.An Introduction to a Desk Scheduling System

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Originally Posted On: An Introduction to a Desk Scheduling System (meetio.com)

The first coworking space, as we know it today, opened in the Mission District of San Francisco in 2005. Fast forward 15 years and there are nearly 19,000 coworking spaces around the world.

One of the benefits of a coworking setup is the flexibility of shared desks. It’s such a powerful benefit that the practice has spread to many corporate offices as well.

Desk sharing, or hot desking, can present challenges, though. One of the biggest concerns is how to schedule the use of the desks. Let’s look closer at desk sharing and how a desk scheduling system can make it more efficient.

Desk sharing can be beneficial for both the employee and the company they work for.

From an employee’s perspective, it gives them more flexibility. They can choose a desk based on what they’re doing on any given day. If they’re working with a project team, the team can group themselves closer together. When that project is done and a new one starts with a different team, those people can move together as well.

From the company’s perspective, desk sharing can lower the cost of renting office space. When everyone gets assigned a desk, you have to pay for that space whether the employees are in the office or not. If a certain percentage of your staff is not on-site at any given time, flexible work arrangements let you reduce the wasted space.

Before early 2020, social distancing was a foreign concept, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed that. Fortunately, Desk sharing systems can offer a good solution for this concern.

A good desk sharing system can ensure that every bookable desk is placed in a safe distance away from one another to meet the social distancing policies in place.

These guidelines can sometimes also constrain how many people can be in an office space at the same time. A system like Meetio Desk can help office managers easily meet these restrictions, as they can decide exactly how many seats that need to be open for bookings at any given time. If there are no free desks there are no free seats. Problem solved!

Desk sharing in a flexible work environment has many benefits but can also have some draw backs. For example, employees could spend unproductive time looking for a free desk. This can become especially challenging in a large and always busy landscape. However, having a desk system like Meetio Desk in place will allow everyone instant access to available sitting options and greatly increase organizational productivity.

With a desk scheduling system like Meetio Desk, employees can check in and out from their smartphones or the optional pucks on the desks themselves. They can also reserve their desks ahead of time, so they’re ready as soon as they arrive at work.

Schedule a demo to see Meetio Desk in action.