Room and desk booking systems used to be a tool for just that – enabling employees to book specific spaces in the office. But time has moved on, the world of work has changed, and these solutions have evolved beyond the simple allocation of space. They can now support a range of business objectives across organisations of all sizes; they are instrumental in solving challenges associated with hybrid working, and optimising the use of both space and budgets.
1. Proactive in-room solutions for efficient hybrid working
Without a room and desk booking solution, hybrid working can be difficult for employers and employees to manage. Time is wasted as staff call or email around trying to set up some in-office time for collaboration with their team, because they don’t know when their schedules have crossover. Managers might need to check in with their direct reports to determine when they are working their agreed days in the office. Cross-departmental collaboration is hampered because it’s so difficult to figure out when would suit everyone to meet.
Room and desk booking solutions enable everyone to see who is on the premises and where they are located, not just in real-time but looking ahead – at least as far as each individual has pre-booked their space. In addition, managers can assign locations to their team members, to ensure they are present when required.
But what if people don’t turn up when they planned or choose an alternative location when they do? Automatic desk check-in ensures that the system updates when a laptop is connected, which ensures that the availability of desks – and the location of individuals, thanks to user recognition – matches the system with the real world, so the picture it provides is always accurate.
2. Helps get more people back in the office
Many companies have told us it’s still a challenge getting people back into the office, even though in-person collaborative working has proven to be the most effective way for their teams to achieve their objectives.
We’ve found that providing an environment which not only features the latest technology and most comfortable workspaces, but is workflow-enhancing and frictionless to navigate, is key to offsetting the convenience of home working for a proportion of the workforce. Room and desk booking is central to this.
Adding a commute to their day, only to find that their preferred desk is unavailable, they can’t find a parking space – or worse still, they are the only member of their team there so they spend all day on Zoom or Teams, which they could have done from home – is one way to keep people in their home offices by default. With room and desk booking solutions, people can have certainty that their working day isn’t going to be disrupted in such ways.
3. Improves employee wellbeing
Control and certainty are important factors in mental wellbeing, not just for productivity and efficiency. Many room and desk booking systems are accessed via a mobile device app; the ecosystem can easily be expanded to include other elements.
You can enable employees to book anything from a bike locker to a shower, or – most popularly, given that hybrid working has meant rail season tickets offer much less value, and travelling by car has become more prevalent – a parking space. Any element of a working day which could be made better – and less stressful – through booking resources or spaces could be added to this functionality, including gym slots or pilates classes, if the organisation offers this kind of facility (and, given an emphasis on wellbeing in the workplace, increasing numbers are doing so).
Of course, the certainty over where employees will be working on any given day, the equipment they have access to, and who they will be working alongside, is also a major factor in staff being happier and healthier.
4. Aids collaboration and teamwork
Being sure that employees are able to organise themselves, whether in same-function teams or cross-departmentally, removes barriers to collaboration and teamwork. By making it easier to get together in a space which supports creative, productive and efficient working, it’s possible to encourage innovation, facilitate the flow of information and understanding, and build company culture.
Most in-room and desk booking solutions will allow users to filter by a specific size or equipment specification, for example, if they specifically require a large screen, or a right-sized room for their one-to-one meeting. This makes the space booking process more efficient, as they won’t have to scroll through unsuitable rooms to find what they need – and additionally, there’s no turning up on the day to find the room does not suit in terms of size or equipment. When team members have carefully scheduled their collaborative working session, the last thing that’s needed is for everyone to have to wait until a suitable space can be found.
5. Lowers utility bills
With energy prices still at historically high levels, the cost of utilities means households and businesses are very conscious of their use of gas and electricity – and the larger the estate, the greater the savings through savvy energy efficiency measures. Room and desk booking solutions can provide important insight into which areas of each building are most popular, and whether there are any days or times when usage is so low that whole areas, or even floors, may be closed down temporarily, with heating and lighting switched off to reduce energy use.
6. Informs decisions about space
Room and desk booking systems offer a wealth of utilisation data to draw upon when making decisions about workspace design, specification, or even square footage. Many organisations look looking to make smaller offices work harder to be able to reduce their real estate overheads, and booking solutions are absolutely crucial to this reimagining. Not only do these tools facilitate hot desking, but they provided hard evidence about how employees are using the space, and which elements are under-used.
With this sort of data, it’s possible to decide with certainty whether there are enough desks (or too many), the right number of large or small meeting rooms, or even whether facilities are located in the correct place – for example, if a particular desk isn’t getting much use, why might that be? Is it near a busy corridor, too close to the canteen, or right by the toilets? This information can not only be used to create a workspace that meets users’ needs optimally, but also one that they enjoy working in – which of course helps with all sorts of aspects, from encouraging people into the office to attracting and retaining the best talent.
7. Upgrades visitor experience
Room and desk booking systems also dovetail into the visitor experience – whether that’s external visitors such as partner organisations or clients, or internal visitors including workers from other sites, or those who are mostly homeworkers. Aside from the slick, frictionless experience of there being an allocated parking space waiting for them and the meeting room ready for use when required, there are solutions which are linked to digital signage for wayfinding and contactless sign-in technology. As first impressions count, ensuring the best possible visitor experience can help clinch new contracts, aid the development of new partnerships, or nudge the industry’s best talent towards accepting a job offer.
8. Supports agility and flexibility
In challenging times, those businesses which are most nimble and agile are the ones that thrive, able to bend and flex according to the changing market and economic conditions. A room and desk booking solution might only be one tool at a company’s disposal, but it’s a very powerful one. Their usefulness during many businesses’ pandemic responses is a case in point: organisations could block out alternate desks on the booking system to ensure social distancing or close down floors when only a skeleton staff was in the building owing to lockdown – and this was done easily, at the click of a mouse. Equally, this agile response could be applied to other circumstances, such as the quieter holiday periods or when cross-departmental collaboration requires certain teams to be co-located at certain times.
9. Assists emergency response and business continuity
With control over which zones can be available on the system, it’s possible to disallow booking access to specific areas of the estate quickly and easily in the case of any health and safety concerns or accidents, or even maintenance work which cannot be scheduled out of hours – re-allocating any existing bookings which might be affected.
10. Future-proofs the workforce
As time goes by, the generational makeup of the workforce is shifting – with Baby Boomers currently tailing off in numbers, making way for Gen X and Millennials, with a growing number of Gen Z joining the workforce. This youngest generation has grown up fully digital native, plus they are demanding more from workplaces – in terms of salary and benefits, working environment, and flexibility – and for many, hybrid working is the norm, owing to their entering the workforce over the last few years. Employers will find that they need to raise their workspace game to attract the brightest and best by providing frictionless, tech-enabled environments that support workflows, of which room and desk booking systems are key elements.
To find out more about how in-room and desk booking solutions can help support your organisation’s business objectives, fill in the contact form below and one of our specialists will arrange a call to discuss further.
