Hybrid working comes packed with the promise great employee benefits – freedom to choose your own schedule, the chance to enjoy better work life balance. But the reality can be very different.
For instance, give people the choice and the office may be deserted on a Friday but over capacity or Wednesday. A packed space where people are fighting for seats – it’s no recipe for workplace joy.
So what should workplace leaders do? The best plan is to set a maximum capacity for the office then give staff the power to come into the office whenever they want – as long they don’t bust the capacity limits. An office desk reservation software solution is the key to making this approach work.
Here are some other ways to bring harmony where there was chaos – by combining technology tools with well-thought-out business rules and easy ways to have F2F engagements:
There’s a place for us: maximise space utilization
As a corporate real estate leader, you need to establish how much space you need, from both the attendance and space allocation point of view.
For example, for an organisation with 600 employees with 300 shared desks the capacity limit is 50%. This means that only 50% of staff can work in the office on any given day.
Office desk reservation software can enforce these capacities and monitor how space is actually being utilised.
Get comfortable: dynamically manage allocated seating
While there will always be allocated seating in any organization, the rise of reverse hoteling has made it possible for real estate leaders to put allocated seating into the hot desking pool when appropriate.
For example, if a manager is away on vacation for two weeks, their office can be reassigned and booked temporarily as a hot desking area through the office desk reservation software.
It’s a great way to fully maximize your valuable real estate.
Modern times: build for today’s worker
Traditionally, office desk reservation software has been rigid in the sense that staff can only book a desk in daily blocks.
But the new breed of solutions, such as Rendezvous, offer the flexible approach of hourly and/or half day bookings – a much better approach for today’s flexible worker.
This feature also enables you to improve seat capacity as multiple employees can enjoy the options of using the same desks in any given day.
Well met: reduce missed connections
Thanks to remote working, employees sometimes miss chances for face-to-face collaboration because when they come to the office their colleagues are working from home.
The most advanced office desk reservation software, such as Rendezvous, has evolved to offer features such as colleague search. Team members can quickly see when their colleagues are in the office and where they are sitting, using a graphical view floorplan.
It’s the perfect way to cut down on frustrating trips to the office that end up with the employee sitting on Teams all day.
Be fair: let’s share
Managers can now put in place business rules to ensure that – while they are not necessarily mandating staff’s schedules – the phenomenon of empty offices on a Friday is avoided.
This is achieved via setting office capacity and using the workplace management software. Once seating capacities are reached staff need to book on a different day – even if it is a Friday. Booking is simple and quick when using a mobile app.
Conclusion
Hybrid working is great and an asset to both employees and employer – if it is well-controlled and supported.
By enforcing a robust and sensible desk allocation policy supported by office desk reservation software you can achieve all of these benefits:
- A harmonious work environment,
- Maximized office capacity and space utilization
- Enhanced face-to-face collaboration
- Fair distribution in terms of days worked in the office.
Every organization needs its staff to make the most of office time, and to come in willingly – and the best way to do it is by teaming a healthy, productive environment with an enjoyable employee experience. Job done.
To find out more please book a demo today.
