The Must-Have Features of a Desk Management Solution

Over the last year, the coronavirus pandemic has transformed the way we work. It has posed several challenges for the corporate world to continue operations and adapt to the “work from home” (or WFH) model. With no signs of complete office-based working even in the post-pandemic workplace, businesses are now adopting the “hybrid workplace” model that allows employees to switch between the office and remote working based on need and function. 

The latest statistics also support this trend: An estimated 20-25% of the workforce in advanced economies could effectively be working from home for three to five days every week shortly.

This implies that facilities managers no longer need to opt for a one-to-one desk allocation to their employees. Corporates are also looking to grab the opening to reduce their real estate footprint to optimize the space they need to provide.

That being said, it’s unfortunately not true that fewer people in the office with fewer seats to cater to mean an easier time for the Facility Manager. We are witnessing the growth of innovative office solutions like desk management that can help improve the overall office space management with the best results.

How does desk management work – and what are its essential features? Let us talk about them in the following sections.

Smart Desk Management – The new approach to workplace infrastructure

Desk management solutions can help you balance your in-office capacities with the remote working opportunities that are arising from an evolving work culture. For example, a smart desk management solution provides a flexible desk seating facility, which can be freed or reallocated depending on where your employee is working from on that day.

A smart desk management solution is not difficult to implement in any workplace setup if you have the right contextual data about how your employees are moving or utilizing the physical spaces in your workplace.

Let us look at 4 must-have features that you need in any Desk management solution.

4 Must-have features of a desk-management solution

The increasing commercial estate prices and the changing nature of office work make a desk management solution a viable investment. With nearly 40% of office workers spending up to an hour each week searching for free desks or meeting rooms,  desk management solutions can help you save time as well as up to 20-50% of your annual workspace costs.

Wondering which desk management solution is good for your office space? Here are 4 essential features that this solution must possess:

1. Allows reserving workspace in advance

As compared to traditional workplace setups (with a fixed desk for each employee), the desk management solution should enable “hot desking” – or the ability for employees to book their working desk or a conference room whenever they need one. Adding to that, they should also have the flexibility of reserving a desk using their mobile phone – while they are on the move.

The increasing number of temporary and contractual employees hired by businesses should also have this facility – as you do not want them to waste valuable time whenever they visit your office premises.

The use of mobile-based desking solutions can empower your workforce with a sense of autonomy and giving them all the infrastructure support they need when they need it, leading to higher productivity.

2. Occupancy analytics on space usage

With fully implemented desk management software, facility managers can keep a real-time tab on office space and room usage and drive intelligent optimizations. This is the age of data analytics and occupancy analytics offers much promise.

How does occupancy analytics improve your organizational efficiency? It can offer the following business benefits:

• Improves employee productivity through a data-driven understanding of how your employees move around in the office. These insights are useful for creating more open and free-flowing spaces and the optimal support infrastructure.
•  Optimize your space utilization by developing a real-time knowledge of office spaces that are not used optimally by employees and can be sold or rented out.
• Save operational costs through better energy efficiency – with valuable insights on how office assets like air-conditioning and lighting are being used.

3. Operational efficiency through space optimization

In the post-pandemic workplace, you will need to optimize your office space and operations to adapt to changing work environment needs.

For instance, if you are looking to resume office operations with 50% capacity and safe social distancing, innovative desk booking solutions can help unlock more space by:

• Eliminating any ghost booking of office spaces through timely releasing of unused spaces.
• Capturing the real-time data about your current office layout and allocated spaces – helps you analyze, measure, and improve your office space.
• Providing useful insights about productive spaces that encourage collaboration among employees

4. On-premise people detection and counting

In the age of social distancing and flexible working, you need answers to the following questions:

• How many employees are in the office at any given time?
• How many employees are expected to check in (or check out) on a specific day or time?
• Do your contractual workers want to book an office seat in advance – and for which time slot?

With the current emphasis on employee safety, a desk management tool should help you detect and count your on-premise workforce and design social distancing floor plans accordingly. Using desk management software, you can control:

• The number of in-office employees
• When it is safe for them to occupy office spaces.
• How they are going to sit to ensure social distancing.

Conclusion

With the increase of the hybrid workplace model, business enterprises need a smart facilities solution like Desk Management that can optimize their available office workspace and improve employee productivity.

SeQure’s desk management tool has all the essential features outlined in this article – and much more. Be it an interactive visitor management solution or an internal self-servicing help desk, we have the products designed for a complete workplace management solution.

How can our Desk Management solution work for your future workplace? Check out our free trial version or schedule a product demo now.