As businesses begin to think about the future of their workplaces, everyone is becoming a CRE expert. Buzzwords that I had hoped and prayed were behind us are seeing renewed interest. Concepts that I had hoped were relegated to the trashbin of history are being brushed off and given new life. Somehow, the CRE of 10 years ago is coming back around.
I try not to judge too harshly because CRE is a hard concept. New people to the field don’t realize the nuance and difficulties that go into it. Sadly, many commercial real estate people (brokers and consultants) like to play into that fact and encourage a little misdirection because it makes it easier for them to sell that person on an idea because they’ll be able to seemingly improve on it and show their value.
Two of these terms that I am seeing a lot more often are hoteling and hot-desking as companies try to figure out a way of using their space more “flexibly” or with “agile principles.” Unfortunately, both of these words are historical branding of processes that really don’t work well in the world we are heading into.
There are four ways that desks can be allocated to employees (which can then be mixed and matched operationally):
- Assigned seats where the desk is 100% allocated
- Desk booking where space is reserved in advance
- Shared seating where a block of desks (usually no more than 10) is shared across a number of employees
- Free address, first-come-first-served where any seat can be used by any person
Hoteling is generally the process of combining the above methods 1 and 2 where the hotel desks are reserved in advance much like travelers book a hotel room. Some people end up having assigned desks because otherwise, they would just be booking that same desk every day anyway so it cuts down on operational support. In reality, this just leads to a lot of hassle for everyone involved because over time people either try to claim a hotel desk as their own by overbooking it or they begin showing up without booking ahead at all which leads to confusion and overlapping claims on a desk.
Hot-desking is the combination of methods 1 and 4 where the hot-desks are generally of a lesser level of size and technology. As people come into the office that do not have an assigned desk, they head to a hot-desk to work from. This process typically leads to an “us versus them” mentality of space because the people with assigned desks are usually in better locations with more functional space. Over time, more people angle to get an assigned desk (regardless of how often they are actually in the office) leaving the concept not achieving the targeted gains.
There is no right way to design an office, but there are many, many wrong ways. Both Hoteling and Hot-desking can work in principle but the way they are typically implemented do not lead to successful outcomes. In my experience, it is better to start with how people actually work and then design occupancy around that. And the reality is, most people don’t need “their desk,” they need effective space with the right support services nearby (coffee, printer, supplies, meeting rooms, etc).
Method 4 above, done right, offers the greatest benefits to both employer and employee but also has the greatest learning curve and risk which is why so few organizations are willing to move straight there. Middle-of-the-road solutions like hot-desking and hoteling sound extremely appealing because it sounds like lower risk while still getting some benefits. Unfortunately, a bad middle-of-the-road solution can be worse than a mediocre good decision.