Say goodbye to the days when you start a new job and are assigned a desk which you decorate with photos of a partner, trinkets from your last trip to Europe and post-it notes reminding you of the report due tomorrow and the bottle of wine you need to pick up for dinner.
Today many businesses are joining the hot-desk movement. Employees are no longer expected to plant roots at an appointed desk and sit in the same spot all day, every day. Instead, hot desking is on the agenda – designed to inspire employees to be fluid in the way they work, to feel as if they can work from anywhere in the office space, but still have the same access to all facilities like printers.
A lot of the top companies have jumped on the ‘hot desk’ bandwagon in search of greater productivity and teamwork. Australian companies include Macquarie Bank, Microsoft, Jones Lang LaSalle, GPT Group Goodman and Commonwealth Bank, just to name a few. In Melbourne alone, the hot desking industry has increased by a mind-boggling 960 percent in the past three years, according to a recent report by Knight Frank real estate agents.
What are the advantages to this evolving office trend?
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Decluttering
One of the most obvious benefits to hot desking is the opportunity it provides to say goodbye to that mounting clutter of dust-ridden reports, used post-it notes and grubby mugs, thus helping you to feel refreshed and more organised.
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Getting to Know your Peers
With hot desking comes the great excuse of chatting to employees you wouldn’t normally chat to. You can team up too with individuals you might be working on a project with. Sometimes there won’t even be the need to use a meeting room. Hot-desking also provides space for those sales people who swing by just once a week or so to print brochures or submit figures.
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Employee Autonomy
For employees to be productive they need to be happy. People have different needs in order to work efficiently. Some might prefer a more lively, social environment. Others might work best in a peaceful atmosphere, devoid of distractions. Hot desking allows employees to choose areas of an office that suit their working style.
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Rejuvenating Infrastructure
The hot desk scenario sees employees moving around the office. This means that they will need to be able to access the facilities from anywhere. Advancing companies are moving most of their business systems to the cloud these days (HR, payroll, printers) so that employees can access all facilities from anywhere. Most importantly, they can avoid having to rely on that printer that jams with almost every job.
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Saving Costs
Maybe too many episodes of Mad Men mean you have gotten way too comfortable to adapt to hot desking, but think of how you can save on infrastructure costs! Companies can cut down on wasted space with hot desks. Using the space you have more efficiently. No need to upsize. Hot-desking will save money!
Affordable Fitouts can help plan and design a versatile and cost-effective hot-desk solution for your office. Give us a call today on 1300 90 22 18.
