11.11.2020, 19:29
Hot-Desking the Hybrid Workplace
A new new desk reservation and space optimization solution from Envoy is helping employers meet office social distancing guidelines.
As companies adapt to the coronavirus pandemic by adopting a flexible model for employees to work remotely or in an office, workplace leaders are reevaluating their space and looking for ways to make it more safe, flexible, and efficient. Desks is available in beta as part of Envoy Protect, Envoy’s suite of tools to help companies safely welcome employees into the workplace.
“The future of work will be hybrid, at least for the next couple years. It’ll be a combination of working from home, the office, or even the nearby co-working space – each for only two or three days per week,” said Larry Gadea, Envoy founder and CEO. “There’s inefficiency in holding permanent desks for people who will only be in an office part-time. Envoy Desks solves this by making desks bookable per day, allowing companies to optimize their use of space, reduce overall square footage and offer more flexibility for workers.”
For employees, Desks makes it easy to book a desk for the day, right from their phone. Employees have the flexibility to choose where to sit, depending on what they need to get done that day. They may want to collaborate with a project team on-site, or want a quiet space for heads-down productivity that they can’t accomplish at home. They’re automatically assigned a desk when they sign-in for the day, or they can select a different seat from the interactive map in the app.
For employers, Desks offers a simple way to ensure teams can collaborate in person while maintaining social distance. As companies shift toward a hybrid approach, they’re redesigning spaces previously allocated for permanent seating to more adaptable spaces that can accommodate hot desking, group work, special events, or client meetings. Envoy Desks is designed to support flexibility, especially as more people are returning to the office and there are changing guidelines around social distancing and capacity limits. Desks analytics can help optimize office layouts by reconfiguring unused space, ultimately reducing the office footprint and lowering real estate costs. Analytics can also be used by after-hours cleaning crews to know which desks and conference rooms to sanitize.
Lionsgate have been using Desks since early September when Envoy offered an early version to select customers as a way of iterating and learning about COVID-specific challenges. Chief Administrative Officer, Heather Somaini, comments: “Working in the entertainment industry is a creative and collaborative process requiring everyone to work closely together.
“Envoy Protect has been an incredible asset to us in enabling us to safely bring teams together. Desks is a key part of our transition back to the workplace, and we see it as a permanent shift in how we design and structure our workplaces moving forward.”
Companies can start a free trial of Desks at envoy.com, or existing customers can start right from their Envoy dashboard.
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