Hot desking has a lot of potential, but only if you do it right. It can help you create an office arrangement that works great for your people – and that is less expensive for you than traditional office setups.
This guide is here to help you cut through the noise and make hot desking work for your team. We’ll talk about how to set up smart systems that keep your employees happy, what the benefits of hot desking are, and how to build a flexible workspace that actually delivers.
The right hot desking tools make all the difference, so we’ll also explain how you can use software to provide a great hot desking experience to everyone at the office.
Refresher: What is hot desking in the workplace?
Hot desking is a flexible work arrangement where employees don't have assigned desks. Instead, they can choose any available spot when they come into the office. This can be either on a first come, first served basis, or they can reserve a desk in advance via desk booking software.
The main idea behind hot desking is to make better use of office space, especially in hybrid work setups where your people are working remotely at least a part of the time. A 2023 survey found that the global average office utilization is as low as 40% – so it’s easy to see that there’s plenty of room for optimization (pun intended).
It might also help encourage collaboration, because employees won’t be sitting next to the same coworkers each day.
On the other hand, some people do like having a dedicated desk (with their personal desk tchotchkes or guaranteed window views) so if you’re transitioning to hot desking for your office, you need to make sure you do it in a way that works well for your people – and that enables them to do their best work.
Find more on the ins and outs of hot desking in hybrid workplaces.
Hot desk booking system vs. hoteling
Desk hoteling and hot desking are often mixed up, but they’re not quite the same thing.
Hoteling means that your employees reserve a specific desk, office, or meeting space ahead of time; think of it as booking a hotel room but booking a desk or workspace instead. Team members choose their spot, and it’s waiting for them when they arrive. This works great for people who prefer structure and like knowing exactly where they’ll sit.
Hot desking, on the other hand, is more about flexibility. While some setups allow you to reserve a specific desk, it’s often first-come, first-served; if the company is using a desk booking app, in practice this means that people can reserve a desk but not the exact desk they want.
In fact, when it comes to hot desking vs. hoteling software, these terms are often used interchangeably. Most platforms, like Officely, can accommodate both styles, so you can tailor the system to fit your team’s needs, whether you’re booking in advance or leaving it up to chance.
Top 7 tips to make hot desking work
So, how can you make sure hot desking works well for your team? What’s the best way to ensure everyone’s on board and can actually benefit from a hot desking model? Find our top 7 tips below.
1. Invest in a desk booking system
The best way to ensure your hot-desking setup is successful is to use a reliable desk booking and workplace management software, like Officely.
It ensures employees can easily book desks, meeting rooms, parking spaces, and equipment – or even a spot for their pets, if you have a pet-friendly office.
Plus, features like attendance visibility give office managers a clear view of who’s coming in enable them to improve team cohesion without micromanaging anyone. Resource utilization analytics offer insights into how your space is used and enable you to make full use of your office space, and potentially cut costs.
Best of all, Officely lives where your team already is, i.e. in the chat tools they’re using all the time, such as Slack or MS Teams. This means your team won’t have to remember to use yet another app and ensures that adoption will be high from the beginning.
2. Instill cohesion with collaborative events
Hot desking can sometimes be a challenge, especially for remote-first teams adjusting to hybrid work.
So, you need to make an intentional effort to create opportunities for employees to engage with one another. Collaborative events can help with that. Here are some examples:
- Team lunches
- Workshops
- Brainstorming sessions
- Casual catch-ups after work
Those can all help build connections and improve your team’s dynamic. With Officely, it’s easy to organize such events and get team members to participate.
3. Address hygiene concerns
Sharing desks can mean sharing germs – plus, nobody wants to inherit someone else’s coffee rings or crumbs. Address how this will be handled before problems start cropping up.
Provide cleaning supplies at every workstation and encourage employees to tidy up after themselves. A simple “clean as you go” policy will help you keep each workstation welcoming for the next person, as will setting up basic expectations for desk sharing etiquette.
4. Create safe places for personal belongings
Without assigned desks, employees might feel a bit unsettled if they don’t know where to keep their laptops, bags, or their stash of emergency snacks. Provide your team with enough storage options – like lockers, cubbies, or even designated shelves – and you’ll make hot desking a smoother experience for everyone.
This will also ensure workstations are clutter-free and help you create a welcoming office environment. Plus, it shows you’ve thought through the details and want to make things easy and intuitive for your employees.
5. Set up spaces for downtime
A hot desking environment can be noisy and overstimulating, especially if your team is used to working remotely most of the time. To help your people recharge during the day, you should consider creating dedicated downtime spaces.
This can be a cozy lounge area, quiet rooms where people could take naps (companies like Google and Cisco are offering this), or simply a designated corner with bean bag chairs where people could decompress whenever they need it.
6. Use software to measure success
Implementing hot desking is one thing – but you also need to make sure it’s working well for everyone and getting you the results you’re after.
Your hot desking software should help you track key metrics like resource utilization, desk usage, attendance patterns, and space efficiency.
This way, you can identify underused areas, optimize layouts, and make the right decisions on how to improve workspaces. This helps save costs and it also ensures your hot desking setup meets your team’s needs.
7. Listen to feedback
Hot desking only works if everyone’s on the same page. All of the above advice would be useless if you’re not open to what your employees have to say about this new system and actually act on their feedback.
Start by outlining how the system works and set basic expectations, from booking desks to cleaning up after use. For this, you can use an onboarding guide, a Slack announcement, or a quick walkthrough video.
Address any potential concerns upfront, like desk availability or personal storage, but leave enough space for feedback – and encourage people to say what they think. Open communication is a must whenever you’re changing the way your office is organized and this will help ensure hot desking is embraced by your people, rather than resented.
.svg)