The Difference Between Hot Desking and Hoteling

Hot desking is a space sharing practice that enables employees to choose an available desk or office space when they arrive at work. Desk hoteling is a rather similar concept; it is a space-sharing practice that allows employees to formally reserve their workstation, much like booking a hotel room.

As a part of many company’s return-to-work strategies, leadership may be considering utilising hot desking or desk hoteling to establish more agile working environments. Motives may vary for taking up this office management strategy. Perhaps the organisation needs to better adhere to public health guidelines, human resource teams wish to stagger work shifts and reduce office capacity. Maybe the finance manager has crunched the numbers and realized the business can create significant savings on real estate costs – your second biggest overhead expense as a company – by redesigning your floor plans. Or even leadership has decided to take a new approach and offer employees the flexibility of choosing if, and when, they come into the office.

Whatever the motive driving such more flexible desk arrangements, the business case for space sharing is significant. Businesses globally are connected by this sentiment through this evolving period most are calling ‘the new normal’. But where to start?

OfficeMap’s software promotes such flexible work arrangements. The software perfectly intertwines both concepts. An employee decides to come into the office to work for the day? They have to ability to find and check-in to an available desk via the OfficeMaps kiosk system. Or planning their work week in advance? The reservation calendar feature for desks and meeting rooms allows users to preview the office arrangement for any day of the week. The employee can see what desks are occupied by which employees, filter desk configuration by team, and reserve their favourite spot.

Whether flexible work arrangements in your company means job-sharing, non-standard working hours or working from home, keeping the entire team productive means sharing accurate information on when and where individuals are available to work. Think your team could benefit from a tool that makes hot desk booking efficient and easy to use across all teams? You can start your free trial today by clicking here.

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