Desk-sharing with feel-good factor

Efficient space use is one strategy companies can use to counter the current cost pressure crisis. For this reason office spaces everywhere are being reinvented and desk-sharing concepts are becoming established in more and more organisations. A trend that opens up opportunities, but also involves a few challenges.

The thing is, whether or not it’s worth doing depends on how the project is implemented. If workspaces are properly equipped and the individual zones are planned to suit the work culture, there can be plenty of potential in flexible office organisation.

It’s essential that employees are able to do their jobs flexibly and a large number of colleagues work remotely at customer premises or as field sales and service staff. Even if all indications are that the office needs to be organised as an agile environment with colleagues choosing where to sit, it’s still important to analyse requirements precisely and put a cooperative strategy in place. Desk sharing should match the work culture – and the employees should be on board with the concept to guarantee long-term identification and motivation.

• tructural requirements: Would the spaces allow zoning and furnishing to eliminate visible hierarchies and differences?
• Employee structure and management culture: How many people from different departments use the space? Can the desk-sharing idea be organised consistently without lots of exceptions? 
• Clean desk policy: Is the workforce familiar with the demand for empty workspaces?
• Furniture that can be configured flexibly: Is there a universal furniture range that allows individual adjustment?
• Digital office organisation: Are the technical and digital requirements met to ensure that everyone can access the relevant data and systems? 
• Workspace management: Are you already using digital tools to plan spaces and adjust furniture? Are there enough workspaces?
• Zoning: Are there retreat areas and opportunities to work in private when necessary? Is there provision for co-working and communal areas?

Desk-sharing is ideal for teams with an agile working approach. However, switching desks can also encourage creativity and discussion as a general principle. The thing is, if you sit somewhere different every day, you come into contact with a different set of colleagues – including people from different departments – as well as seeing the office from a different perspective and widening your interpersonal radius. This makes it easier to work in different teams.

• Space and cost savings
• Flexibility and creativity
• More interaction in an active form
• Breakdown of hierarchies
• Hybrid work forms become easier (switching between face-to-face and remote working becomes easier)
• Employer appeal (agility is a key aspect of a modern work culture)
• Employee satisfaction (if the spaces are optimised to the work processes so that people can work efficiently)

An office that doesn’t have fixed desks should have an alternative infrastructure and a concept of its own. Zoning plays a more important role here: where do colleagues go when they arrive? What’s the first thing they do? An option for storing their personal things such as the ACTA.PLUS Locker system ensures everyone feels confident that their stuff is secure so they can get on with the day.

Our ACTA.PLUS Lockers can form an anchored starting point in the office. You have the chance to pick your own locker in a colour that matches your mood that day, and use it to stow everything you’re not going to need in the next few hours. Spend a little time chatting to colleagues at the counter or over a coffee, work out the to-do list and ready yourself mentally for the day ahead. With our working environments and style collections, social areas are the perfect opportunity for creating an inviting and comfortable design that reflects the corporate work culture. More about this below.

A flexible desk-sharing arrangement calls for robust yet flexible outfitting. Bearing in mind the changing requirements, it’s best to choose furniture that can adapt to new situations – for instance our TALO.YOU desk system. Flexibility is key: if desks and chairs can be adjusted properly to suit user needs, the working day will be so much healthier.

Privacy and acoustics are two further aspects that are indispensable for a healthy, stress-free working atmosphere. Ideally the desks should feature sound-absorbing screens such as INSIDE.30. Telephone boxes such as our QUIET.BOX or TALK.BOX and room-in-room solutions like the THINK.TANK or MEET.IN contribute towards a good working atmosphere.