Flexible work and flex desk arrangements were critical workplace strategies before the pandemic. However, in recent years, more employees tend to look for workplaces with flexible arrangements.
Flexible arrangements benefit organizations, especially offices with many remote workers. Aside from increasing savings on overhead costs, flexible and hybrid work setups also give employees more control over their schedules.
These flexible arrangements do require hardware and software support. This can be in display screens, mobile apps, and office hoteling software.
What is Office Hoteling?
Office hoteling is a workplace practice that lets employees reserve workspaces or equipment in advance. Many dynamic and flexible workplaces often use these as alternatives to permanent seating.
It allows workers to reserve unassigned seating and office spaces on demand. “Guests” or users can use an available workstation if they have a reservation.
Businesses often use hoteling software to make it possible. Hoteling software for offices addresses many problems that come with pen-and-paper reservations. For example, it prevents issues like misspellings, lost information, or double bookings.
How Does Hoteling Software for Offices Work?
The increased demand for hybrid workplaces has made office and desk hoteling essential. While hoteling has once been relegated to conference or meeting rooms, many offices use this practice extensively.
While employees don’t have permanent desks, they can choose the workspace they want instead. An efficient office hoteling software system supports alternating in-office shifts, meaning fewer desks are also needed.
There are also more things to hoteling in offices and organizations both managers and employees should know about. Here are a few:
Hoteling vs. Hot Desking
While hoteling and hot desking seem similar, they are different processes. Hot desking refers to office setups where multiple users can share a work area or desk at different periods.
Hot desking often comes on a “first-come, first-served” basis. While it is straightforward, it usually has issues with capacity and privacy.
These potential issues can be solved with office hoteling. Employees can reserve desks, meeting rooms, and equipment, including translation equipment, with the help of hoteling software for offices. By doing so, they can check which ones are available for specific time slots.
2 . Virtual Floor Planning
Hoteling software can show users the total available number of rooms in an office. Companies with large offices can benefit from this feature, especially when paired with a lobby kiosk.
With lobby kiosks, admin staff can show floor plans near the entrance to help visitors navigate the facilities. For employees, floor plans can show which rooms or workstations are available for reservation.
Virtual floor plans provide more accessible wayfinding for visitors and employees in general. It also makes it easier for IT staff to edit the floor maps to reflect changes in the office layout.
3 . Scheduling and Reservations
Reserving workstations, meeting rooms, and equipment is made easier with hoteling software.
To make a reservation, users can log in using office hoteling software or request a reservation using a third-party app. They can then view available workspaces they can reserve and choose the one they need.
Managers can also designate available spaces for reservation depending on different factors. These can include employees’ schedules and departments and the type of work.
4 . Automatic Cancellation
Employee reservations can change on short notice, especially with urgent meetings or delays that require rescheduling. Additionally, issues such as double booking and no-shows can slow down workflow for teams.
As a result, one of the most essential features flexible work arrangements need is automatic cancellation.
Hoteling software automates this process, which prevents no-shows from taking up meeting rooms or workstations others need. Managers, admin, and IT staff can also set the software to clear out reservations after a set period automatically.
5. Flex Desk Support and Activity-Based Work Arrangements
Flexible and activity-based work arrangements typically include more open floor plans and shared desks. They are used as a replacement for permanently assigned workstations to save on overhead costs.
These floor plans and work arrangements work best with alternating in-office shifts. These all work best when supported with hoteling software.
Hoteling software helps admin, and IT staff coordinate space usage and scheduling with employees. Workstations or meeting rooms can be blocked for specific time slots without double-booking issues.
What are the Benefits Organizations Can Get from Using Office Hoteling Software?
Many organizations looking to improve their work arrangements consider alternatives to traditional assigned seating. Both hoteling and hot desking have their advantages that suit different needs.
However, hot desking may only sometimes be the right solution for some offices. For example, desk hoteling may be the better option in many cases where there are more employees than available office space.
There are many benefits organizations can gain from using hoteling software:
1 . Better Desk Availability
As commercial space costs increase worldwide, many companies are also reducing their overall space. As a result, they need to find ways to accommodate employees while balancing the need for savings.
Office hoteling can accommodate employees while increasing cost savings on office space. Hoteling software can help managers ensure that employees alternating office shifts are ensured a usable workstation.
2 . Flexibility
In recent years, companies have used hoteling to introduce more flexibility in the workplace. It provides hybrid and remote employees to choose their workstations depending on the task.
3 . Better Space Management
Hoteling software helps companies improve their space usage and management. They offer more visibility on workstations, meeting room reservations, and accurate real-time data on space use.
Managers can use data from the software to improve the office layout to suit the company’s needs better. They can designate the correct number of workstations, meeting rooms, and equipment and ensure access to employees who need it.
4 . Improved Productivity
Another benefit of office hoteling is increased productivity. On top of choosing their workspace, employees also have more control over their schedules. As a result, they achieve a better work-life balance and can focus on crucial tasks.
Employees are more likely to collaborate when given appropriate space to focus on tasks. With hoteling, to designate areas according to employees’ needs.
The Bottom Line
To support a more modern, dynamic office, managers need to ensure their offices can meet their workplaces’ demands. Flex desk arrangements bring much-needed flexibility on top of many other benefits that make it indispensable to more workplaces.
However, they need ample hardware, software, and adequate implementation support like all other work arrangements.
Hoteling software is one of these essential tools for today’s offices. Aside from streamlining reservations for workstations and meeting rooms, it offers real-time data and maps reflecting space usage. These features can take a company’s operations to the next level.
