desking and open-plan floors.

The banks’ big bosses claim that connection and flexibility are the key differentiators.

Banks in Europe that stick to working remotely

Bloomberg’s poll of 12 leading European banks revealed that one of them still permits staff to work remotely one day each week.

According to a source, UBS Group AG even views its use of hybrid working as a potential to hire brilliant personnel from US rivals.

According to a spokeswoman for the Swiss bank, which is devoted to giving employees the choice of hybrid working, roughly 75% of employees have jobs that allow for the necessary flexibility.

Similar to Societe Generale (SocGen) SA in France, Banco Santander SA in Spain, and ING Groep NV in the Netherlands, all of these companies acknowledged workplace flexibility as a factor in their success in luring and keeping top people.

Hot desking helps cut off costs

Banking giant HSBC also confirmed that top managers in its Canary Wharf HQ have lost their offices and will have to hot-desk on an open-plan floor, BBC reported.

HSBC Boss Noel Quinn said the whole bank was embracing “hybrid working” and he would no longer come in five days a week. “My leadership team and I have moved to a fully open-plan floor with no designated desks.”

Being in a prominent city’s top location is quite expensive and hurts income. The banks would see much more free cash flow if the cost of office space could be drastically reduced.

The acceptance that many people desire to work remotely part- or full-time for a variety of reasons is the other motivator. The previous year served as a test case that demonstrated it is feasible to run a corporation with a sizable portion of the personnel working remotely.

The one also going toward a hybrid strategy is Lloyds Bank.

Over the following two years, office space will be reduced by 20% as a result. About 77% of Lloyds’ 68,000 workers expressed a desire to work three or more days each week from home, prompting the company to make the decision.

How to implement your own hot desking? Learn more: ONES All-in-one smart office system

Flexibility depends on the role

After this month’s US Labor Day holiday, the company and rival Morgan Stanley started withdrawing some of their remaining Covid-19 mitigation efforts. Goldman executives made it clear earlier this year that they wanted employees who complied with the COVID regimen to work from the office.

The company, led by CEO David Solomon, has taken the initiative to persuade its highly compensated workers to return to full-time office work.

Attaining the objective of getting employees back to the office “is not contradictory with the desire to provide our staff with the flexibility they need,” Solomon said on an earnings call last year.

The degree of flexibility varies between professions and roles in Europe, with merchants being more office-bound than information technology professionals.

However, the policy of Deutsche Bank AG, which permits staff to work remotely up to 40% of the time, appears to be the standard.

Want to try hot-desking in your office? Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/. 

The post Executives at Europe’s Largest Bank try for Hot Desking first appeared on ONEs Blog.

However, if each person has their own desk that they only use a few days a week, you will have a lot of wasted space. Hot desking is now the ideal answer for businesses transitioning to hybrid work.

Recently, executives at Europe’s largest bank also told to try ‘Hot Desking’, noting it comes as the bank pursues plans to shrink its office space by 40% in a post-pandemic shake-up.

On paper, hot desking appears simple, but in fact, it is more difficult to accomplish. You will quickly have a hectic office and angry staff if you do not have a practical strategy to handle desk sharing.

What does Hot Desking mean?

Hot desking is an organizational workspace system in which desks are used on an ad hoc, first-come, first-served basis by different people at different times.

It is a workplace practice in which some or all employees exchange desks rather than having a permanent one, which is most common in an activity-based work environment. It allows multiple users can use the same workstation at the same time. 

The advantages of hot desking

Typically, the aim of hot desking is to maximize space efficiency and lessen real estate risk by reducing redundant office space. Hot desking can also provide a temporary home wherever and whenever they need it.

Reduces operational costs 

Hot desking necessitates fewer total desks, lowering the amount of money a firm spends on office space.

Based on the survey of Inc., 40% of an office’s dedicated desk space sits unused on a given day. Employees are on vacation, work a flex schedule, or are stuck in back-to-back meetings. So it is not surprising that hotdesking can free up this 40% of unused desk space for better use.

Instead of manually allocating each employee their own desk, build up a structure via a desk booking system in which workstations may be shared as needed during the day by flexible staff. This means there will be no vacant workstations wasting space and resources.

Allows for a hybrid work environment

Aside from cost savings, hot desking allows for a more flexible working environment. A Microsoft report published in 2021 discovered that 73% of employees want flexible remote work options to remain post-pandemic.

The transition to hybrid work is unavoidable. Many employees choose hybrid work after the pandemic, and hot desking is the greatest strategy to maximize the utilization of hybrid offices.

Instead of leaving empty desks when employees work from home, offices can reduce office space by implementing desk sharing.

Facilitates cross-departmental collaboration and innovation

Hot-desking, whether in a private office or a larger coworking space, brings people from different teams or companies together, creating a diverse microcosm of professionals.

This connection frequently leads to new opportunities, such as the acquisition of new clients, investors, partners, or employees through hot-desking introductions.

Employees rotate workstations during the day and have more opportunities to meet and communicate with team members from other departments. These connections may also provide novel ideas and solutions for the firm.

Studies have discovered that hot-desking increases innovation and entrepreneurship. This is due to the autonomy afforded to hot desk users, who can work wherever and whenever inspiration strikes. It also occurs in hot-desking environments through knowledge sharing, social interactions, and the decentralization of innovation processes.

When you’re surrounded by a diverse range of expertise, it’s natural to come up with new ideas and processes. An ever-changing work environment also reduces the risk of burnout and project fatigue.

Implement your own hot desking

Hot desking is a planned technique designed to keep everyone’s schedule flexible.

Misusage, on the other hand, may result in undesirable outcomes such as repetitive procedures and a lack of organization. A shared desk layout is a possible alternative for employees.

Keeping this in mind, everyone engaging in hot-desking must have the same attitude. It is vital to observe good etiquette.

Now, let’s look at some guidelines you should use in your organization to minimize hot desking problems.

Proper desk reservation

It simply does not work to just let your user use the hot desk freely. Some companies may just implement hot-desking by simply a sign or dry-erase board on a desk indicating whether or not it is reserved and to whom.

But sooner or later this kind of manual setup will be a pain for management. All firms that are experimenting with hot desking should have a smart office system in place for employees to reserve workstations.

Meanwhile, employees should be adequately taught and authorized to use whatever mechanism they have in place to discover and reserve a desk.

Always maintain a professional demeanor

Professionalism is one of the top hot desking behaviors. Employees may be less conscientious about workstation cleanliness and organization during hot desking because they do not have assigned desks.

Hot desking policies guarantee that everyone uses office space fairly and responsibly:

1. Sanitation: Sanitize and tidy the desk after use.
2. Consideration: Treat your coworkers with respect and give help if they need it.
3. Maintenance: Encourage staff to restore everything to its original location.

Avoid making reservations at out-of-service desks

You most certainly have workstations in your company that are out-of-service to serve or are only available to some teams. People should be trained on which workstations are designated for hot desking, or this could be checked by your desk booking system.

A smart office floorplan function is also a powerful data visualization that can allow anybody to see which desks are available by looking at the live view.

What makes hot-desking successful?

There are a few significant factors that you should consider when you implement hot-desking environment:

Bookable at ease

Lots of offices with hot-desking environments allow people to reserve meeting rooms, hot desks, and facilities via an app or a web log-in, such as using an all-in-one one-stop smart office solution. A hot-desk reservation device can be used to indicate the desk status and help to manage the schedule.

Common facilities usually include share areas that allow people to easily gather and have a quick meeting, chat, or rest, such as Collision point, Focus room, Brainstorm room, Touchdown spot, etc.

Easy Access to power outlets and phones

Hot desks mean that there will not have a fixed workspace for people to use. Therefore it typically comes with its own power outlets, USB power supply, etc.

Also, a phone booth or Quiet car can be provided for people taking phone calls in a private and quiet environment.

Technology and internet

Hot desking would be impossible without laptops, tablets, and smartphones, and all offices with hot-desking arrangements should provide WiFi to accommodate these devices.

Some users may require more than just their laptops to function properly. As a result, some hot desks include a monitor and a VGA, DVI, or HDMI connection, allowing users to plug in and temporarily use a second screen.

Personal item storage

Some coworking spaces allow users to leave their belongings at a hot desk for a set period of time while they attend meetings or eat lunch. Other coworking spaces offer cubby holes or lockers to their hot-desk users.

In private offices, it’s more common for employees to spend the entire day at the same desk, regardless of meetings or lunch breaks. Therefore, a simple locker can easily serve this case.

Determine the number of desks you needed

Ratio-based seating is used to calculate the number of workstations required in an office area for hot desking. Traditional hot desking arrangements place one person at each desk (1:1), however hot desking allows numerous persons to share a desk at various times (1:X).

Through wise desk allocation, businesses can run on a desk deficit with ratio-based seating. By analyzing data to determine the lowest and maximum occupancy, a corporation may forecast what proportion of its staff won’t need desks at any one time.

Smart office in a simple tool: How ONES can help your office

Effective change management is required to ensure the effectiveness of hot desking. ONES is here to help if you are ready to adopt your new smart office setting but do not know how to begin.

Our smart office management software enables your employees and visitor to rapidly find, choose, and reserve the workspace that best meets their needs.

Schedule a demo of Bookings ONE now for more details.

The post Hot Desking 101: a quick guide first appeared on ONEs Blog.

Hotdesking is a hot topic that frequently comes up in conversations with our clients as companies continue to determine their best approach for supporting hybrid work to save operational costs.

What does hot-desking mean?

Hotdesking simply means that to create workspaces that employees who come into the office for individual work can use as needed while they are present. Those spaces aren’t always reserved for specific people’s exclusive use, but they can be reserved for people to use on a regular basis.

Metrigy, an innovative research firm focusing on the rapidly changing areas of Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC)/digital workplace, recently conducted a survey of 935 businesses in Europe, North America, Australia, and parts of Southeast Asia to determine how they approached hotdesking within their organizations.

They discovered a wide range of implementations in the following areas among the approximately one-quarter of organizations that have already implemented hotdesking.

Following are some tips that can help you to successfully set up your hotdesking strategy in the office.

(Learn more about hot desking: Hot Desking 101: a quick guide)

Desktop check-in and out and provisioning management system

Approximately half of those who support hotdesking have deployed an application to manage reservations, space provisioning, and device management.

Some of the all-in-one smart office systems that have collaborated with Microsoft Teams and Outlook, like ONES, recently added hotdesking capabilities or established integrations with the previously mentioned dedicated workspace management apps to enable space and device reservation and provisioning.

Hot desk Scheduling

One issue they discovered among companies that support hotdesking is matching availability to demand.

If users only have enough available space to support half of their potential in-office workforce and everyone wants to come in on Wednesday, users will quickly reach capacity.

To address these issues, some businesses have implemented workgroup-based schedules. Sales teams, for example, can use hotdesking space on Monday and Tuesday, while product teams can use it on Wednesday and Thursday.

Desktop provisioning applications are critical for providing insight into historical utilization, such as a user-friendly scheduling calendar, customizable desk policy for advanced rule setting, and data analytics for forecasting future utilization.

Metrigy also recommends that employee surveys or collaboration with team leaders can help to establish appropriate policies.

Device Provisioning

Metrigy discovered no specific consensus on the types of devices that businesses provide to their hotdesking locations. Monitors are the most common, allowing those who bring their laptops to work to benefit from a large screen. Other commonly available devices for videoconferencing include desktop telephones and high-quality webcams.

Some companies provide headsets, but many people are uncomfortable wearing a headset that has been worn by others due to hygiene concerns. More than half of companies with employees who regularly work from home will provide them with two headsets, one for the office and one for home. Only about a quarter of companies require employees to bring their headsets.

Lockers are effective in this scenario for allowing employees to store their personal devices in the office.

Provisioning of all-in-one desktop devices from vendors such as Cisco, DTEN, and Poly is an emerging option for hotdesking equipment. When combined with a hotdesking management system, these devices enable employees to sign in to the device when they arrive and have easy access to meeting and other collaboration apps, as well as high-quality video and audio experiences.

Finally, approximately 35% of businesses provide USB speakerphone devices, which enable high-quality audio experiences via noise cancellation.

More information about Poly: HP is now strengthening its industry opportunity in hybrid work solutions

Hotdesking security

Companies that use dedicated devices must ensure that user information is erased and employees are automatically logged out after a reservation expires or after a period of inactivity. This can be done by a smart office system that supports auto-checkout and occupancy sensors.

The last thing any company wants to deal with is an employee sitting down at a hotdesking location and seeing the previous occupant’s calling, messaging, and other collaboration information. A hot-desking display is the most favorable solution to show the information about the desk and related reservations.

More information for e-ink solution: Minew wireless e-ink label 

When properly implemented, hotdesking can be an effective way of maximizing available office space by ensuring that those who require individual work locations have them and can reserve them before coming into the office, with appropriately available collaboration capabilities.

Smart office in a simple tool: How ONES can help your office

Effective change management is required to ensure the effectiveness of hot desking. ONES is here to help if you are ready to adopt your new smart office setting but do not know how to begin.

Our all-in-one smart office management software enables your employees and visitor to rapidly find, choose, and reserve the workspace that best meets their needs.

Schedule a demo of Bookings ONE now for more details.

The post Tips for Hotdesking Strategy Set-up in Smart Office from Professional first appeared on ONEs Blog.

Experts say the trend of employees not having fixed desks in Singapore is likely to continue, even though safe management measures have been relaxed since April 26 to allow all workers to return to work.

What you should know?

• Hot desking is likely to stay in Singapore in the near future.
• Singapore companies get staff connected through open spaces and discussion rooms.

Learn more: Hot Desking 101: a quick guide

Hot Desking is about…

Hot desking is a workplace practice in which some or all employees exchange desks rather than having a permanent one, which is most common in an activity-based work environment. It allows multiple users can use the same workstation at the same time. 

Workplaces that enable employees to share desks save a lot of space and money. Certain areas, for example, have a high real estate value, causing municipal offices to cut back on spending. This works effectively for employees who spend less than half of their time at a desk during the day.

The reason why hot desking is likely to stay in Singapore is that it can help Singaporean companies to get employees more connected to each other and reduce office costs by cutting off their fixed workstations.

No fixed desks for everyone, even the bosses

More businesses are adopting a flexible and connected workplace, foregoing fixed workstations in favor of more community spaces and shared hot desks.

Tech firm SAP implemented a complete hot-desking strategy in Singapore when it began renovating its offices in April 2021, with the goal of increasing collaboration among its 1,200 or so employees while also providing flexibility in how employees work.

In SAP Mapletree Business City‘s office, there are no assigned desks across the three floors, not even for its senior leaders. Still, there are plenty of options – high workbenches for those who prefer to stand, workstations designed for small groups, or cafe-style seats.

SAP introduces 270 meeting spaces spread across three floors, with a mix of closed pods, open tables, and diner-style booths. This is a significant increase from the previous 104 meeting rooms.

“We see a lot more of the teams sitting on different floors, trying out different spaces,” Verena Siow, President & Managing Director for Southeast Asia of SAP, mentioned. “Also, when you sit on different floors, maybe you’ll meet colleagues that you may not have interacted much with before.”

Implementing hot desking in Singapore can thus help companies to improve cross-departmental communication and relieve the productivity paranoia of decision-makers.

Coming into the workplace is no longer about the physical amenities, it is about the employee experience,

Verena Siow, President & Managing Director for Southeast Asia of SAP

Reduce office costs by cutting fixed workstation

Takeda Pharmaceuticals has reduced the number of fixed workstations in order to create more meeting rooms and community spaces. Its redesigned workspaces were made available to employees at the beginning of this year.

As Inc. studies found out that 40% of an office’s dedicated desk space sits unused on a given day, hot desking can highly help Singaporean companies to reduce their office costs by freeing up these dedicated workstations.

There are now only 40 hot-desking workstations in Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ Singapore office, down from around 120 previously. Lockers have also been installed to provide employees with the option of storing their belongings if necessary.

 “With the exception of meeting rooms, all workspaces are on a first-come, first-serve basis.” Ms. Janice Yee, head of HR at Takeda’s growth and emerging markets business unit, said.

(Takeda’s office is now become) a venue for meaningful face-to-face collaboration, networking, and social connections, rather than keeping to the traditional definitions of what an ‘office’ is

Ms. Janice Yee, head of HR at Takeda’s growth and emerging markets business unit

How to implement hot-desking?

Hybrid work in Singapore means a diverse working style of working at the office and working from home. You can allow your employee to have high flexibility in choosing their desirable workspace.

You can also consider how to reduce the operational cost such as reducing the office workspace and fulfilling the expectation of both employees and administrators.

ONES is one of the famous all-in-one smart office systems that can help you to easily implement hybrid working at ease.  You can easily perform virtual meetings, desk hoteling, and digital office management with our Desk Booking and Management features.  

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/. 

The post Why is hot-desking likely to stay in Singapore from now on? first appeared on ONEs Blog.