Digitalisation brings with it many new developments, including changes to the traditional workplace. Whereas in the past you could personalise your own desk in the office with documents, photos, collectable figurines and the like, nowadays you often have to make do with a sparse workspace if you’re not used to flexible workspaces.
What are flexible workspaces?
Flexible workspaces are – as you might expect – flexible compared to traditional workspaces. This means there are no fixed seats; instead, you’re free to choose your own every day. Everywhere you look, there are the same desks with the same equipment, just waiting to be taken by a new employee. All you have to do is place your laptop on the desk and you’re the temporary owner of that desk. From an employee’s perspective, this means a sort of scramble for the best seat, because, as the saying goes, first come, first served! From an employer’s perspective, a flexible workspace means – depending on the size of the company – huge cost savings.
But it’s not just the seats that are flexible in desk-sharing; the office spaces themselves are too. There are various areas designed to cater for different work requirements. For example, there are team areas that facilitate collaborative work, meeting rooms for discussions, quieter rooms for phone calls or focused work, and meeting points for staff – such as business lounges – which foster creativity and provide a relaxed atmosphere.
Which companies are already benefiting from this?
One of the best-known advocates of flexible workspaces is Google. Many companies want to follow Google’s example, as it is a prime example of how well this flexible alternative works. But Lufthansa and Siemens are also already adopting the unassigned desk model, and more and more companies are following suit, as many believe that desk-sharing in the office also promotes creativity and flexibility in the way people work.
Advantages and disadvantages of flexible workspaces
Advantages
The advantages of flexible workspaces mainly benefit employers. The most positive impact of free choice of workspace is arguably on costs. Larger companies in particular have a great many employees, some of whom work part-time or from home. When flexitime is added to the mix, many desks are regularly unoccupied, resulting in unnecessary costs. Efficient allocation of workspaces can lead to significant cost savings.
Particularly in creative work, it is important to experience and see new things. With flexible workspaces, employees have new neighbours every day and a different working environment. Furthermore, with desk-sharing, desks can be adapted to daily needs. This means you can sit at a standard desk or even on a sofa or a beanbag – depending on what best suits the task at hand.
Another advantage is tidiness. Fixed office workstations often end up as mountains of rubbish – bits of paper here, returnable bottles there, and yesterday’s sandwich has been left behind too. With the daily freedom to choose your own seat, you have to clear your desk every evening. This prevents a mess of loose papers or a jumble of returnable bottles from building up in the first place.
Disadvantages
It is primarily employees who have to put up with the disadvantages of flexible workspaces. What is essentially a positive freedom of choice can quickly turn into a constraint and a sort of competition for the best seat. Everyone is different; some people don’t mind where they sit, whilst others need a certain level of comfort or are creatures of habit and cannot get used to a new environment every day. As a result, their concentration shifts to adjusting to the new surroundings rather than to the actual work itself.
Whilst having a different workspace every day in the office is good for hygiene, it also means that Post-it notes with reminders for the next day’s tasks have to be removed. Anyone who wants a cosy office desk unfortunately has to do without displaying family photos, figurines or motivational cards. These little things help employees feel at home at their desks. This is lost when a free choice of seating is introduced. As a result, every desk looks the same, with no opportunity to personalise it. This transforms a diverse group into a homogeneous one.
As already mentioned, everyone is different. Everyone has different preferences and things that bother them – whether it’s a draught from the door or a window behind them. With fixed workstations, these preferences can be accommodated by prior arrangement. Another factor that many find disruptive is the fact that flexible workstations are most commonly found in open-plan offices. As mentioned in an earlier blog post on open-plan offices, these can be detrimental not only to physical health but also to mental health.
What types are there?
Many companies offer alternatives to a fully dynamic workspace, so you don’t always have to clear your entire desk or end up in a competition for the best seat.
Containers, compartments or drawers
To avoid having to remove important documents or personal belongings every day, containers can be provided. The most important documents can be stored in these. If they have castors, you can simply roll them over to your new desk the next day, providing at least a little consistency.
Division into zones
Every company has different work areas. These can be used to allocate different sections of the office space to different departments. This helps to minimise the adjustment period to a new environment and maintains a clear overview. It makes sense to provide smaller storage solutions for each department.
Allocating workstations
To ensure that seat selection in desk-sharing remains fair – so that everyone gets both the good and the less desirable seats from time to time – desks can be allocated automatically each day. This can be facilitated, for example, by hoteling software.
Internal and external solutions
In this era of digital transformation, the global economy is also changing. Traditional companies with an established corporate culture often lack the scope for new innovations. Consequently, many large companies see an opportunity to keep pace with change by introducing flexible workspaces within their own organisations.
In-house start-ups
Companies are finding the solution in setting up their own corporate start-ups to break down existing structures and drive creative ideas forward. In doing so, they usually rely on flexible workspaces such as open-plan offices without fixed desks. Under this model, employees do not work in fixed office spaces but share a desk with other staff in an open-plan office. This allows companies to save on fit-out costs and make efficient use of the available office space.
Providers of private office space
Outsourcing partners such as business centres and co-working centres offer the opposite to in-house desk-sharing. They provide flexible office space in the form of private offices or co-working spaces. In some cases, however, companies can also rent entire office floors. Temporary individual or team offices are usually offered on a case-by-case basis. The office space is scalable: companies usually start by booking just one office and rent additional ones over time, until they are eventually able to move into large commercial premises. For many start-ups, renting large commercial premises on long-term leases poses a high risk at the outset.
Coworking solutions
The co-working trend has developed in parallel with the sharing economy and, for many people, represents the quintessential form of flexible workspace. Here, start-ups, the self-employed and freelancers usually share space in an open-plan office. This flexible workspace can be booked in two ways: as a hot desk or a fixed desk, also known as a dedicated desk. With a hot desk, there is no fixed desk available in the office. You work wherever a space is currently free. This could be a different desk every day. You cannot leave any belongings at your workspace overnight. Lockers are available for valuables. A hot desk is ideal for people who work irregular hours and are only present for short periods. With a dedicated desk, a desk is reserved and cannot be occupied or used by anyone else.
Flexible locations
Flexible workspaces provided by external service providers often offer another key advantage: with a single booking, you can make flexible use not only of the modern workspace itself, but also of any location within the company’s network. This means that not only is the workspace flexible, but so is the location itself. Entrepreneurs who travel a lot benefit from this model because there is no need to sign any further contracts. A single phone call is all it takes to check in in another city the very next day. This option opens up completely new possibilities, which are particularly valued by designers and creative professionals. But of course, any frequent traveller who works benefits from this option.
Desk-sharing: re-educating employees?
Even though flexible workspaces offer a company a wide range of benefits, the drawbacks – including from an employer’s perspective – should still be taken into account. Employees have to make many compromises when it comes to choosing where to work. This leads to dissatisfaction and a drop in productivity, which can offset the actual cost savings. Employers should weigh up the positive and negative aspects carefully before introducing flexible workspaces. For smaller businesses, therefore, working from home, a virtual office or co-working spaces are suitable options. COLLECTION Business Centres offer appropriate solutions for rent. This gives you flexibility whilst still providing a fixed location.
Cover image: Micolas/Shutterstock.com
