Hotdesking

Constantly moving your staff from desk to desk was a popular craze in the 90s, but advocates of hotdesking say it’s even more relevant now because mobile technology is changing work practices.

Chris Satterthwaite has been a hotdesker since 1997. He’s implemented hotdesking at Chime Communications, the public relations, marketing and advertising group where he’s chief executive, and at his previous communications agency, HHCL. He recalls, ‘Instead of a permanent desk, every employee at HHCL had a locker for their possessions and worked at a different desk every day. It’s what I would call full-scale hotdesking.’

The original principle behind hotdesking, or ‘location independent working’ as it’s otherwise known, is that by moving employees around they come into contact with different influences and avoid becoming stuck in a rut. ‘It’s a great approach for creative companies,’ says Satterthwaite. ‘There’s something beneficial about being next to different people every day in varied environments that stimulates ideas and ingenuity. It definitely makes people more dynamic.’

Mobile working

One of the benefits of hotdesking is also a way of making the most of advanced office systems, which is why it’s becoming more popular among small companies looking to utilise flexible new technology. Satterthwaite originally piloted the idea at HHCL with 40 staff members and it then spread across the whole company. ‘One of the reasons it caught on was that those hotdesking had a better laptop and mobile phone. The others said, “Why can’t we have that?” and our answer was, “You can if you hotdesk”.’

Arman Khan, co-founder of IT consulting and infrastructure company 3net, is also a fan of hotdesking and has implemented it since the company was launched in 1999. ‘It’s best suited to companies where staff spend a lot of time out of the office, seeing clients for example, so permanent space is not required for each employee. That’s particularly true for a consultancy firm like ours.

‘People are generally a lot more mobile nowadays – there’s no need for every member of staff to have a permanent desk with a fixed landline and computer. The success of hotdesking is heavily technology dependent, but there are plenty of systems and devices on the market now that enable flexible and mobile working. Employees are therefore less reliant on a fixed landline and so on, which means they can be in the office less and don’t need a desk that’s solely theirs.’

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