Work from home disrupted the normal working conditions in most offices. However, as the vaccination campaigns show signs of success, companies are preparing to restart the offices. In order to ensure a smooth transition, many firms are choosing to opt for a hybrid workspace where employees work from a temporary office.
Work from home disrupted the normal working conditions in most offices. However, as the vaccination campaigns show signs of success, companies are preparing to restart the offices. In order to ensure a smooth transition, many firms are choosing to opt for a hybrid workspace where employees work from a temporary office.
These hybrid workspaces can be booked online and allow the employees to come to their respective desks and perform their operations. This way, companies can save a lot of costs that would be otherwise consumed in having a regular office and its maintenance.
In this article, we will tell you how you can choose the best desk booking software for your hybrid workspace.
What to Look for in a Hybrid Desk?
Before we move ahead to what key-features we should look for in a desk booking platform, we must understand how hybrid desks work.
Hybrid Desks
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Instead of having a proper office space like in the pre-pandemic era, companies are looking for a desk booking software that offers a workspace for a few days. These temporary desks are called hybrid desks, and their purpose is to let the employees use an office designed according to their requirements.
Hybrid desks are usually made available in two ways. In some cases, employers contact the platform providers and reserve a desk for themselves, also called hoteling. In others, they might come to an office and work from any available desk (first-come, first-served basis). This system is known as hot-desking.
Most of the platforms offer you both types of services, and you can decide the best practice for your firm. For acquiring these booked desks, your company has to send them an office floor plan. They will offer the office, meeting rooms and common areas according to this given design.
Also, these desks have several digital markers that confirm if the desk is being utilized or not. Hence in most hybrid workspaces, the employees must use a QR code or RFID tag to start working at these physical desks.
This innovative offline office approach has resulted in several desk booking software operating in the market and made it difficult to choose the best desks. If you are looking for the best desk booking software for such workspaces, you have to consider certain factors such as:
Advanced Filtering
When companies are looking for a hybrid desk booking system, they want a space that matches their requirements. Therefore, advanced filtering is a primary tool that a desk booking software must provide to its users.
Advanced filters such as location, availability, specific date or time interval, desk endowments help the users find precisely what they are looking for. These filters also let the users customize their workspace.
Check-In at the Desk
An efficient desk booking system, as roomio, allows you to monitor everything about your booking. If you are creating a hybrid workspace, you must find a system that lets you know how many desks are actually being used and how many employees are absent from their desks.
That’s where desk booking systems will help. Their features such as advanced check-in systems or QR codes help your company maintain the desk’s utility.
Easy-to-Use Interface
An easy-to-use interface that allows you to make instant bookings is essential for a good desk booking platform. The platform should offer different options for bookings, such as a web interface or a mobile app so that employees can book from anywhere.
Similarly, the platform should offer you several filters such as lights, monitors, mouse, visitor chairs, or desk endowments that allow users to receive exactly what they are looking for and get the desired workplace in simple clicks.
Facilities
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Along with the basic desk finding service, it is essential to note what other facilities are provided by the platform.
For example, some desk booking software allows you to visit desks with people having similar roles like yours. These groups of desks are called ‘neighborhoods.’ They are beneficial for being productive in your respective field and learning with like-minded people.
Also, you would need to sync your desking data to your calendar at times. At such conditions, the platform must provide you with automatic synchronization with the calendar system and integration with other software, such as Google Workplace, Microsoft Exchange/Outlook, Slack, or Microsoft Teams.
Similarly, the platform must take active space for social distancing because even if we have been vaccinated, it is necessary to follow social distancing and other COVID-19 regulations. Many desk booking platforms allot the desks according to COVOD-19 advisories or arrange the desks in such a way that employees can follow social distancing.
Apart from these, the platform should also offer helpful features for ensuring the employees’ physical and mental health, such as health questions. Some platforms add contact tracing features and health questionnaires that ask employees how they feel before they enter the office.
Rooms’ Overview
One of the most essential features that a desk booking system must provide is a visual representation of the rooms they are going to offer.
The platform must let its users visualize the plan of the available rooms. This way, you will know how the workplace looks, what its location is, are the other desks booked or not, and so on.
Hardware Facilities
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Along with the software facilities, the platform should also fulfill the hardware requirements of the customers. For example, your company might need big displays outside the office or employee badges, roadmaps to reach the respective desks, or anything else.
If the platform provides you with all such requirements, it becomes easy to manage the employees and regular working operations.
Final Words
Hybrid spaces are the most innovative result of the pandemic where employees can finally work like old days. Many online platforms are utilizing this opportunity to create such workspaces and provide lots of facilities for making you select the desk.
Click here for more information about How to Implement the Hybrid Work Model.
However, what hybrid space suits your company solely depends on your requirements. If some software provides you with all the desired facilities from those described in the article, it is simply the best desk booking software for you!
