Let’s be clear, hybrid work looks different for everyone, and to a large degree, it always will. For some, it looks like planning to come into the office to connect with your friends whenever you’re going in. For others it’s a regular rhythm where you plan to come in on specific days of the week, having a consistent connection with those that sit nearby.
There’s no right and wrong, it’s all valid, but spending time trying to understand what works best for your organization, and what you, and your people need is always a good place to start. Here are some things to consider:
What do your people need?
What do you need?
Flexible working will sometimes mean having to stay agile, but as long as you can keep on top of the needs of your people and your spaces you’ll never stray far from the road. Here are 3 tips to find out what you need:
3 ways to find out what you need
Picture this: You wake up in the morning after the weekend, the sun is shining and you’re pumped to go into the office that day. You don’t need to pre-book a desk because your manager has already assigned you one that you use regularly. On your way to the office, you wander past your favorite coffee shop and grab some drinks for yourself and the teammates you know will be sitting at desks near yours. You bump into them at the front door, and although you all arrived early you can all check into your desks anyway.
You see, Assigned Desks are more than just a tool to maintain the organization of your office space. For your people, it’s the thing they look forward to when they come in, and here’s why:
With Assigned Desks, everyone has perfect booking visibility. Everyone knows exactly who is working and where at any time, and on any given day. Coworkers can connect and shoot the breeze with their friends who are working close by, and Facility managers can better understand how their spaces are being used by getting better data. Not only is this a perfect solution for companies to know exactly who’s onsite in case of emergencies, but it is also great for your people to know that they have a guaranteed space to do their best work, and connect with friends every time they come into the office.
One of the main reasons your people want to come into the office is because they want to connect with their friends. What Assigned Desks does is encourage coworkers to connect by giving them a familiar space to do their best work on a regular basis. They’ll have their own spot to work with all the amenities they need, and they’ll be close to their team members more consistently enabling those deeper work relationships to form.
Coworker connection is crucial, if not THE most important part of any team and assigned desks does all the legwork for you. Getting this right means your teams will be successful in their work, and in their lives. By assigning desks to members of your team on specific days of the week, you will encourage those regular touch points your people will have with one another on a consistent basis, the outcome of which will result in a shared mission, company vision, and objectives. Now, who wouldn’t want that?
For Office or Facility Managers looking for more space management options to add to their hybrid tool kit, Assigned Desks are far more powerful than you think. Does it encourage team connection? Yes. Does it mean you can know exactly who is working where at any time? Yes. Does it also mean you can clean up the chaos and confusion of hot desking hassles and enable your spaces to run smoothly and autonomously without having to step in and intervene every 2 seconds? 100%!
As a way of optimizing your spaces in a way you’ve perhaps not experienced before, Assigned Desks enables you to equally share desks of your choice amongst any team members you choose and on any given day of the week. All your team needs to do is show up, and if there’s a no-show, you can either give that spot to someone else or release the desk back into the system to be booked by another team member. It really couldn’t be more simple.
With Assigned Desks, your data on how your spaces are being used is more accurate, period! Those that have desks assigned know where they’re sitting, and those who are simply ‘desk hotelling’ know exactly where they can and cannot work also. Your office is organized, there are no booking conflicts as everyone knows what’s available, and your people can cancel bookings allowing you to reassign a desk to someone else ahead of time. It’s a win-win, and the actionable data you get back from how your office is being used is a fantastic resource for making important decisions like repurposing space, cutting costs, and it can also play a huge part in crafting a hybrid policy that works for you, and your people.
Let’s be even clearer, hybrid work looks different for everyone, and to a large degree, it always will. The very least we can do is bundle problem after problem and turn it into one blindingly simple solution to take care of that, right? Exactly!
Interested in getting started? Get in touch with our team for a demo.
How do you encourage team connection, and consistently maintain office organization in your company?
