Van Nguyen, 19 March 2017

What is Innovation?

Simply stated, innovation is the action of creating something new. We are surrounded by innovation and it can be found everywhere. It does not only make our life easier but also boosts productivity, entertains us and broadens our ability to communicate. Innovation is so broad, so diverse and so complex that it cannot be seen as a fix study. For certain, an improvement in the quality of living can be seen.
When we think of innovation, we often associate that term with technology. Quite understandable, since technology advances have been impressive in the past decades. Sources of innovation can be found across any business, service or industry. However, innovation can come in many different forms, from tangible to intangible. Especially for businesses, it has always been a skyrocket topic. Whether innovation is their core business or the way an organisation can simplify its processes to make them more effective, efficient, and essentially more competitive in the market.

Innovation in Offices

Facility managers and office managers around the globe are responsible for organising office spaces. They set up a space that is not just a working place for employees, but more a strategical tool for productivity and collaboration. The right office environment can set employees up with right situation and motivation to undertake projects. Now, there is a new office craze called ‘hot-desking’.

What is ‘Hot-desking’?

Hot-desking is basically the practice of not giving employees an assigned desk in the office. Instead, employees come to work and can sit anywhere they please, from fully equipped desks to more public spaces like lounges. Thanks to technology advances like wireless internet, laptops and tablets, employees do not necessarily need to be chained to a single desk.
But in order to make this concept work, a company should take special care to create spaces in the office that can easily be reshaped for different tasks and evolving teams.

Pro and cons of hot-desking

A lot of major companies have implemented hot-desking, to name a few: Microsoft, PT Group Goodman, Ernst & Young and Deloitte. But what works for one company does not necessarily work for another. Hot-desking tends to affect different employees in different ways.

While the benefits of hot-desking can lead to an environment that encourages creativity by boosting opportunities for workers to talk to colleagues they would not normally talk to and to better team ethics, there is also a disadvantage.

One of the major criticisms of hot-desking is that it reduces the opportunity for employees to express their identity and personality at work, which in turn can decrease job satisfaction.

It can make employees feel under-appreciated at best and unwanted at worst. Hot-desking in fact can damage both morale and productivity more than it improves them. However, the flaws that have pointed out can be the result of poor planning and execution.

“To be successful, spaces need to balance the requirements of the dominant working styles of the business with possibly divergent preferences of individuals, and management needs to shift to outcome focused management in order to give accountability to employees for their own work.”, said Pip Dexter, Human Capital partner at Deloitte Consulting.

Is hot-desking right for your business?

From a managerial perspective, hot-desking is attractive because it can cut overhead costs significantly since office space represents one of the largest costs in a running business. Therefore, before introducing this kind of workplace in your office, try running a survey with your staff. It’s highly likely that the people who are going to be most affected by this strategy are your employees. Hence, involve your team and consult them during all stages of the process. Hot-desking is the way of the future.

Van Nguyen

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