Is the hot desking system causing employee discomfort? Three strategies for successfully implementing it in your office.

While the introduction of hot desking allows for flexible working styles, it can also create unexpected challenges. The following factors are thought to be the causes of "pain" felt by employees:

The biggest feature of hot desking is that employees can choose their seats freely. However, the hassle of "looking for a seat every day" can be stressful for employees.

When choosing a seat, you may be worried that your favorite seat or the place where you can work efficiently will be taken by another employee. In particular, for employees who are used to having assigned seats, this new daily routine of "selecting a seat" is very often a big stressor.

One problem with hot desking is the management of personal possessions. Not only do you need documents, computers, and stationery for work, but also personal items such as umbrellas, lunch boxes, and winter coats.

This problem can be exacerbated in offices that lack adequate storage space.

In hot desking, people tend to sit apart, which can lead to problems with communication within the team. With assigned seats, the location of team members is always clear, but with hot desking, this is not the case.

It will also become easier to find yourself in situations such as, "I need to discuss something urgently, but I don't know where my colleague is," or, "I want to get the whole team together for a meeting, but it takes a long time to call them."

hot desking offices often have open spaces. In a space filled with various sounds such as phone conversations, meetings at neighboring desks, and keyboard typing, it may be a little difficult to concentrate on work.

This can be a major stressor, especially for employees who prefer a quiet environment.

The open environment of hot desking means that it is difficult to ensure privacy. When working with personal or confidential information, you may be concerned about the eyes of others, which can interfere with your work.

Privacy issues are not just personal issues, but also important issues that concern a company's information security.

There are several common reasons why companies feel this "pain" and end up feeling that hot desking implementation has failed. The quickest way to success is to understand the points where many companies tend to stumble and take measures to address them. The following four points are of particular importance:

One of the reasons why hot desking introductions fail is that the objectives are not clearly defined. In fact, it seems that many companies decide to introduce it for superficial reasons such as "other companies are introducing it" or "we want to reduce office costs."

If you proceed without clarifying what you want to achieve from the implementation and what specific effects you expect, not only will it confuse employees, but you will also likely not achieve the expected results.

Setting clear operational rules is essential for the success of hot desking. Without specific guidelines, it is easy for behavior to occur that undermines the original purpose of hot desking, such as "someone always sits in the same seat" or "someone leaves their seat for an extended period of time, leaving their belongings behind."

If this situation continues, it will create a sense of unfairness among employees and lead to a negative atmosphere in the workplace.

When starting hot desking, it is necessary to prepare the office environment before implementing it. However, there are many cases where sufficient preparation is not made, existing office layouts are reused as is, and necessary equipment is neglected.

For example, if there are not enough lockers and storage spaces, employees will have a hard time managing their belongings, which will lead to lower work efficiency. It is also necessary to design the space to accommodate various working styles, such as booths for concentrated work, meeting spaces, and relaxing break areas.

In addition, environmental factors such as the comfort of desks and chairs, lighting, and air conditioning also have a significant impact on employee productivity and satisfaction. Introducing hot desking system without giving sufficient consideration to these factors will increase employee stress.

The introduction of hot desking is not just a change in the office layout, but a transformation in the way we work. Many employees will be anxious or resistant to losing assigned seats they have been accustomed to for many years. Some are also worried about whether they will be able to adapt to the new way of working.

If the implementation proceeds without properly addressing these fears and concerns, it could lead to a decrease in employee motivation and productivity.

As we have seen, there are many challenges that can be faced when introducing hot desking system. To make hot desking a success and improve employee satisfaction and productivity, it is important to take appropriate measures early on.
Finally, here are three points to help reduce employee "pain" and prevent implementation failure.

The introduction of hot desking can sometimes result in communication challenges, such as "not knowing who is where" or "not being able to talk to someone from an unfamiliar organization when they sit next to you."

To solve these problems, it is important to create a system that promotes smooth communication. Specifically, there are the following measures:

By combining these measures appropriately, you can minimize the disadvantage of hot desking working while maximizing its benefits of stimulated communication.

For hot desking to be successful, it is necessary to create an office environment that can accommodate a variety of working styles.

Start by creating quiet zones for focused work and open spaces for team collaboration. These spaces can be reconfigured to suit the situation using movable partitions and multi-functional furniture.

In addition, use cloud-based seating management systems and tools that support mobile devices to create an environment where you can work from anywhere. This makes it easier to accommodate diverse work styles, such as moving around within the office or working from home.

In addition, to ensure that face-to-face and online communication can be used appropriately, it is a good idea to set up spaces such as soundproof booths for video conferences and an office cafe where employees can easily drop in to relax between work tasks.

Combining these elements allows for a flexible office environment that meets the diverse needs of employees.

To operate hot desking system smoothly, clear and easy-to-understand operational rules are necessary. Below are some key points for creating operational rules.

Specific guidelines are provided, such as seat usage times, cleaning rules, and how to manage personal belongings. This allows all employees to act with the same standards. The key is to create rules and guidelines that are easy for anyone to understand and follow.

Create an opportunity to inform all employees of the purpose of the hot desking system. By creating an opportunity for employees to fully understand the purpose, it will be easier to get cooperation from employees and promote the penetration of the rules.

Introducing hot desking is not the end goal. Even after the system has been implemented, the rules will be reviewed periodically according to the situation. It is important to actively incorporate feedback from employees and continue to seek out better ways to operate the system.

We regularly analyze seat usage and changes in communication. By improving operational rules based on data such as popular seats and conference room usage, you can operate hot desking system more effectively.

Consider making some differences in the rules depending on the department and the work content. Try to operate flexibly according to the characteristics of each department, rather than using uniform rules. It is important to listen carefully to the opinions of employees and reflect the voices of the field through surveys, etc.

"I tried introducing hot desking, but it just didn't work..." When that happens, we recommend our guide to recovering from hot desking failure.

This is a guidebook that will help you resolve common issues that arise after the introduction of hot desking, providing specific explanations of the three issues and solutions that lie behind the feeling of "failure" and providing content that you can start working on today.

For hot desking to be successful, it is essential to approach it from both a soft and hard perspective. It is also important to listen to the voices of those in the field and regularly review the office environment and operational rules. By reading this book, you will surely be able to find a solution that suits your company's situation.

Would you like to join us in creating the optimal office environment to realize new ways of working? Feel free to download it and use it to improve your office environment.