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Bipasha Zaman
Bipasha Zaman

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The "hot desking" that comes back will change your office

From one side, hot desking can save billions of dollars in wasted office space and drive innovation. If you look from the other, the staff is not calm down, you also decrease productivity. However, there are ways in which this is not the case. Like the office space where hot-desking is very common, the theory behind it is flexibility.

What is Hot Desking?

Hot desking is simply sharing your workstation with everyone. These workspaces can be used by any employee on any day, regardless of department or position.
Initially, however, it was considered only part of Erik Veldhoen's theory of activity-based working. This theory suggests that the number of workstations in an office suite will decrease, while the variety of spaces will increase, resulting in diversified work styles.

What kind of effect does it have?

The theory is that not everyone needs a desk every day. And if your employees aren't in the same seat every day, you won't pile up junk on your desk. It also gives you more opportunities to talk to many colleagues, which gives you new ideas.
Companies, where mobile workers work flextime, have benefits such as facilitating innovation. However, it may not be suitable for the same team to complete routine work with fixed hours from 9 am to 5 pm.
For employees who need a desk or PC, "hot desking" is done with fewer employees than employees. It helps reduce overhead costs but can cause productivity problems if you don't have enough PCs.
"Hot Desking" is a method of keeping the number of PCs used less than the number of employees. The number of desks may also be less than the number of employees.

The roots of hot desking are in military practices called "hot racking" and "hot banking." Soldiers who have finished their duty or shift sleep in the warm beds of soldiers who have just taken turns on the shift. In the 1980s, when PCs were very expensive, hot-desking was first introduced to businesses, inspired by that idea. The idea was to reduce costs by allowing users to share their PCs. But over time, this technique has become completely obsolete. This is because the PC has become a commodity.
Coworking and placement in office space.

Hot desking can be used even more widely if it is placed in only part of the office space. For example, if you have a satellite office with a large number of temporary staff, it is useful to dedicate a portion of the space to hot-desking and a separate meeting room and temporary space to be used only when needed.

Recently, due to the increase in coworking spaces, flexible workspaces are also on the rise. Shared offices also serve the purpose of facilitating the sharing of ideas not only within the company but also among multiple companies, expanding connections and getting people to know their faces. These can also be combined with subscription services that allow workstations and conference rooms for rent in coworking spaces around the world.

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