Hot-desking: the working practice of sharing desks or workstations between workers, as a means of saving space and resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_desking
The concept is close to 20 years old. First applied to sales departments, only touching base from time-to-time, and an obvious measure considering their time spend in the physical office. Somewhat later driven by ‘cost control’ reducing cost of facilities. Today we work with a laptop, a smart phone and the occasional note block. Working from Starbucks, the Aircoach or from home becomes common practice. After all, it is our product, true mobile working, yet not embraced by our organisation. Should we be drinking our own champagne?
Office gurus claim to reduce the office space by 25%, bringing people, physically in the office at any given point in time, closer together. No longer only cost driven, it is supposed to make the task central to where and with whom we work. Cross pollinating of roles and departments will stimulate innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. Imagine the (potential) customers you’d meet at Starbucks showcasing our product.
The theory aside; would it work for you?
Points for consideration:
- Would hot-desking stimulate cross functional working?
- Would hot-desking constrain knowledge sharing?
- Are their any cultural considerations to take into account?
- How much time do you really spend behind your ‘personalized’ desk?
- Would a 25% opex reduction on facilities be feasible (and fit our Green Agenda) ?
- What facilities are we lacking? (wireless connectivity, ‘library’ zones for undisturbed working,…)
Look around; do you really need that stapler? 🙂