What is Hot Desking? | A complete guide for Organisations and Freelancers

Since many years, hot desking has become increasingly popular in offices, but employees and business leaders may no longer find it to be as appealing as it once was. Continue reading if you want to know if hot desking is a wise decision for your company.

In this article, we'll look more closely at hot desking—what it is, when to utilise it, and how it might help hybrid businesses achieve their objectives while giving staff members the level of freedom and flexibility they now expect in the age of the Great Resignation.

What is hot desking?

Why is it called hot desking, you may still be wondering. The phrase "hot desking" is thought to have originated from the practise of sailors sleeping in the same berth during different shifts.

In the hot desking work space sharing paradigm, there are more people than desks. Each work station has its own computer in some of these settings, and the employee logs onto a virtual desktop.

In other instances, employees have laptops that they bring to work with them or keep in a locker on the property with any personal items.

How does hot desking function?

A desk, a plug, and some job to do: In both private and open office settings, hot desks give workers a place to work when they need to. In other words, depending on the setting, hot-desking specifics may change.

In other words, while using hot desking, the business sets up a shared workspace or a group of individual desks as a coworking space. Any vacant space, desk, or workstation is temporarily occupied by an employee when necessary.

They may come back the following day and work from a different desk. Since hot desking merely enables daily switching between workstations, there is no permanence offered by it.

Benefits of Hot Desking for Employers

Cleaner Work Areas

If you adopt hot desking, your office will probably be cleaner because employees can't leave their personal belongings, like trinkets and stacks of papers, behind when the workday is over. Employees are empowered to become minimalists by hot desking.

Improve cooperation

People are prompted to walk around the office via hot desking, which stimulates conversation with coworkers with whom they might not ordinarily interact.

Autonomy

Employees that use hot desks have more freedom because it allows them to switch up their daily surroundings while still being mobile. No longer are people confined to their desks.

Benefits of Hot Desking for Employees and Freelancers

Selecting Your Own Ambience

You have a variety of seating options with hot desking. This means that, in contrast to your usual preference to sit around noisy coworkers, you can choose to sit in a quieter corner for the day if you're working on a task that requires more attention.

Hot-desking for independent contractors

Hot-desking is a flexible, affordable option for locating office space if you're a consultant, freelancer, or business owner working at the same place—without the commitment or rigidity of long-term office contracts. It lessens the loneliness that comes with working from home.

When Necessary, A Private Area

At workplace, most occupations require some kind of privacy, whether it is for attending meetings, formulating strategies, or talking about money.

When you're surrounded by colleagues from other teams or firms, these conversations are probably too delicate to be had at a hot desk and need a more private setting.

Maintain order and concentration.

You don't have much time to fill the desk with pointless post-it notes, brochures, or promotional items because it isn't really yours.

In order to leave the desk ready for the next person and to anticipate the same when they choose a new seat the following day, the hot desk concept encourages people to be neater and more digitally organised.

Disadvantages of Hot Desking 

Hardware Setup

An IT nightmare might quickly arise from hot desking. Massive tasks include setting up workstations, connecting network discs and gadgets, and configuring phones. Setting up daily at a different workstation as an employee can be annoying and disorganised.

Routine Disruption

For some employees, it could be challenging to settle into a routine if every day is different. Not everyone should use a hot desk.

Some employees enjoy their personal space and arrange it to their preferences in order to produce their best job. Having to readjust every day could cause you to lose your finest employees and damage your company's reputation.

No Workstation Predictability

Although some individuals associate the word "predictability" with "boredom," predictability can be both desired and required in the workplace, particularly in some more traditional industries where things normally don't change on a daily basis, like insurance or healthcare.

With hot desking, however, workers aren't informed of their working location until they show up at the office. This could increase rather than decrease productivity and lead to stress and tension.

Will hot desking benefit your company?

The first step for a client is to either conduct a desk usage study themselves or hire a third party expert to do it for them. This entails tracking the daily usage of desks and offices during a busy period of about 4 to 6 weeks.

As a result, some businesses discover that just 25 to 30 percent of their desks are actually being used, which implies they are using up too much office space and having too many desks.

Is It Ideal for Your Business?

Although hot desking have many advantages, they might not be the best choice for every firm. Certain internal teams must regularly meet together for some businesses, and disrupting that dynamic can have a negative impact on productivity.

In order to make an informed decision, HR should take into account the following:

• Do most of your staff members work onsite or remotely?
• Does your line of work demand a lot of departmental cooperation?
• Do the work schedules for your staff provide flexibility?

Larger firms where a portion of the staff is frequently on the road, working remotely, or flexible in their daily schedules are best suited for the hot desking concept.

Similar to this, hot desking can be used if employees of various internal teams must frequently collaborate on projects.

Conclusion

Hot desking provides chances for both businesses to save money and for employees to work more productively. Your workplace culture must be considered when implementing any new policy.

HR managers need to step back and consider the big picture before telling staff that personal desks are no longer an option. In spite of the temptation, it's important to keep your eye on your business objectives. Popular trends can be appealing in any industry.

One of your company's most crucial characteristics is its culture; as such, it's critical to avoid sacrificing it in favour of a new rule.

Making sure that hot desking naturally complements your current office rather than competing with it is the key to successful implementation.