Management guru Peter Drucker once said: “What’s measured improves”. And post-Covid organizations are turning to data in their search for better productivity, worker wellbeing and cost savings.
All at the same time…and they don’t want to just survive, they want to thrive.
So that’s why there’s never been a better time to invest in hot desk booking software.
Why the workplace is flexing
Agile working is not a new trend, but lockdown has pushed it to the fore, with homeworking more common and technology such as Zoom and Teams disrupting the way people hold meetings.
The Insight Group says that post-Covid between 40-50% of the workforce will be working remotely, compared to only 10% before. As they suggest this will have a significant impact on the corporate real estate footprint.
Before the pandemic, corporate real estate was seen in terms of core, semi-flex and flex, with core the most important. Now, it’s the turn of semi-flex and flex.
So there’s pressure on real estate and FMs to rationalize expenditure, make sure office space is fully utilized, and enable an increasingly agile workforce to work productively at HQ.
Recognising the accelerated move to agile working, NFS has been enhancing its solutions to keep workers productive and safe, while helping real estate leaders get maximum desk space utilization.
Once, workers could turn up to work and have a personal desk at HQ – even if they hadn’t been there for months. These days, they often have to play hide and seek to find a desk.
But it doesn’t have to be a free-for-all. One key element of hot desk software is the ability to pre-book a desk using a mobile app.
With features such as Outlook integration it becomes an easy process to book the desk and add it to your calendar from the touchscreen.
Desk sensors are a great way to identify desk availability, offering an easy check in/check out process using QR codes or RFID readers. With Covid, they have also become essential for identifying when a desk is in the process of being cleaned.
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It’s also becoming increasingly popular for companies to use sensor technology to manage hot desks and collaborative spaces.
This removes the need to book ahead as staff can simply see on a digital signage platform where the available spaces are – the sensors detect when the staff member is there (or not).
How does hot desk booking software save you money?
By introducing easy-to-use hot desk booking software with tight integration to technology your staff already use – such as Outlook – you make staff more productive as they spend less time worrying about finding a desk or checking their schedule.
The technology also provides more control over desk no-shows – you can specify a time for an empty desk to be released so someone else can book it. With desks costing thousands of dollars to run each year this is a problem you literally cannot afford to have
With 100% accurate usage data – such as provided by sensor technology – you can now make informed choices about real estate configuration.
You want to increase desk ratios. Even a small change can potentially unlock thousands of dollars in annual savings.
Look at this example:
Within a few months of implementing hot desk software, the cost savings are significant even if the company achieves a modest desk ratio of 10:8.
Achieve 10:5 and the returns on a modest technology investment are huge.
Armed with this information you can see clearly that by increasing utilization you can easily, if you wish, shed 1,000 desks and still maintain full occupancy.
Discover how hot desk booking software works for you with our ROI calculator
